but was made a permanent structure, and now shelters a valuable collection which could hardly be accommodated anywhere else. The Art Building of 1876, at Philadelphia, was built of stone, with the idea of making it permanent, and it was, indeed, retained in its place ; but a great part of its construction was so cheap and bad that a large outlay is annually required for repairs. Whether Chicago needs so large a building for permanent fine-art purposes is doubtful, although it might be useful for something else. The Trocadero Palace, which is probably about the size of the Chicago building, is of very suitable dimensions for a museum of comparative sculpture, which, naturally requires a collection comprising a great many objects ; while the Palais de l’lndustrie, which was also once built for a temporary exhibition, gives excellent accommodations for the annual Salon, with its four thousand new pictures ; but it will be long before Chicago needs any such space for a Salon, and materials for a museum of comparative sculpture are practically lacking in this country ; so that it could hardly be utilized for anything more than to hold a huge collection of casts.
I
F we were to make a suggestion independent of the architectural merit of the various buildings, it would be that the Horticultural Hall, or whatever building corresponds to that, wTould probably be the most useful of all as a permanent structure. Even now, all our large cities contain enthusiastic horticultural societies, or florists’ clubs, or gardening societies, which hold frequent exhibitions in the largest halls they can hire, and find their exhibitions crowded with people. So great is the popularity of a good flowershow, that, a few years ago, a single florist, Mr. Klunder, of New York, hired the Metropolitan Opera House, engaged an orchestra, and filled the place, not with roses or chrysanthemums, but with a mere miscellaneous collection of plants; yet the house was crowded, at a dollar admission, and Mr. Klunder is said to have cleared all his expenses, and a handsome sum besides, which he made over to some charity. So, the enormous Madison Square Garden was occupied all last week by a chrysanthemum show, carried out by the proprietors of the place as a private speculation, which no doubt proved a profitable one, although sixty-five hundred dollars was given in premiums alone, and the other expenses must have been very large. In fact, all over the country rose shows, chrysanthemum shows, fruit shows, orchid shows, winter flower shows, summer flower shows, spring bulb shows, azalea shows, rhododendron shows, and so on, follow each other in rapid succession, and the universal complaint made with regard to them is that no place can be found large enough to show all the good flowers that are offered, and accommodate, at the same time, the people who wish to see them. For Chicago, the Columbian Horticultural Building would give exactly what is needed, and in exactly the right place, and it would add very little to the cost of the structure to make it permanent. It is to be remembered, also, that a building of this sort can be used for many other purposes besides exhibiting flowers. While a picture-gallery may not be a good place to show flowers in, a room that is good for displaying flowers is sure to be excellent for showing pictures and sculpture. The Casino at Ghent, built by the Horticultural Society expressly for flower-shows, is used by the Fine Arts Society for picture-exhibitions ; and the sculpture at the Paris Salon is, or was, placed in the court-yard of the Palais de FIndustrie, lighted from the top by a temporary skylight, just as it would be in a horticultural building.
A REMARKABLE sculptor recently died in Italy. This was Vincenzo Vela, who was born in the Canton Ticino,
in Switzerland, in 1822. He was apprenticed, when a mere child, to a stone-cutter, but showed such remarkable talent in design that, when he was fourteen years old, he was sent to Milan to work on the sculpture of the restorations of the cathedral. At Milan, he used his opportunities for study with great diligence, and became a pupil of Cacciatori, then a sculptor of repute. In 1848, Vela obtained a prize in competition, and from that time was kept employed, generally on important commissions.
scheme for a vast National Museum at Washington, he hopes that a strong effort will be made by the Boston architects in the convention to have a resolution passed, proposing Boston as a more suitable place for such a museum than Washington, which, as he says, is not, and can never be, a metropolitan city. As this letter was not published until more than a week after the convention adjourned, the writer of it will not feel hurt at learning that the Boston members did not follow its suggestion, and, in fact, we doubt if Mr. Smith’s scheme was mentioned, or thought of, during the convention. Even if it had been, the probability that the convention would have adopted any such resolution is very slight, and the Boston architects would have been the last to press it. Whether Washington is properly the metropolis of this country may perhaps be doubtful, but there is no doubt that Boston is not, and never will be. It may excel in some respects, and, indeed, it is likely to assume great importance as a seaport before many years; but as a location for a National Museum, containing objects of interest to the people of the whole country, it is quite unsuitable. Moreover, whatever the metropolitan character of Washington may be in a commercial sense, it seems to us that it is just the place for such a museum as Mr. Smith proposes. The residence of the chief executive of the nation, and the seat of legislation, will always have a certain superiority of rank over towns prominent merely in business matters, and will attract tourists and visitors as no other place can ; while, under our system of government, the Federal city belongs to all the people, without any sectional affiliation whatever, and is thus peculiarly suited to institutions of national interest, or national magnitude. Apart from these considerations, moreover, the character of the city, and of the institutions already existing there, accord particularly with great museums and similar establishments. The very absence of commerce and manufactures combines with the vastness and dignity of the public buildings to give Washington a character of grandiose leisure well suited to study, while the extent of the collections already provided there, with the incomparable facilities afforded by the Library of Congress, now one of the largest libraries in the world, would, if such a museum as Mr. Smith contemplates could be established in addition, offer to students opportunities hardly to be found anywhere else.
THE town of Meiringen, in Switzerland, was destroyed by fire not long ago, for the second time within a few years. Many of our older readers will remember the curious wooden village, of one street, with the huge, projecting gables of the houses nearly meeting overhead, and a cascade closing the vista under them, which lay, rather out of the way of tourists, to the right of the Brunig route from Interlaken to Lucerne. In 1879, this wooden village was completely swept away by a fire, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether it would be rebuilt, but the extraordinary prosperity which has reigned in Switzerland for some years past seems to have come in time to save it, and it was restored, but in. more substantial materials, stone being generally used for walls in place of planks. Quite recently, manufactures had been established there, and the town was growing rapidly, when it was again overtaken by a conflagration which, although less complete than the former one, destroyed the principal factories, as well as great numbers of dwellings. It is sad to think how rapidly the old wooden architecture of Switzerland is being swept away. A decade ago, it was replaced, as it disappeared, by new erections in the same style, that style which, according to Viollet-le-Due, has been handed down without essential change from the time when our Aryan ancestors practised it in the mountains of Central Asia, before their migration to Europe ; but the last few years have brought a melancholy transformation. Studding and clapboards now replace the old construction of superimposed timbers, and, where a semblance of the ancient construction is attempted, the beautiful low-relief carving which decorated the heavy timbers in the old work is counterfeited with a pattern jig-sawed out of quarter-inch stuff, and nailed on.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Boston Transcript writes
from France that he understands that the convention of the American Institute of Architects is to be held in. Boston, and, as he supposes, that a large share of their time will be taken up with the discussion of Mr. Franklin W. Smith’s
REPORTS continue to come in of the failure of naturalgas wells, and their complete exhaustion appears to be
merely a question of time. Meanwhile, many consumers, unwilling to risk the sudden failure of their supply of fuel, are removing the pipes, and remodelling their furnaces for burning coal.
I
F we were to make a suggestion independent of the architectural merit of the various buildings, it would be that the Horticultural Hall, or whatever building corresponds to that, wTould probably be the most useful of all as a permanent structure. Even now, all our large cities contain enthusiastic horticultural societies, or florists’ clubs, or gardening societies, which hold frequent exhibitions in the largest halls they can hire, and find their exhibitions crowded with people. So great is the popularity of a good flowershow, that, a few years ago, a single florist, Mr. Klunder, of New York, hired the Metropolitan Opera House, engaged an orchestra, and filled the place, not with roses or chrysanthemums, but with a mere miscellaneous collection of plants; yet the house was crowded, at a dollar admission, and Mr. Klunder is said to have cleared all his expenses, and a handsome sum besides, which he made over to some charity. So, the enormous Madison Square Garden was occupied all last week by a chrysanthemum show, carried out by the proprietors of the place as a private speculation, which no doubt proved a profitable one, although sixty-five hundred dollars was given in premiums alone, and the other expenses must have been very large. In fact, all over the country rose shows, chrysanthemum shows, fruit shows, orchid shows, winter flower shows, summer flower shows, spring bulb shows, azalea shows, rhododendron shows, and so on, follow each other in rapid succession, and the universal complaint made with regard to them is that no place can be found large enough to show all the good flowers that are offered, and accommodate, at the same time, the people who wish to see them. For Chicago, the Columbian Horticultural Building would give exactly what is needed, and in exactly the right place, and it would add very little to the cost of the structure to make it permanent. It is to be remembered, also, that a building of this sort can be used for many other purposes besides exhibiting flowers. While a picture-gallery may not be a good place to show flowers in, a room that is good for displaying flowers is sure to be excellent for showing pictures and sculpture. The Casino at Ghent, built by the Horticultural Society expressly for flower-shows, is used by the Fine Arts Society for picture-exhibitions ; and the sculpture at the Paris Salon is, or was, placed in the court-yard of the Palais de FIndustrie, lighted from the top by a temporary skylight, just as it would be in a horticultural building.
A REMARKABLE sculptor recently died in Italy. This was Vincenzo Vela, who was born in the Canton Ticino,
in Switzerland, in 1822. He was apprenticed, when a mere child, to a stone-cutter, but showed such remarkable talent in design that, when he was fourteen years old, he was sent to Milan to work on the sculpture of the restorations of the cathedral. At Milan, he used his opportunities for study with great diligence, and became a pupil of Cacciatori, then a sculptor of repute. In 1848, Vela obtained a prize in competition, and from that time was kept employed, generally on important commissions.
scheme for a vast National Museum at Washington, he hopes that a strong effort will be made by the Boston architects in the convention to have a resolution passed, proposing Boston as a more suitable place for such a museum than Washington, which, as he says, is not, and can never be, a metropolitan city. As this letter was not published until more than a week after the convention adjourned, the writer of it will not feel hurt at learning that the Boston members did not follow its suggestion, and, in fact, we doubt if Mr. Smith’s scheme was mentioned, or thought of, during the convention. Even if it had been, the probability that the convention would have adopted any such resolution is very slight, and the Boston architects would have been the last to press it. Whether Washington is properly the metropolis of this country may perhaps be doubtful, but there is no doubt that Boston is not, and never will be. It may excel in some respects, and, indeed, it is likely to assume great importance as a seaport before many years; but as a location for a National Museum, containing objects of interest to the people of the whole country, it is quite unsuitable. Moreover, whatever the metropolitan character of Washington may be in a commercial sense, it seems to us that it is just the place for such a museum as Mr. Smith proposes. The residence of the chief executive of the nation, and the seat of legislation, will always have a certain superiority of rank over towns prominent merely in business matters, and will attract tourists and visitors as no other place can ; while, under our system of government, the Federal city belongs to all the people, without any sectional affiliation whatever, and is thus peculiarly suited to institutions of national interest, or national magnitude. Apart from these considerations, moreover, the character of the city, and of the institutions already existing there, accord particularly with great museums and similar establishments. The very absence of commerce and manufactures combines with the vastness and dignity of the public buildings to give Washington a character of grandiose leisure well suited to study, while the extent of the collections already provided there, with the incomparable facilities afforded by the Library of Congress, now one of the largest libraries in the world, would, if such a museum as Mr. Smith contemplates could be established in addition, offer to students opportunities hardly to be found anywhere else.
THE town of Meiringen, in Switzerland, was destroyed by fire not long ago, for the second time within a few years. Many of our older readers will remember the curious wooden village, of one street, with the huge, projecting gables of the houses nearly meeting overhead, and a cascade closing the vista under them, which lay, rather out of the way of tourists, to the right of the Brunig route from Interlaken to Lucerne. In 1879, this wooden village was completely swept away by a fire, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether it would be rebuilt, but the extraordinary prosperity which has reigned in Switzerland for some years past seems to have come in time to save it, and it was restored, but in. more substantial materials, stone being generally used for walls in place of planks. Quite recently, manufactures had been established there, and the town was growing rapidly, when it was again overtaken by a conflagration which, although less complete than the former one, destroyed the principal factories, as well as great numbers of dwellings. It is sad to think how rapidly the old wooden architecture of Switzerland is being swept away. A decade ago, it was replaced, as it disappeared, by new erections in the same style, that style which, according to Viollet-le-Due, has been handed down without essential change from the time when our Aryan ancestors practised it in the mountains of Central Asia, before their migration to Europe ; but the last few years have brought a melancholy transformation. Studding and clapboards now replace the old construction of superimposed timbers, and, where a semblance of the ancient construction is attempted, the beautiful low-relief carving which decorated the heavy timbers in the old work is counterfeited with a pattern jig-sawed out of quarter-inch stuff, and nailed on.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Boston Transcript writes
from France that he understands that the convention of the American Institute of Architects is to be held in. Boston, and, as he supposes, that a large share of their time will be taken up with the discussion of Mr. Franklin W. Smith’s
REPORTS continue to come in of the failure of naturalgas wells, and their complete exhaustion appears to be
merely a question of time. Meanwhile, many consumers, unwilling to risk the sudden failure of their supply of fuel, are removing the pipes, and remodelling their furnaces for burning coal.