. American architecture . h word, of the whole building towards theapex of the main mass at the angle, from the point ofview from which the illustration is taken. It is clearly toassist and emphasize the ascent and convergence of allthe lines of the building to this apex, and to enhancethe apparent dimensions, that this mass is raised astory, and the extremities of the building allowed to fallaway, and it is in order to account for the emphasizingof this mass by a separate roof that the somewhat awk-ward expedient has been adopted of dropping the cor-nice on the street side below the eaves. Ne
. American architecture . h word, of the whole building towards theapex of the main mass at the angle, from the point ofview from which the illustration is taken. It is clearly toassist and emphasize the ascent and convergence of allthe lines of the building to this apex, and to enhancethe apparent dimensions, that this mass is raised astory, and the extremities of the building allowed to fallaway, and it is in order to account for the emphasizingof this mass by a separate roof that the somewhat awk-ward expedient has been adopted of dropping the cor-nice on the street side below the eaves. New Yorkreaders who are familiar with the aspect of the DryDock Savings-Bank in the Bowery will know what ismeant by this pyramidization, and will remember howit is there attained. Now it happens that it is pre-cisely this intention which in the present instance isobscured and partly defeated by the tormenting of thesky-line, which in turn may be traced to the insistenceof the architect upon his extremely pretty but irrele-. HOUSE OF CORNELIUS B. Post, Architect. THE VANDERBILT HOUSES 5l vant turret. It is a good lesson in architecture to findthat the effect of a whole may be so much impaired byone of the most successful of the parts, and that evenwhen the thing is really rich and rare, we may stillbe unsatisfied how it got there. Happily neitherthis shortcoming, nor shortcomings much graver, couldprevent such a work as this from being an ornamentto the city, and an honorable monument to its archi-tect. Perhaps it is because Mr. Post, the architect of thehouse of Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, has not attemptedso much as Mr. Hunt that his work may be called atonce more successful and less interesting. In color ithas more and in design less of variety. For the mo-notony of gray wall and black roof it substitutes redbrick, with wrought work of the same gray limestoneemployed in the house we have been talking of,and with a red slated roof broken by great stonedormers. I
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectarchitecture, bookyea
