Planning the House 



It has always been a failing of the general public to expect about twice or 

 three times the value of every dollar it spends. In the case of the building of a 

 house, the prospective builder wants this and that and something else that he 

 has seen, until the grand total has run up, without the slightest exertion, from 

 the five-thousand-dollar limit to ten or fifteen thousand. It is so natural to want 

 things, and so fatally easy. 



To meet the wants of his client and in the hope of pleasing him, the 

 architect naturally blunders into the same snare. Even at the risk of over-run- 

 ning a little, he attempts what he knows to be impossibilities. Often, too, he 

 wittingly runs over in the knowledge that clients frequently have named a certain 

 limit, with the predetermination of spending more if necessary. There are, of 

 course, unscrupulous architects who intend to deceive and involve the client, but 

 these, happily, are few. Unfortunately, though few in number, they may have 

 done much to further the false notion of the profession at large. 



There is another condition which does much to roughen the smooth relations 

 between client and 



architect, and that , 



is the remarkable 

 self-assurance of the 

 former. Does the 

 average man at- 

 tempt to plan a loco- 

 motive, a sailing 

 vessel or the detail 

 survey of a railroad ? 

 He goes to the ex- 

 pert, of course. 

 With the house it is 

 different. It is so 

 simple 1 ike " rol- 

 ling off a log/' The 

 architect is only a 

 copyist, anyway he 

 doesn't originate 

 anything. Just here 

 he makes a grave 

 mistake. Yes, the 

 average man can 

 plan a house, and 

 it may stand as long 

 and as well as an- 

 other; he can plan a 

 locomotive, too, but 

 will it ever get 

 beyond the model 



5 Tl L House at Osterville, Mass. An interesting solution of the summer problem. 



r 1 he hoUSe Chapman & Frazer, architects 



