Architecture and Democracy

Architecture and Democracy

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Fayette Bragdon
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Title: Architecture and Democracy
Author: Claude Fayette Bragdon
Release Date: June 15, 2004 [eBook #12625]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ARCHITECTURE AND DEMOCRACY***
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ARCHITECTURE AND DEMOCRACY
BY
CLAUDE BRAGDON F.A.I.A.
1918

[Illustration: PLATE I. THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING, NEW
YORK]

PREFACE
This book can lay no claim to unity of theme, since its subjects range
from skyscrapers to symbols and soul states; but the author claims for it
nevertheless a unity of point of view, and one (correct or not) so
comprehensive as to include in one synthesis every subject dealt with.

For according to that point of view, a skyscraper is only a symbol--and
of what? A condition of consciousness, that is, a state of the soul.
Democracy even, we are beginning to discover, is a condition of
consciousness too.
Our only hope of understanding the welter of life in which we are
immersed, as in a swift and muddy river, is in ascending as near to its
pure source as we can. That source is in consciousness and
consciousness is in ourselves. This is the point of view from which
each problem dealt with has been attacked; but lest the author be at
once set down as an impracticable dreamer, dwelling aloof in an ivory
tower, the reader should know that his book has been written in the
scant intervals afforded by the practice of the profession of architecture,
so broadened as to include the study of abstract form, the creation of
ornament, experiments with color and light, and such occasional
educational activities as from time to time he has been called upon to
perform at one or another architectural school.
The three essays included under the general heading of "Democracy
and Architecture" were prepared at the request of the editor of The
Architectural Record, and were published in that journal. The two
following, on "Ornament from Mathematics," represent a recasting and
a rewriting of articles which have appeared in _The Architectural
Review, The Architectural Forum_, and The American Architect.
"Harnessing the Rainbow" is an address delivered before the Ad. Club
of Cleveland, and the Rochester Rotary Club, and afterwards made into
an essay and published in The American Architect under a different title.
The appreciation of Louis Sullivan as a writer appears here for the first
time, the author having previously paid his respects to Mr. Sullivan's
strictly architectural genius in an essay in House and Garden. "Color
and Ceramics" was delivered on the occasion of the dedication of the
Ceramic Building of the University of Illinois, and afterwards
published in The Architectural Forum. "Symbols and Sacraments" was
printed in the English Quarterly Orpheus. "Self Education" was
delivered before the Boston Architectural Club, and afterwards
published in a number of architectural journals.
Acknowledgment is hereby tendered by the author to the editors of
these various magazines for their consent to republication, together
with thanks, however belated, for their unfailing hospitality to the

children of his brain.
CLAUDE BRAGDON.
_August 1, 1918_.

CONTENTS
ARCHITECTURE AND DEMOCRACY
I. Before the War
II. During the War
III. After the War
ORNAMENT FROM MATHEMATICS
I. The World Order
II. The Fourth Dimension
HARNESSING THE RAINBOW
LOUIS SULLIVAN, PROPHET OF DEMOCRACY
COLOR AND CERAMICS
SYMBOLS AND SACRAMENTS
SELF-EDUCATION

LIST OF FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate I. The Woolworth Building, New York
Plate II. The New York Public Library
Plate III. The Prudential Building, Buffalo, N.Y.
Plate IV. The Erie County Savings Bank, Buffalo, N.Y.
Plate V. The New York Central Terminal
Plate VI. Plan of the Red Cross Community Club House, Camp
Sherman, Ohio
Plate VII. Interior View of the Camp Sherman Community House
Plate VIII. Imaginative Sketch by Henry P. Kirby
Plate IX. Architectural Sketch by Otto Rieth
Plate X. 200 West 57th Street, New York
Plate XI. Imaginary Composition: The Portal
Plate XII. Imaginary Composition: The Balcony
Plate XIII. Imaginary Composition: The Audience Chamber
Plate XIV. Song and Light: An Approach toward "Color Music"
Plate XV. Symbol of Resurrection

Every form of government, every social institution, every undertaking,
however great, however small, every symbol of enlightenment or
degradation, each and all have sprung and are still springing from the
life of the people, and have ever formed and are now as surely forming
images of their thought. Slowly by centuries, generations, years, days,
hours, the thought of the people has