THE MANCHESTER TOWN HALL COMPETITION
In the Final Competition in which designs were submitted for the proposed Town Hall extension, Municipal Offices and Public Reference Library in Manchester, the assessors, Mr. T. R. Milburn, Mr. Robert Atkinson, and Mr. Ralph Knott, have given their award to Mr. E. Vincent Harris. Six competitors, Messrs. Bradshaw, Gass & Hope, Messrs. Collcutt and Hamp, Mr. J. B. F. Cowper, Mr. Harry Fairhurst, Mr. E. Vincent Harris, and Mr. E. Berry Webber, reached the final round.
One can scarcely conceive of a more difficult architectural problem than the one which required a solution in this case. The word “solution, ” however, used in such a contest, suggests a possibility of harmonising incompatibles, whereas there are occasions when this act of harmonisation passes the wit of man
to accomplish. It is to the discredit of some of the most prominent practitioners of the nineteenth century that they have left us a legacy of buildings so individualistic, so aggressively defiant of their architectural environment, that they remain forever as hard and indigestible units having very little aesthetic relationship to the cities where they belong. And then there comes a time when, owing to practical necessities, such buildings have to be enlarged. What is the poor architect to do? Help to perpetuate, by an act of extension, that with which he is out of sympathy? Or in departing from such an exemplar, add to an existing structure a new portion, elegant in itself, perhaps, but flagrantly discordant? Whichever of these two courses he
(Continued on page 568) SELECTED DESIGN FOB THE MANCHESTER TOWN HALL EXTENSION FINAL LIMITED
COMPETITION: LIBRARY ELEVATION. E. Vincent Harris, F. R. I. B. A., Architect.
SECTION THROUGH LIBRARY,
E. Vincent Harris, F. R. I. B. A., Architect.
In the Final Competition in which designs were submitted for the proposed Town Hall extension, Municipal Offices and Public Reference Library in Manchester, the assessors, Mr. T. R. Milburn, Mr. Robert Atkinson, and Mr. Ralph Knott, have given their award to Mr. E. Vincent Harris. Six competitors, Messrs. Bradshaw, Gass & Hope, Messrs. Collcutt and Hamp, Mr. J. B. F. Cowper, Mr. Harry Fairhurst, Mr. E. Vincent Harris, and Mr. E. Berry Webber, reached the final round.
One can scarcely conceive of a more difficult architectural problem than the one which required a solution in this case. The word “solution, ” however, used in such a contest, suggests a possibility of harmonising incompatibles, whereas there are occasions when this act of harmonisation passes the wit of man
to accomplish. It is to the discredit of some of the most prominent practitioners of the nineteenth century that they have left us a legacy of buildings so individualistic, so aggressively defiant of their architectural environment, that they remain forever as hard and indigestible units having very little aesthetic relationship to the cities where they belong. And then there comes a time when, owing to practical necessities, such buildings have to be enlarged. What is the poor architect to do? Help to perpetuate, by an act of extension, that with which he is out of sympathy? Or in departing from such an exemplar, add to an existing structure a new portion, elegant in itself, perhaps, but flagrantly discordant? Whichever of these two courses he
(Continued on page 568) SELECTED DESIGN FOB THE MANCHESTER TOWN HALL EXTENSION FINAL LIMITED
COMPETITION: LIBRARY ELEVATION. E. Vincent Harris, F. R. I. B. A., Architect.
SECTION THROUGH LIBRARY,
E. Vincent Harris, F. R. I. B. A., Architect.