HOUSE AND GARDEN 
172 
May, 1910 
The Villa Bleu, Garden City, L. I., is of cream-color stucco with blue 
roof and blinds. Albro & Lindeberg, architects 
Villa Castello, one of two small palaces owned by the Royal House of 
Italy, illustrates the charm of subtle asymmetry in the openings 
metrical whole—an effect difficult to obtain in any other style. 
Of course objection is made that this is not an “indigenous 
style.” My own impression is that except for the Pueblos and 
the cliff-dwellers the only “indigenous style” is the wigwam, but 
I do not feel myself entirely 
limited to this precedent. 
The fact is that our mod¬ 
ern conditions, both material 
and intellectual, are so far 
removed from even the colo¬ 
nial farmer that their kind of 
house does not fit, at least 
not without such serious mod¬ 
ification as to destroy its 
entity. Whereas the archi¬ 
tecture of the Italian Renais¬ 
sance is the result of an activ¬ 
ity, both intellectual and ma¬ 
terial, which is measurably 
reproduced in our present 
conditions. And the indica¬ 
tions are very strong that we 
are entering on a period of 
esthetic renaissance which has 
a very vital impulse. 
Both on the score of prac¬ 
tical economy, therefore, of 
adaptability to the materials, 
and as representing the intel¬ 
lectual and esthetic status 
of the present generation, the 
Italian Renaissance seems the 
most reasonable starting point 
from which to develop our 
domestic architecture, espe¬ 
cially as regards country 
house work. 
Of course, it does not need 
saying that the fact that this 
Italian style is not necessarily 
formal and symmetrical, does 
not make it any the less well 
adapted to the most formal 
and precise type of building. 
While this type of house 
may be executed with equal 
propriety in stone, marble, 
brick, or concrete blocks, it is peculiarly adapted to a stucco 
treatment. In fact a very large proportion of the buildings in 
Italy, even among the finest examples, are built of stucco on a 
rubble stone wall. The writer well recalls passing a Flor¬ 
entine palace near the Riccardi 
in the company of an edu¬ 
cated Italian. Something 
was said about the building 
being of plaster and, surprise 
being expressed, my compan¬ 
ion, with the utmost sang froid, 
took the end of his umbrella 
and broke off a good-sized 
piece from what looked like 
a heavily rusticated stone. 
This, however, should not be 
taken as an indorsement of 
the vicious practice of imita¬ 
ting stone in stucco. There 
is no worse crime in the some¬ 
what extended repertoire of 
an architect than this same 
lack of frankness. 
As a rule, a stucco house, 
unrelieved by decoration or 
ornament, has a cold and 
rather uninviting look, and it 
is, I believe, for this reason 
that half-timber work has 
been so often tried, unfortu¬ 
nately with almost uniform 
lack of success. Now it is 
quite possible to use exterior 
color decoration on stucco if 
it is done discreetly and with 
good judgment. 
By using simple designs 
and quiet low-toned color, the 
monotony of the plaster wall 
may be relieved. This method 
of decoration is, of course, 
not uncommon in the north 
of Italy and is found even 
as far south as Florence, and 
may be perfectly well adapted 
to the conditions of our mod¬ 
ern design. 
Italian adaptations give the most appropriate setting for the most 
perfectly developed type of formal 'garden design Charles A. 
Platt, architect 
