PROJET FOR A NATIONAL MEMORIAL MONUMENT
One of a set of remarkable drawings presented in competition

ornamented mouldings and all other detail of like nature, and these full size models, after change and final approval by the architect, go to wood-carvers, stonecarvers and metal founders, together with the drawings, so that no mistakes may occur in execution. Owing to the importance of the work involved on a large building, the various sub-contractors, such as marble workers, wood-workers and bronze-casters, send reliable men of their own to take minute measurements of the building, as it progresses, so that they may be positive of the dimensions to which they are working the several parts entrusted to them, and which are being executed in different mills and stone yards miles from the building itself.

And it is a marvellous tribute to the painstaking accuracy of draughtsmen and artisans to see with what perfect exactitude various members of marble, wood, bronze and other materials, assembled from different shops, will fit together "on the job," each in its designed place.

Here, too, in the carrying out of plans for a great building, it must be remembered that the architect is not simply a free-lance "designer," netting an enormous fee. He is under tremendous expense in getting out the drawings and providing adequate supervision, and as he is, in a sense, the steward of considerable expenditures, he must have an expert accountant to check bills, handle his pay-roll, and render to his client accurate and businesslike financial statements at any time he may be required.

Notwithstanding which, there are many architects who would say that they could build a state capitol or a public library with far less personal harassment and annoyance than they would experience in building an $8000 cottage for a captious client.

CHAPTER III

MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

CONSIDERATION OF PHYSICAL AND ESTHETIC PROPERTIES OF BUILDING MATERIALS. NATURES, SUITABILITY, COMPARATIVE COSTS, ETC., OF BUILDING MATERIALS. THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXTURE. ASSOCIATED SUITABILITY OF MATERIALS AND STYLES

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NOMMON observation has acquainted us with the fact that there is quite a variety of building materials, but the prospective builder is naturally at a loss to compare them one with another in a knowing manner. All building materials, he knows, have certain physical, architectural and æsthetic properties, and in the choice of any one he knows there are involved certain economic considerations as well.

The question of choice, happily, is not untrammeled, but is in fact actually limited. The greatest confusion, perhaps, results from ideas not clearly visualised, and satisfaction in the ultimate choice should be reasonably certain of attainment if the prospective builder saw each material, with its exact properties, unshrouded by the veil of complexity, mystery and unfamiliarity.

It is the purpose of this chapter, then, to establish certain specific premises, and to tabulate materials (with types of construction involved) in a manner which shall be at once definite and clear.

The following materials, involving differing methods of construction, will be dealt with in a necessarily brief manner, yet with a degree of lucidity which may aid the prospective builder in defining his ideas in this connection.

TABLE A

1. The frame house: Shingle-covered.

2. The frame house: Clapboard-covered.

3. The frame house: With stucco on wire-lath.

4. The hollow tile house (stucco-covered).

5. The brick house.

6. The stone house (rough-dressed stone).

7. The actual half-timber house.

In discussing these several types of house, it may aid the end of clearness to show in tabulated form the more important aspects under which any material may well be considered.

There are, in the first place, certain restrictions in choice, which we will tabulate.

TABLE B

1. Restriction of inherent cost.

2. Cost restriction due to locality: material locally unobtainable, and expensive to transport.

3. Style restriction, due to unsuitability of a given material for the expression of style desired.

The several considerations under which building materials tabulated are interdependent and closely interrelated, will be seen in the following table: