The American Architect
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
VOL CXXV
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1924 NUMBER 2443
THE ARCHITECT
BY IRVING K. POND, F. A. I. A.
THIS essay deals with the-genesis and pro
fessional unfolding- of the architect as distinct from the other specimen of the
genus homo who devotes himself to building and construction as a means of furthering- the cause of civilization, of ameliorating physical conditions, and makingliving easier and safer ; as distinct, also, from those pleasing though less vigorous beings who devote themselves to makingpretty the structures which others have been at pains to erect. The architect—the subject of this essay—is not an evolution from either of these two types ; he is not the offspring of a marriage between them ; between the practical and the aesthetic. He is a distinct entity having his own genesis and his own development.
- In order to appreciate just how distinct and sui-generis he is, it is well to go away back into the past, away back to “the dear dead days that are
gone beyond recall,” and view mankind in the primitive period before a social order had evolved out of the necessities of individuals who were battling individually and at awful odds against fear and dread and the awesome: forces of nature,
seen and unseen; against the inclement elements and the rapacious beasts of earth, air, and the slimy ooze, including those of their own race and kind.
It is not invidious to draw a distinction between classes of mankind. They exist naturally in the order of things, just as male and female exist, and are necessary to the perfect whole. So the architect appears in this essay, and in the order of nature, not as better than others who function in another manner but simply as different. There is nothing derogatory to the engineer or to the decorator in this exposition of the genesis and development of the architect. To which class an individual might care to belong is altogether a matter of personal preference; while it is competent for the individual alone to determine as to whether he considers his choice the best.
It will be needless,
for the purposes of this, exposition, to go back more than some twenty toforty thousand years in the span of human development—needless to go further back than to the earlier times of the cave dwellers. What a life! The cave man, a powerful, animalistic,
(Copyright, 1924, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)
IRVING K. POND, F.A.I.A.
PAST PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE
OF ARCHITECTS
The ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
VOL CXXV
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1924 NUMBER 2443
THE ARCHITECT
BY IRVING K. POND, F. A. I. A.
THIS essay deals with the-genesis and pro
fessional unfolding- of the architect as distinct from the other specimen of the
genus homo who devotes himself to building and construction as a means of furthering- the cause of civilization, of ameliorating physical conditions, and makingliving easier and safer ; as distinct, also, from those pleasing though less vigorous beings who devote themselves to makingpretty the structures which others have been at pains to erect. The architect—the subject of this essay—is not an evolution from either of these two types ; he is not the offspring of a marriage between them ; between the practical and the aesthetic. He is a distinct entity having his own genesis and his own development.
- In order to appreciate just how distinct and sui-generis he is, it is well to go away back into the past, away back to “the dear dead days that are
gone beyond recall,” and view mankind in the primitive period before a social order had evolved out of the necessities of individuals who were battling individually and at awful odds against fear and dread and the awesome: forces of nature,
seen and unseen; against the inclement elements and the rapacious beasts of earth, air, and the slimy ooze, including those of their own race and kind.
It is not invidious to draw a distinction between classes of mankind. They exist naturally in the order of things, just as male and female exist, and are necessary to the perfect whole. So the architect appears in this essay, and in the order of nature, not as better than others who function in another manner but simply as different. There is nothing derogatory to the engineer or to the decorator in this exposition of the genesis and development of the architect. To which class an individual might care to belong is altogether a matter of personal preference; while it is competent for the individual alone to determine as to whether he considers his choice the best.
It will be needless,
for the purposes of this, exposition, to go back more than some twenty toforty thousand years in the span of human development—needless to go further back than to the earlier times of the cave dwellers. What a life! The cave man, a powerful, animalistic,
(Copyright, 1924, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.)
IRVING K. POND, F.A.I.A.
PAST PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE
OF ARCHITECTS