Evening star., 1914-07-25
Says TALL BUILDINGS
LACK CONCRETE DESIGN
Declares Horizontal Lines Should
Be Eliminated if
Possible.

When man first used brick or stone for
the walls of his houses these walls had
to be very strong, as they had to bear
not only their own weight. but also the
weight of the entire building and all it
contained. says Theodore F. Kreuger in
the New York Herald. And when later.
man used columns. probably to initiate
the trunks of trees. these columns were
not merely intended to beautify the build
ing. but had a real purpose. which was
that Of supporting and strengthening the
walls and upholding also the weight Of
the usually very heavy roof.
In the modern skyscraper where the
entire weight of the building and roof is
upheld and borne by the steel skeleton,
the walls bear really nothing-not even
their own weight-and they should there
fore be treated as shell only, and so be
constructed and decorated in a manner
suitable.
The lighter and the more graceful in
design such decorations are the more
beautiful and fitting the effect will be.
In tall buildings the exterior decora-
tions should have upward sweep They
should create the Impression that the
building is rising from the sea, else grow
ing into space before ones eyes.
The usually accepted style is a row of
columns, then hundred or more feet of
plain. naked walls. with square holes in
them. and on top of this another row of
columns bearing nothing, not even the
roof.
Shape and Size Original.
The only thing that is original in most
of our skyscrapers is their shape and
size. and this is more the doing of the
engineers and constructors than of the
architects. Most of the old laws of archi-
lecture are obsolete now because they
were devised for low and broad build
1ngs, and for our tall and narrow build
ings entirely a new style and laws must
be created.
Architects say that building should
resemble a human being, having foot,
stomach and a head. What an incon-
gruous thing 1t is to build a compare
lively ifeless structure on lines of hv-
ing and moving creature that does not In
the least resemble a building! However,
1t seems that most Of the existing tall
buildings are designed on this theory.
There are skyscrapers in New York
which look as if they were built in sec
uons- You can take the second or third
stories off and make separate building
out of them; then another lot of stories
from which to make another building,
and so forth down to the lowest two or
three stories, which would make sepa-
rate and more fitting building all by
itself.
No Uniformity in Design.
There Is no uniformity In the design of
our skyscrapers-they lack a concrete.
homogeneous plan. conceived and created
by one mind and carried out in all its de-
tails without being hampered by obsolete
rules and laws.
There is no beauty without symmetry,
and therefore all the designs / have pre-
pared have symmetrically arranged orna-
ments and decorations Ny principal de-
sire, however is to create something
new and in every way different from and
jndependent of the old Greek and Roman
styles 1 have tried to combine lightness
and gracefulness with beauty, and, by
avoiding horizontal lines as much as pos
sible, to create the impression that tne
huild,ne were rising into the air without
any visible effort. like dream in stone
or poem in marble.