The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-03-21
A STATE HOUSE MODEL.
The new State Capitol which is to
stand on Smiths Hill,


is already recognized by architects all
over the country as an architectural
model of what State Capitol should be.
Stately and beautiful. our new State
House will be conspicuous among build
| ings of its kind all over the country.
Recognition of this has recently been
accorded in a peculiar way out in Min
nesota where. from a competition of SO
architects, the plan selected for the new
State Capitol is discovered to bear
striking resemblance TO the surprising
design wrought by Messrs. McKM,
MEAD 81 WHITE of New York
1t was felt that the work of
these architects, as expressed in
our new State House, could but have its
influence in architecture over a wide
territory, but that it should be copied so
soon and so closely as is found in the
design preferred for the Minnesota State
House is bit surprising as it is also
startling to the people of Minnesota.
The similarity remarked is not con-
plan where it is conspicuous in the more
striking features of the Rhode Island de-
sign, the dome aud central portion, for
example-wherein is especially repre-
sented the genius OF the architecture
but is found as well in the interior, the
general plan and arrangement of the
main floors following so closely the Rhode
Island model as to be evidently an in
territorial copy thereof. The arrange
ment of the legislative chambers, an
especial mark of genius on the part OF
the architects, is said to be identical in
the two plans and the whole effect,
within and without, demonstrates an
undoubted copy of the Rhode Island
original.
Minnesota can scarcely do better, per-
haps, than copy the Rhode Island model,
which is a consummate example OF
monumental architecture, but the people
Of Minnesota will probably not be in
clined to take kindly to copy of any
thing so near home when the world
offers so much to draw from.
It is reasonable to suppose
that if the architects of the
Rhode Island State House We're to design
another Capitol for another State they
could furnish model as stately and as
beautiful that would yet be different
from the beauty that is to stand on
Smiths Hill, in the center of State House
Park. But the Minnesota method of
securing design is diltinctly at fault
for the result. 1t was a discredited
method and one that could call for little
of real architectural talent.
1t will be remembered that the Rhode
Island design was secured by compe-
tition that won the approval of archi-
tects and experts everywhere as model
of its kind, the surest and best method
of securing a satisfactory design. After
an open competition to Rhode Islanders,
as matter of local sentiment, six archi-
tects were selected for final competition,
three of them being chosen from the
Rhode Island competitors. These
architects were paid for designing
State House, with the understandin
that if one plan was approved the suc-
cessful firm should be awarded the con-
tract for undertaking the erection of the
building. A thousand dollars apiece
was, if we remember rightly, the price
paid for these six plans. The result
was half dozen plans, all so excellent
that choice was made only after
m ost careful study of them, the firm
of McKM, MEAD e. WHITE, Of New
York, being the successful competitor.
And this model competition justified
the expectations Of its projectors that
it would result in the securing Of
model building.
The Minnesota folk, however, didn't go
about it in that way at all. They adopted
the plan of opening their competition to
the whole country and paying nothing
for any of the work-a discarded practice.
The result was that while fifty-six ar
chitects submitted plans, no architect Of
any great prominence was represented
among them, because no architect of
any prominence or of much business
would fool with such COMPETE
tion or trust his labor, so en-
listed, to any committee, especially as
the commission to be paid to the sue
cessful competitor for supervision was
much below the market value of such
talent. That only fifty-six should com
pete indicated also that the fraternity of
architects is pretty much united in OPP
position to doing business on the Min
nesota plan. Moreover, of the fifty-six
plans submitted, only five of them were
considered worthy of even being men
toned by the experts who made
the selection, and the one selected, the
Rhode Island model, was the only one
considpred aa beiny at all emit al,la 20 ,ha