International studio (53.1914)

Architecture and Imagination

GARDEN ENTRANCE


idea of a house better than his neighbour’s could
find expression only in terms of size or expense.
The English point of view in architecture, then,
has made possible the English country house of
to-day—picturesque, interesting, imaginative and
thoroughly charming to behold, even if sometimes
a trifle inconvenient to live in. A department
generally called “Recent Designs in Domestic
Architecture,” appearing in the English division
of The International Studio shows very fairly,
from month to month, what such architects as
Baillie Scott, E. Guy Dawber, W. H. Bidlake and
others are doing, while the remarkable achieve-
ments of C. F. A. Voysey and E. L. Lutyens have
received more individual consideration.
The point is that in England the kind of archi-
tecture that may be called imaginative is the rule,
whereas it is the beautiful exception in this
country. Those of our architects, therefore, who
have been able, by reason of their peculiar abilities
and strong artistic individualities to break down
the barriers of architectural mediocrity in America
are the more to be congratulated. There are but
few who have consistently maintained their inde-
pendence and consistently designed country
houses which have reflected their own excellent
architectural imagination. One thinks most read-
ily of Wilson Eyre and Albro & Lindeberg.
Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan are differ-
ent—but so, as Mr. Chesterton points out, is

“red” different from “triangular,” if you want
to compare them.
Even at an early stage of their career Albro &
Lindeberg started to develope a distinct sort of
house, the design of which was based on no specific
style, yet vaguely suggesting several in certain
small details. They would seem to have striven
for certain essentials—-plan, well-studied propor-
tions and nicety of detail, with, over all, an encom-
passing feeling for the picturesque. Their houses
were not merely “charming” and open to serious
academic criticism, nor were they academically
“correct” and open to the criticism of harshness
and uncompromising qualities. Furthermore, the
architects remembered always that they were de-
signing a modern dwelling, for modern people to
live in—and therein they score upon many of the
English country-house architects, whose houses,
if one is to judge from the plans, must be very
queer places to live in.
A most excellent thing about the architecture
of Albro & Lindeberg, now carried on by Harrie
T. Lindeberg, is that it is constantly improving.
One had thought some of the earlier work very
remarkable before the publication of the Babcock,
Kerr and Rossiter houses—and now there is a
newer and even better group of houses—very sure
and clean-cut in their essential facts, yet with all
the elusive qualities that go with the true expres-
sion of the picturesque.

XLV