New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-12-16

get on without them. The builder of a house
has to pay an architect for making believe that
he designed the house, when they both know
that the builder designed it himself.
Mr.. Plat suggested the lines of this house
Look at the lines. Should you not know that
they were designed by man who could teach
the architects how to architect? How simple
they are! How effective How well adapted to
their purpose! How express and admirable!"
Do you see the joke in that word express?
That shows that the writer of this article is the
same kind of writer that Mr.. Platt is archi-
tect One almost read the processes OF Mr..
Platt's artistic and practical mind in the lines
of this picture. All! this is not an ordinary
suburban house, not the cheap Queen Anne or
Colonial affair which an ordinary architect
would have made if he had been left to himself
First" one imagine Mr.. Plat saying to
himself. II will not build a skyscraper. The sky
scraper is artistic-or rather. an inartistic-
anomaly, designed by grasping greed a fine
phrasel to get the last possible bit of value out
of the least possible bit of land. The Palace Of
Versailles is only two stories high. more or less
and a quarter OF mile long. My house shall be
two stories high and as long as the money holds
out
"And now as to the lines one can almost hear
Mr.. Plat thinking. I Will have the lines
straight. Strength is expressed in straight lines
beauty in curved lines. Strength inspires more
public confidence than beauty. and, besides il
has kind of beauty of its own. And the angles
shall be right, and so shall everything about the
house. The windows shall be at equal intervals
for order is Heavens first law and they shall
be rectangular, except for a slight arch at the
top of each, and there shall come the curve and
the pure beauty. And another clever thought
have-the roof shall be slOping on each side
and thus the water shall off in summer and
the snow shall slide OFF in winter and so shall
gain another half story at small expense"
But the master builder Chat is what "archi-
tect' means in Creek gave his thought to de-
tails we'll. Look at that yeranda all along
the front of the house, with the doors AT equal
Does it not remind you of the pictures that Won
used to of Brigham Young's house in Salt
Lake City3 But II is more ingenious for now
comes the master stroke. How many adyer-
which told of lawns In front and fruit treesl
What Is the of fruit trees when Won car
buy California fruit for less than the cost of
chemicals TO kill caterpillars? And what does
a lawn prove To be but a mushy place 10 walk
over to get TO the road and the car when a.
rains? And Mr.. Piatt selected his LOT and
built his house so that the could come right
up TO the veranda, as the picture shows.
Now, the trouble with the Veranda ON the
average suburban house Is that the roof of N
keeps the sunlight out of the dining room But
see how the roof over Mr.. Platt's veranda Is
just wide enough to protect from the rain any
body who is taking the cars. and narrow enough
10 let the sunshine into the first story windows
You can see where the shadow falls I'm the
picture. And notice that you can take the ele-
waited train from the back second story windows
just as easily as you take the surface cars
from the first floor front There seems 10 be a
pipe or something sticking out OF the front OF
the building and extending across the railway
track the present writer does not know what
doubt that Mr.. Platts building will mark an era
in suburban houses.