Puslapio vaizdai
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luxury of conventional ornament, sculpture, painting, and decoration in metals, and by a profusion of bright and joyful accessories. We shall now see how this uniformity of scheme, apparently working for a monotony which would be fatiguing, is, by the operation of the personal equation of the architect in each case, and by the adjustment of each building to its especial use, entirely consistent with that individuality of technic, of sentiment, and of expression which constitutes the essential difference between a cold academical composition and a work of art having a definite purpose.

By this apparent identity in general outline and language of form the architects have necessarily been invited to a study of detail and expression far more fastidious than would be easily practicable in dealing with a style less accurately formulated. In somewhat similar manner a dozen trained writers, expressing their thoughts on a similar range of subjects in an established literary form,-in that of the sonnet for example,- would commit themselves by their differences in treatment to a compari

architect or poet to enter a region, if not of higher thought, then of more delicate study and of finer discrimination in method. Freedom of style, though it is the natural and healthy condition of architecture in our country, and adapts itself more readily to our inventiveness in structure and to the practical exigencies of building, is also a temptation to crude experiments, to tours de force, and to surprises of design, such as form the characteristic features of an American city. Under these circumstances, personal idiosyncrasies and accidents of mood or temperament are apt to have an undue influence upon current architecture, and to perpetuate, in monumental form, the caprice of a moment or a passing fashion of design, which, in a year's time, the author himself may be the first to repudiate. It is the aim of our architectural schools not to kill but to correct this abundant vitality, and to direct it into channels of fruitful and rational progress.

A glance at the general plan of the grounds will show that the buildings are separated one from the other by avenues of water or land

sufficiently wide to furnish noble vistas pene- department, which we have already discussed. trating to the remoter regions of the Park, and The problem was how to cover this entire area to isolate each structure, so that its character- with a building which should have due regard istic mass and details may not be confused by to its relations to the grounds and neighboring those of its neighbors, but not so wide as to buildings; by its divisions should provide for prevent their mutual architectural relations the orderly arrangement and classification of from being clearly evident in a common align- its contents, and for the most convenient and ment, and in a common observance of the sys- economical structure; and should secure, not

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It will be remembered that the great court of the Exposition is bounded on the south by the two palaces of Machinery and Agriculture, a minor court being provided between them. The latter building has a north frontage on the court and a south frontage toward the LiveStock department, each 800 feet in length, while its west façade, of 500 feet, looks on the minor court, and its east on the lake. Its area, not including the annexes in the rear, thus covers nearly nine acres and a half, or a space about equal to the main building of the Machinery

only for the first floor, but for an extensive series of galleries, an effective and adequate lighting throughout. This problem must also embrace a due consideration for a division of the façades corresponding to the plan, so that its architectural character should, as far as possible, be developed from the conditions of

structure.

The architects, Messrs. McKim, Mead & White of New York, solved this problem by converting their area into a hollow square surrounded continuously by buildings, and by crossing this hollow square in the center with two high naves of equal width, at right angles one to the other and open from floor to roof, each being accompanied on both sides by twostoried aisles, thus forming two clearstories on each roof-slope for lighting the interior space. The four long courts, 80 x 280, left by this arrangement, being needed for exhibition purposes, are severally occupied by three lower

longitudinal aisles, each covered with a double-pitched roof so devised that, by a system of skylights and clearstories, abundant light should be provided for the area beneath. These three aisles are also in two stories, with an opening in the second story under the center aisle to admit light to the main floor beneath. Thus the entire space of nine acres and a half is covered and lighted, and the galleries furnish about five additional acres of floor space.

This adjustment of the plan is entirely in the interests of the agricultural exposition, with no unnecessary concessions to interior architectural effect. But this effect has nevertheless been obtained by the wide and lofty central naves, which invite the visitors to proceed on the axial lines of the building for a general survey of its contents, without distractions, and by the system of aisles on each hand, which enables them to pursue their investigations in detail with the least possible chance of confusion. The arrangement also facilitates the work of classification, and the whole presents

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A mighty maze, but not without a plan.

The corps du bâtiment inclosing the area is 96 feet wide on the long sides and 48 feet wide on the shorter sides. Where these come together at the angles of the building they naturally constitute corner pavilions, 48 feet wide on the long fronts and 96 on the short fronts; and where the naves, 95 feet wide, with their attendant aisles, 232 feet wide, encounter the center of each façade, a central pavilion of about 118 feet results, which, from its connection with the axial line or main avenue, becomes the main porch of that side.

The architects thus found imposed upon each of their four façades the conventional arrangement of a central pavilion and corner pavilions of certain specified dimensions, with curtain-walls between. Under the agreement of the architects of the court structures, a continuous covered ambulatory or portico was required inside the building line, and there was prescribed a height of 60 feet for the main cornice. They considered that the dignity of their theme would be best expressed by the use of

a colossal Corinthian order, very richly Key Cox -1892- from a photograph from original pleites by P. Marting.

embellished, as the principal vehicle of

architectural expression in their design.

ONE OF TWELVE FIGURES HOLDING SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC

(AGRICULTURAL BUILDING).

Accordingly they determined to occupy the whole required height with columns or pilasters 50 feet high, without pedestals, and supporting an entablature 10 feet high, the whole resting directly upon the terrace, 40 feet wide, on which their building stands. But the north front, as viewed from the opposite side of the basin, is provided with an effective and majestic stylobate in the face-walls of the two terraces which run parallel with it, the lower one being washed by the waters of the great basin, and the upper being crowned by a balustrade with vases and statues, a rostral column standing at each end. To emphasize this relation of the terraces to the façade, a broad staircase, corresponding in width to the projecting columnar portico of the central pavilion, descends to the water's edge, after the manner of the landings in front of the palaces of Venice. Now it was evident that to extend a colossal order along the whole front, without interruption, would be monotonous and mechanical. It would force a formula-noble and majestic, indeed, but still a formula-into predominance over the more important subject matter of the composition. Therefore they concluded to group their great pilasters at points where the main divisions of the plan would be best illustrated. The central pavilion admitted eight pilasters, and each of the corner pavilions four, on the main front. But this concentration of the order at three points on the long façades, the middle and the ends, gave such long intervals between that the composition became disjointed and straggling. It was clear that the necessary unity could be obtained only by some sort of repetition of the order in these intermediate curtain-walls. The plan was devised with forethought for this emergency, for it provided for a series of subordinate transverse passages, or aisles, across the building, ending in secondary doorways, or vomitories, on the façades, occurring three times in each curtain-wall at equal intervals. These doorways furnish a motive for repetition of the order in two pilasters for each, thus forming smaller pavilions, or, more properly, piers; so that the pilasters occur discontinuously along the frontage in a manner to satisfy at once the practical and the esthetic considerations involved in the problem. This repetition is like the recurrence of a leading motive or theme in a fugue, which is set forth in full at one point and repeated at others by hints of various emphasis. In the architectural composition the main statement, with eight pilasters, occurs very properly in the center; the secondary statement, with four pilasters, at the ends; and the third, of minor importance, with two pilasters, at three intermediate points. Thus, also, the various points of ingress and egress along the façades are illustrated with a varying emphasis proportioned to their varying importance.

But the equal spaces of curtain-wall between these great pilastered pavilions and piers still constitute, in the aggregate, the larger part of the frontage. The spacing of structural interior supports generates a corresponding division of each of these wall-spaces into three equal bays; the necessity of obtaining for the interior as much light as possible suggests the piercing of each bay with a great arch, framed with bronzed grilles for windows; the two-storied division of the interior imposes a horizontal division of these arches by a subordinate entablature on a line with the gallery floors; and to provide, as agreed, for an outside ambulatory within the building lines, the space underneath must be left open, and this entablature is supported in each bay by an open screen of two subordinate columns, behind which the portico required traverses the whole length of each front. In fact, this inferior order of columns constitutes a closely set open colonnade, practically continuous between the greater order of pilasters and columns in the pavilions, giving to the vertical elements of the composition a delicate and refined contrast of harmony and scale hardly possible in a style less highly organized. But these vertical elements are always carefully subordinated to the horizontal lines of the entablatures. In this way the plans and elevations developed together with mutual concessions, and, at the same time, the whole arrangement, with its detail of buttress-like engaged columns, continuous with those of the ambulatory and supporting statues between the arches, follows the conventions of imperial Roman architecture.

Now each pier or buttress and pavilion must have its special treatment in respect to the skyline. From an academical point of view, a fitting culmination for the center of an architectural composition so heroic in size and so full of detail is some form of dome. From a poetical standpoint, an appropriate main vestibule to a structure devoted to an exhibition of agriculture is a temple to Ceres. The conditions of the plan made it possible to realize this idea in a circular domical chamber, 78 feet in diameter and 129 feet high within, treated with the order of the exterior in eight pairs of columns, which surround and enshrine the central statue of the goddess. Her benign and beautiful presence may serve in a brief interval of unconscious influence to bring the distracted minds of the visitors, as they hurry past, into some degree of sympathy with the agricultural collections within. To this vestibule, the design. of which is completed and enriched by paintings, is applied a projecting exterior portico of four detached columns, flanked by solid wings, which are treated with pilasters; the whole being surmounted by an attic order, decorated with

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