826 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 89. 



of those who have worked out the types of 

 rolling or lift bridges that cross the Chicago 

 river, the less said about the beauty of the de- 

 signs the better. Perhaps the environment 

 imposes ugliness on the designer. But that 

 problem is hardly solved yet, and will not 

 be, until some man gets hold of it that com- 

 bines aesthetic with scientific qualities and 

 has insight keen enough to see the possi- 

 bilities of the situation and adroitness 

 enough to manage, not only the physical, 

 but also the human factors — a rare combina- 

 tion. 



In the entire field of engineering there is 

 no portion of it that includes a greater va- 

 riety of intricate and difficult problems for 

 solution than that connected with municipal 

 life. Here the engineer has to do with 

 matters touching the home life ; the dwell- 

 ing, its heating, ventilation and lighting, 

 its drainage and water supply, etc. There 

 is the business life that demands atten- 

 tion for the stores, office blocks, banks and 

 exchanges, manufactories and shops, ware- 

 houses and elevators with all of their re- 

 quirements of heating, cooling, lighting, 

 ventilation, drainage, power and internal 

 communication through elevators, pneu- 

 matic systems and alarms. Then there is 

 the larger life of the city as a whole that 

 needs public buildings, churches, schools, 

 hospitals, libraries, museums, hotels, the- 

 aters, railway stations and markets, each 

 with its own peculiar demands; streets and 

 systems for rapid transit, both intramural 

 and suburban ; the distribution of water, 

 heat, cold, light and power ; pneumatic 

 systems for carrying packages ; electrical 

 conduits ; sewerage and garbage systems, 

 with the plants for their treatment or dis- 

 posal ; wharves and railway yards ; parks, 

 boulevards, play grounds, plazas; the open- 

 ing of new territory to accommodate the 

 city's growth. 



The engineer here comes in close contact 

 with the people that daily and hourly use 



the results of his work. He already in- 

 fluences their health and bank accounts for 

 the better, gives them greater ease and con- 

 venience at work or play and saves their 

 time. This is what is asked of him and he 

 meets the demand well. But what an up- 

 lift would come to city life, how much 

 richer it would be, if he could put an artis- 

 tic quality into his designing and the people 

 would learn to appreciate it. It is not to 

 be inferred that there is an entire absence 

 of this, but rather that artistic effects have 

 been largely confined to individual cases, 

 and not made manifest in the general life of 

 the city. For instance, there are numerous 

 examples of suburban dwellings, beautiful 

 internally and externally and with harmo- 

 nious settings ; there are occasional busi- 

 ness blocks whose treatment is satisfactory, 

 but very few public buildings that have an 

 adequate artistic meaning and are so 

 situated as to express this advantageously 

 if they did posssss it. Without detracting 

 in the least from the acknowledged merits 

 of Trinity Church, Boston, it must be ad- 

 mitted that its roomy location on one side 

 of an open plaza adds greatly to its effec- 

 tiveness. Think of its being placed in the 

 middle of a block on "Washington street, 

 or set in the midst of brownstone fronts on 

 Fifth avenue ! All public buildings need 

 both room and an appropriate setting. 

 They are the larger and more important 

 pictures in the gallery of city structures ; 

 yet under the prevailing system of rectangu- 

 lar blocks, bounded by long, straight and 

 narrow streets, the hanging committee has 

 nothing but the walls of corridors on which 

 to place them. The worst of the matter is 

 that the exhibition is a permanent one. 

 Along these alleyways must also be hung 

 the narrow, vertically elongated panels that 

 seem to be so popular to-day, in favor be- 

 cause they pay. The observer needs a 

 twenty story ladder in order to study their 

 details or even to know if they have any and 



