group of American buildings-yet this group represents such a splendid and remarkable architectural achievement that its significance could not be overlooked in the works of any period or any nationality.

In this specific sense, the term "Military Gothic" is to be regarded as applying to the buildings of the United States Military Academy at West Point, on the Hudson River-in a more general sense it is to be regarded as applying to the massive, rugged, fortresslike type of Gothic architecture called Norman Gothic. A paragraphic study of the buildings at West Point will serve to make clear the architectural qualities to be understood by the term "Military Gothic," so that any less specific considerations may be regarded as

unnecessary.

It is apparent that the idea of military architecture immediately conveys some thought of a fortress or a castle, of a place to be defended. From time immemorial man has availed himself of nature's aid in building any kind of defense by selecting as a site some inaccessible crag like Tintagel, some natural eminence which must offer to an enemy as great a difficulty of approach as possible. One does not conceive of a fortress built on a plain, or in a valley. And so, regardless of any actual necessity, or even contingency of military defense, our thoughts of a military edifice picture first a considerable natural height as the location for such a building.

In this particular of mental association, the site of the group at West Point is at once logical and appropriate, the massive buildings crowning the steep bank of the Hudson River with an impressive bulk of sturdy masonry. Whereas Ecclesiastica! Gothic architecture is at its best in the achievement of delicate lightness

and attenuation, Military Gothic is obviously at its best in the achievement of tremendous weight and condensation of form. In this architectural quality the buildings at West Point are manifestly successful. They are, furthermore, of significant interest to the student as a group-study as well as an individual building study, for the work was won in competition largely because it was so apparent, even to a committee of unarchitectural judges, that here was a tremendous and expressive architectural idea, a dominant architectural purpose in the vision of the designers. In this, incidentally, lies the difference between a mere building and a work of architecture-the first lacking purpose, and consequently failing in expression; the second being the result of a definite and intelligent architectural intention.

on

These observations on Gothic derivations in American architecture may be concluded by a few comments "Commercial Gothic," and on the difficulty of creating, or re-creating in this country a "Domestic Gothic." The term "Commercial Gothic" is, from the very natures of the commercial idea and the Gothic idea, a paradoxical term, yet one which most aptly applies to certain of our architectural essays. Much architecture, indeed, is paradoxical in theory, not only in this country but in certain historic periods in Europe, and it is this fact which, to some extent, makes such a term as "Commercial Gothic" an apt and accurate one, in fact, while it may well be criticised as a paradoxical one on paper.

It is to be submitted, however, that the variance between ideas suggested by "Commercial" and ideas suggested by "Gothic" is a variance rather in the realm of thought than between the actual architectural

AN AMERICAN DERIVATION FROM ENGLISH SCHOLASTIC ARCHITECTURE The buildings of the old Colleges of Oxford and Cambridge in England show the transition from Gothic to Renaissance feeling. The peculiar dignity and charm of this style have been admirably rendered here

(The Provost's Tower, University of Pennsylvania)

A rugged and imposing version of the great ecclesiastical style
(The Chapel of the West Point Military Academy)

requirements of our modern office buildings and the degree to which the Gothic style may be applied to them. A Gothic "derivation," however, is the most that may be claimed, for the reason that a steel building structurally dispenses with the Gothic essentials of vaulting, pointed arches and buttresses. Structurally a modern steel building possesses no point in common with any Gothic building. Superficially, however, a striking affinity becomes apparent at once.

The modern steel building is "perpendicular" in form; it springs from a far smaller ground area than any Gothic church, and towers to greater heights. The perpendicular "movement" of its lines is essential, and for this the Gothic style offers a direct external expression. Furthermore, by reason of the comparative slenderness of the steel skeleton, and the desirability of devising well-lighted offices, a predominant proportion of void to solid is called for in the design. Here, again, the Gothic style offers an architectural solution, with its tall, slender, vertical members, and its absence of solid wall spaces. The Gothic style is adaptable for the external, or superficial, expression of the modern steel building for exactly the same reasons that the Romanesque style, considered earlier, proved not to be adaptable.

Thus, despite the absolute incompatibility of the purposes and ideas of a modern office building and the purposes and ideas of a Gothic church, and despite the obvious structural differences existing between them, there is, nevertheless, an adequate sanction for Gothic derivations in the modern tall buildings of to-day.

It is not intended to imply that the Gothic style offers the only solution of the problem, and others are alluded to in the ninth chapter. It is intended.