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porch, the succession of similar bays is again broken by a postern doorway, set in a narrow intermediate and subordinate pavilion, crowned with a low square dome decorated with eagles.

As we have already intimated, where the transept abuts against the center of the long east and west fronts, an important central pavilion is developed. In pursuance of the scheme of this design, which is to take advantage of every opportunity to emphasize its vertical elements, this pavilion is flanked by two towers, one bay wide and three bays apart. Each of the towers supports an open belvedere, crowned with a high, round attic, decorated with festoons and vases, and roofed with a stilted dome, after the manner of Sir Christopher Wren. Each of these belvederes finishes with a girandole, 195 feet from the ground, furnished with a corona of incandescent lights under a reflecting canopy. Between these towers projects a flatroofed portico, composed of columns 42 feet high, continuous with the order of Corinthian pilasters of which we have spoken, arranged upon a plan with rounded corners, so that, by the necessary multiplication of breaks and returns in the entablature at the angles, the seriousness of the more classic motif might be tempered to the lighter mood to which the architecture of this building is committed. Above is a high Composite attic with windows, set between the towers, and finishing with a balustrade, decorated with obelisks. Twenty-three feet behind this balustrade the gabled end of the transept roof may be seen.

DRAWN BY E. ELDON DEANE.

The north front, toward the picturesque lagoon, being, by its position, relieved to a certain extent from strict conformity to the classic ideal, seemed to invite a greater freedom of treatment than was admissible elsewhere. Here, therefore, the order of the façades, after

passing the point of demarcation furnished by the corner pavilions, is made to sweep around two apsidal projections, 115 feet in diameter, between which is recessed the north porch, composed of two towers, similar to those of the east and west porches, flanking a broad central pavilion, pierced with a great arched

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PORCH OF ELECTRICITY BUILDING.

window, corresponding with the arch-lines of the steel trusses in the long nave, and divided by transoms and mullions. The sky-line between these towers is made horizontal, and the spandrel panels of the arch are occupied by gigantic reclining figures typifying Investigation and Discovery. The porch is formed by the Ionic order of the façades, which is extended between the apses in the form of an arcade of five arches supporting a wide terrace or balcony.

Up to this point, for the reasons stated, the design of the Electricity Building is characterized by an emphasis of vertical expression un

usual in academical architecture, the sky-line being fretted by ten campaniles, varying in height from 154 to 190 feet, and by the four square intermediate domes, which mark the position of the posterns. But, on the south. front, it was necessary to make a concession to that spirit of grandeur and ceremony which should prevail around the great court of the Exposition. Accordingly the vertical line, predominant elsewhere in the building as a foil to its long, low, horizontal mass, is here subordinate to the spirit of repose. To this end the campaniles on the corners are set back from the front, but connected with it by gabled pavilions, 23 feet wide, and the principal entrance of the building on this side is treated as a triumphal arch, 60 feet wide and 92 feet high, of which the archivolt springs from the main cornice as an impost, the jambs being formed of coupled full columns of the main order with corresponding pilasters. This arch is crowned with a classic pediment containing an escutcheon, which bears the electromagnet as a symbol of electricity, and is supported on each side by a female figure representing the two principal industries connected with this science -electric lighting and the telegraph. Above, in contrast with the somewhat fantastic movement of the sky-lines elsewhere, rises a solid elevated attic, forming a severe horizontal outline against the sky. This central mass is buttressed on each side by great consoles, supporting emblematic statues and resting on pedestals, continuous with the clearstory of the nave, and embellished with medallions of Morse and Vail, the American discoverers of the electric telegraph. The most famous and most cherished association of America with the history of the science of electricity is the discovery of the electric properties of lightning by Franklin. The architects determined, therefore, that a statue of the patriot-philosopher should stand under this great arch, and that to him the main porch on the court should be dedicated. This work was intrusted to the Danish-American sculptor, Mr. Carl Rohl Smith, whose conception of the subject is happily realized in a spirited figure, 15 feet high, representing Franklin as the philosopher, with the historic kite and key, observing the storm-clouds. This noble statue is elevated on a high pedestal in the center of the porch, and behind and over it is formed a colossal niche, of which the triumphal arch is the frame, covered with a half dome or conch, divided by ribs, and profusely enriched with bas-reliefs, recalling, in general aspect, the much admired hemicycle or belvedere in the court of the Vatican palace, and, in detail, the characteristic stucco embellishments in the vaults of the Villa Madama. Around its curved walls is carried the great order of the building,

with grouped pilasters. On the main frieze of this niche is written the famous epigram of Turgot in honor of Franklin :

ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN SCEPTRUMQUE TYRANNIS.

In the five bays of the niche are the main doorways, three of which, in the back, open into the central nave; the other two, toward the front, give access to an open ambulatory or portico, which forms the first story of the court frontage of the building. To this portico the subordinate Ionic order of the façades is arranged to form a screen, with two detached columns in each bay. Upon the frieze of this order, where it occurs in the hemicycle, appear the names of the most famous deceased Americans connected with electricity: Henry, Morse, Franklin, Page, and Davenport; while outside, upon the same frieze, in alphabetical order all around the building, are the names of sixty-six great electricians of all ages and countries, whose names have passed into history. The fame of living electricians must rest upon their displays within the structure.

So far as practicable, the decorations of this building are devised to suggest its uses, the conventional embellishments of the orders being varied by the frequent recurrence of the electromagnet and lamp, and the recesses of the hemicycle and porticos being enriched with color. It is intended also to illuminate and emblazon the architectural features at night with an electric display of unprecedented interest and magnitude.

The architectural modeling of this building was done under a contract with the Phillipson Decorative Company of Chicago, the sculpture of the main pediment being from the hand of Mr. Richard Bock of Chicago.

THE suggestion which has been made that that part of the Electricity Building toward the lagoon would permit of a freer treatment, by reason of the more natural conditions in the landscape of that region as compared with the artificial character of the court, has a much larger and more important application. All the buildings which we have been considering, because they formed a distinct group, and inclosed an area where art was everything and nature nothing, were for obvious reasons developed according to classic formulas. It seemed proper that, in this entrance-court of the World's Exposition, the world should be received with a formal and stately courtesy, illustrated and made intelligible by an architecture which is the peculiar expression and result of the highest civilizations of history. It was like the use of the Latin language, which, by monumental

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construction-lines giving an extreme length of 700 feet and an extreme width of 350, and he has found it convenient, for reasons hereafter to be explained, to establish 211⁄2 feet as a general module of dimension in laying out his construction. The general scheme of an interior the greater part of which is to be occupied by masses of classified ores, by heavy mining appliances of all kinds, and other bulky exhibits requiring large space and considerable clear height, should provide for a wide, central, open area as little encumbered by columns as possible. Thus the preliminary consideration of this problem seemed to point directly to a study of construction. The roofing of large

usage, lends dignity to modern inscriptions, for the Mining Building is included within and, by tradition, embalms the liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church. For reasons equally obvious, the other buildings, which are mainly in charge of the local architects, and which are to be placed in a region where natural conditions are intended to prevail, might receive a development much less restricted in regard to style, and, by following more romantic lines, might be more happily adjusted to their surroundings. These surroundings invite picturesqueness, freedom- qualities peculiarly grateful to American genius, which is naturally impatient of authority and discipline. But we think it will be seen that the architects of Chicago have known how to express these qualities without that license which unhappily is also American; yet with an exuberance, or even joyousness, entirely consistent with refinement. of feeling, and in every way appropriate to an occasion of high national festival.

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Because of its intermediate position, the Electricity Building may perhaps be considered, in some respects, a transition between these two extremes of architec

tural thought. At all events, in its sister building, that of Mines and Mining, which occupies a site next west of the Electricity Building, lies parallel with it, and is of nearly the same dimensions, the architect, Mr. S. S. Beman of Chicago, has made a frank departure from the pureclassic tradition, exhibiting an adaptation of form to use, of means to ends, in entire conformity with the practical spirit, without caprice, and without sacrifice of any essential quality of art. The contrast between these two buildings clearly illustrates how even the conventional forms of architecture may be so handled as to express a fundamental difference of sentiment, corresponding to the difference of occupation.

Mr. Beman's plan

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spaces under similar

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man Company had prepared Mr. Beman to apply a valuable practical experience to the conditions here presented, the result of which was that he was enabled to roof in an area 230 feet wide by 580 feet long (60 feet inside his boundaries all around) by the use of a very light and elegant system of cantaliver trusses, supporting a longitudinal central louver with clearstory lights, and

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bearing upon two rows of steel columns, spaced lengthwise 642 feet on centers (or three of the modules above noted), and, transversely, 115 feet; the outer ends of these cantalivers being anchored to two corresponding rows of columns 571⁄2 feet outside of the inner rows. It would be difficult to devise a simpler, a more economical, or a more effective distribution of constructive features. The extreme height of this shed-roof is 94 feet in the center and 44 feet at the bottom of the slope.

The main practical object of the building being thus happily attained, it remained for the architect to surround this center shed or nave with a system of two-storied aisles 60 feet wide, covered with a continuous louvered roof provided with clearstories for light. The conjunction of roof-slopes, where the aisles and the central nave are joined, creates a valley from which the water can be conducted in spouts carried down with the outer line of main columns. Nothing could be more workmanlike and more practical than this whole arrangement.

However much or however little of decorative character may be permitted on the envelop or inclosure of a building of this sort, it cannot be elevated into the domain of architecture unless this inclosure is developed rationally from the essential conditions of structure behind it, and is in some way made expressive of its uses. Moreover, in the present case it is essential that it should be brought, as a whole, into the great architectural family of which it is to form a part, by any concession or adjustment that may be found most convenient. At the outset it would seem that the uses of the building, the comparatively coarse and rough character of the exhibit within, require a massive treatment of the exterior, and that the architectural language employed should in general be such as to express this idea, as it is capable of expressing every

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STATUE OF "GODDESS OF FORTUNE."

sentiment, however various, desirable to be conveyed in building as a fine art. It naturally follows that the unusual distribution of the interior supports of the roof structure, 642 feet on centers, should be expressed in the architectural scheme of the exterior on the sides by a corresponding distribution of piers, and that these piers should be made massive, as if constructed with heavy rusticated masonry laid up in marked horizontal courses. In order to give additional emphasis to these expressive buttresses of strength, the whole entablature or cornice of the building is broken around them, and they are surmounted by decorated pedestals or so

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