THE MODEL SUBMITTED BY ISIDORE KONTI AND LEWIS P. HOBART 
the McKinley memorial competition 
IN PHILADELPHIA 
W HEN the competition for the McKin¬ 
ley Memorial closed on March 2d, the 
designs submitted numbered thirty-eight. 
Sculptors and architects in many cases had 
worked in conjunction with each other in the 
preparation of single schemes represented 
by plaster models. The best five designs 
were awarded prizes of $500 each, and the 
competitors thus honored were : 
Isidore Konti, sculptor, and Lewis P. 
Hobart, architect. 
Augustus Lukeman, sculptor, and C. 
H oward Walker and George B. Howe, 
architects. 
H. N. Matzen, sculptor and architect. 
H. A. MacNeil, sculptor, and Lord & 
Hewlett, architects. 
Charles Albert Lopez, sculptor, and Albert 
Ross, architect. 
d'he models exhibited raise the figure of 
the late President into appropriate promi¬ 
nence by means of such architectural acces¬ 
sories as pedestals, shafts, steps and exedrae. 
These alone, however, do not fully compose 
the setting which the figure of McKinley 
would occupy if any one of these designs 
should be carried out as the program implies. 
T he site named is immediately in front of a 
minor pavilion of Memorial Hall in Lair- 
mount Park. The exact position is in a line 
of trees which, at present, screens the facade 
of the building. These lateral masses of 
verdure would provide a fine setting for the 
new ornament, while before it a wide avenue 
would give a commanding view from the 
front. 
With such landmarks in mind as the 
colossal bronze Pegasii, which flank the 
entrance to the Hall, and also the new 
Smith Memorial entrance to the Park, both 
of which are situated near by, obviously a 
fortunate conception of the McKinley 
Memorial would be modest in scale and 
rathtr restrained in outline. The work 
should not compete with its elder and larger 
neighbors, and it should be suited to illu¬ 
mine the view of a minor pavilion of 
Memorial Hall, since a site before the main 
pavilion of that building could not be 
obtained. Moreover the cost was not to 
exceed $30,000, a conclusive condition for 
restraint. Of the five designs which the jury 
brought forward as the best of all those sub¬ 
mitted, three certainly offer no competition 
to the existing objects we have mentioned. 
Indeed it may be questioned if two are 
sufficiently lofty to assert themselves with 
any degree of positiveness in the surround¬ 
ings described. 
One of the most interesting things to be 
observed in the competition is the variety 
appearing in the plans, and this is the more 
261 
