The architect has been intrusted with the enormous amount of construction work mentioned above, has been loaded with the responsibilities just enumerated, and has met the trust with comparative ability and integrity. No architect has earned a percentage rating of ioo, but the majority have not even been suspected of dishonorable dealings, and have been able to turn over to the owner good buildings honestly, substantially and intelligently built. In fact, in spite of the many difficulties, chief among them the lack of sympathy in the work of the profession on the part of the public, the American architect of to-day is challenging the world in his ability to meet the diverse requirements of his art and to produce buildings of a high character.
With a training that fits him to handle men, money and materials, why has not the architect been intrusted with the carrying out of important programs of construction and organization for the government ? The engineer has built the cantonments with an engineer’s ability, but has forgotten orientation, physiology, and a host of other things that
are every-day considerations with the architect. Reconstruction and correction have already begun to be considered. Never was there a time in the history of the country when there was a greater need of ability to organize and accomplish than the present. The country has developed a profession whose work is exactly this, but the profession has not boasted, and so the country has overlooked it. Should not the architect make a noise like an engineer or a captain of industry, just to let the government know that he is willing to serve it in large and vigorous fashion at home as well as in the trenches and the clouds abroad ?
At the present moment every city in the country has architects’ offices splendidly organized for undertaking large and important work, but owing to the stringency in ordinary lines of building construction they are falling apart and cannot be reassembled without great difficulty and delay.
If the government needs these men, the government will find them ready to give everything in their power to the common cause.
A Campaign of Publicity and Education
By George W. Maher, F. A. I. A.
T
HE problem of how best to bring before the great American public the status of an architect so that his artistic aspirations, practical endeavors and actual accomplishments as a man of affairs will be better understood and appreciated, is an issue of momentous importance, both as it affects the profession and the public.
The architect to-day occupies a rather hazy position in the estimation of the community. His qualifications are very indistinctly comprehended by the rank and file of the people, his real status perhaps being associated with that of an artist, a dreamer, who is not to a great extent acquainted with the practical affairs of life. He therefore is credited with being simply a picture maker of houses and structures; the engineer, and also the general contractor, are given the distinction of being the real builders, admittedly so by the fact that their advertising signs are displayed conspicuously at buildings during construction.
The seeming ignorance on the part of the public is undoubtedly due as much to the attitude of the architect and his code of practice as to any other cause. It is for this reason that a campaign of publicity and education is highly desirable to enlighten the public. Modern and progressive methods
should be employed in order to bring the architect squarely before the people in his true light, giving him proper recognition in public affairs and in connection with work in which he is concerned, and thereby obtaining not only the proper distinction due the profession by reason of its constructive services to society, but primarily for the benefit of our country at large.
An enlargement of scope of a radical nature in the present code of practice seems highly desirable in order to meet this most important exigency, so that the ability and services of the architect will receive just recognition.
If at the present moment the public, who are the government, were thoroughly informed and acquainted with the aid the profession of architecture could efficiently and patriotically render the country in this time of great national need, time and vast sums of money could undoubtedly be saved and results accomplished superior in plan and practicability to those already achieved.
This is not an idle assumption; the architect is trained for structural accomplishment; he has the experience and ability to erect buildings of all classes. His profession has been engaged in such work for many years with success, and therefore
With a training that fits him to handle men, money and materials, why has not the architect been intrusted with the carrying out of important programs of construction and organization for the government ? The engineer has built the cantonments with an engineer’s ability, but has forgotten orientation, physiology, and a host of other things that
are every-day considerations with the architect. Reconstruction and correction have already begun to be considered. Never was there a time in the history of the country when there was a greater need of ability to organize and accomplish than the present. The country has developed a profession whose work is exactly this, but the profession has not boasted, and so the country has overlooked it. Should not the architect make a noise like an engineer or a captain of industry, just to let the government know that he is willing to serve it in large and vigorous fashion at home as well as in the trenches and the clouds abroad ?
At the present moment every city in the country has architects’ offices splendidly organized for undertaking large and important work, but owing to the stringency in ordinary lines of building construction they are falling apart and cannot be reassembled without great difficulty and delay.
If the government needs these men, the government will find them ready to give everything in their power to the common cause.
A Campaign of Publicity and Education
By George W. Maher, F. A. I. A.
T
HE problem of how best to bring before the great American public the status of an architect so that his artistic aspirations, practical endeavors and actual accomplishments as a man of affairs will be better understood and appreciated, is an issue of momentous importance, both as it affects the profession and the public.
The architect to-day occupies a rather hazy position in the estimation of the community. His qualifications are very indistinctly comprehended by the rank and file of the people, his real status perhaps being associated with that of an artist, a dreamer, who is not to a great extent acquainted with the practical affairs of life. He therefore is credited with being simply a picture maker of houses and structures; the engineer, and also the general contractor, are given the distinction of being the real builders, admittedly so by the fact that their advertising signs are displayed conspicuously at buildings during construction.
The seeming ignorance on the part of the public is undoubtedly due as much to the attitude of the architect and his code of practice as to any other cause. It is for this reason that a campaign of publicity and education is highly desirable to enlighten the public. Modern and progressive methods
should be employed in order to bring the architect squarely before the people in his true light, giving him proper recognition in public affairs and in connection with work in which he is concerned, and thereby obtaining not only the proper distinction due the profession by reason of its constructive services to society, but primarily for the benefit of our country at large.
An enlargement of scope of a radical nature in the present code of practice seems highly desirable in order to meet this most important exigency, so that the ability and services of the architect will receive just recognition.
If at the present moment the public, who are the government, were thoroughly informed and acquainted with the aid the profession of architecture could efficiently and patriotically render the country in this time of great national need, time and vast sums of money could undoubtedly be saved and results accomplished superior in plan and practicability to those already achieved.
This is not an idle assumption; the architect is trained for structural accomplishment; he has the experience and ability to erect buildings of all classes. His profession has been engaged in such work for many years with success, and therefore