AIA Southern Chapter Proceedings

28 The Southern Chapter, A. I. A.

committee consisting of L. F. Goodrich, D. B. Woodruff and F. L. Rosseau., who reported that in their opinion it is inexpedient at that time to take any action, and recommended that the resolution be laid upon the table. Upon motion of Mr. Lind the report of the committee was adopted.

At this point the Secretary stated that there had been a successful attempt made by some members of the Institute to have the dictionaries make a clear distinction between the "supervision" of work by architects and the "superintendence" of work, and that it was understood that such distinction would be in future editions of the dictionaries, and that it was high time that the profession generally were dropping the expression "superintendence," as applied to their "supervision" of work; as superintendence could be furnished only by persons who remained all the while on the building, and this was clearly the duty of the cleck of the works; and the expression "superintendence" should not be used in connection with architectural service.

Mr. Helmich : In view of the fact that the evening session will be occupied by the members of the Legislature, and the amount of work that is yet to be accomplished, it strikes me that we should go into the election of officers at this morning session instead of afternoon, as formerly decided upon, and since Mr. Burke has waived his objection to proceeding before hearing the report of the Committee on the Treasurer's Accounts, I move that we hear the report of the Nominating Committees now.

Which motion was carried.

Mr. D. A. Helmick, chairman of one of the committees, submitted the following recommendation : Mr. L. F. Goodrich for President, W. P. Tinsley for Vice-President, Mr. P. E. Dennis, Secretary and Treasurer. Directors: D. B. Wood, ruff, T. H. Morgan, Tom Wood, T. H. Maddox and C. C. Burke.

Mr. Chas. Wheelock, chairman of the other committee. made the following recommendation : Mr. L. F. Goodrich for President, Mr. E. G. Lind for Vice-President, and W. P. Tinsley for Secretary and Treasurer. Directors : C. C.

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Burke, T. H. Maddox, T. H. Morgan, D.B. Woodruff and Tom Wood. Since both committees recommended Mr. Goodrich for President, on motion of Mr. Lind, Mr. W.S. Smith was directed to cast the vote of the Chapter for Mr. Goodrich, wich resulted in the election of Mr. L. F. Goodrich as the President for the ensuing year. A ballot was taken for Vice-President, which resulted in the election of Mr. E. G. Lind as Vice-President for the ensuing year. A ballot was taken for Secretary and Treasurer and resulted in the election of W. P. Tinsley as Secretary and Treasurer for the ensuing year. The names composing the Board of Directors, recommended by both committees, being the same, the Secretary and Treasurer was directed to cast the vote of convention for the Board of Directors, and resulted in the election of C. C. Burke, T. H. Maddox, T. H. Morgan, D. B. Woodruff and Tom Wood, for the ensuing year.

SECOND DAY - AFTERNOON SESSION. 3 P. M. The President: We will now hear the report of the Committee appointed to examine the Secretary and Treasurer's accounts. Mr. Lind : As Chairman of this Committee I beg to report that we have examined the Secretary and Treasurer's accounts and find them correct. On motion of Mr. Goodrich the report of the committee was received, and the committee discharged.

TREASURER'S REPORT. Amount collected from dues ......................................$ 118.00 Amount paid out for expenses of all kinds ................... 64.96

Leaving balance in treasury ........................................$ 53.04 Amount of outstanding claims of all kinds and not paid.$60.30

Upon motion of Mr. Helmich the report of the treasurer was adopted and ordered to be spread upon the Minutes of the convention. Mr. Wood : I desire to read a letter recently received from a Birmingham firm, which was evidently intended as a bribe,

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as an inducement to use the wares and manufactures of this particular firm, which is certainly not legitimate; and all parties so inclined to consider architect as being commodities that are on the market for purchase, should be informed that this is a mistake, and that a tender in this direction will ever be considered an insult by the architect receiving it. And upon motion of Mr. Wood, which was unanimously adopted, it was ordered that this letter be published in " The Southern Architect." On motion of Mr. Wheelock the aforesaid letter was refered to a committee consisting of Messrs. C. Wheelock, Helmich and T. H. Maddox, architects of Birmingham, to investigate these parties and their methods, and to report the same to the Secretary. The President: This being the time fixed for the conference with members of the Alabama Legislature, two of whom are present; we will now hear from them. The Hon. Mr. O' Brian was introduced to the Convention, and made a pointed speech regarding the laws to be presented to the legislatures of each of the Southern States, and said that he was heartily in simpathy with us, as he knew of the many difficulties that we have to contend with as a profession, and that he would gladly introduce any bill into the Legislature of Alabama, that we would formulate, and do all in his power to have it become a law. At the conclusion of Mr. O' Brian speech his colleague was introduced to the Convention and spoke in high praise of the calling of our profession and said that he was confident that the proper laws would be enacted to regulate the practice of our profession, which in his opinion would prevent many accidents happening from insecure construction, and the many ills arising from improper ventilation, lighting, heating, &c., and that he would assure us that he would use every endeavor to have proper laws, bearing upon this subject, passed by the State Legislature. At this point Mr. Rosseau made a speech looking to the welfare of the profession in the Southeru [Southern] States, which was pertinent, pointed and well delivered, and was well received by the members present.

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Mr. Wheelock : Mr. President, I move, if it is in order, that the place for holdng our next annual Convention be now taken up for consideration.

The motion was seconded by Mr. L. F. Goodrich, who suggested that Augusta, Ga., be selected as the place for holding this meeting.

Mr. Wood : I suggest that some point in the great State of Texas be selected as our next place of meeting.

On motion of Mr. Wheelock, Sherman, Texas, was named as the place for holding the meeting.

On motion of Mr. Lind, Augusta, Ga., was named as the place for holding the next meeting, and by a rising vote of fourteen to two, Augusta, Ga., was selected as the place for holding the next annual Convention.

At this point, Mr. Bruce, the retiring President, said that he would resign the office of President to his worthy successor, and Mr. Goodrich was escorted to the Chair.

On montion of Mr. Bruce it was ordered that the proceedings of the convention held in Atlanta, Ga., last February, and the proceedings of this convention be published together, in pamphlet form : which motion was unanimously carried.

The Secretary : Quite a number of our fellows, who for various reasons could not be with us, have written, expressing their regret at not being able to attend this meeting, one of whom is Mr. Nixon, of Atlanta, who has also prepared and forwarded to be read, a paper on the Problem of Architectural Education.

MR. NIXON'S PAPER :

THE PROBLEM OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION.

In preparing this paper on such a problem I am fully aware that Architectural Education has been fully outlined by the various institutes of the country purporting to teach the students various branches of the study of architecture in a one, two, or three years course. But the question before us is this, what shall constitute the architectural students course in the practitioner's office so as to combine practice with theory and fit our young men as efficient assistants ?

The wealth and luxury of the American nation is fasy pushing to the front the architectural excellence of its structures and it behooves us to look ahead and examine closely whether there may not be some remedy for evils existing.

I will endeavor, in a contemplative way, to discover and lay bare the defects and principal causes.

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1. There is a great want of sufficient practical, theoretical and scientific education of the architectural student of today.

2. A want of practical knowlegde of the contractor.

3. A want of acquaintance on the part of the public in the principles of taste and scientific building.

It is too plain to the profession that the limited knowledge displayed by some claiming to be practitioners in the execution of their work, leads them into absurd extravagances and labor under the mistaken structural-meanness for economy and thus mislead and often discourage the many projects for fine buildings from even being placed in the hands of the more skilled.

The builder, lacking the proper practical and scientific knowledge enters now upon the work to attempt to carry out these gross absurdities, and further tries to induce and influence the minds of those building to break confidence with the architect and execute the work from haphazard conglomeration of his confused mind from what the plans were intended to convey, evidence of which appears too often in the preposterously inconvenient and grotesque masses of folly, totally devoid of all taste and architectural structure in our chief cities.

There are some extenuating circumstances sometimes surrounding all this, such as the proprietor attempting to build with insufficient funds, and the employment of a builder without reputation or knowledge.

Of course, we admit that there are competent and honorable members of the building fraternity and the architectural profession are ready to recognize such and are much indebted to them.

The public universally are ready to admit too, that they lack the essential knowledge necessary to make them in a certain measure, to understand just what they want, and to what extent they ought to place reliance upon the architectural services employed. They certainly know when to appreciate well designed and executed building when the proper care has been bestowed upon it. Why, how much of the detail of many of our buildings of today are worthy of imitation? But take Greeks, Romans and Europeans of the early and middle ages, and you will find a delightful field of research. But with all this it is a fact that the architect of today has less control, or is less able to influence the employer in the design, arrangements or material of the structures put into his hands for skillful manipulation as a physician would have in building up the physical condition from the patient's own prescription. Take for instance the unscrupulous attempts by Buddensieck to the fruitless efforts of the State capitol of New York, endangering life and property as well as squandering of public and private funds; ask is it reasonable to expect comfort and credit from the investment.

Knowledge, tradition and science has to be employed in designing and in the execution of edifices, and yet it is often expected from the heterogenous mass of opinion to combine some daring innovations with illcontrived plans for an experimental attempt to produce something out of nothing.