Texas State Association of Architects Minutes and Proceedings

house built of the same material and depending on the same coating of paint for its life and existence the present day, was built from a plan taken from an English house of that day, in no way suitable, then or now, for the purpose for which it was intended. The Navy, State and War Department buildings, finished, unsightly plain two story buildings, totally devoid of all architectural design of beauty; Post Office builiding, patent office building, treasury building, all started, none finished. The best of her private buildings were small indifferent looking, plain two story buildings, devoid of all ornament or finish, - nothing to admire in her architecture.

Such was Washington City, the capital of our nation, within the last forty years. How changed she is today! The city that at that period of time was a disgrace to the nation, so far as architecture of her public and private buildings were concerned, and was called in derision by Europeans "The city of magnificent distances", - she today is recognized by all Europeans who visit her, the handsomest city in the world, and is justly the pride of the American people,

The capital building has been changed and improved by additional winfs, larger is extent than the original building and crowned by a towering dome of iron, from the design of the late president of the American Institute of Architects, Thomas A. Walter, and it stands today a proud monument of his skill, as an able and accomplished architect, something for all to admire. The old War, Navy and State Departments have been torn down, and their places has been erected one of the most beautiful granite buildings on the American continent today, something to be admired, that will last for all time to come. The Patent Office, Post Office and various other public government buildings are all finished and complete, and all present a high degree of national grandure in keeping with the spirit of our free republic. The private buildings and business blocks of that city that have been recently are from the best, most chaste and beautiful designs of American architecture of the present day. All speak plainly of the tasste and ability of the

Washington Architects, I need only glance at one more city to show the wonderful progress and advancement made by the American architect in the last few years. It is not possible for me, in a brief glance, to describe the wonders that have been achieved by American skill in the past few years in that wonderful city. The pride of the West, Chicago. Her buildings stand today noble monuments to genius and skill of her able and accomplished archtects, and may be taken by the European students as models to study the advanced science of Architecture. I cannot close the brief references I have made of the city to which I have referred to without glancing for a moment at our own city of San Antonio, and view the crumbling walls of her massive sturcutres, built mostly, or in part, for religious use under the direction of Spanish and Mexican architects. While we must admit they had the appearance of massive strength, we fail to discover any chaste line of beauty in their design or construction. If we compare the designs of those days with the beautiful designs of

more recent or late construction in that city, we can see at a glance the progress and advances that has been made in the beuaty and science of architevture. And the lone star state of Texas has kept pace with her sister states, so far as the opportunity has been presented to the architects to exhibit their skill and ability. And I will not for one moment hesistate to express my full convition from personal knowledge, that the state would have saved more than $100,000 had the wise salons at Austin employed one of our native Texas architects who presented plans for the new state house. Those gentlemen possessed all the skill and ability, and would have shown their competency to have done all they proposed and with a native pride, he would have seen the building grow under his own eye, as a child of his own creation - solid and secure from the first sone in its foundation to the apex of its dome, no uncertainty of its stability or strength of the building; no necessity of a committee of architects as experts, to allay the fears and apprehension of the people

in regard to the strength and stability of the building.

Justice would have been done to the state and to her people. I do not wish to be understood as casting one single shadow or reflection on the ability of Mr. Meyers, the accomplished architect who designed the building. It was unfortunate for the building and for the state that Mr. Meyers, or some other competent architect, was not present to superintend the erection of the building and prevent its mutilation for the benefit of the contractors and the injury to the building and loss to the state. This loss can clearly be assigned to the act of the commissioners, who, for reasons best known to themselves, or to those who had the appointing power, failed to appoint a competent architect to superintend the construction of the building and to protect the state from loss.

The resources of the mdoern archtiect in his practice of the present day are forcibly illustrated in his work. We cannot fail to see in the new buildings of the present day that there is a lack of restraint or reserve in the erise of the various kinds of materials. Especially