154 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
March, 1906 
Monthly Comment 
The Exhibition of the Architectural League of New York 
HE Architectural League of New York 
prides itself, with some justness, on the ex- 
tent of its annual exhibitions. Quality is, 
perhaps, another matter; but one sometimes 
wonders if there be any real quality in mod- 
ern work—speaking generally, and taking 1 in 
nailainee of every sort and kind—that is worth serious con- 
sideration. But the Architectural League has always been 
long on size; its exhibitions fill several galleries, and fill them 
well; not always crowded, it is true, but so well filled that the 
regular “exhibition fatigue’ is a necessary result of a visit. 
Several things distinguish the exhibitions of the League 
from other architectural shows. It is something to have con- 
ducted an architectural exhibition every year for twenty 
years, and as a matter of fact the exhibition of 1906 is the 
twenty-first. Ripe old age has not settled down upon the 
League, it is true, but this is a very respectable time in which 
to have been holding such shows. And then they have the 
very superior advantage of being held in New York. It is 
true enough that the hapless ones without the metropolis are 
sometimes given to thanking the fate that has located them 
without the metropolis. There is nothing like being satisfied, 
and well satisfied, with one’s lot in life; and if there are 
mortals who do not like New York, they would do well to 
keep away from it—there are enough people here who have 
to stay here or who are unable to get away, without bring- 
ing in unwilling outsiders. But events in New York have an 
importance because they are in New York, which is not the 
case with occurrences elsewhere. An architectural exhibition 
of the size of those held by the League in some remote corner 
of New Jersey, for example, would attract no attention what- 
ever, not even locally; but here in New York it bids for fame, 
and even in the crowded events of metropolitan life has more 
than a passing word given to it. 
BuT one could never visit the Architectural League’s ex- 
hibitions with the commendable desire of finding out how we 
stand in contemporary architecture. ‘They are neither ar- 
ranged nor conducted with the view of giving this interesting 
information. The exhibits are easier to get nowadays than 
heretofore, because the architects and others who contribute 
to them have realized their value to themselves. But the con- 
ductors of these shows must take, and can only take, what is 
offered them, and many a notable architect does not exhibit 
in them, and many a notable structure is never shown within 
the walls of its galleries. 
This can hardly be said of the exhibition of 1906, for a 
number of really notable structures were exhibited with some 
sufficient fulness. Vast metropolitan edifices, like the new 
buildings for the New York Central and Hudson River Rail- 
road, the splendid new Office Buildings for the Senate and 
the House at Washington; the new State Capitol of Wis- 
consin, and other really great buildings formed a conspicuous 
part of the collection. Fine? Quite impressive and _ per- 
haps sufficiently worthy for their objects and for ourselves 
as builders in the twentieth century. Designs of quite fair 
excellence, devoid of eccentricities, and, some of them, frankly 
modeled on excellent historical precedent. It is hard to 
get far away under such conditions. It is something to have 
large buildings such as these, of large cost and intended for 
conspicuous positions that are good. They could so easily 
have been bad, and might, indeed, have been horrid. They at 
least suggest the thought that the time for really bad things 
in conspicuous architecture has, for the present, at least, 
passed away in America. 
Tue exhibition was remarkable for the considerable 
number of houses, especially country houses, which it con- 
tained. The country house has not always fared well in 
these annual gatherings of contemporary work, because an 
architect would rather, any day, design a great commercial 
building, or a mausoleum or similarly inspiring building, 
which would link his name to fame, and incidentally give 
him a larger commission, than a mere private dwelling house. 
Perhaps, in the past year, there have been fewer great struc- 
tures to design. Whatever the reason, the walls of the 1906 
exhibition were adorned with many house designs, not a few 
of which were of unusual interest. 
I do not believe in looking for the latest fashions in archi- 
tecture at the League, because I have too long been aware 
how the exhibits are gathered; but if this show makes any- 
thing clear it is that the day of the formal country house is 
passing away. And I donot hesitate to say this of an exhibi- 
tion that contains the magnificent houses of Mr. Murry Gug- 
genheim, or of Mr. W. L. Stowe, or of Capt. Larz Anderson, 
and a number of other conspicuous houses that are thor- 
oughly stately in design, and which, while monumental, con- 
tain no hint of the picturesque. 
But picturesque houses abound in the League’s show, some 
of them very good; some of them more than good; some 
foolish; some fine examples of personal vagaries. We have 
not yet got beyond that, of course, and perhaps never will. 
Of Colonial houses, once so fashionable, there is hardly one. 
That was always a safe style to design in; the models were 
comparatively accessible, and apparently the materials could 
be had by the carload all ready for erection, if not for ad- 
miration. It is not yet gone from us altogether, for at best 
it is a style of many excellencies; and the picturesque styles 
are traps for the unwary, difficult to compose; very delightful 
when well done; quite unmentionable when bad. 
A Goop deal of space is always given in these exhibitions to 
color and decorative work and to sculpture. They are the 
most conspicuous exhibitions in which artists working in these 
mediums can exhibit the products of their brush and brain. 
Of the products of the brush there is ample evidence, but it 
is hard to think that much brain work went into the making 
of some of the larger cartoons, which take up a great deal 
of space and which represent nothing in particular so far as 
ideas are concerned. Of course there are ideas behind all 
this, for otherwise brush would not be put to canvas; but 
there is much unexplained material and much that quite fails 
to excite interest. And yet these brilliantly colored draw- 
ing do excite interest, if for no other reason than their con- 
trast with the quiet drawings of buildings for which the ex- 
hibition is held. 
Sculpture was weak in the exhibition so far as quantity 
went. The most notable works were shown in photographs 
only, the splendid groups by Mr. Daniel C. French for the 
new Custom House in New York. One or two sketches for 
monuments, and a couple of pair of caryatides for Senator 
Clark’s vast palace in New York about completed the list of 
sculptured works. Landscape gardening was shown in a 
number of notable photographs, which were more satisfactory 
than any quantity of plans. 
