The Sunday telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1914-1927, 1915-09-12
How The Government Builds
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

tstructures have been severely classic
and have mostly been admirable in.
the opinion Of the critics Of architec-
!ture.
Open to Criticism.
But the classic structure is open.
to much criticism from the utiltitaA- :,
ian. Deep set windows. it is argued,
let In little light. Rows Of classic
columns in front Of these windows
shut out more OF It. Architectural
effects take up much space. and cost
much money. II building Is put up
as a working once for department
why should It be not be made strictly
lutilitarian?
At which suggestion the architec-
tural school. which holds that gov
eminent buildings should be. monu-
ments as well, fly into q frenzy and,
in most cases, have been supported
by those to whom the government has
looked for guidance.
But now q strictly office type Of
building is to be erected as an expert
ment 1t Is to harbor the secretary
of the interior and his personal star
who will occupy mangincent suite
on the sixth floor which will look d.
rectly out upon Potomac park, to his
Itoric Arlington cemetery beyond the
river. down that water course toll
Mount Vernon. with Washington
monument and the 100000 Lincoln
Memorial in the foreground.
The land Office with its myriad of
| filed records, will have a wing. The
geological survey will occupy much
space and there are specially built
laboratories, Photographic dark rooms
ana press rooms for production Of its
maps. The bureau of mines viii be
provided with other laboratories built
especially to At its purposes. There
It will test the samples OF all the coal
that the government buys, experiment
infinitely In mine damps and the
gases tina. cause explosion under
ground, develop new uses for the
products of American minerals. There
Will be housed the Indian Office ana
the reclamation service.
Nice Question Raised.
| The building will cost $4,000 COG. To|
convert it into a classic structure, an
art monument, would require mil
lion or a million ami 4 h3l! mora. ,t|
would then be a less Ill otlica building.
al OF which raises a very nice cues-
ton.
! OF late years the 50 -eranent has
mad under construction three or four
hundred buildings all the time. 1t ha.
been finishing these up at the rate Of
lloO q year. Most of these buildings
, are postoftices. II the government
completed buildings at the rate Of $50
4 year 1t would not take many dec
AIDES for 1t to accumulate a goodly
number Of them. But, as matter Of
fact, 1t owns less than a thousand
separate buildings aside from such
groups as occur. at army posts and
Indian agencies.
These non-military buildings have
1 increased rapidly in number in the
last two decades. In 1853 there were
a6ut twenty-three such government
owned buildings. In 1885 there were
lS7, In 1901, 363. In earlier days the
government rented most such struc-
lures. Postoffices were formerly rent
ed in most Of the smaller towns.
Steadily they have been built all over
i the country.
The architects ONCE of the treasury
department has -hargs Of the erection
Of all such buildings. Twenty wears
ago there was chaos in such struc-
lures. There was nothing distinctive
about them. Postofices in one part
of the country looked nothing like the
same class Of buildings in another
section.
A Renaissance.
Then came sort Of renaissance In
government architecture. The treas
Jury department came to hold that gov
eminent buildings, wherever con-
structed, should be Of a correct and
distinctive type. In selecting the da-
sired types the architects wen, ba.h
to the old masters. to the classic
structures that were developed when
the art of building was a. its height.
The best structures Of Greece and
Rome, the models that are still held
to by all men who go forth to build
magnthcently, furnished the ideas that
were to be used for postoft' ces lo.a.sdE
OF little towns scattered all about the
map. Uncle Sam held that thus he
might give all his people an OBJECT
lesson in art and thus might he cause
them to more wholesomely respect the
government i
The great majority of postofiices
need not lay 30 much stress on those
features demanded by an office build
ing. They are merely csnssrs from
which the mail Is distributed. The
memorial features of public buildings
are not out Of harmony With their
needs. In yet other pos.offica build
ings federal courts and other. Offices
OF the central government ara housed.
These may necessitate two and three
story buildings which still ft into the
classic scheme. There are but few
places where the office demand Re
such that building OF .le CONNER
cial type Is given the preference.
The federal government never puts
up a building that costs less than
SIS. 900. The office of the chief ar
chitect has developed. during the last
twenty years, plans for many types
OF buildings that may be evolved from
the sums most often appropriated. ri
Il