Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/77

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THE ARCHITECTURAL PLAN
55

DETAILS OFTEN OVERLOOKED

No building committee should accept plans, no matter by whom they are submitted, without most careful study. There are certain points which every architect forgets, and it is the business of the building committee and the Director to see to it that they are remembered. Such, for instance, are the telephone system, bells, hardware, wiring for electric light, automatic burglar signals, gas pipes, arrangements for vacuum cleaners, and plumbing. All these things must be carefully considered before the building has gone so far that the cost of installation is going to be doubled. There is no reason why locks on the doors should not be considered just as well before the doors are ready to receive them, as after the doors are in place. The hardware is all ordered long before the building is ready for it, and unless unusual needs are specified at the time the plans are accepted there will be extra expense in later changes. Some doors must be locked on the outside and some on the inside only, a certain door must be accessible only to the staff and must, therefore, be arranged to be opened from the outside by a key and from the inside by a handle, but if this same door is so placed that it is possible for a thief to enter through a window at night there