"W"""^









AND   BUILDERS'   GUIDE





Vol. XI.





NEW YOKK, SATURDAY, APPJL 5, 1873.





No. 264.





TIÎE





Published Weer.lv bu

;U ES f ATE RECORD  âSSOCIATiON.

TKHMS.

One year, in advance......................$6 00

Ail comniunications should lie .iddressed to

C. AV. s\vh;h;t.

7 .V^'1> 9 WARURN Strkut.





No receipt for moî'.ey due the RuAT, EsT.vi'E RECORD
will be acknowlcdied unle.ss signed l)y oiie of our regnlar
collectors. lTi;.\liY D. S.Mn'li or TiiO.M.v.S F. Cu.m.ming.s.
AU bills for coUection will be sent from the office on a regu¬
larly lu'inted form.





Spécial Notices.

Those in want of lightning rods and indisposed to deal
with wandi^rincc and irre.^ponsible peddler.s are referred to
the card of ilr.' J. D. We.st 40 Cortlandt st., who has been
in business in this city for fche lasfc 20 years, and in his pres-
enfc location since ISGÛ.

Wk had our attoution called recently to an invention of
Mr. F. Siebold, 387 Third avenue, which it strikes us is
eminently oah.-ulated to case the pahis of the sick. It is an
Iron Chair which, by its consfcrncfcion, allows of many
clianges of po.sifcion to fcln; occupant, and aiïords great facili¬
ties for surgical opérations. Indeed, ifc wonld be a luxuri-
0U3 appendiige to office, library br chamber.





Readers of the Real Estate Record will
bear in mind that only a few copies of the two
first numbers of the Mortyage Giroidar are to
be had. The demand is increasing every day,
and onr subscription list contains the names of
leading bankers, merchants, and property-ow¬
ners, who appreciate the value of the publica¬
tion. Ail those bound to give crédits should
be in possession of the Oiroular. It is published
evéry Wednesday. Subscription, $10 per annum.
Number 3 is now out.





THE  ARCHITECTTJIIAL PEOrESSIOW.

TnERE is perhaps no well-recognized profes¬
sion in the world in which a larger diversity of
Icnowledge is required of its professors, or one
involving more responsibility, and yet occupy-
ing so anomalous a position, as that of the ar¬
chitect. The profession of architecture, as it
now exists, is assumed by many to be the result
of a mère accidentai course of events, and not
based upon any absolute necessity for its exist¬
ence. This question has recently given rise to
much discussion iu England, owing to sundry
articles which appeared in the pages of the
Quarterly Remew, attacking the profession
and assei-ting the position that it is entirely
a modem contrivance, and that in former
times the builder or craftsman and the de¬
signer of a building were identical. Indeed,
we hâve just heard this same idea repeated by
Mr. Rus"SELL Sturges, who, in his lecture
on art at the Academy of Design, a short
time ago,  said :---" The   ward   'Akçjiitect'





must be cast aside. It once meant Master-
Builder, now it means nothing." In reply to
this idea it has been argued, as far as mediaîval
buildings are concerned, that however much
the latitude allowed to individual craftsmen—
and the work bears évidence that each must
hâve been a master in his line—it is quite im¬
possible that such magnificent constructions as
the old cathedrals, exhibiting such harmony in
ail their multitudinous détails, could hâve been
produced in any othei- way than under the con¬
trol of one directing mind. If we go" back to
the G-reek era, we find the position assumed by
the writer in the Quarterly, ^iz.—the déniai of
a separate profession of architecture—equally
untenable ; for besides the impossibilty of
imagining how such a buildiug as the Parthenon
could hâve been evolved, stage by stage, from
any number of skilled workmen, each working
from his own " inner consciousness," one cham¬
pion of the profession came forward, and in a
single quotation completely demolished ail the
fine-spun théories which the Quarterly had
been building upon its application of the word
" architectones." This quotation is from no
less an authority than Plato, who says :—" The
pay of a common builder was five or six minae,
but that an arcldtect would require more than
ten thousand drachms." Clearly, therefore,
there was a distinction among the ancients, in
Plato's time at any rate, between architects
and builders.

And yet it cannot be denied that the profes¬
sion of architecture holds a somewhat isolated
position when compared to that of other caU¬
ings of a decidedly constmctive nature. Ships,
for instance, and machinery are constructed
without the aid of any distinct profession apart
from the trades, the designer and constructor
being in each of the latter cases one and the
same ; and so the question mighfc be asked why
can it not be so with buildings as well. Indeed,
in many cases it is aiready so. Probably more
than one-half of the buildings existing in New
York were erected without any architect at ail,
and though a large majority of them are un-
sightly enough, they hâve still answered their
purpose, and hâve not tumbled down. Where
then is the use of an architect ? The answer is
to be l'orrnd in the simple fact that there are
cases in which a far higher order of aesthetic
knowledge is requisite than that ol' merely put¬
ting materials together ; cases in which, al¬
though a knowledge of the art of buUding is
n( cessary, it is but a mère adjunct to the final
result; and consequently, while the accom¬
plished architect should be also a good builder,
it is not at ail requisite that a builder should
be an architect.

An architect's multifaiious qualifications may
be summed up under three leading heads:—
Artistic taste and skill in design, constructive





knowledge, and business qualifications. Much
of the first of thèse is actuuHy bom with a man?
as much so as in the case of a sculptor or
painter; although it cannot be denied that
éducation can overcome natural defects in the
case of architecture, and enable an inferior
man even to make his mark in it much more
easily than in either painting or sculpture.
But this is simply owing to the fact that the
standard of criticism in both the latter cases is
more arbitrariîy laid down than in that of the
first. A so-called architect may put up a perfect
monster of construction, and find plenty to
praise and admire it, as occurs daily in our
midst, because there is no universal and décis¬
ive criterion by which to judge it ; but if a
sculptor perpétrâtes a monster of a human
figure, or an artist an intolérable daub, the
merest tyro can bring either of them to the bar
of infallible judgment—Dame Nature herself.
And yet thorough skill in design is an attribute
rarely possessed. ïo be able to grasp aU tlie
features of a large fcti-uctnre, so as to reduce
each part to its own spécial use—to subordinate
and keep in thorough harmony each individual
portion ; to overcome ail difiiculties of site and
often the conflicling but necessary and inexorable
demands of accidentai circumstances; and to
invest aU thèse with an inhérent spirit of beauty
and appropriateness, require no mean order of
intellect. Then again, as regards constiaictive
skiU, an architect should be thoroughly posted
in the strength and quality of materials,
tb.eir projier nses, and the modes of putting
them together. Although not laboring with
his own hand.'î, he should know enough to be
able to direct those who do. It is idle to plcad
ignorance, in case f-f mishaps, where one as¬
sumes the capacity of director; and architects
hâve not only been tried for m..n.slai:ghter
through the faUing of buildings, but hâve been
held legiUy responsiblu in many other casts
where their ignorance of building has enabled
contractors to take undue advantage of the
clients who had confided themse'.ves to their
care. If we turn to an architect's necessary
business qualities, we find thèse quite as un-
limited as those of a lawyer; requiring î^n
equally large amount of varied knowledge, Sys¬
tem, foresight, courtesy, nnd tact in dealing
with his fellow-men. A good spécification is
as elaborate and well-studied a brief as ever
emanated from a lawyer's ofiicc ; one in which
a con-cientious architect has to look after his
client's interests to the value of a tenpenny
nail, it tnr.y be, in the expenditure of hundreds
of thousands of doll a-s. As a position of high
tmst, it necessarily involves tie deepest integ¬
rity and soundest judgment on the part of
those who occui^y it. It seems idle to ques ion
whether a calling requiring such v.^ried knowl¬
edge and îalents, inyolyL g so much labor and