ARCHITECTURE
591
years American architecture showed a distinct tendency to pletely that it is often impossible to distinguish their become “ Richardsonesque ” (Fig. 5, see Plate). As with designs, and even their methods of drawing, from those of all architectural fashions, however, people got tired of this, French architects brought up in the strictest regime of the and the influence of another very able American architect, “ Ecole.” By this French movement the Americans have, the late R. Morris Hunt, who had received his educa- on the one hand, shared the advantages and the influence of what is undoubtedly the most complete school of architectural training in the world; but, on the other hand, they have foregone the opportunity which might have been afforded them of developing a school or style of their own, influenced by the circumstances of their own requirements, climate, and materials. Fig. 6 (see Plate) shows an example of recent American architecture of the European classic type. Thus, in the two countries which during the last quarter of a century have shown the most activity and restlessness in their architectural aspirations, and given the most original thought to the subject, England has constantly tended towards throwing off the yoke of precedent and escaping from the limits of a scholastic style ; while America, commencing her era of architectural emancipation with an attempt at first principles and simple but picturesque building, has ended by a pretty general adoption of the highly-developed scholastic system of another country. The contrast is certainly a curious one. Only one original contribution to the art has been made by America in recent days—one arising directly out of practical conditions, viz., the “high buildings ” in cities; a form of architecture which may be said to be due directly to the fact that New York is built on a peninsula, and extension of the city is only possible vertically and not horizontally. The tower-like buildings, served internally by lifts, to which this condition of things has given rise (Fig. 7), form a really new contribution to architecture, and have been handled by some of the American architects in a very effective manner ; though, unfortunately, the rage for rapid building in the cities of the States has led to the adoption of a system of running up such structures in the form of a steel framing, cased with a mere skin of masonry or terra cotta for appearance’ sake, which in reality depends for its stability on the steel framing. This is not only a false system of architectural design, but may probably prove to be a dangerous form of building. It must be admitted, however, to be a new contribution to architecture, and renders New York, as seen from the harbour, a “ towered city ” in a sense not realized by the poet. Some sketch of the state of architectural thought or endeavour in England seemed essential to the subject, since it is there that what may be called the philosophy of architecture has been most debated, and that thought has had the most obvious and most direct effect on architectural style and movement. That this has been the case has no doubt been largely due to the influence of Ruskin, who, though his architectural judgment was on many points faulty and absurd in the extreme, had at any rate the effect of setting people thinking—not without result. In other countries architecture continued to pursue, up to the close of the century, the scholastic ideal impressed upon it by the Renaissance, without exciting doubt or controversy unless in a very occasional and partial manner, and without any changes save those minor ones arising from changing habits of execution and use of material. In Germany there appears to be a certain tendency to a Fig. 7.—American Modern High Building (American Surety Co., New York). greater freedom in the use of the materials of classic tion at the licole des Beaux-Arts of France, coupled architecture, a certain relaxation of the bonds of scholastiperhaps with the proverbial philo-Gallic tendencies of the cism ; but it has hardly assumed such proportions as to be modern American, led to the American architects, during ranked as a new movement in architecture. Turning from the critical to the historical aspect of the the last decade of the century, throwing themselves almost entirely into the arms, as it were, of France; seeking their subject, we find that in England the chief activity has education as far as possible in Paris, and adopting the been in public buildings and in street architecture. As theory and practice of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts so com- already observed, church architecture has for the most
