12 
HO USE & GARDEN 
ready to build, they have really made up 
their minds pretty well as to the things they 
would like if they could get them, and the 
things which they do not care much about. 
Such a process proceeds very much 
more smoothly when only one of a mar¬ 
ried couple is very deeply interested in the 
house (and I have found in the course 
of my practice that there is generally 
one of every married couple who has the 
say), but in the few instances where 
both people are greatly interested, and 
where their tastes do not agree, the prob¬ 
lem put up to the architect is not easy. 
I remember the case of one of the 
most agreeable pairs of clients I have 
ever had: the man wanted a Long Island 
farmhouse, and the woman wanted one 
of “those English plaster houses.” They 
finally compromised on a plaster house 
of Dutch Colonial outline, which neither 
of them wanted in the beginning, and 
yet with which they both appear to be 
very thoroughly pleased, though I think 
that both have in the back of their minds 
the idea that eventually they will sell this 
house and build the house they wanted 
in the beginning. Then will begin again 
the old controversy. 
The Selection of Type 
In the present state of American archi¬ 
tecture, where we are borrowing very 
freely from all sorts of historic motives, 
and redesigning them to fit American 
needs, it is not unusual to have people 
come in with a clipping book 
full of houses of a half dozen 
different types, and ask the 
architect to tell them which 
is the best. Now there may 
not be any best; each may 
be very good or very bad of 
its particular kind, and when 
the clients seem to have no 
particular preference for 
any one of them, there is no 
way in which the architect 
can determine in advance 
what sort of a house that 
client wants. In this case 
there is only one real way 
to settle the problem, and as 
a matter of fact it is the way 
in which the selection of 
type should always be de¬ 
termined ; to see what the 
surrounding houses are, 
what the landscape is, and 
what sort of a house will 
best fit in between the neigh¬ 
bors and on the particular 
site. Lots of times, how¬ 
ever, this is not satisfactory 
to the client; he may want 
an English house on a vil¬ 
lage street between two Co¬ 
lonial ones, or a Colonial 
house on a bare, rugged hill¬ 
top where an English house 
can alone be made to look 
passably well, and usually 
the client’s conceptions pre¬ 
vail over the architect’s bet¬ 
ter judgment, and he does 
what he feels to be wrong, 
because he is governed by 
his client. He does what he 
can, not the best he can; but 
is, of course, held complete¬ 
ly responsible for the result. 
The majority of things that people great¬ 
ly desire are matters of detail. The inten¬ 
sive housekeeper will come in with a dozen 
plans and photographs of model kitchens, 
model pantries, and the latest approved hy- 
Aymar Embury, II, architect 
Because of its authenticity of design and 
simplicity of setting this type of Colonial 
door appeals to the prospective builder 
gienic kitchen cupboards. In a case like 
that I do not try to interpose any sugges¬ 
tions at all; I just do what I am told to 
do, for I have learned from experience 
that the perhaps two hundred and fifty 
women with whom I have dealt have 
two hundred and fifty different sets of 
ideas of how practical housekeeping 
should be conducted, and while I think 
I probably know more about the theory 
than any one of them, because I have 
the testimony of so many experts, I have 
learned that there is no sense in a mere 
man’s endeavoring to advise them about 
such a function. 
Questions of Taste 
The toughest jobs I have ever had 
have come from people of real but eclec¬ 
tic taste, and who are, because of the 
fact that you feel they are really in¬ 
formed, difficult to convict of error. For 
example, on page 11 there is a bully Eng¬ 
lish courtyard entered through a stone 
and iron gateway. This illustration 
might easily have been brought in by 
some client with the idea that it should 
be used as an entrance to the Colonial 
house on page 13. It might very reason¬ 
ably be the entrance gate of the house 
on this page, because it is like that house 
in spirit and in scale, or if not like it, 
at least it is susceptible of revision with¬ 
out losing its charm. But the client who 
likes that gateway, and also likes the 
shingle house, is hard to pry away from 
the deep rooted belief that 
an intelligent architect can 
successfully combine them. 
The process of reasoning 
by which an architect ar¬ 
rives at the conclusion that 
they cannot be used together 
is somewhat as follows: the 
house itself is of frame con¬ 
struction ; its accessories 
should not be of material 
more expensive and more 
permanent than the house it¬ 
self ; the gate is of stone and 
iron. If one enters through 
a monumental type of gate 
such as this, one expects to 
find a monumental sort of 
house behind it, and not the 
pleasant, homely, Colonial 
structure in the illustration. 
Therefore the gates should 
be of wood, or the house 
should be of stone, it does 
not make much difference 
which, but at least the two 
should be of what is com¬ 
monly regarded as equally 
durable construction. 
In other words when you 
begin with a certain type of 
thing in mind, the leit motif, 
to borrow a musical term, 
should be sustained through¬ 
out. Now this does not 
mean that a stone and iron 
gateway can only be used 
with an English house, be¬ 
cause this particular stone 
and iron gateway is used 
with an English house; there 
are many stone Colonial 
houses and plenty of stone 
Colonial gateways ; there are 
even many remaining exam- 
Geoffrey Lucas, architect 
The half timber detail is often a stumbling block. In this English example 
are several points of interesting treatment 
