Evening star., 1939-04-15
Architect Attacks
Influence Of
5treamIining
Holds Modern Artist
No Longer Designs
For Man

The modern artist no longer de-
agns for man, but for machines,
according to Ralph T. Walker of
New York, fellow of the American
Institute of Architects.
Attacking the growing influence
of "streamlining," or functionalism,
in art, Mr. Walker declares that
architectural design will become
stagnant if architects accept modern
developments as being anywhere
near perfect. As an example of
how some modern designs have
failed in the manner in which they
are supposed to be superior, that Is,
IN efficiently serving their purpose,
Mr.. Walker cites the fact that con-
cert halls built more than 80 years
ago are acoustically superior to
radio studios costing millions of dol
lars and constructed within the last
few years.
Carnegie Hall in New York, the
Academy of Music in Philadelphia,
Symphony Hall in Boston, the Audi
torium In Chicago, the Lyric Thea
ter In Baltimore and the Tabernacle
in Salt Lake City are more de-
sirable for concerts than the So
called heavens that have been
created by experts specifically for
men like Arturo ToScanini," he says.
The reason given for the superiority
OF the older halls is that existing fire
laws forbid the use of wood and
slow-drying plaster, two substances
which soften music and prevent
echoes.
Psychological Factor.
''The perfect visual hall and the
perfect hall for hearing are not
necessarily the same FORM" Mr.
Walker points out. IF you con-
slider the performer and his desires
you might plan a vastly different
hall than If you thought of mod
ernism as concrete, plate glass and
steel construction.
THE old halls have a psyche
logical factor missing from the mod
ern auditorium. especially those of
the concrete and lally column type,
and that is sense of playfulness
. and warmth. All the performers
like the old rooms because in them
they feel that a sympathetic and
immediate response is possible from
the audience out front. This is
heretical, but how much the red
plush, the gilt and the great spaces
contribute to this widespread belief
Is impossible to say.
1T remains an interesting idea
that music sounds best both to the
performer and to the auditor in
places like Carnegie Hall and the
Metropolitan. Here there can be
no doubt that the materials and at
mosphere each contribute their part.
And 1t would seem foolish for any
designer to be so stiff-necked in
modern formulas as to neglect to
find out whether there is a basis for
the belief in those qualities of the
older rooms.
Standardization Of Design.
Standardization of architectural
design by Walter Gropius, the Ger
man architect whose glass and
brick structures in the days before
the World War foretold the build
ings of today. and others of his
philosophy has been offered as a
new Utopia. In all epochs of his
tory the existence of Standards
that is the conscious adoption of
type forms-has been the criterion
of a polite and well-ordered So
ciety; for it is commonplace that
repetition of the same things for the
same purposes exercises a settling
and civilizing influence on mems
minds
Shall we say that paragraph in
another way? Let all thinking, all
progress stop now. What we have
accomplished now is sufficient. Ac-
tually what we will say if we agree