File:American homes and gardens (1908) (17969729179).jpg

Title: American homes and gardens
Identifier: americanhomesgar51908newy (find matches)
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic; Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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August, 1908 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 301
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The Library Is Finished in French Walnut, Beautifully Carved and Paneled availed of in a very handsome manner. The result is so fine that it must be a source of constant satisfaction to the owner and the designer. Stately and ornate are qualities not always the comple- ment of the other. This is particularly true of the orna- mental qualities of a design, which may be ornate in the most elaborate sense of the word, while the result may be any- thing but stately. The Georgian, fortunately, is a style that permits few liberties, and it is difficult, unless refinement of detail is neglected, to go astray in it. On the contrary, its own inherent qualities are so fine and good that stateliness may almost be considered as inseparable from it. In any event it affords fine opportunities for the designer who looks to the creation of ornateness and stateliness. And both these qualities are finely and very amply illustrated in Mr. Bru- guiere's house. Long, strong, firm lines dominate the structure. It is almost a perfect rectangle, a slight extension of the service wing being quite subordinate to the main lines of the house. The bringing forward of the center of the entrance front is a thoroughly legitimate architectural device for breaking up the long lines of a facade, and the addition to the bulk of the house thus made is slight enough and is actually compensated for by the recessing of the center of the water front, where the opening thus created is filled with a stately colonnade. Symmetry and sobriety thus characterize this design as fundamentals; it is true one end has a covered porch, the other a one-story addition to the service rooms, as well as an enclosed service yard. These features, however, are sub- ordinate to the real structure of the house itself, and in no way detract from the general symmetry of the design. The house is built of red brick, with details and trim- mings in glazed terra cotta, so nearly white as to practically approximate that color. These materials imposed no diffi- culty in their use, for they fit quite naturally into the chosen style. Great square pilasters, deeply channeled, and with rich Corinthian capitals, stand at each angle; on the corners of the house, at the angles of the central projection, at the open- ing of the recess on the water front—pilasters of generous size, quite ample to perform their apparent task of buttress- ing the walls between them. They support the cornice, which is carried uninterruptedly around the building on them, and which is also of terra cotta, save the space technicallv known as the frieze, in which the red brick of the lower wall reappears. The whole is crowned by a fine balustrade, very beautifully proportioned to the structure it surmounts, in which brick piers, with terra cotta bases and cornices, alter- nate with terra cotta balusters. These features form the framework of the design, within which are disposed the walls and window openings. The windows in the first floor throughout the house are round arched, spacious windows, admitting ample light within, and strong, well marked features without. They are without side frames, but their sills rest on slightly recessed pieces of walls, built of plain brick; a string course, which is con- tinued across the intervening space, serves as the base for the

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