File:The Architect and engineer of California and the Pacific Coast (1916) (14783351953).jpg

Identifier: architectenginee4416sanf (find matches)
Title: The Architect & engineer of California and the Pacific Coast
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture Architecture Architecture Building
Publisher: San Francisco, Calif. : Architect and Engineer Co
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: San Francisco Public Library

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omers and entirelyunacquainted with the layout of your city, it is plain that the top floor ofa tall building giving a panoramic birdseye view of the city and its sur-roundings is an exceedingly important advantage I recall some interesting discussions at the Portland Ccnnmercial Clubwhich were settled by merely looking out of the window ! It is this lixingmap of the city and its setting that is as imjjortant in a Commercial Clubas a painted map in a railway or a real estate office. The club idea originated in England and is such a thoroughly Englishinstitution that the very word club is used also in Berlin and Paris, and, foraught I know, Petrograd and Przemysl. The original club began in a coffee house and, after all is said and done,is still a iilace where men eat and meet. In .America, where everyone isbusy and a life ni languid leisure is jiractically unknown, the original tra-ditions of clul) life are a good deal modified. The .\merican cannot disso- 66 The Architect and Ennneer
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EX I KA\Cl--. COMMERCIAL CLUB, SAN FRANCISCOWALTER H. RATCLIFF, JR. ARCHITECT The .Irchitcct aiid Eiii^iiucr 67 ciate business from leisure, and the club on this continent, no matter howfar it ))atterns itself on Tall .Mall, is at bottom a sort of business exchangeanyway. A Commercial Club is therefore the most .;;(.■ imine and lci;itiniatcl\-.\merican of all our tyi)cs of clubs—if we except the atidetic \ariety. Ithas no pretensions and lives up to its name and purpose. Bearing all the facts in mind, it will be seen that the remodelled Com-mercial Club in the U>\> llnor cf the -Merchants Exchange building justmeets the needs of this li\e and typical institution to a nicety. \\ bile themechanical ))roblems and the ))lanning arrangements needed to convert acouple of (iffice floors into a club call lor both intelligence and training, oneis inclined to think that the real test of merit cimies in ))itching the wholescheme of interior design in the correct key: that is tn say, in

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