An American Architect 
caily, for by means of it has been achieved 
the beauty of monotony, of multiplicity,— 
the enchantment of the eye by numbers. 
“ The materials of a building are but the 
elements of earth removed from the matrix 
of Nature, and reorganized and reshaped by 
force—by force mechanical, muscular, men¬ 
tal, emotional, moral and spiritual.” The 
exterior of the building is all of terra-cotta 
of a salmon-red color, and every square foot 
—almost every square inch—of this vast sur¬ 
face is “reshaped by force” with beautiful 
ornament, fine as lace and strong as steel, 
infinitely various and original. By reason of 
its flatness and its delicacy, though it charms 
the eye it nowhere assumes a prominence 
sufficient to detract from the simplicity and 
dignity of the architectural composition. 
Moreover, the ornament is of a kind exactly 
suited to the plastic nature of fire-clay; 
it is clear at a glance that 
it was modeled, not carved, 
and the subdivisions of the 
pattern have been considered 
in relation to the joints, so 
that these are nowhere too 
apparent. 
The building is rich in 
those little felicities which re¬ 
veal the artist. For example, 
the strength of the angular 
corner is emphasized by treat¬ 
ing it something in the form 
of a bead rising sheer from 
base to summit, and this slen¬ 
der, stem-like member flowers 
out at its far, topmost ex¬ 
tremity into an exquisite folia¬ 
tion which seems to cling to 
and lap over the edge of the 
main cornice, mitigating its 
geometric severity of line. 
Even the dirtiness of the at¬ 
mosphere has been made to 
serve esthetic ends, for the 
terra-cotta ornament is of such 
a nature that particles of dust 
or soot, lodging in the inter¬ 
stices, bring the pattern into 
relief, and the building thus 
grows more beautiful instead 
of uglier with the lapse of 
a wood screen with characteristic ornament years. Mr. Sullivan has 
by artfully emphasizing the vertical dimen¬ 
sion, so that when seen in sharp perspective 
the windows lose themselves behind the piers 
and the eye is carried irresistibly upward to 
the beautiful coved cornice which crowns the 
structure. 
“The shape, form, outward expression of 
the tall office building should in the very 
nature of things follow the function of the 
building and when the function does not 
change the form is not to change.” The 
first tw'o storeys, which may be called the 
“ mercantile storeys,” serve a different pur¬ 
pose from the rest, and so they are treated 
differently, but above them all of the win¬ 
dows are of the same size and are spaced 
equally far apart because they light offices of 
the same size and equally desirable. This 
best thing practically, has been made by the 
skill of the designer the best thing estheti- 
