Evening star., 1925-03-01

The designs for the National GAL
lery of Art, to be located in the Mall,
pre- pared by Charles A. Platt, archi-
tect, of New York, have been made
public by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, which under the law is the Gus
todian of the national gallery. These
designs call for a gallery building
$50 feet long by about 500 feet deep.
1t will have Il basement or ground
floor. an entrance floor and great
gallery floor.
Appropriations to carry out the
building plans will be asked at the
next session of Congress. Senator
Smoot of Utah, member of the board
of regents of the Smithsonian Insti-
tuition and chairman of the Public
Buildings Commission, has become
greatly interested in the proposed
national gallery building, needed so
badly to house the art treasures now
owned by the Government, and need
cd particularly to give place to the
4 valuable collections which will later
be given to the people of this country.
Senator Smoot has announced that
he will seek to have Congress pro-
vide for the work of construction
4 when next it meets. He will have
the cordial support of other members
of the board of regents who are mem
bers of the Senate and House, includ-
ing Senator Pepper of Pennsylvania
and Representatives Albe rt Johnson OF
q Washington. r. Walton Moore of Vir-
ginia and Walter H Newton of Min
4 nesota
Seven or Eight Millions, Cost.
The cost of the building has been
estimated at seven or eight millions
4 of dollars. But the value Of the col
n 1ectionS of paintings and other works
n of art now contained in the National
Gallery of Art housed inadequately
in the National Museum. is placed at
$5, 900. 900, and it has been estimated
I that donations to the national gallery,
if proper housing space were pro-
4 vided, would average half a million
dollars to a million dollars a year.
The United States is the only one
of the great nations which has not
national gallery of art in its capital
city. Great interest in the project has
been aroused. The American Fedora
tion of Arts, with it's many chapters
throughout the States. has done much
TO foster the movement. A few years
ago Congress set aside a site for the
national gallery building in the Mall,
and il is this site which is now to be
utilized.
Mr.. Platt was selected by the gall
Iery commission and the board of re-
gents of the Smithsonian to make the
plans for the building. He designed
the F'reer Gallery of Art and other
E important buildings in the United
States. Mr.. Platt's first step was to
make an exhaustive study of the Eu-
ropean museums. spending weeks
n a broad at this task.
The building designed by Mr.. PIatt
i surpAsseS by nearly a hundred thou
sand square feet the proportions of
the national gallery in London, al
l.. L.
toria and Albert Museum in that city.
IT Will be only slightly smaller than
the British Museum. 1t will be larger
than the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in
Berlin, the Prado at Madrid, the Alte
Pinakothek at Munich and the sculp-
ture gallery there. 1t will be four
times as large as the Freer Gallery.
Description Given.
An admirable description of the
National Gallery of Art as planned
by Mr.. Platt is contained in the
i American Magazine of Art, published
by the American Federation of Arts,
written by Royal Cortissoz Mr.. Cor
tissoz said in part:
THE facade is in the Renaissance
style, with distinctively classical ele-
ments 1t is rusticated on the first
floor and left smooth on the upper
\ stage, where blind windows are in
troduced to balance the practicable
windows below and to help in lending
proportion and animation to the
whole long wall 4 parapet broken
by balusters at regular intervals
\ crowns the facade A few inches
symmetrcally placed in the upper
part of this facade provide spaces for
statuary, but there is little decoration
! about the scheme as a whole. 1t
is intended that without undue
severity this should have the simple
and serene aspect befitting an archi-
tectural monument of the kind. A
pillared portico surmounted by a