DOI issue:
Nr. 169 (March, 1911)
DOI article:Twenty-sixth annual exhibition of the Architectural League of New York
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43446#0047
Architectural League
HOUSE FOR W. BAYARD CUTTING, SUMMIT, N. J.
BENJAMIN V. WHITE, ARCHITECT
which the guiding thought makes their efforts palpa-
bly unsuitable supplements. The separate works
may be of individually high merit, but they can
never form parts of a harmonious whole. It is the
purpose and, in a large measure, the achievement of
such bodies as the Architectural League of New
York to bring together the students and masters of
the fine arts in sympathetic collaboration. It is
they who, more than any other single influence, are
responsible for fostering harmony of thought among
artists, always encouraging one art to bear with and
elevate the others for the common good. In such a
frame of mind are the exhibitions of its members to
be viewed by the technical eye.
The education of the public is, of course, equally
their concern and their efforts in this direction are
meeting with increasing success year by year, as the
large lay-attendance at such representative exhibi-
tions as those of the League in New York prove.
To achieve this end the selection and arrangement
of the exhibits is of greater importance than was
formerly supposed. In mixed exhibitions of archi-
tecture, painting and sculpture the exhibits of the
latter two arts have heretofore claimed whatever pop-
ular interest there was in art to the almost total ex-
clusion of the more technical drawings of the archi-
tect, but such a revolution has been wrought in the
architectural department of recent exhibitions that
hardly a layman who is interested enough to spend
an hour or two there fails to give a considerable part
of that time to the architects’ work. The impression
seems, somehow, to have been driven home that all
phases of the artists’ work must be seen in order that
a definite idea of the year’s achievements may be
gathered—a very important step toward a deeper
interest. The highly personal character of domes-
tic architecture and its attractive presentation by
means of perspective drawings and photographs of
the executed work is an aid in obtaining the lay-
man’s attention and holding it for the necessarily
more technical matter, which it is not possible to
popularize to the same extent. The hanging com-
mittee has availed itself fully of this expedient by de-
voting considerable space to suburban and country
houses and landscape designs.
Among the more technical architectural works
those of commanding dimensions are always sure to
call forth their share of popular comment. Accord-
ingly, Cass Gilbert’s design for the Woolworth
Building in New York, with its 750-foot tower, the
highest structure in the world, excepting only the
Eiffel Tower in Paris, excites interest as to how it
xxv
HOUSE FOR W. BAYARD CUTTING, SUMMIT, N. J.
BENJAMIN V. WHITE, ARCHITECT
which the guiding thought makes their efforts palpa-
bly unsuitable supplements. The separate works
may be of individually high merit, but they can
never form parts of a harmonious whole. It is the
purpose and, in a large measure, the achievement of
such bodies as the Architectural League of New
York to bring together the students and masters of
the fine arts in sympathetic collaboration. It is
they who, more than any other single influence, are
responsible for fostering harmony of thought among
artists, always encouraging one art to bear with and
elevate the others for the common good. In such a
frame of mind are the exhibitions of its members to
be viewed by the technical eye.
The education of the public is, of course, equally
their concern and their efforts in this direction are
meeting with increasing success year by year, as the
large lay-attendance at such representative exhibi-
tions as those of the League in New York prove.
To achieve this end the selection and arrangement
of the exhibits is of greater importance than was
formerly supposed. In mixed exhibitions of archi-
tecture, painting and sculpture the exhibits of the
latter two arts have heretofore claimed whatever pop-
ular interest there was in art to the almost total ex-
clusion of the more technical drawings of the archi-
tect, but such a revolution has been wrought in the
architectural department of recent exhibitions that
hardly a layman who is interested enough to spend
an hour or two there fails to give a considerable part
of that time to the architects’ work. The impression
seems, somehow, to have been driven home that all
phases of the artists’ work must be seen in order that
a definite idea of the year’s achievements may be
gathered—a very important step toward a deeper
interest. The highly personal character of domes-
tic architecture and its attractive presentation by
means of perspective drawings and photographs of
the executed work is an aid in obtaining the lay-
man’s attention and holding it for the necessarily
more technical matter, which it is not possible to
popularize to the same extent. The hanging com-
mittee has availed itself fully of this expedient by de-
voting considerable space to suburban and country
houses and landscape designs.
Among the more technical architectural works
those of commanding dimensions are always sure to
call forth their share of popular comment. Accord-
ingly, Cass Gilbert’s design for the Woolworth
Building in New York, with its 750-foot tower, the
highest structure in the world, excepting only the
Eiffel Tower in Paris, excites interest as to how it
xxv