On the Choice of Style in Building a House 
of his knowledge of and devotion to 
those styles that his work reaches so 
high a plane of urbanity and courtli¬ 
ness. It is because Mr. Charles Mc- 
Kim has an ineradicable conviction 
that it is from Italy, whether of the 
classical times or of the Renaissance, 
that we should draw our inspiration 
that he can clothe the needs of our 
own time in a garb that for dignity 
of manner and for perfection of 
proportion and of detail, sometimes 
equals the best of the examples for 
which he shows such complete devo¬ 
tion. 
In the face of obsessions such as 
these, how futile it is for the owner 
to talk of choosing his own style. It 
is only when he selects an architect 
devoid of definite convictions that he 
will be confronted with the troubles 
which the question put to the editor 
presupposes. Yet in this connection another thing 
needs saying, and that is that the power these 
men have of producing work of great distinction 
comes not alone from their definite convictions on 
the subject of style, but also, and this is far more 
important, from the fact that each is an artist of 
such rare ability that even if he were set to work in an 
alien style he would design buildings of far greater 
interest than the work of most other men. 
And now the editor insists that, to end this ramb¬ 
ling discourse, I shall sum up all by a statement of 
my own opinion upon the choice of style. The only 
SVVAYLANDS, PENSHURST, KENT 
thought that comes to me is one that stands for an 
ideal difficult of realization for men of this genera¬ 
tion. It is precisely the one I put forth awhile ago, 
by saying that if the plan be a simple and direct ex¬ 
pression of the needs and life of the people who are 
to live in the house, and if the elevations are a logical 
outgrowth from and a reasonable expression of 
that plan, and if the whole be made beautiful 
and vocal of its time and place, then the build¬ 
ing will have style in the best sense and will 
need none of that exotic or archaeological style 
that is the bane of so much of our work to-day. 
Albert Kelsey, Architect 
65 
