CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FINE ARTS LIBRARY 38 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. SECOND YEAR WORK—DRAWING FROM THE ANTIQUE. BUILDING IN SALT LAKE CITY. 37 v^canism gains immensely from the skill " l[ith which its composition is adapted to site, a knoll following and concen- trically enclosing the sweep of the circu- lar ve^pdah. Of theSsipuses of less pretension, of no pretension ihsjact but that of outwardly expressing the\^ct that they are com- fortable homes a8^pted to the needs of their occupants, I ahisorry that I have but one example to show. No. i6, al- though the City of the Saints abounds in examples. Such an examp^^of no his-;^ torical style at all, but exan^lle of the habitation to which the merely weMrfp^do American attains, and to whicly^ery American may fairly aspire, is 0c more would be apt to dispara^ such efforts by saying that they a^ of no style. And yet, unless his M^e sensibility had been entirely sophistrcated out of him by his training and^is practice, he could not deny thatj0e Salt Lake houses come near that goal of the modern and espe- cially of tWe American architect, the productioi^ of a building which, being of no "style?'' yet has style. But it is per- haps oltener in interiors than in exte- riors'^at the goal is attained. The im- ■poTjfd decorator, the worker in historical stfles, to whom art means archaeology. The College of Architecture Cornell University "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills;" the words of the Psalmist sing themselves in the mind of the beholder who gazes from almost any point on the campus of Cornell University over the panorama spread before him. Below in thp lap of the valley nestles the little city of Ithaca — an aspiring little city, too; for as the university has grown, gradually extending itself more and more widely over the broad acres that constitute its campus, the town has crept steadily up toward it, until now no inconsiderable portion of it lies on East Hill at the very gates of the university. The main town, however, still lies in the valley, which stretches quietly away be- yond it toward the southwest to be lost at last in the blue distance where South Hill, closing it in in that direction, con- verges upon the long hill to the west. Across the valley and squarely facing East Hill with its. crown of university buildings, rises the massive bulk of this western hill, extending the whole length of the valley, its long, almost unbroken ridge, silhouetted against an infinitely variable sky. Thus snugly enclosed on three sides by the protecting highlands, the little valley slopes ever so gently toward the north until it drops away be- neath the waters of Cayuga Lake, which stretches through many miles of its long river-like expanse before it turns and sinks out of sight at last behind the dwindling spur of West Hill. One cannot help wondering whether some Wordsworthian notion of the edu- cative power of beautiful natural sur- roundings influenced the mind of the founder in selecting this site for his great university; whether he, too, understood the subtle power of that "unconscious intercourse with beauty old as creation" in shaping the de- veloping soul. It would be diffi- cult indeed to find a spot better fitted for opening the heart of youth to that sense of beauty without which true culture is impossible; and doubly fortu- nate is it that here in such surroundings should have arisen one of the compara- tively few architectural schools of the country. For the architect no less than for painter, poet, or sculptor, an uner- ring instinct for beauty is an indispen- sable requisite; and what influence more potent for awakening this instinct if dormant, or for sustaining and develop- ing it if already active, than the intimate contact and communion with nature pos- sible — nay, almost inevitable — at Cor- nell? One lifts tired eyes from book or drafting board and they rest almost of necessity upon the eternal quiet of the distant hills, now lying in full sunlight, every detail distinct, or again dimly seen through the veiling mists of an ap- proaching storm; now mottled with the shadows of flying clouds ; now bathed in the unspeakable glory of the setting sun, a short lived splendor of crimson and gold; now sinking into the purple in- distinctness of approaching night. Has the student "gone stale," to use his own expressive term ? Has he worked over some baffling problem in design un- til all labor is bootless? The possibility of physical and spiritual recuperation lies close at hand. Hardly a stone's throw from the doors of White Hall, the home of the architectural school, runs the deep gorge of Fall Creek, a narrow canyon sinking sheer through the shale rocic to a depth of here fifty, there a hun- dred, there two hundred feet, musical in summer with the murmur of its much diminished stream, reverberating in flood time to the roar of sounding cataracts. A short walk up the squirrel haunted woodland path bordering the gorge brings one in sight of the picturesque Triphammer Fall backed by the great dam, behind whose barrier the creek widens into Beebe Lake, in summer a mirror reflecting the tranquil beauty of its own wooded shores, in winter a sheet of polished ice hissing under flying 40 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. steel-shod feet or under the mighty rush of the toboggans with their noisy crews, which the great double toboggan slide is constantly disgorging upon it. Down stream a little way one passes the charm- ing cascade known as Horseshoe Falls, and again a little way and he comes upon Ithaca Fall, its tumbling waters tearing themsleves to foam on the broken face ot the rocky wall as they drop into the deep pool a hundred and sixty feet below. Perhaps half a mile away across the campus, and forming its southern boun- Or if hill and vale, woodland path and rocky canyon fail to charm, there is al- ways the lure of the lake. Swimming, rowing, sailing, canoeing, all are possible to perfection and bring the necessary re- laxation. Or, if the mood serve, better still is it to wander idly along the shore, eyes and mind open to every impression. He must be a dullard indeed in whom, under such circumstances, no color sense is born. Color lies all about him, chang- ing with infinite variation from the cold blues and browns and purples of dull '^"" ^^^'i»i^'' .. *-«! ;' •ytT,r;fA^, THE SOPHOMORE-FRESHMAN CONTEST TO CAPTURE VICTIMS FOR THE GROTESQUE "PEERADB" PRIOR TO THE FRESHMAN BANQUET IS NOW AN INSTITUTION AS REVERED AS FOOTBALL, BUT WITH MORE FUN AND LESS DANGER. achievement, there is preserved the spirit of serious striving for the best in art and in humanity. During the past year there has ap- peared in various magazines some little discussion of a subject by no means new — namely, the relative advantages and disadvantages of the great univer- sity as compared with the small college. Both have their enthusias- tic champions, the upholders of the great institutions declaring that the member of the great university and of the small college, and may, if he have the will and the insight, reap the bene- fits accruing from both systems. Within the college the relation be- tween teacher and student is such as to give the greatest opportunity for the play of personality. As every one at all conversant with the nature of architec- tural study knows, the major portion of the work is of necessity accomplished by means of individual as opposed to class 42 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. instruction. In Cornell such individual instruction is given wherever possible. The teacher is no formal lecturer, ap- pearing at a stated moment, dealing out information en bloc for an hour, and then disappearing from the student's ken until his hour strikes again. He spends hours each day in the drafting rooms, watching the progress of the work, praising here, condemning there, ex- plaining the principles involved in his criticisms, setting ideals before the stu- dents, stirring their imaginations, inspir- ing them to more earnest work. Nor a whole the architectural students enter with an enthusiasm that makes their presence distinctly felt. Although the college is one of the smaller ones of the university, its students constituting only about a fortieth of the whole, and al- though the requirements of the course are severely exacting, there is hardly a line of general student activity in which they are not ably and more or less num- erously represented. For the intercol- legiate athletic contests as well as for the university athletic organizations the college regularly furnishes its quota. COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The great drafting room where all classes work together in architectural design. does this intimate relation of teacher to student close with the day's work. He is not work- fellow merely ; he is play-fel- low, too, and that without loss of dignity on his part or of respect on the part ot the student. In all college festivities he has an important share. A college pic- nic or a college banquet without the fac- ulty? The students would never counte- nance the suggestion, the faculty would wonder at it, for both prize equally the fine spirit of good comradeship, of hearty co-operation, that characterizes all their relations. Into the wider life of the university as Much more prominent is it in other di- rections. In the musical and dramatic clubs its representation is almost invari- ably large in proportion to its size ; while the student publications of various sorts depend for much of their artistic mat- ter upon the contributions of the "archi- tects." During the year just closing, for example, the college has furnished the leader of the glee club, who is also university cheer leader; the manager of the football team ; the artistic editor of the Cornellian, the Junior class annual; and the acknowledged "star" of the Masque, the vmiversity dramatic club; COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 43 besides other less prominent representa- tives of the various student associations and activities. The architects may be depended upon, too, to furnish at least their full share of any fun afoot in the university. It is indeed becoming a tra- dition at Cornell that most of the "stunts" on the campus originate in the college of architecture, "stunt" being the regular and only allowable Cornell equivalent for any clever, mirth-provok- nig trick or exhibition. It was they who, when the Chinese imperial educa- tional commission was visiting the uni- to the students of any other college, that the university public looks on Spring Day for clever and original devices for wheedling money out of it for the bene- fit of athletics. Doubtless some of this inventive- ness is due to the conditions under which the work di the college is car- ried on. The students spend a large portion of their woiScing day in great open drafting rooms where, they are al- lowed almost unlimited personal liberty. Upon the freshmen, to be sure, certain restraints are imposed, partly by rule of the faculty, but in much larger measure COLLEGE OP ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. The Freehand Drawing Department. This view shows only about one-fourth of the room. versity and being politely and somewhat elaborately entertained, added a certain piquancy to the entertainment by dis- playing on the front of their building a huge white banner with a fiercely realis- tic yellow dragon rampant. It is the architects who on St. Patrick's Day, choosing their colors with charming im- partiality, always decorate their building with great streamers of orange and green with a banner over the main en- trance bearing a green shamrock on an orange ground. Not even this year, when St. Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday, was the custom allowed to lapse. And it is to the architects, perhaps, more than by the traditions of the college. The faculty prescribes, for example, certain definite hours of drafting room work for the freshmen; but college tradition, basing its prescription perhaps on ttie adage that children should be seen and not heard, requires in addition that they shall preserve a demeanor of quiet dec- orum in the performance of it. There must be nothing of what is technically known as "rough-housing" in the fresh- man drafting rooms. They are also de- nied the privilege of wearing any dis- tinctive dress. The sophomores may wear white duck coats and the upper classmen loose linen or denim smocks. 44 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. FOURTH YEAR DESIGN— A CIVIC CENTER, PLAN. COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 45 the color of collar and other trimmings indicating necessary distinctions; but for the freshmen only ordinary street dress en regie. Once out of the fresh- man limbo, the students find practically all external restraints upon their conduct in the drafting rooms withdrawn; yet they almost never abuse their liberty. They talk; they laugh; they sing over their drafting boards ; they criticize each other's work with a frankness that leaves little to be desired ; they chaff each other also, it must be admitted, by a general misconception of the real requirements of the profession; by a failure to grasp the fact that architecture is primarily a fine art — the greatest of the fine arts — not a phase of engineering; that its problems are primarily esthetic problems, not prob- lems of engineering, however important the latter may be. The result of this misconception was to give to the students brought up under the old regime at least an inadequate if not an actually false and CIVIC' CENTERS FOR. I A-LAKGE'GITY' A-GEtOVP-Of-BVXLDL'JGS'fOS.vW^ n iCl PAU*A^£>OCiV£a/iM£/JT 'PVB-* P:iES*A/^D-PVBLlO-VTELlTY'A5-. E jPEGIALUY 'APPLIED ■T'l- 'A^S I FOURTH YEAR DESIGN— A CIVIC CENTER.— BIRD'S-EYE VIEW. mercilessly, sparing no one's foibles ; yet all the while the work goes steadily, if merrily, on, all the more steadily, doubt- less, because so merrily. And now what is the character of this work? What is it that the college at- tempts to give to its students? Cornell, in common with other educational insti- tutions in this country, first established her course in architecture as an adjunct to already existing courses in engineer- ing. Here, as elsewhere, this action was dictated partly by expediency, but partly misleading preparation for success in the field of practice. The profession was de- manding architects, and the American schools were sending out engineers, most of them to be relegated permanently to positions as salaried draftsmen, while the great things were conceived and exe- cuted by the men who had received the broader and more truly architectural training of the great school of fine arts in Paris. If here and there an architect trained only in American schools rose to eminence, he did so by sheer force of 46 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. personality, and his success came in spite of his training rather than because of it. Gradually, however, the schools awoke to the fact of their failure to meet the real requirements of the profession for which they were ostensibly training their to the requirements of American prac- tice. The movement is still in its infancy, to be sure, and no one knows better than the men who are directing it that the type of architectural education so far evolved is far from perfect. On the other hand, no one could be more confident than they FOURTH YEAR DESIGN— AN AUDITORIUM, SECTION. men. Schools were reorganized, curricula that the American schools are at last were revised, Cornell's among the rest, working along the right lines, cherishing and there gradually emerged a new and implanting the right ideals, and pav- type of architectural education, which, ing the way for a broad system of archi- whatever its critics may' say of it, is not tectural education, culminating perhaps in a mere copying of old-world methods, and a central school of fine arts greater and, is certainly much better suited than either for us at least, better than anything that its predecessor or its foreign competitor the old world has evolved. Into the new COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 47 movement Cornell has entered heartily, constantly revising her curriculum to make it conform more perfectly to changed ideals, now rejecting a subject that experience has shown to be relatively valueless for the architect's purposes; adding as fast as possible other subjects, the need of which has been urgently felt and expressed ; demanding here and there a change in the character of the in- struction given in certain subjects m order to adapt them more perfectly to the needs of the architect; making through- out the curriculum the necessary redistri- bution of emphasis upon the various lines of instruction. Gradually under the constant demand of the profession that the architectural schools furnish men ever better and bet- ter equipped, both technically and cul- turally, a great change has been wrought in the character and aims of the course. In the earlier days almost the whole of the first two years were devoted to the so-called general culture studies — lan- guage, mathematics, history, science — and only another brief two-year period was left for technical training. That hardly sufficed for the making of a pass- able draftsman; for the making of an architect with any grasp of the history and significance of his art, any workable knowledge of the theory and practice of design or of the principles of construc- tion, it was obviously totally inadequate. To reduce the amount of general train- ing was quite as obviously impossible. Every moment of it and more was needed as preparation for the more specialized work along the same lines to be given in connection with the history of architec- ture and the theory of design. And so Cornell said in effect to the preparatory schools and colleges : "You must do this work for us. We need the whole of our allotted four years and more for the abso- lutely indispensable technical training. We cannot take your men until they are ready for that training." Gradually, but as rapidly as possible, she has advanced her entrance requirements, until at the present time they are higher than those of any other school of architecture in the country save only that of Columbia, which, under the plan that goes into operation in the fall of 1907, will become practically a graduate school. These ad- vanced entrance requirements have en- abled Cornell to make her training tech- nical from the very beginning of the course; and have misled some too hasty critics, who, concentrating their attention upon the courses given in the school only and quite overlooking the character of the entrance requirements, have remarked, even in print, that Cornell does not re- quire modern language, certain mathe- matics, etc., taught in other schools and usually regarded as essential to any proper scheme of technical education. The criticism, founded upon a miscon- ception, is of course innocuous. Not for a moment would the Cornell college of architecture consider the possi- bility of reducing the amount of "general culture" work required of her students. On the contrary, she believes that it ought to be very considerably increased, par- ticularly along the lines of history, lan- guage, and literature ; but that most 01 such additional work must be done in the preparatory schools, whether secondary or collegiate. So far as her own course is concerned, she is- and hopes to remain a purely professional school, whose purpose it is to take the properly prepared stu- dent ; develop in him the necessary visual and manual expertness; give him the necessary equipment of physical and me- chanical knowledge ; reveal to him some- thing o^he past and present significance of his art for civilization and humanity ; above all to cultivate his esthetic sense, to develop latent artistic qualities, to set free wherever it exists the creative spirit by giving it such command over the tech- nical means of expression as will enable it to work its will in the world. To this end, as has been said, the stu- dent at Cornell enters immediately upon his technical training, the two main lines, esthetic and structural, along which the work must proceed being at once clearly indicated, although the major portion of the time, as is necessary and fitting, is given throughout ' the regular course to the esthetic training. For students wish- ing to specialize iri construction for the purpose of architectural engineering special arrangements are made, the com- 48 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. FOURTH YEAR DESIGN— A MONASTERY, PLAN. COLLEGE or ARCHITECTURE, CORXELL VXUERSITY 49 // tiiiji- >< Pi w CO <; 2; o S til 2; - rt o ? t- n *j KH £ O 50 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. bined curricula of the colleges of archi- tecture and civil engineering offering op- portunity for a wide choice of subjects. To meet the needs also of that large class of ambitious )^oung draftsmen in offices to whom, because of lack of regular prep- aration or of pecuniary means, the four year course is impossible, but whose office experience has convinced them of the necessity of the wider training rarely obtainable except in the college, there is offered further the two year special course in architecture. This does not lead to a degree, though the work of the course may be counted towards gradua- tion if the student wishes at any time to complete the regular course. From the moment he enters the college until he leaves it a large portion of the student's work is of exactly the same character and quality as that given in the great art schools. He begins work at once in freehand drawing, sketching first in pencil simple groups of geometric figures, and then, as eye and hand acquire skill, passing on to drawing from the cast, particularly from the antique, in charcoal and pastel. Nine hours a week throughout the first two years of the course are spent in this work. During the last half year of this period the stu- dent attempts expression in another medium also, being given six hours a week of water color painting from still life and from nature. This purely artistic training is continued through the junior year by means of a course in clay model- ing and another in pen and ink render- ing, sketching and illustration, and cul- minates in the senior year in the work of the life class. In all of this work the rapidity of the student's advancement de- pends solely upon his proficiency. Pro- motion may occur at any time, and it is possible for the student of special ability to accomplish work considerably in ad- vance of that required in the course. Nothing in the history of the college during the last eight or ten years has been more gratifying to those interested in its future than the enthusiasm with which the students have thrown them- selves into this vitally important work and the excellence of the results attained. It is not merely that the students have ex- ecuted fine drawings — "show pieces" that would do credit to any art school. That is gratifying, to be sure, but for the archi- tect, at least, a deeper satisfaction lies in noting the effect of the thorough train- ing in freehand drawing upon the purely architectural work. Not only has it given the necessary manual dexterity, the in- dispensable command over technical re- sources; it has also helped in very large measure to create about the student the artistic atmosphere, to give to him the artistic point of view, without which the all important work of design must end in utter failure. The results have abund- antly justified the eight hours and more per week given on the average to this work through the whole four years of the course. But the architect must be more than technician, more even than technician with a greater or less degree of creative power. He must be a man of broad gen- eral culture with a thorough-going spec- ial knowledge of the evolution of his chosen art and of its relation to certain great historic movements and to civili- zation as a whole. To make him this in perfection is beyond the power of any college. Only the "years that bring the philosophic mind" can do that ; and they must be strenuous years, too, brimful of hard work and unremitting study. All that any college can do is to lay the foun- dation, as Cornell does, by means of as thorough and at the same time as com- prehensive a study of the history of arch- itecture as time will permit. At Cornell this work is begun in the freshman year and continued through the first half of the sophomore year, the attempt being made to trace as fully as possible the origin, growth and decline of the archi- tectural styles and to show how they have reflected the great movements of civilization. The student is required to familiarize himself with as many as pos- sible of the great masterpieces and the effort is made to cultivate in him a taste for the best in architecture. This work is continued in the junior year by means of a course in the history of the acces- sory arts of painting and sculpture — ac- cessory at least from the architect's point of view — and later by a course in historic COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE. CORXELL rXU'ERSITY. 51 FOURTH YEAR WORK— DRAWING FROM LIFE. 52 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. ornament, and is completed in the senior year by a review of modern and current architecture with a thorough-going critical analysis. It must not be supposed, however, that Cornell in her effort to emphasize the esthetic aspect of architecture sacrifices in any way the vitally important work in construction. The study of the prin- ciples of construction and practice goes on hand-in-hand with the work in design. The courses in mechanics, strength of materials, etc., which are required of all students taking the regular course in architecture, are carefully arranged to give a simple but comprehensive train- ing in the solution of such structural problems as an architect is called upon to solve. It is, however, recognized that an architect can not be a specialist in all of the many branches of engineering al- lied to his profession; and therefore many subjects, such as sanitary engi- neering, electrical service, heating and ventilating, etc., must be treated in a comparatively superficial way, the in- structor of necessity contenting himself with making his instruction sound so far as it goes and pointing the way for fur- ther special study. In arranging the courses dealing with problems of prac- tice, such as the courses in working drawings, in details, in specifications, etc., the college finds quite definite limitations upon the work that may be undertaken advantageously. These courses are not intended and do not profess to give to tne student such detailed knowledge of office routine as will make him a valuable rou- tine draftsman the moment he makes his debut in an office. They do attempt by means of a short but severe training in fundamental principles and essential de- tails to put into his hands the means of acquiring under the pressure of office practice a completer and more rapid mastery of the necessary routine than either office or college alone could give him. Further, and not less important, these courses, carried along hand in hand with the work in design, assist in no small degree in keeping that work sane and rational. A knowledge of architectural design in its broadest and deepest sense implies a previous knowledge of every other subject in the course. In the making of a curriculum for a college of architecture it is the "far-off, divine event toward which the whole creation moves," and the work which contributes most directly towards imparting such knowledge re- ceives, logically enough, the greatest em- phasis. At Cornell the work of design proper does not begin until the sopho- more year. It is the paradise toward which the freshman climbs through a series of stages — elements of architecture (a study of the classic orders with ac- companying problems), descriptive geometry, shades and shadows, and perspective — stages not always of absorbing interest in themselves but tolerable in the issue. Once begun, the study of design receives, ac- cording to the printed schedule of hours, just one university hour (three hours of actual work), less than all other subjects together. As a matter of fact, it probably does in most cases receive the major portion of the student's time, for the students are almost without exception willing and eager to give to design more than the allotted time. After the freshman year there are no definitely prescribed hours for drafting- room work. The rooms are open from eight in the morning to half-past ten at night, except on Saturdays, when they close at five, and the students come and go at will. They are, of course, required to accomplish in design, as in other sub- jects, a definite amount of work, and are further required to do it in the draft- ing rooms under the supervision and criticism of the professor of design; for the rest, they may arrange it to suit their own convenience. It might be supposed that such apparent laxness of discipline would result in a considerable waste of valuable time. As a matter of fact, not only do the students "put in" in the draft- ing rooms more time than they did under the old system of definitely prescribed hours, but they are not even then content, and send to the faculty at intervals vain petitions for an extension of drafting- room hours. In reality the laxness is more apparent than real ; for, in the first place, the requirements are so heavy that COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE. CORNELL UNIJ-ERSITY. 53 54 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. few students can idle with impunity; in the second, the competitive spirit among them is so strong that few of them wisn to idle. After the necessary preparatory work of the freshman year the work in design begins in the second year with what is known as second class design, and con- tinues through the year, the student be- ing expected to devote to it about twenty- four hours per week of drafting-roorn work. Then, in order to counteract any tendency on the part of the student to divorce his design from his construction, he is required to suspend his work in de- sign temporarily and devote a half year to a study of building materials, work- ing drawings, details of construction, and the principles of specification writing; after which, in the last half of the junior year, he enters upon the work of first class design and continues it without in- terruption to the end of his course, spending during the first half year of this period about thirty hours per week in the drafting room; during the last year about thirty-six. The work in design, both first and second class, is accomplished by means of a series of problems, part of them major problems requiring from three to six weeks for their solution ; part of them sketch problems, which must be com- pleted in a day or two. About six major problems and about ten sketch problems are issued during the year by means of printed programs setting forth the con- ditions to be met in their solution. When a major problem is issued the student is given a day or more in which to prepare his preliminary sketch or "esquisse." In this he indicates briefly but clearly the principal motives of his design, and to this he must adhere in the execution of the finished drawings. Any radical de- parture from the solution indicated in the preliminary sketch will place a de- sign, no matter how excellent in other respects, "hors de concour," and no credit will be given for it, the purpose being to teach the student to formulate his ideas quickly and definitely and to compel hirA to adopt some definite solu- tion at once in order that he may hope to complete his problem in the necessarily limited time assigned to it. Upon the completion of a problem the drawings are removed to the exhibition room and hung. Here they are "judged" by the whole faculty and graded mention, first mention, second medal and first medal according to merit, each of these grades being equivalent to a certain num- ber of "values" or credits. In the major problems a mention receives one value; first mention, two; second medal, three, and first medal four, while the sketch problems count half as much. For grad- uation the student must receive a fixed number of values and must complete a specified number of problems. Prom- lems failing to receive a mention may still be sufficiently good to count one in making up the number of completed problems, or they may be so conspicu- ously poor as to be rejected altogether. The medal grades are rarely attained, first medal having been given to an undergraduate only twice in the ten years and more during which this sys- tem has been in operation. After the judgment has been rendered and the grades determined a public criti- cism is held in the presence of the mem- bers of the class, who enter with the greatest freedom into the discussion. One after another the designs are criti- cized in detail in such a way that these public criticisms become practically a series of informal lectures on the theory of design, with an abundance of concrete illustration, enforcing in a manner not likely to be soon forgotten the principles involved. As often as is practicable, the professor of design issues, instead of one of his own problems, the current problem of the Society of Beaux Arts Architects. This is completed, judged, and graded m the same way as are the ordinary prob- lems ; and then the best designs are sent to New York to enter the wider com- petition with solutions of the same prob- lem from other schools and from indi- vidual draftsmen all over the country. The eflfect of the Beaux Arts competi- tions in arousing enthusiasm and intensi- fying the competitive spirit among the students has been uniformly excellent. After the judgment and criticism all drawings, except, of course, in the case of a Beaux Arts Society problem, those chosen for the competition in New COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. DO York are allowed to hang in the exhibi- tion rooms until replaced by the next problem ; so that there is a continuous ex- hibition of students' work at the college. One of the questions most frequently asked by the lay visitor to these exhibi- tions is whether the designs are original. The reply is that, so far as such things can be original, they are. Only in the archaeological work of the freshmen in connection- with their study of the classic orders is there any direct copying of architectural motives. The work in de- sign proper is from the beginning an at- tempt at self-expression. Not that the student can or in any sense does break with his architectural past. He is, of course, bound by the conventions and traditions of his art ; he is constantly bor- rowing motives and adapting them to the Eurposes of his design; not infrequently is whole design is conceived very clearly — and very frankly — under the in- spiration of some well-known master- piece; but his solution is, after all, al- ways his solution, poor and crude and barren enough sometimes, it must be aa- iTiitted, but essentially self-expressive. Throughout the work the greatest care is taken to preserve and develop the individuality of the student, to prevent the swallowing up of weaker or less de- veloped personalities in that of the in- Istructor; and Cornell has consequently escaped the charge sometimes brought against some of the ateliers, that all the work issuing from them is only an echo, fainter or clearer, of the work of the patron. Her students come to her from the ends of the earth and from every walk of life — raw material produced under the most widely diverse conditions, out of which must be wrought, so far as imay be, not skilled draftsmen merely, but, creative artists. If she is to accomplish her purpose she must preserve the integ- rity of the student's personality; must send him out again into the world from which he came not less himself but more, because more fully master of his own powers and more capable of self-expres- sion. That is her faith, the substance of the thing she hopes for. — The cost of taking a course in the Col- lege of Architecture varies greatly ac- cording to the experience and ability of the individual student in the management of his personal affairs. The fixed charges are comparatively light and consist of a matriculation fee of $5 when the student enters the university, a tuition charge of $125 a year while he is pursuing his studies, and a graduation fee of $10 at the completion of his course, or a total of $515 for a four year course. The cost of books, instruments, ma- terials, etc., is rather large in the first year, say $40 to $50, but the instruments then purchased will last a lifetime and may be considered as professional tools rather than as temporary supplies. After the first year the expenses for materials, books, etc., will average from $10 to $15 a year, the total for a four year course being from $70 to $90. The cost of living in Ithaca, including board, room, fuel, and lights, varies from $4 to $10 a week. By the formation of clubs students sometimes reduce their expenses to $3.50 per week or even a little less. As a general summing up, it may fairly be assumed that the course can be taken on a total expenditure of $400 a year, but that the cost to the majority of the students is from $450 to $600 a year. While there are some who manage on less than $400, it is equally true that there are many others with means less limited who spend considerably more than the $600 a year. Gertrude S. Martin. S6 THE ARCHITECTURAL RECORD. THE NEW CHEMICAL NATIONAL BANK— ENTRANCE. 270 Broadway, New York. Trowbridge & Livingston, Architects. Cornell University Library NA 2300.C7M3 The College of Architecture, Cornell Uni 3 1924 016 323 671 ■^'M •i\ %-\. v\