Evening Star Newspaper, July 20, 1929, Page 16

11, ARCHITECTURE [ T0 BE DISTINCTIVE St. Louisan Says Style Is Becoming Independent * of History. Chicago’s towers and Manhattan's cliffs of masonry are the forerunners of & distinctive American architecture, ac- cording to Louis La Beaume of St. Louls, a director of the American Insti- tute of Architects. America has finished that period of 1ts history when it was not only a melt- ing pot for many races but a museum of the architecture of many lands, Mr. L1a Beaume believes. He predicts that our architects will lay aside historical patterns for buildings and develop a style of architecture corresponding to the swifter tempo of existence on this continent. Many Natfons Copied. “Greece, Rome, the Italy of the Medicis, the France of every dynasty from Charlemagne to Poincare, the England of 800 years from William the Congqueror to George 1V, the Spain of ESTATE. the Moors, of Ferdinand and Isabella, lnd the';our Philips, have been copled,” ints out. . ut what of American architecture? What do our flattering critics mean when they proclaim that we lead the world in this most vital of all the arts? Our Gothic churches cannot be better than the Gothic of the Isle de France, our templed memonnls. or counting houses, cannot exceed the perfection of the Parthenon. “They must see in our factorles, in our skyscrapers, somethin, mev have never seen before, something that has suffesed a change, and taken on the aspect of fts en ent. They must mean our Chicago towers, and Man- hattan's plnmclex and cliffs of masonry. Livingels Smarter. “If our old stodgy habits are chang- ing, if we are beginning to detect a new crispness and terseness, a new simplicity and directness in the design of our little buildings as well as our big ones, we may seek for the cause in two factors. First, we are living in a crisper, speedier, smarter time, and second, client and architect are more nearly one and the same than they ever were before. “The young architect of today feels and reflects the tempo of his generation. Our_architecture is stripping itself of much of the historic impedimenta which clogs and hampers its natural purpose.” Rehabilitation Profitable. Rehabilitation of the old home pre- serves both its use value and material value. THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. FIVE-DAY WEEK MOVE “The five-day week movement for building craftsmen continues with fa- vorable reactions in many parts of the country,” says the S. W. Straus Co. “While many Chicago builders, regarded as a weathervane in building circles, oppose the five-day week on the basis of the overtime problem, much fee vorable sentiment has been expressed in its behalf. The Journal of Electrical ‘Workers and Operators claims that the five-day week-is already a major vic- tory for labor, and that the present status of this shorter week movement is the termination of a generation ot labor education. “A review of the five-day week plan in the Monthly Labor Review, pub- lished by the Department of Labor, in- dicates that in all sections of the coun- try, with the exception of the South, the five-day week has at least gained a foothold. Of great social significance is the statement of Thomas A. Edison to the effect that as the introduction of automatic machinery in industry be- comes more general it will be compul- sory to have the five-day week in order to prevent overproduction. George B. Cutten, president of Colgate Univer- sity, goes even further, saying, ‘The five-day week is just around the corner and it does not take a very powerful telescope to give us a glimpse of the five-hour day’, Build the Type of Home You Wish in OCK CREEK PAR ESTATES The 7 Home Features of ROCK CREEK PARK ESTATES 1 Pride in Your Ad- ® dress. 2 Over 100 Acres Cer- *tified Against Be- coming “Citified.” 3 1%, Miles Fronting *Rock Creek Park. Protective Restric. *tions Safeguarding Investment. Exclusive type homes * by Wm. P. Lipscomb Company. 6 Every house custom- *built and approved by jury of architects. 7 City’s most beautiful ® approaches—via 16th Street or Beach Drive through the Park. OR your conveniénce the f William P. Lipscomb Com- pany, co-operating with the owners, is erecting homes of dis- tinction in Rock Creek Park Es- tates. The personal services of these famous builders are avail- able at any time. But the type and construction of your home in Rock Creek Park Estates, with due consideration for architectur- al harmony, is left entirely to your own free choice. Every assiste ance is offered to assure a suce cessful completion of your plans. A jury of architects, appointed by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, is ready to co-operate with you—to work out your ideals. A special system of finance is arranged for your convenience. The actual con- struction work on your home is carefully supervised. The Edson ‘W. Briggs Company takes the re- sponsibility of building off your shoulders. The privacy of your Estate in Rock Creek Park Estates is permanently protected by definite, carefully planned re- strictions. Everything is ar- ranged to make living a pleasure for you in the Estates. And na- ture herself has so arranged the background of your home that— in every direction—you behold a perpetual scene of beauty. Why not drive out and see the charming homes constructed by the William P. Lipscomb Company. A representative will gladly show you through Rock Creek Park Estates. You Enter the Estates at 16th Street and Kalmia Road Office on Property, 1603 Kalmia Road Telephone Main 5700 for an Inspection Appointment Edson W. Briggs Company Ouwners 1001 15th Street at K TWO MODEL HOME DEVELOPMENTS Detached Brick Homes *11,950 $1,000 Cash Payment All-Brick Row Homes 6,250 v $250 Cash—$55 Month {EXPERTS DISAGREE ON SUBJECT FOR BUILDERS GAINS| OF «“SKYSCRAPERS” FOR U. S. CITIES Believes New York Archi- tecture Has More Artis- tic Permanency Than Other Forms, Editor's note: The question as to the height of buildings in Wuhhw- ton has repeatedly come before au- thorities, and a wide di e of opinion has been expre Here- with is presented inions by two mmlandhw architects of the coun- try, one urging drastic limitation of building Mphtt and the other holding the need, service and beauty of the "xkyu.-vaper " The jormer is Thomas Hastings, whose views are reprinted from the New York World, Mdt the latter, Harvey Wiley Cor- BY HARVEY WILEY CORBETT. What I state in this article is not necessarily applicable to the City of Washington, which is not a highly jn- dustrialized city at present and is not likely to become such. While I am in complete sympathy with a height limit for commercial buildings in the city of ‘Washington, I do not belleve it will ever be possible to put that limit suf- clently low—say five or six stories—to give the city of Washington the char- acter of a European city, or to thereby keep the commercial section in scale and harmony with the Government buildings. Your present height ltmit so far ex- ceeds anything the Government is 1i ly to do that you already have a dis- tinct contrast between the Govern.ment work and the commercial wosk. Per- sonally I do not object to this contrast, as I think it, centers interest on ihe fine quality of the Government work, which has in recent years been so brau- tifully maintained under the guidance of the Commission of Fine Arts. But I do feel that it would be a mistake to establish a building law for the com- mercial districts which -would icsult in flat-top buildings of boxlike character except where broken by ugly tanks and penthouses, Paris Has 60-Feet Limit. Even in Paris, where the height limit is only 60 feet on the facade, there is provided above this height a mansard roof which corresponds in principle with our set-beck theory, designed to inclose these necessary mechanical fea- tures which have to be placed above the last usable story level. It therefore seems to me that it would be highly desirable in establishing a necessary height regulation for the City of Washington to so study the problem that set-backs above the vertical front limit be permittéd, thereby giving the buildings an interesting skyline contour and avolding the packing-box accent which until recent years was so_dis- tressingly characteristic of most of our American towns. Some of the buildings we are adding to our skyline in New York have more of beauty, of grace, of artistic perma- nence than any architectural forms the world has yet known. And New York; however much or little it may now be a cross section of America, is this country's architectural laboratory and proving ground. The architect has a greater opportunity and a greater range of op- | portunity here than elsewhere. Height May Be Necessary. And here in New York, if anywhere, he need not resort to the old time styles for his design. There are instances still where classical design has its place, no doubt, but we can only express the | America of today by giving expression to the America of today. Height in building rather than breadth on the ground may not be as necessary -in every American city as in New York, though in many a city across the conti- nent it has become a real necessity— but building high rather than wide is expressive of the America of our time. It is more economical, for one thing. In terms of space incloséd it costs more to spread out on the ground than it does to build up into the air. Back of every change in architectural trends since the beginning of history is always the economic factor. It is for the archi- tect of today to appreciate this and de- sign accordingly. The real reason why the ancients didn't build high was be- cause they couldn’t. They didn't have construction methods equal to it. They tried to do it with the Tower of Babel, brought in imported labor from various outlying nations—and look what a jam they got into! Nor have these lofly buildings in our American cities “Jist growed,” like ‘Topsy. Far from it. They are our America in concrete form and symbolic of the wealth, energy and enterprise which are transforming American cities. Here in New York the skyline they make up first gives form to that domi- nant individuality of America which the vast throng of strangers ever arriving from all parts of the world find ex- pressed so amazingly in this mighty metropolis. Impressions Bewlilder Stranger. A bewildering lot of impressions strike the stranger arriving in New Yorl for the first time, but among these our clear-cut sign of American achievement. No week passes in which I do not meet one or more architects from abroad. To each the skyline of this great city is fairly staggering, no mat- ter how familiar they had believed themselves to be with it from having studied it in their own_architectural publications or in ours. But they take it in, and they place it in their own minds correctly as the product of our United States of today, developed to me;z problems singular to this country and age. The type of esthetic result which we see in New York City does not arrive of itself automatically. There must be something fundamental to create it. I find two causes for the growing archi- tectural beauty of this great metropolis. First, the material urge that is in us architecture stands out vividly as a |y, New York Could Limit Buildings to 8 Stories . and Eliminate Problems. ‘BY THOMAS HASTINGS. Architecturally, the present pass of the great city of New York is a tragedy, a revolutionary tragedy. We have de- parted from time-tested standards in umn architecture and, to be charita- ble, let us say that the merit of what has thus far come out of the resulting eonnmnn is & matter of opinion. I find no fault with the architect who builds akyscnpen under the conditions of to- he is within the law and he is rrying out the wishes of his client; b\lv. I dn find fault with a city gqvern- ment so shortsighted as not to see the good sense and economic justice in lim- l‘:llng within reason the height of build- gs. ‘This New York has never seen fit to do, at least in a way to really control the situation, and in that fact is the genesis of most of our municipal diffi- culties—not alone the lack of harmony and grace in the skyline, of which we hear so much, but our ever-increasing traffic congestion of pedestrians and ve- ' hicles and the fact that we who work in New York’s office buildings are per- force becoming an underground and in- door race, and that this city will soon be on the verge of serious trouble with lt': ‘water supply and sewer drainage sys- ms, Not Too Late to Change. It is not too late to change now. New York could much better have limited building heights a generation or more ago, but the city could well do this today, radical as the idea may seem in the face of constantly mounting skyscrapers. If the height of all bulldings on Manhattan Island below Fifty-ninth street were to be limjted to eight storles, I believe many of our most troublesome civic problems would disappear. In fact, I think this the one true remedy and that otherwise we are only treating the symptoms of our malady. Once this was done, the city would spread out in & harmonious fashion and would become a place really fit to live in as well as to work in. Those whose dally movements are limited to Fifth avenue or Forty-second street or to the vicinity of Wall street have little idea how much waste space there still is on Manhattan Island or how many sections there are yet where for blocks one scarcely meets an automobile. As 1t is, however, we go on shooting up skyscrapers until 40 stories has be- come common, 50 stories are fast com- ing to be no great rarity and 60 and 70 stories are but matters of tomorrow. A 100-story building will rise almost before we know it if we do not call a halt. Our streets have become nar- Tow canyons and tens of thousands live their daily lives under artifiical light. We Would Have Improved Parks. If we had originally limited the height of buildings here to what would be their height in lnndon. for instance, under their ancient lights regulation, or as has been done in Paris or Berlin, New York would have spread out over the whole of Manhattan Island and our small parks would probably have been properly lmpmvea and would to- day be the garden spots or paved squares in the midst of the city they were meant to be. As it is, the change of Fifth avenue to a street of skyscrapers is a perfectly natural thing. When business pushes in residents leave, of course. No one can afford to live in four stories when he can sell his property for 40 stories to be built on it, and tall buildings have replaced some of the finest and most expensive private residences the world over. " Now the development has reached Fifty-ninth street and can g0 no further north and business is spreading east and west. With re- stricted building heights the spreading out process would have come long, long ago and this would have spread out. the population and the traffic. This traffic congestion, which causes us so much trouble and worry, is in comparatively limited districts. Below Fifty-ninth street in Manhat- tan there are good-sized sections occu- pled by nothing but rookeries and in which a person may walk 15 or 20 minutes without meeting an automobile. Rubbish and waste and two-story build- ings characterize these sections. It would all chlnge if we restricted building heights as I have suggested. We would then have the better classes living where buildings were low and possibly the workers would be housed in the taller structures. The increased demand for property which accompanies an increasing popu- lation naturally augments the value of property and under these conditions a reasonable and uniform height of buildings would of. necessity enhance the value of a larger area of property and make a more equal distribution of the benefits so obtained and among a mltcr number of people. Moreover, ‘estate would so become a less servative investment, A vast number of "pheople now land poor would share in h1lpet:lllltlva holding and a' more con- Because of the and unre- strained height in building allowed under our municipal laws the abnormal rise and fall of real estate values in stinct in preservation and the survival of the proximity of business dffices. this makes it expedient for represent- atives of industry to locate near one another so that personal and business contacts are possible with the least loss of time. Because of this the leading in- dustries of this country, and of the world, locate offices in New York and it is the clear economic tendency to con- centrate these in tall buildings and Qumans for beautification of our sur- roundings, perhaps the strongest in- often in districts largely given over to affiliated businesses. Open Sunday 2 to 6 P.M. ¢, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1929. ‘would gs_in Man: hattan to ela: ltnflfl—lnfl I -ew-uy mean t! It has been calcu- lated it New York's popuhuan could be doubled on the basis of average Mlllfl.ll‘l[ height of eluhz swrlu even the narrowest part of Manhattan lelnd. Below Fifty-ninth street today onlylbwl!pereemolth e buildings her than 10 stories. The average houht 18 but about four stories. it course it would take great wun‘e md initiative of a high order to set about limiting bullding heights in any such way, and immediately the ques- v.!nn comes up: What could we do with the skyscrapers we have? That would settle itself, I think, on the basis of taxation, I would tax a sixteen-story building’ n twlce the valuation of an eight-story building, a twenty-four- story buudl.nr at three times, and so on, making eight stories the unit. Some skyscrapers might come down then; it might be too expensive to ‘maintain them; but, in any case, such a restric- gliowuhzo force every bu_llder‘;;‘lbo: el as well as hlmult lnd to abandon private purposes for the good of the city as a whole. To restrict bullding heights as I suggest would not be for the sake of art, either, but for the sake of the people. Surely it will not be contended that skyscrapers have been built for the sake of art. In fact, they have made the city very ugly. And if we do not restrict building heights and continue bullding without any more limitations that we have now the streets below will only grow more con- gested, darker and drearier. More than that, our traffic conges- tion will become so very dense that we shall have §o tax automobiles for using he streets. Moreover, our municipal ater system and sewer system are not adequate to meez such demands as are o Beautiful Marietia Park ‘Where the extreme accessibility to all the neces- sary things that make a most livable section, brings praise from the most exacting. Where progressiveness in obtaining schools, play- grounds, public parks, concrete streets and numerous other things have placed it far in advance of any other section, and has made it the ideal community. ‘This house is the only one left of this group that has just been completed. They have sold because every feature that makes for comfort, convenince and durability have been built in them. An outstanding value that you should not miss seeing. Open Daily 9A.M.t1o9P. M. To Reach: Via Georgia Ave. or 16th Street, turn right on l,nn;({pllnw to 5th, left on 5th to Oneida, or call made upon by the exceedingly unequal | dummuon of New York's population which every new skyscraper wwzrlng into. the heavens only makes 50 much worse. We may easily face a very serious engineering situation. Land Banks to Be Studied. Acting upon a motion adopted by the farm lands division at the convention of the Natlonal Association of Real Estate Boards in Boston, Harry Rath- bone, Lincoln, Nebr., chairman of the division, has appointed a committee to make a study of the policies of the Fed- eral farm land banks as they function in various sections of the country. J. B. Tiffey . “Homes of Comfort” 419 Oglethorpe St. N.W. Georgia 4174 S | !_ l fl P Exhibit Home 5102 Kansas Ave. Open Daily °Til 9 P.M. *-ne Go Directly Out Kansas Ave. Priced Low Easy Terms Seven big rooms, 3 porches, deep lots and brick garages. us next to that for self-|| human race; and second, the greater || mass efficiency which comes from_the || Businesses are interdependent and || Brick walls separate rear porches on both floors assuring s absolute privacy, quiet and protection against fire. Houses Revelation are full 20 ft. wide, have Frigidaire, double hardwood floors of throughout, cedar-lined closets, cabinet finish rich fixtures, M cement front porches and many other remarkable qualities. odern Home Planning Homes are on Kansas Ave., a splendid 120-ft. boule- vard; face a triangular Government park and occupy one of the highest points in Northwest Washington. Artange an inspection tonight or tomorrow. C. W. Williams, Owner and Builder Phone Silver Spring 325 or Decatur 4196 Chevy Chase, D. C. VACANT COMPLETELY FURNISHED Substantial construction, cov- ered front porch, double rear porches, tiled bath with built-in tub, artistically decorated rooms with paneled ‘walls, oak floors, hot-water heat, built-in garage, attractive shrubbery, wide paved street, two squares from school, stores and car line. Near new Government park. Excellent location—paved streets—large attractively landscaped lots —six good rooms—full attic over entire house—breakfast alcove—col- ored tile bath—ample closet space—open fireplace—artis- tically decorated, built-in gar- age. $18,500 6200 Broad Branch Road Between Rittenhouse and Western Avenue Attractively located on large lot, this new brick Colonial residence embraces all of the bl foatures of @ Chevy Chase Home. ot phor—iar oc Hokag, rooms widh/open: ireplaces & Bidrooms; 3/ complate bathss Builtin garage for two cars. Priced at Cost for Immediate Sale OPEN ALL DAY SUNDAY EDW. H. JONES & CO;, 5520 Conn. Ave. Chevy Chase Properties \ . 5 CEDAR AVE. To reach property drive out 16th Street to Georgia Ave. and follow on through to Silver Spring, turning east on Bonifant Street three blocks to hou: OPEN SUNDAY AND DAILY, 2-9 PM. National Mortg. & Inv. Corp. 1004 Vt. Ave. Nat. 5833 1538 RIDGE S.E. Across Navy Yard bridge to 14th and S—then one block north. 5335 Conn. Ave. N.W. Bmmml. modern, detached, colonial brick home in excellent condi~ Atuuuwulmwmmamwvmdmflmmmm surrounded by beautiful homes. CONVENIENT TO EVERYTHING Eight rooms, 2 tiled baths, 2 large porches, attic and brick garage. Under $25,000.00 BRODIE AND COLBERT, INC. 1702 Eye St. N.W. National 8878 Cleveland 2300