Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/885

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ARCHITECTURE.
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ARCHITECTURE.


art treatment of metal has been in the very moderate attempts at logical building of shop fronts, balconies, greenhouses, and shelters above doorways of entrance. The few attempts to treat strictly engineering structures, bridges, and the like, in an artistic way have not been successful.

The steel-cage system of building dates from about 1880. It was ten years earlier when it was first noted in the greater cities of the United States that business offices could not be rented to advantage nor large hotels managed success- fully without a free use of tlie elevator (the lift). Offices in the fifth stor- would not rent at all, nor those on the fourth story easily, im- less the.y had this "elevator service." But with the introduction of elevators into office build- ings and hotels there came the easy possibility of building to the height of eight and nine stories instead of to five. Ten years later there ap- peared suddenly the possibility of building what appeared to be an ordinary edifice of masonry with an actual structure of steel u])rights and horizontals firmly bolted together, braced where necessary, and of any conceivable height. All the exterior walls, which were thin and of masonry, were supported by the steel structure, and therefore the walls of the basement story occupied no more horizontal space than those of any upper stor^'; whereas, in a masonry build- ing, the walls or piers grow much thicker below as the height increases, and more valuable space in the ground story is lost in the attempt to get less valuable space above. Immediately upon the introduction of the constructional steel frame, buildings were increased in height from nine or ten to twenty or more stories. Elevators were built which ran at greatly increased speed, and these could be arranged in groups, some to. run "express" to the twelfth story, perhaps, while others stopped at every floor from the first to the eleventh.

In spite of the radical character of these changes in construction and plan, no sign of any architectural result has appeared. This is in part owing to the purely commercial char- acter of the buildings. They must be built as quicklj- as possible, because of the monthly loss of rent to the owner while his plot of ground remains unproductive, and they must be as in- expensive as possible, in order that the annual rental may bear a better proportion to the cost. Hitherto in the history of the world no archi- tecture of any value has been developed out of any such conditions. The efforts of two or three architects to invest these buildings with a logical and appropriate system of external design are worthy of the highest praise, but have not been followed generally; nor have they prodiu'ed marked results as yet.

In this brief survey there has been no place for the architecture of Farther .Asia, of India, and the neighboring provinces; of China and Japan: still less for the architecture of Mexico, Central America, Peru, etc. All these are described under their especial heads. The details of all the styles here mentioned are also given under the separate titles EGTPTIA^• .rt; B.a,byi.oxi.x Art; Assyri. Art; Piue.nician Art; Persi.vx Art; Greek .rt; Roit.vN Art; C'iiristi. Art; Byzantine Art; JIoiiammedan- .-rt: Ro- stANESQiE Art; Gothic Art; Renaissance Art; and Architecture, Ancient .Ajierican. Under the general head Art. History of, a review is given of all the various classes of titles under which the architectural material in the cy- clopiedia is classified, svieh as biographies of architects, descriptions of various kinds of build- ings, definitions of terms, etc. This history of the science and material of construction as distin- guished from the purely a'sthetic side of archi- tecture is given under Biilding.

Bibliography. An excellent systematic hand- book is Roseiigarten, A Handbook of Archilec- tural Styles (English translation, London, 1878). Jlore recent, and with references and a larger enumeration of monuments, is Hamlin, A Text- hook of the History of Architeeture (New York, 1897). The only full history of architecture in English, but uneven and unreliable, is Fergusson, A History of Architecture in All Countries (London, 1893). Liibke, Geschichte der Archi- teklur (Leipzig, 1884), is somewhat antiquated, but more accurate. Ramee, Histoire de I'arehi- tecture (Paris, 1885), is still useful. A critical history, from the standpoint of pure construc- tion and form, has now been given in Choisy, Histoire de Vnrrhitccturc (Paris, 1899), without an enumeration of monuments, and extremely technical. Two series of separate handbooks, each covering some special style or country, and to- gether forming a complete whole, are being pub- lished, one in France, the other in Germany. The general title of the French series is Bibliothcriuc de Vcnseignenient des heaux arts (see Art, History of) ; Lalou.x, L'architecture grecque (Paris, 1888) ; Corroj'er, L'urehilecture romaine (Paris, 1887), and L'architecture gothique (Paris, 1891); and Palustre, L'urehHecture de la renaissuucc (Paris, 1802), are the only vol- umes on architecture alone; but the rest of the field is covered in the architectural sections of the following general volumes: Maspero, Egyptian Archccology (London, 1895) ; Babelon, Oriental Antiquities, translated by B. T. Evetts (New York, 1889); Martha," L'archiologie etrnsque et romaine (Paris, 1884); Perate, L'archeologie ehretienne (Paris, 1892) ; Bayet, L'art byzantin (Paris, 1SS3); and Gayet, L'art arabe (Paris, 1893), and L'art persan (Paris, 1895).

The German series is more detailed, and is solely architectural. It is the Handbuch der Architektur, ed. Dunn (Darmstadt, 1895), and contains special volumes on the theory and practice of architecture, as well as its history. Its four sections are entitled: I. Allgemeine Hochbaukunde (materials; statics; methods; forms) ; II, Baustile (History, in four sections; -Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern) ; Hoehbau-Constructionen (elements of structure; foundations; extei-nal features; internal feat- ures; specific details) ; Entwerfen, Anhigc mid Einrichtung der Gehiiude (composition; build- ings for dwelling and trade; buildings for agri- cultural and provisioning purposes ; public- houses, clubs, and halls, etc. ; buildings for health, charity, etc, ; educational, scientific, and artistic establishments; civic, governmental, administrative, and military buildings; religious and memorial structures; the city). There are a number of quarto volumes in each of these sections and subsections, several of which have been published. In the historical section the most valuable are: Dunn, Die Baukunst der Griechen (Darmstadt, 1892) ; and Die Bau- Icunst der Etrusker und der Romer (Darm- stadt, 1885), The others are: Essen wein, Die