THE next step was to institute a competition for designs, in which these recommendations should be followed. Three prizes were offered, of three thousand, two thousand and one thousand dollars, and eighteen designs were received. All these were rejected, as unworthy of any prize, that of Joseph Mengoni, of Bologna, alone receiving honorable mention. The public was dissatisfied with this negative result, and the jury, finding it advisable to make some definite recommendation, proposed that, although M. Mengoni’s design was unsuitable for execution, he should be employed by the municipality to make further studies. The town Government then decided to separate the arcade project from the general plan of the rebuilding of the square, and employed Mengoni, with two other architects, Pestagalli and Matas, to make independent plans for the arcade alone, each of the three receiving six hundred dollars for his trouble. The same architects were also instructed to prepare a design for the remaining part of the square, and eight hundred dollars apiece were allotted for this work. Matas was soon called away to supervise the building of the new front of Santa Croce, in Florence, and that of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, and gave up his Milan commission. No one was named in his place, and Mengoni and Pestagalli were left alone as the official competitors in the third trial. Five other architects, however, volunteered plans, but they proved much inferior to the carefully studied schemes of Mengoni and Pestagalli, and received no serious consideration; and the jury finally reported, recommending Mengoni’s plan for adoption for the arcade, and advising a new competition between him and Pestagalli for the other portions of the square. This was in September, 1863. The people of the city, impatient to have their scheme realized, rejected the jury’s proposition for another competition, and a few days later, the city government adopted Mengoni’s whole plan, and resolved that the execution of his designs, both for the arcade and the square, should be confided to him without further delay. Mengoni went immediately to work, and, six months later, presented workingplans, which were definitively adopted, and a preliminary contract signed between the mayor of the city and the representative of an English corporation, called “ The City of Milan Improvements Company, Limited,” formed expressly to carry out the work. The contract provided that the city should cede to the company a certain amount of land, for a fixed price, and should pay half the cost of roofing with glass the covered street, besides guaranteeing five per cent interest for twenty years on its capital, of sixteen million francs, or something over three million dollars. The company bound itself to complete the arcade, or gallery, in two years, and the rest of the work in six years. The gallery was finished within the contract time, and was dedicated, with great solemnity, in 1867, the triumphal arch at the entrance being all that remained incomplete. The company pursued the work on the square for two years longer, but then, partly as a result of the Continental disturbances of the period, fell into financial difficulties, and, in 1869, abandoned to the municipality all its contracts and privileges, with all its lands and its completed work, receiving in payment seven million three hundred thousand francs. The city authorities continued the operations, under Mengoni, with whom was associated the engineer Chizzolini. The work went on rather slowly, and, in 1877. the arch at the entrance of the gallery was just receiving the finishing touches, when the unfortunate Mengoni fell from the top of it, and was killed.
A STRIKING illustration of the carelessness which long
security produces in persons entrusted with responsibility is afforded by the official account of an accident which recently took place in the railway station at Zurich. At this station, as at so many others, track-room is limited, and one of the tracks, which is specially intended for the inward trains from the Baden division, is used also for making-up outward trains, but with the condition that the track shall be completely cleared at least three minutes before the schedule time for the arrival of each Baden train. To make sure that, even if this standing order is disregarded, the incoming trains shall have ample notice of danger, so that they can stop in time to avoid it, three separate signals are arranged, one at the signal-box, far in advance of the station, one at the switching-house, and one at the station. From each of these places the whole length of the tracks leading in and out of the station can be seen, and the watchers at each post are not merely required to signal in case of danger, but must examine the track, and set the signal
of safety, only if it is clear; while the engineer of the incoming train is allowed to proceed past a signal-station only -in case the safety-signal is set.
I
N the present instance, a train had been made-up, as usual, on the Baden track, and had drawn out of the station, leaving, however, some empty cars on the track. A Baden train was due, and, although the empty cars were in plain sight from every one of the three signal-stations, the watchman at every station set the signal denoting safety, and the engineer of the Baden train, seeing all the signals set for a clear track ahead, drove his train along, and dashed with nearly full force into the empty cars, destroying them, and a part of his own train, and seriously injuring one passenger. What makes this performance still more astonishing is that the engineer of the Baden train, if he had taken the trouble to look where he was going, could not have failed to see the empty cars on the track, and might easily have stopped his train by the steam brakes in time to avoid a collision. The railroad officials themselves express their amazement at the mass of carelessness which must have contributed to cause the accident, but suggest an explanation by saying that, just at the moment, a balloon was passing over the track, and it is possible that all the people who ought to have been attending to their responsible duties were looking at that instead. If the consequences of the accident had been more serfous, the courts would probably have a chance to say whether the appearance of a balloon is sufficient to justify three signal-men in looking at it instead of at the track which they are appointed to guard, and in setting the signals for safety, so that trains might run by without disturbing their studies; but the only person injured was a poor cowherd, who is not likely to wish to involve himself in a law-suit, and railway passengers will therefore do well, for the present, to remember that, when interesting phenomena present themselves during the passage of a train, the train-hands and signalmen may need their undivided attention for observing the novelty, and those of the people in the cars who object to being left to their fate, should themselves put their heads out of the windows, and jump off if they see anything ahead which they do not like to run into.
THE Philadelphia Real Estate Record is surprised and grieved to hear that the architect of the new Equitable
Insurance Building in Baltimore has been to Europe to select a suitable stone for the building, and, after visiting several quarries, has contracted for the stone needed. It thinks that there is, or ought to be, building-stone enough in the United States without going to Europe for it, which is undoubtedly true; but, if any one prefers a foreign stone, there is no objection, that we can see, to his using it. Apart from marble, which can be had from Italy of a better quality, for a given price, than from any American quarry yet opened, foreign building-stones are not likely to compete seriously with our own. Although, as the grain-ships from this country often bring back building-stone as ballast at a very small charge for freight, the foreign stone can be had in the Atlantic seaports for about the price of the native sorts, they present no special advantages of color or texture, and have the objection of being comparatively untried in this climate. Obviously, a stone which bears exposure for centuries in the mild climate of England or France may be torn to pieces in a few years by our winter frosts, and there is no absolutely reliable test, except that of practical experience, for ascertaining what the behavior of a stone will be under a temperature of 20° below the Fahrenheit zero, so that architects are always disposed to favor materials which have had a thorough trial in the* climate in which they are to be used.
THE New York Tribune makes an addition to the list of portrait-decorations of American buildings. On the roof
of Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt’s house, it says, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-first Street, New York, is a figure of a workman, seated, as if resting. This figure is a portrait of Mr. Richard M. Hunt, the designer of the house, and the venerated President of the American Institute of Architects. The Tribune says that it is a good likeness, and may easily be recognized from the street.
A STRIKING illustration of the carelessness which long
security produces in persons entrusted with responsibility is afforded by the official account of an accident which recently took place in the railway station at Zurich. At this station, as at so many others, track-room is limited, and one of the tracks, which is specially intended for the inward trains from the Baden division, is used also for making-up outward trains, but with the condition that the track shall be completely cleared at least three minutes before the schedule time for the arrival of each Baden train. To make sure that, even if this standing order is disregarded, the incoming trains shall have ample notice of danger, so that they can stop in time to avoid it, three separate signals are arranged, one at the signal-box, far in advance of the station, one at the switching-house, and one at the station. From each of these places the whole length of the tracks leading in and out of the station can be seen, and the watchers at each post are not merely required to signal in case of danger, but must examine the track, and set the signal
of safety, only if it is clear; while the engineer of the incoming train is allowed to proceed past a signal-station only -in case the safety-signal is set.
I
N the present instance, a train had been made-up, as usual, on the Baden track, and had drawn out of the station, leaving, however, some empty cars on the track. A Baden train was due, and, although the empty cars were in plain sight from every one of the three signal-stations, the watchman at every station set the signal denoting safety, and the engineer of the Baden train, seeing all the signals set for a clear track ahead, drove his train along, and dashed with nearly full force into the empty cars, destroying them, and a part of his own train, and seriously injuring one passenger. What makes this performance still more astonishing is that the engineer of the Baden train, if he had taken the trouble to look where he was going, could not have failed to see the empty cars on the track, and might easily have stopped his train by the steam brakes in time to avoid a collision. The railroad officials themselves express their amazement at the mass of carelessness which must have contributed to cause the accident, but suggest an explanation by saying that, just at the moment, a balloon was passing over the track, and it is possible that all the people who ought to have been attending to their responsible duties were looking at that instead. If the consequences of the accident had been more serfous, the courts would probably have a chance to say whether the appearance of a balloon is sufficient to justify three signal-men in looking at it instead of at the track which they are appointed to guard, and in setting the signals for safety, so that trains might run by without disturbing their studies; but the only person injured was a poor cowherd, who is not likely to wish to involve himself in a law-suit, and railway passengers will therefore do well, for the present, to remember that, when interesting phenomena present themselves during the passage of a train, the train-hands and signalmen may need their undivided attention for observing the novelty, and those of the people in the cars who object to being left to their fate, should themselves put their heads out of the windows, and jump off if they see anything ahead which they do not like to run into.
THE Philadelphia Real Estate Record is surprised and grieved to hear that the architect of the new Equitable
Insurance Building in Baltimore has been to Europe to select a suitable stone for the building, and, after visiting several quarries, has contracted for the stone needed. It thinks that there is, or ought to be, building-stone enough in the United States without going to Europe for it, which is undoubtedly true; but, if any one prefers a foreign stone, there is no objection, that we can see, to his using it. Apart from marble, which can be had from Italy of a better quality, for a given price, than from any American quarry yet opened, foreign building-stones are not likely to compete seriously with our own. Although, as the grain-ships from this country often bring back building-stone as ballast at a very small charge for freight, the foreign stone can be had in the Atlantic seaports for about the price of the native sorts, they present no special advantages of color or texture, and have the objection of being comparatively untried in this climate. Obviously, a stone which bears exposure for centuries in the mild climate of England or France may be torn to pieces in a few years by our winter frosts, and there is no absolutely reliable test, except that of practical experience, for ascertaining what the behavior of a stone will be under a temperature of 20° below the Fahrenheit zero, so that architects are always disposed to favor materials which have had a thorough trial in the* climate in which they are to be used.
THE New York Tribune makes an addition to the list of portrait-decorations of American buildings. On the roof
of Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt’s house, it says, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fifty-first Street, New York, is a figure of a workman, seated, as if resting. This figure is a portrait of Mr. Richard M. Hunt, the designer of the house, and the venerated President of the American Institute of Architects. The Tribune says that it is a good likeness, and may easily be recognized from the street.