Page:Architectural Record 1920-08 Vol 48 Iss 2.djvu/26

THE VIEW FROM THE UPPER TERRACE (Point of View 19 on Plan.) stately rooms which have an entirely

different function from those in a mod- erate sized house; besides, they were 1n- tended to receive a very small amount of furniture, as we learn from the contem- porary engravings. For a different pro- gram must be found a different solution, and we find here a new proof of the un- erring artistic sense of Messrs. Mellor, Meigs and Howe. They have resisted the tempation to design an interior like an exterior elevation, which has to stand on its own merits or with the scant assistance of planting at its base.

There is much to say on the skill shown in the placing of furniture and hangings in the rooms. This furniture, collected by the owner with the same good taste characterizing his professional work, has been used in the composition of the rooms exactly as any integral part of the build- ing. It not often that the architect has this opportunity, in spite of the fact that he is better prepared than anybody to do it. The grouping of seats around

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TURAL RECORD

a cabinet, the placing of a bronze or mat ble ot the and color over this cabinet, the selection of the estry tha will ott the the height for the hanging of a pamting in a panel all this is designing with various element

right size taj rigiit

set whole,

and re juires an eve trained to the sens¢ ot proportion, the combination of color, and the juxtaposition of volumes, that is to the esthetic part of architectural studies. It does not imply that the archi tect has necessarily to be the adviser in

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the selection of the pieces of furniture that he may be called upon to place in the rooms. He may advise on the best group ing of elements already belonging to his client in the same way that the landscape architect makes use of the natural condi tions of a site and of shrubs which are not made to order but grown in nurseries. s noted above, an important element of the work of Messrs. Mellor, Meigs and Howe is the color. Its value is en tirely lost in photographs. On the ex terior, the vari-colored stone work to which I have referred, enhanced by it lines of brick, is composed of natura seam-faced stones of dark buff, brown and reddish hues. The woodwork is of a dull blue. The combination has the merit of having a value approximating the deep green of the trees around, and thus preventing the house from “standing out” from its background too sharply. Inside, the scheme selected is no less remarkable. The key for the living room was given by the fine tapestries hanging on the walls. The floor is made of Enfield tiles of a grayish yellow with borders of a dull blue. These same blue tiles turn around the windows and the fireplace ; the ceiling and walls are painted a gray- yellow, which sets off the old pieces ot furniture. The entrance hall has been composed around the vista seen between the columns when one enters the front door. Everything was then subordinated to this nautral note of color. A pave ment of black and white marble and the gray-buff walls form an appropriate frame to enhance the distant landscape, in the way that a cardboard mount strengthens the delicate tone of a water color. The dining room was evidently

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