Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-18
Architectural History Shows Progress of MAJ
STRUGGLE for Improved
Housing Conditions
Deserves Study.
PROBLEM IS CHANGED
Range of Transportation and
Reading Has Created
New Demands.
BY wADDY B. WOOD, F. A. I. A.

BY WADDY B. WOOD, F. A. I. A.
The past, in architecture, represents
the struggle of human beings from the
dawn of history toward better housing
conditions, and should be fairly well
known before We can judge from pre-
cedent what the future is going to be
and how to work 1t out to the best ao-
vantage for mankind.
We find that as civilization progresses
the machine has more and more taken
the place of the hand in building. This
being the case, it is undoubtedly true
that in designing our houses today we
have to remember that great many
things we use, being machine made, are
necessarily stock or duplicated parts.
This was as true in Colonial days as it
is now, although most people do not ap-
preciate this fact.
Crude Machine Used.
The beautiful holdings around the
doors, windows and so forth OF CO.
lonial work were done by a crude ma
chine, which was a bit in plane
pushed by the hand of man. The only
difference in the manufacture of that
molding and that of today is that now
the plane is pushed by machinery.
Therefore, the fact that our holdings
are not as good now as formerly-which
applies with equal force to the other
parts of the design of the buildings
not due to machinery, as so many peo-
pie think, but to other causes.
Our present civilization and its thou
sand and one inventions, added to the
peculiar desires of the client drawn
| from scattered reading and travel, make
the conscientious architects problem
difficult. In fact, the serious architect
Ir,IaA RI theatrical
his designs is likely to lose out in his
practice. 1t seems to be hard thing
| to know how to solve this problem
| which begins with the client and, it
might be said, ends with the decorator.
Classic Trend Seen.
It Is perfectly evident that with our
background Of civilization the type of
house that suits us Is Georgian, or our
early Greek revival built on Georgian
tradition, but leaning a little more to-
ward pure classic. We know that at
this time, when prices Of material are
so high, the Colonial type not only is
undoubtedly the most economical we
can use, but comes nearer expressing
the simple bigness of our people. But,
unfortunately, it is only done well in
the houses of the rich and by few
big architects who really understand the
a drop in the bucket to the thousands
Of houses that are built all over the
country, which, while they attempt to
be Colonial. are very poor efforts.
Looking back at our early work for
inspiration and help, we find that the
Colonial mantel is just as useful as 1t
ever was and just as economical. Our
window problem is different only in
that we have window weights. which
-. A~Hr 1T oil III
does not affect the brick work outside.
The solution is to return to those
forms, and from them we will eventu-
ally build up a modern style OF archi-
lecture, based not on revolution but on
evolution, which has to rest. as all civil
ization does, on a foundation of prece-
dent.
Originality Attempts Failures.
The present striving for originality
for originalitys sake has been failure
The house owner and the architect will
find this out in time, although they dc
not think so now, Any one who studies
our architectural progress for the last
200 years, and in studying takes into
account the human element that has
been expressed in this period, should
know a great deal about the history OF
our country in other respects and what
|
in our houses but in our souls.
We first had the very severe, simple
| Colonial type built under great difficult
ties by our daring first settlers. These
buildings in their simplicity expressed
the necessities and aspirations OF the
people with due regard for precedent
but with far more originality than we
are producing now.
After that, when the Colonials began
| 81 10 Hfatl h
larger and more magnificent houses
which still show great refinement ano
prove that they must have housed biz
people.
Classic Revival Noted.
Following this period came the wav,
of classic revival, which produced thu
early Government buildings in Wash
ington and which was very fine. I'm
fortunately. the type degenerated, as TIT
people did, and civilization lost Wha
should have been wonderful develop
ment.
After this came the awful Victorian
era. The taste of the people then wa
not unlike that of a boy in the goslins
period of. his early manhood, when III
thinks he Is smarter than dad. 1t wal
our worst period in architecture, ant
was possibly one of our worst period
in other respects. We mad not onl,
fallen behind our Colonial ancestors il
refinement but we had lost our love To-
tradition. We had got to point wher
we thought that we were bigger thar
we were.
Mental Attitude Reflected.
This was brought about by the fac
that we were not educated up to oul
growth, both in riches and in mechan
zeal inventions. This period also re-