Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-20
BY EDNA ROBB WEBSTER.

TN what kind of church will you wor-
ship on an Easter Sunday half CEN
fury hence? If the question seems irrele-
want, or even irreverent, consider some
of the amazing structures that are being
erected in various parts of the world. For the
new trend Of church architecture is toward
modern art just as is all architecture, all art
and all phases of the twentieth century life
Although the ritual of the church service
has changed less than have many other things,
the method of church building seems to be keep
ing pace with the times. Balls and trangles
of glass and steel, towers of steel and terra
Gotta, concrete blocks that resemble ware
houses factories, airplane hangers and ele-
Vator shafts of glass and tile and steel-an
resound to the Ave Maria and the Doxology,
and call themselves houses of worship. Are all
the classics of religious art to be cast into
the rubbish heap; rose windows gargoyles,
string courses, Ionic columns and whatnot?
Goethe said that architecture is frozen music.
Beholding some of the modern church archi-
lecture, conservative people vaguely wonder if
they are gazing at some CONCEALED score OF the
latest jazz hit.
Yet it is worthwhile to consider this thing in
the light of the century which has produced it.
Undeniably, there are compensations and ex-
plantations which justify these structures as be-
ing ecclesiastical, though they bear little
semblance to the traditional Gothic style which
has been essentially the architecture of the
Christian religion since the twelfth century.
PERHAPS the most important and most
natural influence Of this change in archi-
tectural style is that of materials. Concrete and
steel has replaced stone masonry. Ponderous
stone walls required massive stone pillars for
support, whereas slender steel columns support
q tremendous weight. Immediately there is a
vast difference in the result.
Stone walls prohibited large window openings,
lest the support withdrawn by large window
space weaken the walls. Steel construction sup
ports itself, and the very window frames add to
the strength of walls.
Thick stone walls resulted in deep easements
which shut out light. Concrete walls allow for
easements flush with the outer walls, letting
IN light
When the famous cathedrals of the old world
were built. men toiled for generations to COM
plete them: manual labor, huge stones hauled
for miles, delicate and tedious chiseling with
handmade tools Today similar structures could
be completed in months: minimum labor, gigan-
tic shoves, derricks and trucks that groan and
rumble and snort with hasty precision and un-
faltering strength.
Building with steel and concrete, the archi-
lecture assumes steel proportions In other
words church architecture has adopted the
slender silhouette. Sweeping curves and slender
reaching columns letting there be light and air;
instead of mass and weight and bulk and dusk.
ITO copy the Gothic style and use steel would
be false gesture, the modern school con-
tends Why not take advantage Of the geo.
metric designs offered by steel construction2
Barrel vaulting in ceilings is longer essential
to sound construction; steel girders will support
at any angle, provided skilled engineers know
their mathematics Both exterior and interior
designs are in planes and surfaces and forms,
rather than in decoration
Interiors are treated accordingly. Modernistic
effects carried out in all furnishings and
decorations, I'm the embroidery on the robes Of