THE NEW UNION BUILDINGS. 153 



has a rough rock-face, so wrought as to give rusticated joints 

 about 3 inches wide. For some distance above — say, for the 

 basement and ground floor stories — the work will be hammer- 

 faced with boasted dressings, the joints being somewhat nar- 

 rower than those below. Then above, a similarly boasted face, 

 with mouldings and dressings more finely worked. 



The main entrance porches, colonnades, and pavilions, how- 

 ever, have finely boasted face, with chiselled mouldings and dress- 

 ings. As can be readily conceived, the variations of surface 

 treatment, associated with the judicious setting of stones, must 

 mean a valuable contributory factor to most acceprtable texturing 

 And while diamond saws, frames, and other forms of stone- 

 working machinery, driven by electricity, will figure largely, it 

 is the intention that practically the whole of the surface-treatment 

 shall be attained by hand. 



There is one point of design, however, in this connexion in 

 which I think the conventional might have been yielded to ad- 

 vantage, and that is in the adoption of "ante" treatment at the 

 terminations of columnar portions, at least to the extent of 

 n;ouldings returned on themselves at cap and base levels. The 

 reason for the absence of such response is far from apparent, 

 especially as some of the angles, allied or otherwise with colon- 

 nades, are conspicuously emboldened by quoins breaking bond. 



Supremacy of feature must unquestionably be given to the 

 roof covering, and its continuity is of that order which Professor 

 Bryce has referred to as "desperate." For not only is parallel- 

 ism obtained with its base and summit lines, but by means of 

 ridge-flats there has been secured an equality of slope through- 

 out. With a deeply imbued sense of the climatic conditions of 

 summer-tide in South Africa's interior, the unique mass of roof- 

 ing overhangs the wall face some 5 feet ; and the whole result 

 is a tremendous simplicity allied with a very full measure of 

 purposefulness. 



The covering is of the ordinary half-round red tiles, of 

 which some 18,000 square yards will be demanded from the pro- 

 vinces of the Union of South Africa, for they are to be made in 

 this country, and the ends of the lowest course will be visible 

 after the manner that gave rise to the ante-fixae of the Greeks. 



Beneath these overhanging eaves will be seen an apparently 

 almost endless succession of heavily moulded teak sprockets. 

 Their close proximity, however, to the caps of the columns and 

 the soffits of the upper window heads, with nothing of the nature 

 of a frieze intervening, is the perplexing feature of the design ; 

 and that to which any criticism I may feel called upon to ofi^er is 

 mainly directed. To have introduced the accepted architrave 

 and frieze of the Ionic order would have meant a little less direct 

 shadow within pavilion and office, but summer-tide does not pre- 

 vail throughout the year ; and the effect of such height of plain 

 surface would mean intensity of shadow, and some appreciative 

 additional verticality at the conjunction of two primary factors. 

 of the design. 



