Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 54, no. 1386: October 6, 1894

Text version:

462 Record and Guide. — October 6,1894 ;, • IT''-';;' ' ^, ' !■,* iq;'. The Ill-Mated Couitle. lower stories, verges upon a feuiiuiue prettiness. Its neighbor is markedly vigorous. Its vigor is carried in certain details to the defect of brutality. This dirt'cieucc is. perhaps, emphasized by a degree of similarity in the way the openings have beeu dis¬ posed of in the two buildings. In each alike, the wimlows are gi-ouped in a central division, Hanked by solider iiierdike divi¬ sions. In the Postal Telegraph building these rlivisjons are strongly marked by iirojectiou. whereas in the lloiiie Life the parlitiou is ettedcrd merely by suiieitici;il aceeutnation. Indeed, here we touch upon the essential distiuction between the two designs. In the ca.se ofthe fonuer editice the desiguis slrnedtr- esque. Il is built. Iu the ease of the latter it is, excepting one or two parts, largely a mailer nf applique. F(u' exauqile, cnni- pare the treatmenl nf the fnnr lower stnriesof (be two bitildinjrs. In the Postal binldiug the " architect ure" is clciii'ly cou^^tructed. In the Home Lite Wl^ have a quantity of np|)jied carving, taste¬ ful ill qmility, it i.s true, but forming tio more au organic part of theedifice than .so much sgraHKto. 'We ha-sten to add that this criticism is uot applicable, ul least in so great a degree, tn tlie erowuing .stories nf the biulding. wliieh, in our judgineiil. form oue of the mnst pieturesiine bils nf architeclure in tlie cilv, Oue hesitates belnrei|ualify iug a seventeen-story " ^ky-.scrapei " as festal; but certainly the Home I-ife buildiug has a eertaiii rieuse air that eoulradicts the giim comnicTciali.'im of Ibe aettiary. (hi the olhei' band, the obstrepeiousuess ot i-ommeice fairly protrudes from Ihe Pnslnl building. Il ot1"ers no rseupe to the peaceable |tasser-by. If one may say so, the desig-u is written with a "commercial list." This is the defect of the wenk. It fails upon the side of its virtues. But far more thau is the case with its neighbor, is it nu effort at architectural ex¬ pression through consfi'ncti00,000, so that if these tigiires prove to be correct, as they ven- probably will, Sonth Africa will have a larger iucrea.se than all the other gold producing conutvies, (xiveu, Ino, a maintenance nt the iuerea.'^e at anything like the same ratio, South Africa will lead the list of g