DOI Heft:
Nr. 194 (April 1913)
DOI Artikel:Price, Matlack C.: Study in civic planning and municipal architecture
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43452#0391
A Study in Civic Planning and Municipal Architecture
FULL-SIZE MODEL ERECTED IN “STAFF” FOR
STUDY PURPOSES.
CLEVELAND FEDERAL BUILDING.
ARNOLD W. BRUNNER, ARCHITECT
wall), it is to be submitted that the problem in
designing a municipal or federal building of any
type for public use is always one calling for con-
siderable skill, but that in the case of this Cleve-
land Post-Office, Court House and Customs
House, which were required to be housed under
one roof, Mr. Brunner was confronted with a
three-fold problem.
Certain distinctly original methods of study
were employed by the architect for the purpose of
securing absolute results, and it is, perhaps, inter-
esting to comment upon these particulars. A
building of the consequence of this one does not
“happen.” If it is successful it is only so by
reason of much conscientious and painstaking
study. Its general conception in the matters of
mass and lay-out may be an inspiration, but its
actual execution is a matter of infinite solicitude
and judgment on the part of the architect.
As a general requirement it was desired that the
building should be classic in character, so that Mr.
Brunner’s first problem arose in the general treat-
ment of the facades, as all four sides were bounded
by streets. Instead of the two-story treatment
usually adapted to go with a classic order of col-
umns, he cleverly introduced a third story (the
fourth, counting the massive base of the building)
and above this a fifth, concealed by a monumental
balustrade. This was the scheme, in the rough,
and enough drawings were prepared to win the
competition. When this amount of design was
completed it might be supposed that the work
could proceed. At this point, however, the real
work commenced. A very careful plaster model
of the major portion was made, at a scale of one-
half an inch to a foot, and this was studied most
minutely. Details here and there were modified
or accentuated, moldings were eliminated or
strengthened until a reasonably accurate sem-
blance of the actual finished appearance of the
building was attained. Each feature was care-
fully studied from every angle—a method natur-
ally impossible on paper, and a human figure was
cast to scale and placed at such points as might
prove of further .visual aid to the adjustment of
the proportions of certain parts. Mr. Daniel
Chester French, the sculptor of the two splendid
groups of Justice and Commerce, here furnished his
co-operation in plastic sketches, to place on the
pedestals in the scale model, to determine their
proportion in relation to the base-story of the
building. The pedestals, it is interesting to note,
are designed as part of the base instead of inde-
pendently, and the result is a happy one, furthered
by the “official” touch in the detail of the Roman
“fasces” or bound sticks and axe of the old “lie-
tors.” This is a motive which Mr. Brunner made
opportunity to use wherever it seemed logically
appropriate, with the idea of emphasizing the
XXXVIII
FULL-SIZE MODEL ERECTED IN “STAFF” FOR
STUDY PURPOSES.
CLEVELAND FEDERAL BUILDING.
ARNOLD W. BRUNNER, ARCHITECT
wall), it is to be submitted that the problem in
designing a municipal or federal building of any
type for public use is always one calling for con-
siderable skill, but that in the case of this Cleve-
land Post-Office, Court House and Customs
House, which were required to be housed under
one roof, Mr. Brunner was confronted with a
three-fold problem.
Certain distinctly original methods of study
were employed by the architect for the purpose of
securing absolute results, and it is, perhaps, inter-
esting to comment upon these particulars. A
building of the consequence of this one does not
“happen.” If it is successful it is only so by
reason of much conscientious and painstaking
study. Its general conception in the matters of
mass and lay-out may be an inspiration, but its
actual execution is a matter of infinite solicitude
and judgment on the part of the architect.
As a general requirement it was desired that the
building should be classic in character, so that Mr.
Brunner’s first problem arose in the general treat-
ment of the facades, as all four sides were bounded
by streets. Instead of the two-story treatment
usually adapted to go with a classic order of col-
umns, he cleverly introduced a third story (the
fourth, counting the massive base of the building)
and above this a fifth, concealed by a monumental
balustrade. This was the scheme, in the rough,
and enough drawings were prepared to win the
competition. When this amount of design was
completed it might be supposed that the work
could proceed. At this point, however, the real
work commenced. A very careful plaster model
of the major portion was made, at a scale of one-
half an inch to a foot, and this was studied most
minutely. Details here and there were modified
or accentuated, moldings were eliminated or
strengthened until a reasonably accurate sem-
blance of the actual finished appearance of the
building was attained. Each feature was care-
fully studied from every angle—a method natur-
ally impossible on paper, and a human figure was
cast to scale and placed at such points as might
prove of further .visual aid to the adjustment of
the proportions of certain parts. Mr. Daniel
Chester French, the sculptor of the two splendid
groups of Justice and Commerce, here furnished his
co-operation in plastic sketches, to place on the
pedestals in the scale model, to determine their
proportion in relation to the base-story of the
building. The pedestals, it is interesting to note,
are designed as part of the base instead of inde-
pendently, and the result is a happy one, furthered
by the “official” touch in the detail of the Roman
“fasces” or bound sticks and axe of the old “lie-
tors.” This is a motive which Mr. Brunner made
opportunity to use wherever it seemed logically
appropriate, with the idea of emphasizing the
XXXVIII