Evening Star Newspaper, April 20, 1930, Page 76

Vi — THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 20, 1930. Modernistic Styles in New Churches BY EDNA ROBB WEBSTER. N what kind of a church will you wor- ship on an Easter Sunday half a cen- tury hence? If the question seems irrele- vant, or even irreverent, consider some of the amazing structures that are being erected in various parts of the world. For the new trend of church architecture is toward modern art, just as is all architecture, all art and all phases of the twentieth century life. Although the ritual of the church service has changed less than have many other things, the method of church building seems to be keep- ing pace with the times. Balls and triangles of glass and steel, towers of steel and terra cotta, concrete blocks that resemble ware- houses or factories, airplane hangars and ele- vator shafts of glass and tile and steel—all resound to the Ave Maria and the Doxology, and call themselves houses of worship. Are all the classics of religious art to be cast into the rubbish heap; rose windows, gargoyles, string courses, Ionic columns and whatnot? Goethe said that architecture is frozen music. Beholding some of the modern church archi- tecture, conservative people vaguely wonder if they are gazing at some congealed score of the latest jazz hit. Yet it is worthwhile to consider this thing in the light of the century which has produced it. Undeniably, there are compensations and ex- planations which justify these structures as be- ing ecclesiastical, though they bear little re- semblance to the traditional Gothic style which has been essentially the architecture of the Christian religion since the twelfth century. ERHAPS the most important and most natural influence of this change in archi- tectural style is that of materials. Concrete and steel has replaced stone masonry. Ponderous stone walls required massive stone pillars for support, whereas slender steel columns support a tremendous weight. Immediately, there is a vast difference in the result. Stone walls prohibited large window openings, lest the support withdrawn by a large window space weaken the walls. Steel construction sup- ports itself, and the very window frames add to the strength of walls. Thick stone walls resulted in deep casements which shut out light. Concrete walls allow for casements flush with the outer walls, letting in light. When the famous cathedrals of the old world were built, men toiled for generations to com- plete them: manual labor, huge stones hauled for miles, delicate and tedious chiseling with hand-made tools. Today similar structures could be completed in months: minimum labor, gigan- tic shovels, derricks and trucks that groan and rumble and snort with hasty precision and un- faltering strength. Building with steel and concrete, the archi- tecture assumes steel proportions. In other words, church architecture has adopted the slender silhouette. Sweeping curves and slender reaching columns, letting there be light and air; instead of mass and weight and bulk and dusk. copy the Gothic style and use steel would X be a false gesture, the modern school con- tends. Why not take advantage of the geo- metric designs offered by steel construction? Barrel vaulting in ceilings is no longer essential to sound construction; steel girders will support at any angle, provided skilled engineers know their mathematics. Both exterior and interior designs are in planes and surfaces and forms, rather than in decoration, Interiors are treated accordingly. Modernistic effects are carried out in all furnishings and decorations, in the embroidery on the robes of priests, in ornaments and implements used in Roman Catholic Church is in Frankfort. While the ““Old-Time Religion’ Goes on Unchanged, Europe Is Advancing Some Radical Ideas Which Are Threatening to Change the World’s Ideas About All Houses of Worship. portions of traditional columns for support. Modern architecture relies upon colors and rich materials to replace decorative effects in design. Small-town churches, a few years ago, were usually drab, severe and uninviting, But just as business men have come fo recognize that a beautiful building pays because its tenants and customers find it more pleasant to do business there, so churches have found that well design- ed buildings not only attract more people to ehurch, but help to impress them with the dig- nity and spiritual beauty of the services. Twentieth century America has also gone modern in the matter of church architecture, to a great extent. One of the best examples is the Boston Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church at Tulsa, Okla., which flings a 260- foot tower skyward from a broad base. The frame of the tower is steel, with a top of copper and glass. It is a free modern adaptation of the Romanesque style, designed by Adah M. Robinson, an art teacher who had never studied architecture, and carried out by a young architect who was one of her former pupils, Bruce Goff. Another of her pupils, Robert Garrison, did the sculpture designs, magnificent symbols of angular modernistic de- sign. No curves are employed, but the sweep of lines is such as to imply the curves which really do not exist. Such inspirational symbols as a succession of huge hands, folded in prayer, that rise above the line of the roof and surround the top of the spire, carry the eye upward, Heavenward. Six groups decorate the main doorway, signify- ing the three functions of the church—wore ship, religious education and missions. Three mounted preachers of early circuit-riding days are above the other entrance. Kneeling fig- ures, all modernistic, flank the sculptured groups. The effect is inspirational, hopeful, spiritual. ANOTHER development of the modern church is the skyscraper building which houses secular as well as religious quarters. One of the best examples of this is the Broad- way Temple in New York, whose 719-foot tower is surmounted by a beacon honoring Admiral Byrd which takes the form of a radiant cross, visible 35 miles out to sea. ‘This building houses apartments, bowling alleys, squash courts, gymnasium and swimming pool and various other enterprises. Similar structures in Rochester, Pittsburgh, San Fran- eisco, Miami and Chicago house banks, stores, theaters. The contentions for this type of church are that the small church in the congested city district is eclipsed and becomes insignificant both in appearance and function; that the church thus built on ground which would other- wise be barred from such use because of its value, serves the people of its vicinity as it could not elsewhere, and that by so being self- supporting, it can extend and increase its services. What will be the ultimate outcome? What will live and what will die? Will the modernis- tic church replace the classic, or will those of the next century tire of the new and revert to Post-revolutionary church architecture in Germany. . . . This newly constructed the old? Time is the ultimate art critic. (Copyright, 1930.) services, in the lighting fixtures and effects. Modern churches have utilized much that the stage has learned about lighting. The promiscu- ous placing of lights for ornamentation has been simplified to obtain the proper effects and es- tablish the correct atmosphere, with flood-light- ed altar or pulpit. The science of acoustics has been carefully studied, and loud speakers and microphones are concealed about the pulpit. Modern, means “characteristic of today.” People who are developing this modern art say, “Why do we of the twentieth century need to Copenhagen and one at Taarn, have employed on the outside the conventionalized organ pipe design, adapting the arched roof of the Gothic styles to modern lines and materials. Reach- ing, sweeping lines that carry skyward with in- spiration; concrete, hard and clean and stain- less as purity itself, with lights of heaven streaming through long, wide expanses of stain- less glass. Two others in Paris that are similar em- ploy tall, slender, ferro-concrete shafts which have not attempted to reflect the pro- . Meat-Consumption Record. Eum.oYum’rmynothnebeen!n- satisfactory a condition last Winter as the year before, but meat consumption failed to indicate it. A survey by the Department of Agriculture shows that for the four months there was only a slight decrease in the amount of meats purchased, while the prices were somewhat Jewer as a result of larger supplies. Beef, veal and pork products showed a slight reduction, but lamb sales increased more than 8 per cent. copy things made under such different conditions, for the courts of Louix XIV or XV? Why go back to the eighteenth century in England when the customs were s0 very different—when everything was effeminate and frivolous, a period of patches on the cheek and false wigs? With all the advantages of our present day, why blindly copy the past? Why not develop what expresses us, our intelligence, inventiveness and our mechanical age?” It is interesting to note that the very countries which produce the traditional ecclesiastical architec- ture in those famous Gothic and Romanesque struc- tures from which our earlier churches, and many of our later ones, are copied were first to adopt the mod- ern styles. Germany is the leader, with France a close second. Holland, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway boast many of these 'strange buildings. A UNIQUE structure of steel and glass is the “vaga- bond house of God,” which was a feature of the World Press Show at Cologne, and has been pur- chased by the city of Essen, on the Ruhr. It can be “knocked down,” transported and reassembled in three weeks. There you have speed, efficiency, economy and a maximum of light. What could be more modern— more expressive of our economical and mechanical age? It may be sold and moved away when the mem- bers tire of it and want a new model. It might even be moved to follow a shifting congregation, as nobody lives in one place very long these days. One of the most audacious examples of the de- parture from all precept in church building is the new Cathedral of the Holy Family in Barcelona, Spain. More than any other does this structure resemble liquid stone that is frozen in rhythmic lines and forms, but, with all its exotic originality, its beauty is arresting and vital. In its general mass and contours there is an adaptation of the Gothic, but everything else is daring and new. The four slender spires, de- signed in corkscrew form, have been compared with the long, slender, tapering lines of the Rhine wine bot- tle. Extending the figure, the decorations of the lower part resemble nothing so much as foam which has overflown the bottles and congealed in natural con- v : > A glomeration of form. o i i i ic Barcelona reaches skyward in modern terms. The Cathe: Not Sl mooNerny Ehieh sk i e v A modern church in America, designed by Americans, who, dral of the Holy Family is a modern adaptation of the ever. Some very effective and beautiful structures usually belie their new business ideas by erecting old-style Gothic with spiral spires shaped like Rhine wine bottles. have resulted. Two that are somewhat similar, one at structures. It is in Tulsa, Okla.