Motion Picture News (Oct-Dec 1930)

Record Details:

Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

N ov ember 1 , 1930 Motion Picture N e zv s 75 "This Man, the Architect" — His Code of Ethics and Modus Operandi An Intimate Close Up of the Building Tailor in Which Many Old Beliefs Involving His Connection With Drafts, Plans and Specifications Are Permanently Thrown Into the Discard THE question, "Shall I employ an architect?" is easily answered if the man about to build will ask himself, instead, "Do I want a stock house (or church or store or what not) or do I want something designed for me personally — something that meets the speciai needs of my family (or congregation or business) and affords a proper setting for it? In a word, do I want that which is fitted particularly to me, to my needs and my ideals ?" If the former alternative will satisfy you, do not bother with an architect. If you do want a building tailor-made to the measure of your particular needs and desires, the architect's function is the only known means of getting it. One of the most prevalent misconceptions regarding the architect is that he is a maker of plans. Those who visualize the architect in this light also believe that, once having secured a "set of plans," they are fully equipped to carry the building project to a successful conclusion. Nothing could be much further from the truth. The making of plans is often the smallest and most insignificant part of the architect's work. It is the part that he can and does relegate to his draftsmen, since his other activities are of so much greater importance. The older and more experienced of the architects will tell you that the further they advance in their profession the less do they become dependent upon plans. The Insignificance of "Plans" To conceive of the architect as a mere producer of plans is like regarding a physician as a mere producer of prescriptions, or a lawyer as a mere compiler of briefs. "Plans," by which we mean drawings, specifications, memoranda, are but partial means to an end ; they are mere fragmentary records of instruction to others regarding what the architect wants done. If you have ever had the opportunity to see a building erected by a builder who was guided solely by a set of plans, and then to see what the architect himself produced from that same set of plans before they were stolen for misuse, the real futility of plans alone would be quite apparent to you. Building merely from a "set of plans" is a great deal like picking up a doctor's prescription on the street and trying it out to see what it will do to you. Architecture is properly numbered among the learned professions. The qualifications of one who practices it are perhaps more diverse than those required in any other professional activity. He must have a background of general culture and the liberal arts, an instinctive feeling for design, a highly developed technical skill in construction, a broad familiarity with materials that range from the delicacy of fine fabrics to the rugged strength of stone, steel and concrete, and. in addition to all this, he must be a business man familiar with the varied contractual and legal relationships occurring in the complex business of building. He must know intimately the intricacies of structure, strength and durabilities of materials, sanitation, plumbing, hydraulics, heating, ventilation, acoustics, electricity, and many other minor branches of science and engineering. It is obvious that such an equipment is not to be had excepting through a long and arduous period of study and training. Most of the states now recognize this fact — and the rest are rapidly falling into line — in requiring that one who calls himself an architect shall be registered or licensed by the state after satisfying a properly qualified board of examiners that his qualifications are really adequate. In some states it is again the law for a man What Is the Architect? TPHIS close-up of the architect ■*■ was conceived and published by Charles Scribner's Sons for the following reason : "The architect, like the doctor and the lawyer, has a code of ethics which prevents his telling the public what he is and does. We think the public is entitled to know, so, as interested bystanders, we are setting forth herein some of the facts." The Showman, believing the information to be of interest to exhibitors and all those interested in the advancement of the theatre, therefore publishes the text in full, with permission of the authors. even to call himself an architect without such registration, and many cities protect the public by requiring in that any building put up within its boundaries shall be designed and supervised by one so registered or licensed. What the Architect Is Not The architect, of course, is not a building contractor. He does not buy materials, he does not guarantee costs, nor has he any financial interest in the building operation or in the materials that go into it. He is your professional adviser and advocate, paid by you and looking out for your interests in an operation that is far more technical and complex than the average case in court. And yet, with all this, the position he occupies is a curiously judicial one, as between you, the client, and your building contractor. The courts recognize him as a sort of umpire: in questions at issue between owner and builder he is the judge as to what is fair to both. The relationship of a man and his architect is similar to that between a man and his physician. You retain the practitioner of your choice, telling him as much as possible of your aims, needs, mode of life (or business), and seek his diagnosis. It will be well to realize the fact that you can tell him how large a building and what quality you want, allowing him to ascertain what it will cost; or else you can bind him as to quality and cost, allowing him to tell you how much building you can secure for that amount; or, again, you can bind him as to size and cost, in which case he will tell you what quality is obtainable. Manifestly it is not possible for you to specify all three of these governing factors — size, quality and cost — since any two of them will necessarily determine the third. Selecting the Right Man Select an architect as you would select a physician or a lawyer. In this age of specialization many architects, though not all, confine themselves rather closely to certain kinds of work. A man whose practice consists for the most part of banks, for example, may not be the one you would select to do a country house. Many architects refuse to do country house work, either large or small. Others whose practice consists mainly of ecclesiastical work may decline a commission to design a hospital, just as a throat specialist would send you elsewhere for an appendix operation. If the project is a large and complicated one, it will probably be well to choose an architect familiar with that particular kind of work. If, on the other hand, the project is small, you will probably secure much more personal attention by engaging one of the younger men who still has his reputation to make. There are advantages, of course, in the services of a nationally known established practitioner. There are other advantages in the services of the younger man whose reputation is as yet unmade. One of the worst ways of selecting an architect is by inviting several to present sketches. The one who happens to be th " best salesman, or who appears with th. prettiest pictures (which he may have had someone else prepare) may win the commission. The better architects will not descend to such a way of getting business, just as the better lawyers or physicians will not compete for a case on the basis of tentative briefs or competitive prescriptions. Coin petitions In some instances, where public work seems to require the final choice of an architect in a manner free from any suggestion of personal preference, competitions are held, but these will be entered by reputable practitioners only when conducted under approved methods of procedure, and usually when each competitor is paid for the study and work that these preliminary drawings necessitate. Details of such competition (Continued on page 113)