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Drawings rendered in line or color with reasonable despatch. ADDRESS Editors of the American Architect. VOL. LXX. Copyright, 1900, by the AMERICAN ARCHITeot and Building News COMPANY, Boston, Mass. Plan and Elevations: House for the Clark Estate, Riverside Additional: House for the Clark Estate, Riverside Drive and NOTES AND CLIPPINGS. IT 89 94 96 96 T was with very real regret that we found ourselves unable to attend the annual gathering of the American Institute of Architects last week, and that regret is but enhanced by the accounts given us by those who were fortunate enough to be present. The address by Mr. Peabody would alone have repaid to the hearer all the time and expense required, as it is so unusual to find any one willing and capable of saying No. 1304. the proprietors of tenement-houses build them as they choose. It is hardly necessary to point out that no improvement in the construction or arrangement of tenement-houses can be hoped for so long as this state of things prevails. No prudent man will build tenements in accordance with the law, knowing that he will have to compete for tenants with his neighbor, who has simply left out all the fire escapes, brick walls and incombustible staircases called for by the statutes, and can afford to rent his rooms more cheaply in consequence. Perhaps there are not inspectors enough in New York to prevent all violations of the law, but it is certainly singular that the grossest violations should be committed in nine-tenths of the tenements in certain portions of the city, without discovery, and it is still more singular that, out of the cases discovered and reported, not one in a hundred is ever brought before the Courts. If the people of New York really wished to have the laws enforced, instead of being utilized simply to shut out honest and benevolent people from the business of building tenement-houses, so as to leave the helpless poor more effectually at the mercy of rapacious speculators and corrupt officials, there would be no difficulty about inspection. It would only be necessary to require that a new tenement-house, before it could be occupied, should be certified as complying with the laws, and to provide that no rent could be collected by the owner from tenants occupying an uncertified house. Half a dozen honest inspectors could easily examine and report upon every house for which a certificate' was requested; and, while they might not be able to certify as to the mortar used in the foundations, or the perfection of the sewer connection, they would have no difficulty in ascertaining whether the stairs were of wood, the staircase partitions of brick, the areas of the required size, and proper provision made for fire-escapes. things that need to be said with the simple and direct logic are not pleased with the action of the City Government in THE Bridgeport architects, according to the local newspapers, that makes acquiesence inevitable. Without in any way detracting from the merit of Mr. Van Brunt's admirable address of last year, it may fairly be said that Mr. Peabody's is the most noteworthy address that any President of the Institute has ever voiced, since it did much more than appeal to the artist: it seized on the man behind the artist and made him feel and believe. It is very pleasant, too, to note how the reform in the character of the doings at these annual gatherings begun by Mr. Stone has gathered force and weight, and how the feeling that was avowed at the Pittsburgh meeting last year, that at length and at last the Convention of the American Institute of Architects was accomplishing a real something and doing it in a way to command the respect of others and increase the selfrespect of those who were doing the work, has waxed larger, and is likely to further increase, if at these gatherings there continues to be presented, as at this, such a series of admirable papers dealing with matters of real and present-day importance. If the season of the year stood in the way of the out-door excursion and so caused the absence of members who particularly enjoy the freedom of intercourse with their fellows which these excursions engender, and if consequently the number of members in attendance was somewhat reduced, the loss was more than made good by the dignity which the gathering unquestionably gained through its steady attention to the serious business brought before it. If the Institute is to have the influence on public architecture or municipal improvements that it hopes to have, every atom of added dignity it can win will be a help, and we question whether a committee from a body of men who had been seen the day before driving about the city, after lunch, on tally-ho coaches, drags and so on, would have as much weight with Congress as would a committee proceeding directly from a body that was known to be discussing the point at interest in a sedate and dignified way. employing Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, of New York, to design a new municipal building, without considering the claims of the profession in Bridgeport to be allowed to show their skill in the most important public work in their own city. There are some very accomplished architects in Bridgeport, and believing, as we do, in the importance of cultivating local. schools of art, as the best means for promoting the great artistic movement of the country, we should have been glad to see the matter made the occasion of a well-managed competition, in which the local architects should at least have had the opportunity to show what they could do, in comparison with the work of the most noted members of the profession; but the Committee of the City Government undoubtedly acted according to their best judgment. UN tion NQUESTIONABLY, the city committee employed Messrs. McKim, Mead & White to do their work on account of their great reputation, and, if an extended public reputasecures for the architects who enjoy it employment away from home, over the heads of the local architects, is it not adtion, and, if it is advantageous, how is it to be secured? We unquestion-Vantageous, as a matter of business, to acquire such a reputa willingly admit that, in order to gain a great professional repution, and, if it is advantageous, how is it to be secured? We tation, it is necessary to do first-rate work, but this is not all. about it. Of course, this does not mean that the architect who After doing the work, it is essential to let the public know place in his profession. As Sir Joshua Reynolds said, the public blows his own trumpet the loudest can thereby gain the highest is, in the end, the best judge of art, and it cannot be deluded by mere outcry; but it cannot either approve or disapprove that which it knows nothing about; and to secure its judgment, favorable or unfavorable, its attention must be called to what is submitted to it for approval. Obviously, the way in which this is to be done is through the medium of the professional journals which, every week, are distributed throughout the country, laid upon the tables of countless clubs and libraries, and inspected by hundreds of curious persons there. We are sometimes told by architects, when we suggest to them this view of the matter, that their drawings are all engaged for the travelling circuit of exhibitions, and, perhaps, for its accompanying catalogue. We do not wish to criticise any one for preferring to show his designs to the profession, and to the few HE New York Tenement-House Commission has had inspections made in different parts of the city, to see whether the excellent laws in regard to tenement-house construction are strictly carried out, and has discovered that, far from being complied with, they are violated in the great majority of cases. The Commissioner of Buildings, on whom the duty devolves of enforcing the laws in such matters, excuses himself by saying that his force of inspectors is too small to examine all the buildings put up in the city, and it seems that, practically |