Evening star., 1937-05-14
TEMPLE" DESIGN
OF MEMORIAL HIT.
Proposed Jefferson Building
RidicuIed by Harvard
School Dean.

Thomas jefferson Memorial at the
Tidal Basin site was satirized last night
as IAN egg on a pendant shelf" by
Joseph Hudnut, dean of the Graduate
School of Design of Harvard Uni
versity, addressing the final session OF
the American Federation Of Arts,
meeting at the Wardman Park Hotel.
THE informal garden south of the
Washington Monument is to be de-
stroyed," said he, ''and geometrical
Sahara is to be introduced and in
the midst of a mountain OF steps"
II the Mcmillan plan of 1901 IS
further carried out, said Dean Hud-
NUT Washington will be placed in an
Architectural straitjacket of classi-
cism and the record of the times
be made impossible in stone. But he
assured his hearers that he does not
think the Pantheon will be built,
but if it is, it will be the last, be-
cause it will arouse a storm that will
blow the lid off the Pantheon"
Frank Crowninshield, former editor
OF Vanity Fair, who shared the speak
ing program with Dean Hudnut, spoke
of the abSurdity in building a temple
to Thomas Jefferson" Pope's design
Is in the classical conception.
Urges Purely U. S. Style.
Pleading for the development of a
truly American style in architecture,
Dean Hudnut declared that each
building should be a reflection Of its
own age. He alluded to the Thomas
Jefferson Memorial Commission, set
up by Congress, as the commission
TO assist the Immortality Of Thomas
Jefferson" and declared that the
memorial it approves achieves an
unimpeachable classical STYLE" is "un-
questionably upon an axis" and is "a
design Of unimpeachable orthodoxy"
Asserting that he was not present
TO save Thomas Jefferson from his
friends" Dean Hudnut, who has been
professor of architecture at the Uni
Verslty OF Virginia, declared that "the
issue it proposes is between the CLASH
cal and the contemporaneouS express
sion in architecture" The charm of
the University of Virginia, he salu, is
not due to the classical eloquence, but
the blending with the Colonial herit-
age-"the fusion Of the Georgian mo-
tits with the new temple forms, to
which has been added some hint Of
the new ideas OF order introduced
from France"
The idea that the neo- classical ira
dition Is essentially American is based
on propaganda, Dean Hudnut con-
tended. He asserted that if jefferson
were living today. it is highly prob
able that he would be found on the
side OF the progressives.
Dean Hudnut told his audience that
the 1901 commission tried to trans
form Washington into a worlds fair
following the Chicago exposition of
1888. He described it as pouring
the organism of the Federal Govern
ment into a geometric mould" Not
all that the 1901 commission did was
bad, said he, citing its restoration Of
the Mall, but he added that it did
An immense amount of harm, as it
imposed upon the Government rigid
design" He described architecture as
"a kind Of inward light-a spirit
that exists in buildings-captured by
men at work close to life"
Not single one of the new build
lngs here has this" said he. They
are hard cold-utterly without power.
The life of Rome flowed into its
buildings. How inadequate classic
forms are for our times! The
movement Of American life must come
into Washington, instead of the dry,
geometric form"
Everything Except Artists"
Crowninshield declared that Eve
have everything in America to make
art, except artists" adding that Chi
cago has produced probably only
one great painter and New York not
over half a dozen of the stature
worthy Of the European giants
I'VE have never developed in
America a good woman artist" the
noted critic and collector asserted.
Philip N. Youtz, the federation's
president, who is director of the
Brooklyn museum, was enjoined by
Crowninshield to undertake a num-
Der of Herculean tasks-among them
betterment Of the art schools; the
giving Of youth, laughter and bright
ness to the museums; fewer bankers
on the boards Of museums the build
ing Of no more museums that ''look
like bastilles, arsenals or Thomas JET
ferson memorials" gayer exhibitions
Of art; infusing art, music, dancing
and other arts into the official govern
ment declarations; the announcement
Of the painters to paint more with
their hearts and souls; the teaching
Of craftsmen to make figures that At
life today and to hold out against
RECOMMENDATION when there will be
no rich men and no poor men-When
the mass mind has destroyed our
taste"
Our stamps, currency, medals
they reflect the taste of a people who
are only half civilized or at least
Phillistines," declared Crowninshield
In closing.
Robert Woods Bliss, first vice presi-
dent of the federation, presided at
the banquet, which brought the
twenty eighth annual convention to
An end after three-day session here,
In which the Thomas Jefferson Me-
mortal loomed large.