REPORTS OF THE BUILDING COMMITTEE. 701 



proved satisfactory to the architect, nor to the persons who have occupied some of 

 the rooms. He reports that they do not diffuse the heat equally throughout the 

 rooms — that while some apartments are highly heated, others cannot be made com- 

 fortably warm ; owing, as he thinks, to the difficulty in conveying the heated air 

 horizontally. He also objects to the number of fires which are necessary in the use 

 of furnaces, and has advised that the other portions of the building should be warmed 

 with steam. The committee have requested the architect to obtain full and definite 

 information of all circumstances involved in the use of steam as suggested by him, 

 and to furnish a report such as will enable a judgment to be formed of its adaptation 

 to our purposes, and of its relative cost. The Secretary of the Institution is also 

 engaged in some inquiries of the same nature. 



The work entitled " Hints on Public Architecture," authorized to be published by 

 the Building Committee, has been issued, and is submitted to the inspection of the 

 Eegents. 



The amount expended being somewhat beyond the amount appropriated by the 

 Board of Eegents, the committee requested an explanation from the Hon. B. D. Owen, 

 who had superintended the publication of the work. That gentleman states that the 

 landscapes of the lithographs at first executed were so badly done as to be unfit for 

 the press ; and that though the lithographer who engraved the building was the only 

 one who would undertake the architectural portion, he did not prove sufficiently 

 experienced in landscape drawing, to render that part of the plates either artistical 

 or effective — this portion was, therefore, redrawn by another lithographer, at an 

 additional expense of $80 : that the remainder of the additional expense was incurred 

 by the necessity of altering the size and form of many of the wood-cuts, in order to 

 enable them to come properly into the letter-press ; that this was an unforeseen 

 expense, and could not have been ascertained before the work was about being set up 

 in the printing office : that he was compelled to make the alterations in the cuts, or 

 to destroy the beauty of the pages of the book. These additions to the cost of the 

 work having materially enhanced its beauty, the committee hope the Board of 

 Eegents will sanction the course of the committee in paying the extra charges. 



The committee now present a statement of the expenditures as yet incurred, or 

 pledged on the building and grounds, and chargeable to the building fund of $250,000, 

 heretofore set apart. 



Total amount appropriated for building and grounds $250,000 



Amount of Mr. Cameron's contract $205,250 00 



Architect's salary for five years 9,000 00 



Superintendents and draughtsmen for five years 5,000 00 



Incidental expenses allowed architect 2,000 00 



Facing areas with cut stone . 480 00 



Building battlements to cloisters 200 00 



Additional apparatus cases 200 00 



Hedging and planting 1,050 00 



Furnaces already put up 1,135 63 



Addition of clerestory to museum 2,350 00 



Alteration of stairway, &c 100 00 



Chimneys added to the east wing 400 00 



Sodding ground near building 100 00 



Heating central building with steam, including cellar for 



boiler and as a coal vault — approximate estimate of the 



architect 3,200 00 



Additional furniture and incidental expenses — say 1,000 00 



231,465 63 



Leaving, as applicable to unforeseen expenses connected with the build- 

 ing or grounds, the sum of $18,544 37 



A contract made with Mr. John Douglass, jr., for planting and cultivating trees 

 and shrubs within the Smithsonian grounds, and another with the same person for 

 planting and cultivating hedges along the margin of the same, not having been 

 complied with on his part, have been annulled by the committee. The committee 

 are sorry to say, that from these failures the year just past may be considered aa 

 almost wholly lost, as respects the establishment of trees or hedges. They look, how- 

 ever, for better results from their future arrangements of this nature. 



JOS. G. TOTTEN. 



W. W. SEATON. 



H. W. HILLIAED. 



