PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 565 



the sense of propriety in design have been unconsciously offended 

 by glaring outrages perpetrated in this direction. There may be 

 no definite, articulate, and developed appreciation of the elements 

 of design in the general public, but the innate sense is there; and 

 what is objected to for a variety of ostensible reasons, is really 

 objected to on the grounds I have surmised. 



There has been recently erected in Sydney a building some 

 180 feet in height^ with frontages to two streets. I refer to this 

 not by any means as an exceptional case, nor as any reflection 

 upon owner and architect, but as an illustration. The two street 

 facades are in themselves well and suitably designed, the features 

 i'l excellent proportions, and carried out in good honest brick and 

 stone work, and they are generally looked up to by the passer-by 

 with a certain amount of approval and satisfaction. But when 

 seen as a whole from Hyde Park, where the city sky-line can be 

 best judged, and where the building takes its place amongst the 

 towers and spires of a large city, the flanking walls and water- 

 tank towers carried out in inferior brickwork, taken in conjunc- 

 tion with the narrowed architectural treatment of the street 

 frontages, the building is simply hideous and disastrous to the 

 beauty of the city. On other similar buildings with bare flanks, 

 the temptation to make a few pounds by hiring out for some huge 

 and vulgar advertising display, at the expense of good taste, is 

 too great, and the town is disfigured in this way in all directions. 



Excessive height will, I think, for financial reasons, be out of 

 the question, and, with regard to architectural appearance, power 

 should be given to municipal authorities to insist upon all exposed 

 faces and flanks of these lofty and solitary buildings being architec- 

 turally equal in character as that applied to their street fronts, 

 say, from a height of 100 feet and upwards. 



Such a regulation, owing to the cost of its observance, would 

 automatically keep the heights within reasonable limits, as no 

 owners would care to face the expense of such architectural 

 embellishment if in excess of anticipated financial returns. In 

 cases, however, where a building was carried up, then it would 

 become an architectural landmark in the city panorama. 



Some objection may be raised as to obstructing the sunshine 

 in streets already shadowed by buildings higher than their width ; 

 but such being the case, and the latitude 30 degrees south, where 

 shade is an advantage, such objection does not impress itself on 

 consideration. 



Climatic Differences. 



Whether or not the assimilation of municipal government 

 throughout the whole of Australia is possible or desirable is a 

 wide subject. We people of British origin are apt to bring our 

 insularity with us, and we live, move, build, and have our being 

 (or try to) by exactly similar methods, whether it be in Hobart, 



