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Show I A Word for Utah Architecture and Materials By PARLEY P. JENSON ! I Athens in the height of her . . glory was a beautiful place and 11 thousands of dollars of tourist money is taken in to-day in the old "-H 2 rh ' " town just because a Corinthian or fcjf B ItlP iMm Doric column is good to look upon. ' Pf S n TOtA3 1,1 Salt Lale a scntimcnt for 6 ..ftjRJfeBfcSS beautiful things instead of mere '-rR'WM'Wm commercial strength is steadily Jp3f7f " - JHpiflB growing. Homes, once built with JLjAj Lit 1 ja:jSteiS onbr an 'dca putting up a wall WjllfPiiiBjM solid enough to hold a roof that IPWiili yjgB would shed water, arc now becom-iS'jPH becom-iS'jPH vl n, monuments of history. Citizens 39HBHMKilHllillHlil 1,ou' build with the consciousness that a Salt Lake home, public building or business block deserves a good structure in order to harmonize with nature's surroundings. A city's buildings make the town's sky line and there is cause to build them beautiful as well as enduring. E. H. Harriman, Samuel Ncwhousc and Paul Morton have combined com-bined in prophesies that Salt Lake's past progress, great as it has been, is nothing when compared with its future prospects. As forerunners of the building era that is coming the News, the Utah Savings &, Trust, the Judge building and the Ncwhousc sky scrapers stand in a class by themselves, as efforts in really modern architecture. Py this is meant a giving of attention to details that please the eye, a striving for permanency and safety against fire, and the utilization of modern building materials to secure these ends. Until the owners of the News building gave Mr. IKlctting an opportunity to use local talent it was imagined imag-ined that Utah in architecture was a Nazareth out of which no good could come. For' the McCornick building build-ing the architects, like the material, were imported, and it was the same with the Dooly block. Even for the City and County building the home designers were ignored. ig-nored. In the more recent building era local firms secured se-cured and planned the Utah Savings & Trust building, and the Judge building. The latter building is in Utah made brick, of a quality that the world cannot surpass. We also have native stone second to none. "Utah quarries how can they expect to get orders with their crude equipment?" was a question recently re-cently asked by a constructing contractor. One stone company replied, "We will put in a $50,000 plant if we can get an order for $150,000 from you on the building you arc about to put up." Conditions in Utah to-day demand that local architects, who can H demonstrate their ability to handle the intricate problems of erecting H great buildings be given a chance. It is a detriment to the future growth and progress of the West to continually send away for ma- terials and designers, when we have both in abundance within our own H boundaries. H The builders of the Temple, half a century ago, proved that the mountains arc full of good stone. Builders of more recent structures have proved that good stone exists in countless variety. Quarrymcn need the support of Utah consumers to develop their industry and that in turn means pay rolls. Pay rolls arc the best possible guarantee for permanent prosperity in every community. If one-half of the money H that has been sent away for finished H j ; steel (which could have been shipped I AMMumm ncrc a crt,de frm to be worked H 'jp?Cfo - UP) nac' been kept at home thous- I . ffejbltr ' s upon thousands of dollars I " i!EIQFr would have remained in Utah to fur- I ' fffri?'? thcr develop our own resources. H fiJri-rv 11 was onlv a fcNV vcars aK tliat I fePF 'oca' brick cpmpanies were discard- B m tnc arcn turned product, and to- I 'PNlllfnlllb' ('ay arcmtccts seeking beauty in resi- I OSIKit deuce construction have created I Ji' tttapSpj Sl,c'1 a demand for what were for- I 'uBfmVWmk' merly styled "clinkers" that they are H rma I bringing fancy prices and cannot be H produced fast enough. The way to judge a city's archi- tecturc is to compare it with other i buildings of a similar period. In the xP5!r work of the Utah pioneers as exem- IfiSfclKp plificd in the Tabernacle, the Tern- PPSfsPlb i pie, the Salt Lake Theatre, Walker h53M? 1 Bank building, the Utah National ifmH' . Dank building, and the group of .$x 2fi$' ' " buildings which now make up the .,M B'S4 - head of Main street, there are WWr mt. M achievements shown which need no j?ajjHI m m'9tHk, apology when compared to any of lla&V their rivals, wherever constructed. JllfaHHHHHK'. What reason is there that the lliJIIfBMsBlife 4 architects now working can't do as lf 'tofessMRKMBMWW well by the owners" of to-morrow's buildings? The progress in design has been upward from the adobe j lean-to, through the square brick house with snubby eaves and shortened trim, to the modern cottage with its overhanging eaves, its many interior conveniences and even its fences and grounds laid out to match. The architect is less completely an engineer to determine the strength of beams. He is coming more and more to be a man with poetry in his soul that he can work out into contours and sky lines and beauty in even the design of a door plate or a piece of dining-room dining-room furniture. The architects designing the new Brigham Young University administration building at Provo are making for it a setting set-ting as well as an elevation. It seems reasonable to believe that an architect living in Utah is likely to throw more of his best effort into a building that is going to stand here where he lives as a monument to his mistakes or ability than one who merely comes here for the job and is gone again to spend his money elsewhere. Mr. Wm. J. Brinkmann of Chicago, designer of "Our Lady of Sorrows Church," which is conceded to be the most beautiful creation in Chicago architecture, recently wrote a letter to a friend here which contains a paragraph that every man who is planning a building build-ing ought to read with care. It follows : "There are too many men who could do work architecturally that any city would be proud of, who are working hard to-day, and arc not appreciated at all. You know it is pretty much a matter of pelf ; the almighty dollar seems too completely to govern. Any architect who comes along and offers his services for ' one or two per cent, less than the appointed fee gets the work. He does not make the drawings, he does not represent the owner, he merely represents himself. He turns all the work over to the contractors to figure out and designate just what is going into the building. There are many cases now where architects make really no plans and specifications at all; they simply make sketch plans and then allow the contractor to do as he chooses. The contracting business, as a matter of fact, is one where the chief goal is making money; you cannot expect these men to think of art or architecture. An awakening of public spirit is needed for an art that could profitably be encouraged. You have good architects in your city who certainly deserve patronage." If Salt Lake is going to be built into a great city and a beautiful city, shall it be with the engineer's idea of architecture or the architect's? The engineer's idea has prevailed through America's commercial commer-cial era, now let the artistic and beautiful prevail. i ...J,, ., . 1 I have a firm and an abiding .(Bfci faith in Utah talent and Utah ma- KpflV tcrial. It seems to me that we , .ifijPBMj should develop designs and styles in fTtWKt architecture and building that would dmjMftlt 'llHHi ' to a certain extent reflect the culture jJ&!isI-P''l'H'" ' and jdcals of our free and broad .qlfGpljJEM western life. Let the men who live jUfPHT here and know the life and character- - ,UMWhMkjH istics of the great western people de- ' raXSfKM sign our buildings, so that we may iHipltJlBB have a style of architecture that shall lllililwi stand as a lasting monument of our iifel5IMOMMMB civilization. |