ARCHITECTURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT. 199 



the architect. The latter undertakes to please his client as best 

 he may and prepares a design. Possibly the plan is in accord- 

 ance with the programme laid down, but it is by a picturesque 

 exterior, a pleasing elevation, a beautiful drawing, that he hopes 

 to captivate the eye and fancy of his customer. Other archi- 

 tects have made their reputation by their exteriors, and the most 

 successful of all has obtained his fame by some great structure 

 whose facade surpasses in beauty any offered by his competitors. 

 Like a flock of sheep blindly following the leader, they go on pre- 

 paring design after design, such as it is supposed the client will 

 like, until an immense portfolio of pictures will be accumulated 

 which may be very pleasing to look at, but which are simply 

 drawings intended to catch the eye. The plan, the arrangement 

 of the parts of the house, the convenience cf the occupants, and 

 all similar questions are too frequently left to be filled in after- 

 ward, and made to fit the exterior instead of the exterior being 

 made to express them. 



Architecture, in fact, has ceased to be an art, and has become 

 a fashion. We have styles in architecture just as we have styles 

 in dress, and the changes in public taste are as capricious in the 

 one as in the other. The rule of fashion is the most arbitrary 

 and idiotic form of government to which human beings have 

 ever submitted themselves, and it is not less so in architecture 

 than in dress. Our buildings are put up now in one style, now 

 in another, not because one is more suited to the purpose of 

 the structure, not because it is better adapted to the climate, 

 not because it more freely expresses our culture and our civili- 

 zation, but because we want a change because our streets are 

 growing monotonous, because we must alter our structures to 

 conform to the new style, and thereby give evidence of an im- 

 proved taste and furnish profitable work for the architect and 

 good jobs for the laboring man. As to what is behind all this 

 the structure itself, the part which calls the facade into being, to 

 which it is really not more than a lid or screen to shut out 

 inquisitive eyes it does not matter. An Italian front does not 

 necessarily imply an Italian house, nor a Moorish fagade suggest 

 the rich, luxurious, sensual life of the south. Variety is indeed 

 the spice of life, and it is an admirable idea to give a diversity to 

 our streets and erect ornamental fagades to our buildings ; but 

 when we pass over all thought of convenience, of utility, of 

 adaptation to natural conditions, and judge of buildings solely 

 because one is better looking than another, we have passed the 

 dividing line between sense and absurdity. 



From the modern point of view it is a misfortune that build- 

 ings must be used. Were they only intended to be looked at, 

 could they but be preserved in glass cases in the galleries of some 



