Evening star., 1932-10-08
Eliminating a Doodad.

II one regards cupolas on municipal
buildings merely as unnecessary "doo-
dads" that may be eliminated to re-
duce municipal costs, the Engineer
Commissioner has a powerful argument
to begin with when he eliminates such
doodads from the architects drawings
But for several reasons the eliInina
ton of the cupola from the proposed
Taft Junior High School, and especially
the manner of it's elimination, is ex-
tremely unfortunate.
One of the fundamental ideas be-
hind the creation of the Commission Of
Fine Arts, with its advisory powers
In relation to plans for public build
ings in Washington, was to preserve
uniformity and harmony In architec-
ture in the Capital. Washington is
SO full of the hideous mistakes of the
past, resulting from just such lack OF
harmony and from exactly the sort
of arbitrary authority exercised by the
Army officer temporarily assigned here
as Engineer Commissioner, that 1t is
unnecessary further to discuss that
phase of the matter 1t is enough to
say that the prime purpose OF the Com
mission of Fine Arts was to prevent
the translation in architectural form
of the freakish likes and disllkes, the
whims and the fancies of the various
individuals, who from time to time oc-
cupy high Office and strategic positions
in legislating for the Capital City. Rep
resentative Simmons of Nebraska has
a personal antipathy to "doodads,' and
one sort of a doodad, to him and to the
Engineer Commissioner, anxious to
please him, is the cupola on the
Georgian type Of architecture now used
In municipal buildings. So, of comes
the cupola.
This particular cupola may not be
important. But the Engineer Commls-
sioner's fat disregard of the Comms-
sion of Fine Arts advice is important.
It places the municipal government IN
a deplorably inconsistent position as
regards cooperation. The act OF Con-
gress known as the Shipstead act re-
uuires private individuals to seek and
to follow the advice of the Commission
of Fine Arts when they build on prop
erty contiguous to Government struc-
lures, the idea being thus to preserve
architectural integrity in the Capital.
Winning the approval of the Commis-
sion Of Fine Arts may require addition
al expenditures. Yet private builders
have shown cheerful compliance with
the spirit as we'll as the letter OF the
law. How can the Federal Government
demand this sort of cooperation from
private individuals and at the same time
countenance open defiance Of the COM
missions advice by one of its own Off
GERS stationed here temporarily as En-
gineer Commissioner? The municipal
government, through a carefully worked
out architectural program, is to be con-
graduated upon the pleasing appearance
of the public buildings now being erect
ed Are these buildings to be rendered
grotesque by the whims of changing
officialdom?
The plans for the school were sub
mitted to the Commission Of Fine Arts
and to the school authorities with the
cupola. But alternate bids were asked,
with and without the cupola, and the
contract was let without the cupola.
Such practice renders the formality OF
submitting the plans for the approval
of various agencies an empty and mean
ingless gesture.
The Corinthian columns of the new
Supreme Court Building, the Ionic COL
umns of the Treasury, the Doric colon
made of the Lincoln Memorial-and the
memorial itself-all represent possible
doodadistic tendencies of mere archi-
tects. One way to eliminate this de-
plorable tendency in school buildings
is to put the kids in barracks, with
corporal in charge of each squad room.
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