Omaha daily bee., 1910-08-17
Ideas Of Beauty Embodied in Many
Solid Blocks.
CRAFTSMEN EXPERIENCE CHANGE
Effect of the Standard Oil Buying
Construction Company.
LOCAL MEN NOT YET AFFECTED
New Deal Does Not Interfere with
the independence of the Omaha
Architects, who Are
All Busy.

OF Omaha architects there are twenty
two. according to the latest reckoning, |
though this figure probably will be out
Of date quickly, judging from the rate at
which the younger craftsmen have cropped
up in the past.
The story of Omaha architects is in large
measure the story of architects the country
over, particularly 30 at the present time.
when the bigger offices are all affected
by a new and somewhat disturbing con-
dition. This is the entrance of the Stand
ard OIL company into the building and
construction world.
AS is we'll known the Standard OIL in
terests have within a year or so acquired
control of several-if not nearly all-of the
big construction companies and have at
once proceeded to operate on new basis.
They are financing their own work, hiring
their own architects and are thereby pro-
foundry changing the relation of owners
and architects. In a number of cases the
construction companies are agreeing to de-
liver the complete building including the
services of the architect for specified sum
or for percentage Of the cost.
II Is taSlly Scoh Lndb billa E0NOiutiOhlASu INV
relation of the architect from that of the
protector of the owner to that Of the
employee of the contractor. This, 1t la
agreed, Is one of the causes why at the
present time the biggest architectural
offices of the country are comparatively
idle. such a condition Is known to exist
beyond any dispute and has been the
cause of Investigations among the archi-
tectursl associations of New York, Phila-
delphia and Chicago and Omaha archi-
tects have also been probing into the mat
ter. To some of the larger men in the
country matters look ominous right now
Local Men Not Hurt Yet.
This condition Of affairs has not really
hit Omaha architects as yet and the larger
offices are busy with big work, while the
smaller architects working on smaller
buildings are, of course, not affected at
all, because the construction companies are
chiefly engaged in putting up sky-scraping
hotels and office buildings. This is not to
say that all the big construction COM
panies are connected with the Standard
oil interest, but number are known to
be and others are suspected.
The erection Of apartment houses has
been a work which has afforded income
for a good many local architects, while
some of these apartment houses have been
put up without the aid of a competent de-
signer, and the result, unfortunately, shows
1t. The majority of the new buildings of
this kind are going up after plans have been
well drawn, and under competent super
vision of construction. The sum of $500, 900
has been devoted to this kind of work in
Omaha since the first of the year and as
Q
airy, /. 1t is a certainty that the demand
will constantly increase because under
modern conditions of city life the apart
ment building and the apartment hotel are
inevitable. The servant question by itself
plays considerable role In this, and an
other big factor is the desire to live not
far from downtown" which renders resi-
dence districts more and more congested
as city gains in population and makes
the apartment house An inevitable propo-
sltion,
Apartment Houses Better.
! The newer apartment houses are not
any more characterized by devotion to a
particular historic style than old ones have
been, but they are, nevertheless, bette,
buildings from every standpoint, including
that of the architectural art. 1t is not Of
course necessary for a building of any
i Mind to belong to any recognized period
( ~ style to have a style of its own, and
( tao reverse is also true Many build
inr hich In respect to elements of con-
suit;tion and detail of ornamentRton is a
( Q2Itsct example of an historic style has
( nU real architectural style at all. Just So
} 80, building which cannot be pronounced
TO belong to any given style or period may
measure up to all the aesthetic canons,
the employment OF which distinguishes
from merely mechanical or unitarian con-
struction. A good example OF this-and
not, by the way, the work OF an Omaha
architect-is the residence built for Arthur
ID. Brandeis and now owned and occupied
by former Senator Joseph Fl. Willard.
OF historic styles, Omaha affords some
excellent samples. The gothic and neo-
gothic are common in church architecture
which also affords several samples Of the
Romanesque. The renaissance style Is ex-
emplfied so far as ornamentation goes by
many and many building OF the Byzantine
style, The Bee building is one Of the few
good-or even bad. for the. matter-speci-
mems in the whole west. The Spanish mis-
sion style has lately been imported from
southern California TO find Illustration here
in two or three residences.
"steeI CaEe'' Going Up.
The steel cage" type of office building
has seen Just now completed one OF con-
siderable example. the new City National
building, In which the walls are supported