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Beaux-Arts
PSFS:
Theory
and
Rational Exressionism1
ROBERT
A. M. STERN
Yale University
forAdvancedStudiesin theFineArtsforgrantingthefundswhich
madethe researchleadingto this paperpossible.I wish also to
thankMr. Philip Johnson, A.I.A., and Mr. Adolf K. Placzek,Avery
McAllister, A.I.A., and Mr. Donaldson Cresswell. All have read and
commented on the manuscript.
2. William Jordy has pointed out that the Lovell House rivals
PSFS in importance and quality. Nonetheless, in terms of prominence, PSFS has the advantage, both for sheer size and for its fortuitous location in the downtown district of an important eastern
city.
3. Reyner Banham in his Theory and Design in the First Machine
Age (New York, 1961), pp. 14-34, has done much toward making
us aware of the positive side of the Beaux-Arts system of design and
its influence on modern architecture. Unfortunately, his researches
have been almost exclusively confined to European events. The
best recent evaluation of the Beaux-Arts from an American point of
view is, in this author's opinion, the brief section in John Ely
Burchard and Albert Bush-Brown, The Architectureof America (Boston, 1961), pp. 248-250. See, however, the review by Carroll L. V.
Meeks in Yale Review L (Summer 1961), 618-622, for an excellent
criticism of the work considered in its entirety.
'. .. the two basic approaches to the machine which underlay the range of personal expression in what HenryRussell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson termed the International Style....'4 These two approaches were attitudes
to the machine whereas Beaux-Arts theory concerned itself with fundamental principles of architecture.5
Beaux-Arts theory has many aspects. The specific side
of that theory with which I am concerned here, and which
I would call rational expressionism, is that which derived
from Gothic Revival technological determinism and was
partly transformed by the Beaux-Arts' own pervasively
classicizing predilections. This side was concerned with
structure. The emphasis was on its expression rather than
its revelation. That is to say, the structure was most of all
to look right and was to make the spaces and define the
form. In the same way, as Banham has shown, the scientism of Viollet-le-Duc was given aesthetic expression
by the painter Charles Blanc.6
No American architect better understood the meaning
of Beaux-Arts theory than did George Howe (1886-1955),
co-designer of PSFS. In his long and distinguished career
Howe succeeded in applying the architectural theories
learned fromCharlesH. Moore (1840-1930), under whom
he studied at Harvard (Class of 1908), and Victor Laloux
(1850-1937), in whose atelier he was enrolled while a student at the Ecole between 1908 and 1913. In addition
Howe came into close professional and personal contact
with Paul P. Cret (1876-1945) a French-born graduate of
the Ecole (enrolled in 1897) and a distinguished architect
of Philadelphia.7 The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society
Building, then, is worth consideration not only as a lead4. William Jordy in the accompanying article.
5. Charles H. Moore, 'Training for the Practice of Architecture',
The Architectural Record XLIX (1921), 57.
6. Banham, Theory and Design, pp. 14-34. It is interesting to
note the similarities between Blanc and Moore, both artists first,
architectural theorists second.
84
85
ing monument of both the International Style and the
Beaux-Arts but also as the fulfillment of Howe's own
search for a coherent way of building and for a system of
architectural thought concentrated upon structural expression and seeking form appropriate to modern materials and ideals.
As a member of the second generation of American architects to be trained at the Ecole, Howe was typical of
them all in his effort to find a means of architectural expression consonant with traditional theories of composition and design while at the same time suited to modern
needs. Almost all the other Americans who attended the
Ecole in this period, and who in later years were to achieve
success in architecturalpractice, attempted either to simplify or streamline the vocabularyof Beaux-Arts forms or
to invent a new vocabulary suited to Beaux-Arts principles. Any list of such men must include, in the former
category, Harvey Wiley Corbett who enrolled in 1896,
Paul P. Cret (1897), H. Van Buren Magonigle (1906),
Raymond M. Hood (1905), and Ely Jacques Kahn (1907).
Clarence S. Stein (1907), William Van Alen (1910), and
Philip L. Goodwin were all important participants in the
latter attempt. Interestingly enough the architect who
carried Beaux-Arts forms furthest in their most eclectic
vein was neither a graduate of the Ecole nor quite of the
generation under discussion: Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (1869-1924).8
Howe's career at the Ecole was relatively undistinguished.9 He does tell us, in an autobiographical statement published in 1930, that his many hours in the atelier of Victor Laloux taught him the 'relation between
plan and elevation .. .', but it was Charles H. Moore, an
American landscapist, historian, and critic, who was to
This is concernedprimarily
withMooreas artistandis verybrief
in its treatmentof his careeras teacher,critic, and historian.
Ialouxhasnot,as yet,beenthesubjectof anymajorstudy.A brief,
thoughexcellent,analysisof Cret'sworkappearsin GeorgeB.
Tatum,Penn'sGreatTown(Philadelphia,
1961),pp. 129-130,201203.FrancisBiddle,A CasualPast(Garden
City,N. Y., 1961),refers
to thefriendship
betweenHoweandCret.
8. JamesP. Noffsinger,TheInfluence
of theEcoledesBeauxArts
on theArchitecture
of the UnitedStates(Washington,1955).Noffusefulas a sourceof statisticalinformation,
singeris primarily
but
he does dividehis bookinto fourimportantsections:The First
Americans,1846-72;The Rise of EcoleInfluence,1872-96;The
PeakYears,1897-1921;
The Gradual
Decline,1922-55.Onlyin the
groupscomprisingsections two and three were there enough
Americans
studyingat theEcoleto constitutewhatI chooseto refer
to as 'generations'.
exert the greatest influence upon him.10 Howe was indebted to Moore's philosophical insistence
. . . on struc-
86
terms of their structure, since 'a habit of critical discrimination in respect to construction cannot be formed too
early.'15
Moore suggests that the great obstacle to quality in
modern architecture is the isolation of the architect from
his materials. The student must be '. . . exercised in the
building craft. . .' because a new, modern, restatement of
the understanding of the craftsman for his materials, always present in earlier phases of architecture, could best
be achieved through an understanding of the 'manual
processes' of building. Architecture, for Moore, is less
concerned with design than with construction; more concerned with how a building got to be than with the aesthetics of the building itself. The great architecture of the
past has always been well within the 'common tradition of
building'. Only the 'inventive genius' and 'best inspiration' of men personally involved in that tradition 'made
their work their own in the proper sense.'16 For in the
knowledge of the how lies the understanding of the what.17
Moore goes on: The great architecture of the past has
been built of masonry-and without masonry there can be
no great architecture. To Moore tall buildings were the
products of excessive industrialism. Because of the 'haste
and cheapness' of their construction, they are not worthy
of real architecturalthought. The tall building as executed
in New York City is a sham; the faSade, which seeks to
evoke the intentions of masonry architecture by copying
its forms, is merely a 'revetment' affixed to the structure.
A steel-framed building can never be a pleasant object to
behold. If such buildings must exist let them at least have
the honesty of articulated structure. Moore denies the
claims of some architects, engineers, and potential clients
that there are new conditions, new programs, new methods, and new materials, when he states that
.. there are no new conditions, and there is no call for new methods; though new forms may be evolved in the future as in the past.
The only materials suitable for architecture have been long established, and are the same now as in former times. The present use
of iron and steel-which indeed requires new methods-comes of
no needs of architecture. It is destructive of architecture if it is not
kept apart from it.
Indeed, for Moore, the demands of the business and industrial community are economic and not architectural.
Functionalism, the making of buildings for tutilitarian
ends', is dangerous, leading to a confusion of roles and
intentions between architects and engineers. Out of this
confusion is produced not an architecture of significant
form and significant structure but one merely of expedient use.18
15. Moore, 'University Instruction. ..', pp. 408-409.
16. Moore, 'Training for the Practice. . .', p. 60.
17. This idea is carried to its logical conclusion in the work of
Kahn; see note 31.
18. Moore, 'Training for the Practice . ..', p. 61. Louis I. Kahn
has restated, in modern terms, Moore's preference for an architec-
87
which 'prefers to run the chance of failure in experiment,
rather than follow established precedent.' Architectural
forms '. . . are transformedvery slowly and without much
regard for the rules which we would like to establish. But
what remains is our power to use these forms in giving
expression to our own ideas.... 21
Here, stated by Moore and Cret, were the premises of
an architecture with rules indeed so broad as to admit of
no exceptions. George Howe understood these rules and
was able to do two things with them: to develop a working
theory and to build buildings. Howe's theory of architecture is '. . the occupation, with intent to create significant form, of producing designs for and procuring the
execution of, any and every sort of work constructed for
the use of man.' To this end all considerations, economic,
technological, and sociological, were to be directed. Every
building must be a contribution to architecture; each
must be built for architecture. Architecture is significant
form built out of imagination and intellect. Only when
these two streams unite do we have style. Style is not
made, but discovered. It is '. . . full of the thoughts and
feelings . . . of the day and when it is discovered it becomes the property of a whole culture, to draw on as it
will, until it has been sucked dry of its meaning in its
turn.'22Intention and form, intellect and imagination, are
thus theoretically combined by Howe upon a Beaux-Arts
basis provided by Moore and Cret.
So much for theory. What of building? Here the significant sequence is providedby the series of commissionsexecuted by Howe for the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society.
Howe's first commissions for the Philadelphia Saving
Fund Society were two identical branch banks (fig. 7).23
The use of Italian Renaissance precedent in their design
leads us to the inevitable question concerning the BeauxArts: Why, in the light of this seemingly tough and workable theory, were the formal intentions of the architects
so eclectic? Why, when faced with an actual commission,
did they borrow in so wholesale a manner from the past?
Two answers come to mind, both of which can be predicted from Howe's use of Renaissance precedent. First,
the Ecole based its teachings on the forms of classic antiquity and the neoclassic Renaissance. Thus when a designer such as Howe was presented with a commission for
a type of structure he had never designed before, he first
sought a solution in terms of the theoretical education of
his youth. Yet, in so turning to that theory he was automatically confronted by the forms of the Beaux-Arts
21. Paul P. Cret, 'The Training of the Designer', American Architect xcv (April 1909), 116, 128, 131-134, 138-139.
22. Howe, 'Training for the Practice . . .', p. 5.
23. Figure references through number 44 are located in the preceding article.
88
89
Fig. 46. Rex Cole Showroom, Long Island, New York, 1931, by Raymond M. Hood (from ContemporaryAmerican Architects:Raymond
M. Hood).
31. Kahn, at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, and in
his Mill Creek Housing in Philadelphia (designed in association
with Kenneth Day and Louis McAllister), and in his Richards Medical Research Building, did much the same thing when he left the
cone holes, used in securing the formwork in place, exposed in the
concrete walls.
9o
Fig. 48. Showroom for Nudelman and Conti, New York, 1928, by
William Lescaze (from The Arts xiv, 1928).
91
Fig. 50. Capital Bus Terminal, New York, 1927, by William Lescaze
(from H. R. Hitchcock and P. Johnson, Modern Architecture.)
Fig. 49. Penthouse Studio, Macy's International Exposition of Art in
Industry, New York, 1928, by William Lescaze (from The Arts xm,
1928).
their bold planar treatment. Although startling, the design fails on close inspection for lack of a unifying idea.
It suffers also from its two dimensional quality which
seems to bear greater relationship to graphic design than
to architecture.36
Lescaze also designed a house at Mount Kisco, New
York, which Hitchcock and Johnson characterized as
'fundamentally traditional' despite its large windows and
horizontality.37 His only other architectural commission
was a small bus terminal in New York City, built in 1927
and destroyed
before
of de-
tailing and materials make this a minor work. The ambivalence between a structure suspended from cables and
walls that appear to be bearing is apparent. Relatively inexperienced in the art of building, William Lescaze
brought to his partnership with Howe a lively, fairly vigorous, but as yet rather unconsidered vocabulary of modern forms.
Not until 2 December 1929 did the first sketch for
PSFS emanate from the office of Howe & Lescaze. The
nature of the partnership was a matter of mystery to
knowledgeable contemporaries, even during the very period of its existence. To some, as to young modernists such
as Philip Johnson who felt an intense revulsion for all
things having to do with the Beaux-Arts, it seemed incredible initially that George Howe should have played a
very active role in the firm's design.38 Lescaze, despite his
previous acknowledgment of PSFS as the product of a
92
93
Style designs, Howe & Lescaze produced a scheme composed of a slab of unrelieved horizontals visually cantilevered from a vertical service core. These were given their
theoreticaljustification in Howe's letter to James R. Willcox, president of the Society, dated 26 May 1930, already
quoted and discussed by Jordy. In this Howe returns to
a position which was essentially the same as that of 1926
when, apparently influenced by Moore's writings, he had
last engaged in this particular form of architectural rationalization. Howe was able to convince Willcox of the
merits of this aspect of the design. But Mr. Willcox remained intractable in his desire for some expression of
vertical support in the tower. This Philadelphian was
ready to concede that a banking room did not need to be
surrounded by a colonnade in order to be dignified, but
he would not accept the possibilities of a thirty-two-story
tower which betrayed no obvious signs of vertical structure (figs. 22, 23). Nonetheless
it is important to re-
member that the Howe & Lescaze proposals went far beyond the 1926 design in their extensive use of metal and,
more importantly, in their structural justification of the
envelope. In his demand for such vertical structural expression Mr. Willcox was asking no more than Moore had
always demanded. Howe was willing to depart from his
accepted belief in a particular kind of structural expression, but not from the principle of structural expression
itself. To this end he was able to convince himself that the
horizontality of the design was an expression of the structural nature of the exterior sheathing.44
There is no question that Howe was involved in BeauxArts theory as well as modern theory at this time. Not
only did he acquire a copy of Choisy about 1930 but he
also expressed his indebtedness to Moore and Laloux in
the autobiographicalstatement he published in T-Square
in 1930 which I referred to earlier. In addition, other architects interested in advancing Beaux-Arts theories beyond rigid archaeology and in making the skyscraper a
'proper' architectural type saw in PSFS a fulfillment of
their search. Paul Cret saw it asjust that, an expression of
'that same doctrine' which he had been 'preaching' for
the last ten years.45In a letter to I-owe, dated 28 March
1931, Cret writes of PSFS: 'It is excellent, and I have an
idea it will establish an epoch in Philadelphia.' He goes
on to say that with well-chosen materials, which he feels
certain Howe will employ, the building will be a 'very
beautiful work'. Howe's reply refers to the vast amount of
adverse criticism that he and Lescaze, as architects of a
radical building, had been subjected to. Especially irksome was the 'weight of external criticism . . . from our
44. Appendix: Howe to Willcox, 26 May 1930.
45. Howe's library remains nearly intact. It is in the possession
of his daughter, Mrs. Walter West, Jr., who has been most helpful
in providi;n me with biographical data. The quotation is from
Arthur I. Meigs, 'Paul Phillippe Cret', T-Square Club Journal I
(May 1931), 11.
The key word here for the history of the modern movement as it actually developed during the 1920S is 'volumes' rather than 'structure'. The concept of composition
by parts had in fact come to concern itself more with
volumetric boxes of space than with the structural elements which made the space.
But this is not the whole story, since the architecture
of the first ten years after the Great War was marked by
46. These letters are in the possessionof Louis McAllister.
47. John Harbeson,'Philadelphia'sVictorianArchitecture,18601890', The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography LXVII
(1943), 269-270.
48. Vincent Scully in his Modern Architecture (New York, 1961),
94
at least three different attitudes toward building. One attitude, which might be called 'positivistic functionalism',
produced an extensive body of pretentious sociological,
economic, and technological theory and almost no important architecture. It insisted that the forms of buildings
developed solely from a pragmatic diagrammatizationof
their functional areas and structural systems. This theoretical side had little appeal to American architects at the
time, since, with some justification, they already believed
American architecture to be more advanced in those ways
than European.
The second attitude, the one which Hitchcock and
Johnson isolated as the International Style, was concerned
with architectural design in the abstract. It was based on
a set of very definite aesthetic criteria, and came to be
focused primarily upon a purity of building shape, with
special reference to the pristine envelope and its skin.
Among the principles of the International Style, therefore, were an insistence upon volume rather than mass,
upon the elimination of ornament, and so on. These
formalprinciples were demonstrated by a corpus of works
which comprise, for most architects and critics today, the
leading monuments of the early modern movement. Their
relationship to machine culture was purely symbolic.
Structure was regularized in order to be ignored and was
considered independent of space and facade. Space was
conceived almost exclusively in terms of interlocked volumes, more or less in movement, or in what Giedion came
later to insist upon as 'flow'. Indeed, the memorable
images of the International Style lie, for the most part, in
tight-drawn facades and geometric volumes, 'the play ...
of forms under the light.' It was the International Style,
with this clearly perceptible set of modern formal images,
which had the greatest influence on modern architecture
at the end of the 1920S. And American architects, satiated with Beaux-Arts classicism, sought architectural
meaning precisely in such easily apprehended forms. But,
in their enthusiasm, the vast majority of them merely
grafted onto their technology a set of shapes more or less
appropriate but hardly intrinsic to it.
The third attitude, as yet relatively undiscussed by historians, was what I would like to call 'rational expressionism'. It differed from positivistic functionalism precisely
in its belief that there could be no true function without
art. To use Hugo Haering's terms, architecture was concerned with Organwerk,the task of developing the functional program, and Gestaltwerk,the task of finding 'the
adequate image'. In varying degrees, such architects as
Duiker and Mendelsohn shared with Haering his desire
to '. . . examine things and allow them to discover their
own images.'50Howe, at heart, was closest to this third
50. Jurgen Joedicke, 'Haering at Garkau', Architectural Review
(May 1960), pp. 317-318. See also Colin St. John Wilson, 'Open
and Closed', Perspecta,The YaleArchitecturalJournal vii (December 1961), 97-102.
95
in their intentions, those features which have as their base
a logic of rational expression, would seem to have been
George Howe's.
The International Style, through its brilliant gestures,
created most persuasive images of modern life. But in its
forty-year history, now drawing to a close, many architects have come to 'question some of the early dogmas,
especially the romanticisms regarding the machine ....'
They have come to realize, as did Paul Rudolph, that
there are 'many ways of organizing a building or, more
importantly an environment . .. The International Style
was only the opening chord in a great movement.'51These
'principles' of design which once seemed so right are no
longer adequate, and all that remains, as Rudolph states
it, is the uneasy knowledge that 'change is the only constant.' Yet the story of PSFS tends to indicate the existence of certain broad and permanent values beneath such
change. That is to say: George Howe's contact with the
forms and intentions of the International Style surely
opened up a whole new life in architecture for him, but he
brought something to it as well. He brought a simple concern for sound 'fundamental principles' of building. At
the present moment in what seems to be the decadence of
the International Style, many architects and critics feel
that same concern anew.52
The great Philadelphia architects have always believed
this. The first of them, Frank Furness, whose crude and
violent forms attempted to express the bravado of the
nouveau riche boldness of his era, was himself a product
of the Ecole, having studied under Richard M. Hunt, just
returned from Paris. Furness understood the best of the
theory and rejected the archaeology. He too faced, as
Howe did later, the realities of the machine in his time,
and explored the possibilities of new effects achieved
through application of machine techniques to traditional
materials. To him, as to Howe, the machine was a tool,
not a product. Furness' architecture was always daring
and innovative. Individual and original, it was '. . . independent in conception, and in it may be found the germs
of much contemporary architectural thought.'53
Louis 1. Kahn, in many ways a spiritual successor to
George Howe, seems to understand, better than any architect alive today, the Beaux-Arts theories of architecture. These he learned from Paul Cret and from his years
of association with Howe. In his actual building Kahn has
not always been able to find suitable expressions for his
theoretical convictions, and his growth has been slow. But
it seems fitting that today it is Kahn who speaks for an
51. Paul Rudolph, untitled article, Perspecta,The Yale Architectural Journal vii (December1961), p. 51.
52. GeorgeHowe, 'Why Then, Why Now?'a talkdeliveredon 15
May 1953 at the opening of the exhibition of 'PhiladelphiaArchitecturein the NineteenthCentury'at the PhiladelphiaArt Alliance.
53. Harbeson,'PhiladelphiaVictorian...', p. 266.
1. The documents in this appendix are among those in the Building File at PSFS. Louis McAllister also possesses copies of some of
them.
2. Then a vice-president, and Willcox's successor as president
of PSFS.
3. The contractor for the building.
place.55
54. Peter and Alison Smithson used the phrases 'meaningful
form' and 'meaningful spaces' in their article, 'Louis Kahn', Architects' Yearbookix (1960), 102. George Howe, in 1930, referred to
Clive Bell's use of the phrase 'significant form', as the comprehensive expression of .. the assimilation of the spiritual significance
of the program in terms of its material fulfillment, and the ordering
of its elements, with due emphasis on the important and subordination of the unimportant, in such a way as to produce a work of
art', 'Modern Architecture', p. 20.
55. Jan C. Rowan's application of the term 'Philadelphia School'
to the architects currently practicing and studying in that city
seems to me a bit premature. See Progressive Architecture XLII
(April 1961).
APPENDIX1
April 29, 1930
Stacy B. Lloyd, Esq.,2
The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society,
700 Walnut Street, Philadelphia.
Dear Stacy:
This letter is merely a recapitulation of my conversation with you
on the telephone to-day. As I said, I am not urging any course of
action, but merely setting before you certain facts in order that you
may determine the best course for the Saving Fund yourself.
First of all then, we have now reached a stage where certain definite decisions must be made in order that we may continue to study
the proposed building at 12th & Market Streets. We have already
presented a scheme based on Mr. Willcox's general plan comprising:
(a)-A store on the street level;
(b) -A banking room on the second floor approached by a staircase, escalator and elevators;
(c) -Several floors above banking room dedicated to the purposes
of the store on the ground floor and approached by separate elevators;
(d) -An office building comprising about 25 stories of rentable
office space, in addition to the floors presumed to be assigned to
the store and the bank.
In connection with the plans we have presented a preliminary
estimate prepared by the George A. Fuller Company,3 accompanied
by a financial set-up, giving a very close approximation of constriction and operating costs, as well as revenue.
96
These data are sufficient to arrive at certain broad decisions:
1.-As to whether there shall be an office building in connection
with the bank;
2.-As to whether there shall be a store on the street level.
Mr. Willcox has given me to understand that the first question
has to all intents and purposes been decided in the affirmative. As
to the second question, however, he has indicated no definite decision. On the other hand, until such time as it is settled we cannot
continue our studies of structural and mechanical problems without
a possibility that the entire effort and money thus expended will go
to waste if Mr. Willcox and the Building Committee should ultimately decide that a store was undesirable for any reason whatsoever.
The fundamental changes brought about by the omission of a
store are evident when one considers that the plan of the entire
basement and sub-basement of the building is dependent on the
store; that the entrance to the bank with its escalator and elevators,
as well as the freight and passenger elevators provided for the internal use of the store become unnecessary if the store is omitted;
that with the change in location and function of the entrance of the
bank and the liberation of the basement for the bank's own use, the
entire question of the internal disposition of the banking room proper, as well as the location and disposition of the vault is re-opened.
Every functional change of the sort described above entails very
fundamental changes in mechanical equipment and construction.
A store would require certain special provisions in the way of ventilation, sprinkler system, etc. etc., while the presence of the store in
the building affects the entire question of the foundations, on account of the disposition of the basement, and even very probably the
number of stories and therefore the height of the building. You will
therefore see that until the store and its dependent elements are
adopted in principle we have nothing to guide us in any further
studies.
As to the desirability of reaching a decision at the earliest possible
date, I can only say that it is our opinion, as well as that of the
Fuller Company, that the present is a very good time to buy building
material. Furthermore, the further in advance of the inception of
the operation these materials can be ordered and the further the
architects' plans can be completed in anticipation of their absolute
requirement, the more rapid and orderly will be the erection of the
building when once started and the earlier the date of completion.
The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society would therefore benefit in
two ways by an early decision,-first, in actual economy and quality
of construction, and second, through early occupancy of the premises. On the other hand, if a decision is reached six months before
the building operation is to begin, say in June, 1930, there will still
be time to complete the architects' plans and specifications and
order some structural materials, on condition that all decisions subsequent to the fundamental decisions outlined above be made
promptly, so that work on the plans may proceed without the necessity of constant change.
Please give my kindest regards to Mr. and Mrs. Willcox and wish
them from me the pleasantest of journeys. I shall be in New York
during the few days they will be in Philadelphia before sailing for
California.
Sincerely yours,
George Howe
Society's new building. I cannot answer you without going into the
general question of architectural design. I shall be as brief as possible, and if I appear didactic it is only because I have tried to state
certain beliefs in the most concise and clear form.
You are aware that ever since you first asked me to design a
branch bank around an electric sign4 I have been looking for a means
of architectural expression which should not be in conflict with any
form of modern activity outside the field of architecture. I felt I
had failed either to evolve or discover such an expression until I
became conscious of the meaning of the so-called modern system of
design to the west in America and to the east in Europe. It was then
I entered into my present partnership with a man5 who had long
been studying and practising the new system. I feel it is fundamentally an architectural rediscovery of the meaning of the past and
above the mere whims of individual taste. On that basis I shall defend
it without personal bias since it is not my own discovery but that of
many other men seeking a technically and expressively satisfactory
solution of modern architectural problems.
I know that you agree with me that architecture is an art and that
its imaginative productions are to be judged on its fundamental laws
of subject, expression and technique like those of any other art.
In an easel painting the laws are established by the painter himself within the limits of the frame which detaches his work from its
surroundings. The painter may choose his subject, his way of expressing it and his technique. Once he has chosen them, however,
every one recognises that since they are personal to him every portion of the picture must be a consequence of the same momentary
personal attitude. No one would believe that he was obtaining the
equivalent of an original Winslow Homer by commissioning some
one else to make a freely adapted copy of some early work of that
painter, nor would any one who commissioned him to paint a picture suggest that certain portions of a Gainsborough should be introduced as a concession to the client's or the public's personal
taste. In the same way if the collector's taste ran to i8th Century
English portraits he would purchase an original and not commission
some contemporary painter to produce a copy or a freely adapted
modern revision. It would be obvious that such infringements of the
painter's law could not produce satisfactory artistic results.
In music the artist is more restricted because he is part of a
larger system. He may choose his subject and his way of expressing
it, but his technique is imposed by the instruments at his disposal,
none of which he has invented and most of which he cannot play,
and the skill of the performers, most of whom he does not know,
who interpret his compositions. It is obvious that he must observe
the common law which gives us instrumentation and performance
in order to produce satisfactory playable contemporary works.
The architect is even more restricted because he is part of the
whole life of the community. Not only is his technique today imposed by a thousand trades so complex and separated geographically that he cannot possibly control their development, which is
involved with innumerable human needs not directly connected
with architecture, but his subject also is limited to the requirements
of other men and his way of expressing it by the nature of the physical structural fabric necessary to house those requirements. His
proper function is restricted and always has been in the great periods of the past to giving practical and formal expression to his imaginative conceptions within the limits of laws which he may help
to expound and extend but which he cannot make. He can produce
good work only by penetrating their meaning and potentialities.
I shall consider only that portion of the architectural law which
in our opinion imposes an external recognition of the horizontal
subdivisions of an office building, leaving aside all questions of plan
and material.
4. The 1926 branch offices; see fig. 8.
5. William Lescaze.
97
The architectural intention of a civilization in any well-recognized
type of building may be deduced only from the internal form and
significance of the spaces it demands for its purposes. In these
spaces where men live, work and worship is the heart of the problem.
Men have built towers for defense filled with small cells enclosed in
solid masonry, which is the inevitable external expression of the
intuition of military power and the internal economy of the building
it demands. They have built cathedrals for worship with vast vertical
internal spaces to stir men to mystical adoration. These spaces were
inevitably expressed externally in vertical piers and buttresses
framing great stained glass windows. Today men extend the area of
their buildings by superposing a great number of horizontal spaces
for their cooperative convenience in attaining the modern ideal of
the greatest good of the greatest number. The inevitable external
expression of their intention is a series of alternating horizontals
of masonry and glass to express the horizontal spaces and give a
maximum of light and air to the workers.
To compare skyscrapers to the towers of Ilium or Mediaeval
Europe is literary and poetic, not architectural. The similarity ends
with towering mass. By its internal purposes the skyscraper presents
a new problem in external subdivisions and expression.
Structural logic also imposes a horizontal expression. All sound
architecture, however elaborate and complicated in detail, has always been constructed with the simple logic of toy blocks. Each
piece is placed successively in its most natural order and direction
on the last and decoration follows this order and direction. In the
steel frame of the skyscraper the actual supports of the external casing are not the vertical columns but the continuous horizontal
brackets which run around the building at each floor. The logical
way to build is to set horizontal courses on these brackets and not
to form verticals by breaking the apparent lines at right angles to the
natural supports.
Aspect also imposes a horizontal treatment. The fact that streetlevel stores are required in practically every business building, and
that retailers demand continuous plate glass in return for high rentals, makes it impossible to provide a solid masonry base to the skyscraper. Both continuous walls and derivative Gothic verticals demand a solid base for apparent stability. They must therefore be
abandoned. It is the conception underlying modern architecture
that fundamental necessity is to be regarded as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Since it is necessary to treat the base of the skyscraper visibly as a glass shell around a steel frame, the entire casing
of the building must be treated as a light veil supported in horizontal
bands on successive brackets attached to the steel structure. This
veil visibly does not rest on the glass substructure any more than
it does in reality.
The horizontal treatment therefore seems to be imposed by human intention, construction and aspect alike. This I believe is the
truth and transcends personal taste. It is arguable that if one does
not like the truth one may disregard it in art. It is my own firm
conviction that the truth must prevail sooner or later and that it is
the designer's task not to deny it but to discover it and make the
most of it.
On first utterance the truth is often charged with being cold and
lacking in sentiment. Artistic truth is particularly subject to the
accusation. The new conception of skyscraper design will undoubtedly conflict with certain preconceptions of beauty. The use of
horizontal subdivisions in vertical buildings may seem a retrogression, producing a heavy and unprepossessing exterior, because
men are accustomed to interpreting external aspect in terms of masonry construction. Their minds go back to the heavy belt-courses
of the early skyscrapers. When they actually see the development of
the suspended veil in execution and become used to it I am certain
they will see in it beauties they had not suspected. Such has been
my own experience. What I once thought a radical departure now
seems to me the normal method of architectural expression. It will
June
Third
1930
Mr. George Howe,
414 South 19th Street,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dear George:
I was very glad to get your letter of May 26th, and regret we cannot sit down and talk the matter over.
The way of the innovator is hard, and although my sympathies
are generally with him he is not always right.
In all that man does constructively he aims at the useful or the
beautiful or both. The pagan poet said two thousand years ago,
'Omne punctum tulit qui miscuit utile dulci'.7
In architecture above all things exist the desirability and possibility of combining these two ends. I have not changed my point of
view since our talk on the roof of the hospital. In fact, the more I
have thought over and studied your theory and sketch the more
they commend themselves to my judgment. I don't think that there
is anything in your design which would decide a prospective tenant
against taking space in the building if the matter were properly
presented. It is impossible to take the architect along every time a
prospect is to be interviewed. I think that I would be more convincing than the average layman simply because I have probably given
more thought to the matter than anyone outside of your office. We
6. R. J. Seltzer, the real estate expert retained by PSFS as a consultant on the building.
7. 'He has won every vote who blended profit with pleasure.'
Horace, Art of Poetry, Epistle II, 3, 343.
98
must recognize the fact that there is something in your design which
requires explanation. The first impulse of everyone I have shown it
to is away from it.
On the other hand, its uniqueness-at least in Philadelphiagives it an advertising value that is worth something. My suggestion
of introducing some perpendicular lines was not a very happy one
as it would likely mean a complete abandonment of your idea. After
all when we get down to the basic fact, is there such a radical departure? Whether the perpendicular or horizontal effect is attained
is largely a matter of looking at the design in detail instead of as a
whole. In both cases we have a perpendicular mass or shaft, the purpose being to go up. In one case (yours) the manner of doing it by
laying one segment on another is disclosed; in the other it is concealed, but the perpendicular mass is the objective in both cases.
In discussing the subject a few days ago with a man of decided
artistic cultivation and accomplishments, he said your sketch with
its explanation is very interesting, but he added, why not follow out
the idea to its logical conclusion. If the walls of the building are
only a curtain why not get away from anything that suggests masonry and substitute large units of flat material that would look more
like a curtain and not a wall, heavy glass if you will that will keep out
the weather and could be made to produce decidedly attractive
color effects. Of course, he went too far, but it seems to me he
grasped your idea. For my part I don't see why vertical could not
be combined with horizontal lines as decoration, if they would relieve the monotony and be decorative. That, not structure, would
be their justification.
The point in your argument which to my mind is the strongest is
that the development occasioned by commercial needs to a glass
base, which naturally could not be justified either actually or in
appearance, could not possibly support the superimposed masonry.
Neither could it be justified for such a building as you design, but
the answer there is that the horizontal lines show that the impression of support on the glass would not exist as the exterior manifestations tell the true story.
Nothing will be done with the design until my return early in
July and we can then reconsider the whole subject.
I am getting along very well; the improvement could hardly be
better in such a short time. I shall have to limit my daily work,
however, to a few hours for some time after my return to the office
as every doctor tells me that the danger is a stoppage of the recuperative process by overdoing.
Hoping that you are well, and with greetings from Mrs. Willcox
as well as from myself, I am
Yours sincerely,
James Willcox
structural and mechanical anomalies arising from a failure to recognize the proper nature and function of skeleton construction and an
attempt to interpret it in forms proper only to masonry. The beauty
arising from this misunderstanding is only superficial. It is not
organically significant as it must be in a true work of architecture
but is rather a form of optical illusion like a mask or stage set. Sound
architecture must be able to bear the closest analytical examination,
externally, internally, structurally and mechanically, and in the
solution of each problem which presents itself in the development
of a design must be not only possible, but possible in a concise and
orderly form as a consequence of the organic foundation of the
original conception.
As a result of my initial dissatisfaction with steel as I saw it in use
I turned at the beginning of my career to masonry. This medium
served me well in domestic work and in your branch banks. The
introduction of the electric sign at the West and Logan offices required only a revision in composition, not in structural medium.
The design of your building at 12th & Market Streets, however,
obliged me to face the problem of steel construction. I looked about
in vain for any precedent that seemed satisfactory from the point of
view of architectural expression. Finding none I evolved a design8
of my own whose chief structural interest lay in an emphasis on the
possibilities of steel, in the bold recognition of a great mass of masonry standing on stilts and in the elimination of meaningless
mouldings. For its external beauty the design depended on purely
decorative elements, such as the great globe at the summit of the
tower, and on a use of set-backs.
This design appeared to me less satisfactory as I studied it during
the years that have intervened since its initial conception and formulation. At the same time I became aware of the modern movement
in which other men were facing the same problems, and developing
an organic steel medium of design making possible their orderly
and beautiful solution. The new medium embodied at one and the
same time structural significance, the treatment of modern illumination and mechanical elements as architectural features, and the
development of an organic beauty far superior to the masking beauty
of Classic and Gothic derivatives.
The apparent novelty of the forms developed by a frank interpretation of modern functions and requirements startled me at first. On
further analytical study, however, I found these forms were traditional in the true sense of the word, namely in the underlying principles governing architectural design rather than in superficial detail. As Lewis Mumford has pointed out in an able article modern
design really began with the extension of the use of glass in the
Elizabethan age.9 The tower of your new building may be likened to
a great English half-timber bay in which the superposed banks of
casements turning around the corners correspond to our modern
continuous window areas and in the intervening bands of brick between the timber to our horizontal limestone spandrils. In other
words steel is an extension of wood frame construction in a stronger
and more flexible material and not a development of masonry construction.
True beauty in architecture is developed primarily by a recognition of and emphasis on internal and structural functions in organized and well-proportioned masses rather than by decoration. The
mere economical use of space and building materials, however, is
not sufficient. The commercial factory and loft building are good
as far as they go, better indeed than their more pretentious pseudotraditional neighbors, but they do not carry the possibilities of modern design far enough. In plan, mass and construction the purpose
and structural significance of a building must be emphasized and
interpreted in significant forms to bring out its full meaning.
8. The 1926 project for the PSFS skyscraper; see fig. 13.
9. Reference unlocated.
99
In the design for your new building we have been governed by
sound principles of architectural analysis. In plan the spaces for the
stores and for the bank have been left unencumbered by placing the
entrances to the bank and office building respectively at the extreme
corners of the property. The stores have been kept low and subordinate, the bank and its entrance have been emphasized in volume,
the sales or bulk floors above the bank have been treated as a separate element, the tower has been developed as a narrow vertical with
side walls set back from the property lines to the east and west to
provide ample light all around. The width of the tower is determined by the economical size of a business office.
By placing the entrances at the sides and setting the tower back
more on the west against the adjoining property than on the east
along the street front, in order to secure for all time an ample light
well at a vulnerable point, an organic assymmetry [sic] has been
produced far more interesting than the usual scholastic and unthinking axial symmetry. The soundest precedent for such assymmetries [sic] are to be found in the grouping of numerous buildings
in Greek architecture, as on the Acropolis, for a modern building is
really a group of many smaller buildings.10 While thinking always
in terms of utility and economic soundness we have constantly kept
architectural effect in view and by a logical and reasoned use of the
elements natural to a business building have produced an irregular
and organic mass of impressive effect.
The fact that each of the superposed floors of the building is
really a great horizontal area only accidentally divided by verticals,
that these spaces demand a maximum of light, and that the structural horizontal brackets around the steel frame are the supporting
members of the shell, has been recognized in the horizontal elements
of wall and window. The fact that the internal steel frame, and not
the visible masonry, is the supporting element has been recognized
by extending the supporting brackets beyond the columns and
treating the exterior shell as a suspended veil of continuous bands
of glass and masonry.
A logical use of functional and structural elements such as I have
described leads easily and naturally to the solution of mechanical
problems. A great part of the complicated equipment of a modern
building must be housed above the basement in the body of the
building. Over the great banking space 18'-o" trusses are required
to carry the superstructure.11 Externally the recognition of these
trusses as a great blank wall above the banking-room windows not
only emphasizes most advantageously from an architectural standpoint the fact that steel and economics have reversed the order of
masonry construction and that the heavy mass no longer necessarily, or even desirably, belongs at the base of the building, which must
be dedicated to revenue producing or useful spaces encased in glass,
but also provides just the right amount of space to house most conveniently the ventilating equipment required for the store and
banking-room. Half-way up the tower a secondary distribution
point for mechanical lines is necessary on account of pressure. By
increasing only slightly the height of one floor at this point not only
can the mechanical equipment be housed but a necessary tenant
storage space available from above and below can be provided with
a 7'-6" ceiling height, while at the same time the recognition of the
fact that this floor differs from the others provides an agreeable
break in the continuity of the superposed horizontals. From a mechanical standpoint also the extension of the brackets supporting
the external wall beyond the face of the columns provides an advantageous location for heating pipes leading directly to radiators
under the windows without duplication or bends. The main structural and mechanical lines of communication and supply, elevators,
o1. Howe seems here to be recalling Le Corbusier's remarks on
the Acropolis in his Vers une architecture, 1st ed. (Paris, 1922).
11. They are actually 161/2 ft. in depth.
stairs, stacks, etc. at the South end of the building, have also been
put to architectural use in design and are expressed in a vertical
spire to which the horizontals are attached like ribs, forming a
strong organic composition.
The adoption of the modern medium of design also leads naturally to the use of machine and factory-produced materials in appropriate forms. The present building is developed in polished granite
at the base, limestone in the tower, black and red glazed and matt
brick at the Southern spire, with aluminum windows throughout.
The effect will be rich and at the same time appropriate to a commercial edifice.
The only criticism of the internal steel frame with suspended veil
of glass and masonry which can be advanced on economic grounds
is that the columns interrupt the office space. As a matter of fact,
however, the available free space in the present design remains the
same as in the original building designed in 1926, which was proportioned in strict relation to the normal economic size of a business
office. The extension of the brackets is outside the columns and
adds to the available rentable area without extending the office
space beyond its economic depth, in which there is obviously a certain latitude. The addition of this space compensates for the presence of the detached columns. The additional cost is negligible.
The Fuller Company, under date of March 21st, 1930, estimated
that if the present size of the building were maintained, and the
same materials were used, the placing of the columns in the exterior
walls would effect a saving of only $5,000. The expenditure of this
sum in decoration would produce a negligible result. Its expenditure in structural significance is all-important.
Since the present building is completely different in design from
that of 1926 it is impossible to say exactly what saving would be
effected if the tower were reduced to its former size. On the other
hand a comparative table of costs and sizes prove conclusively that
the present design, even with the extended brackets, is economical:
1926 Scheme
1930 Scheme
Cubical contents
4,525,989 cu. ft.
7,070,100 cu. ft.
Cost per cu. ft.
$1.01
$0.787
Total Cost
$4,631,000.
$5,566,700.
Gross area
322,973 sq. ft.
525,434 sq. ft.12
In other words, for $930,000, or about 20% more than the cost
of the 1926 building, your institution obtains more than 200,000 sq.
ft. or over 60% additional floor area. Furthermore, the 1930 building
is more completely equipped mechanically than the 1926 building.
Finally it may be asked whether beauty has not been slighted in
a multiplicity of technical considerations. The answer is emphatically no. Modern architecture originated not in a search for a
purely practical solution of modern problems but in a dissatisfaction
with the superficial inorganic beauty of superimposed traditional
architectural elements and ornament. As would naturally be the
case the search for an organic beauty led back to the very conception
of design and it was found that the beauty sought could be found,
as it always had been in the great buildings of the past, only in an
expression of the human, structural and mechanical functions of
architecture. Our purpose as artists, as opposed to mere builders,
in moulding these functions to your purposes has been to achieve
beauty, and it is our opinion that we have.
Sincerely yours,
George Howe
12. This is the first publication of any figures on the cost of the
building. Willcox prohibited their release at the time. Building
economists for Fortune vI (December 1932), i30, made astute
guesses on the economics of the building, although they erred on
the optimistic side. Their estimate was 68c to 78c a cubic foot, at
a time when first-class office buildings averaged 64c and run-of-themill speculative buildings at 45c. Final preliminary estimates went
up to 84c a cubic foot; see reference at note 16.
100
July 30, 1930
James M. Willcox, Esq.
The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society,
Philadelphia.
My dear Mr. Willcox:
My dear Mr. Willcox:
When you asked me this morning what particular advantage there
was in moving columns back from the wall in your new office buildsince the
ing, I had not given the matter serious consideration
. meet,
r . analyzed
suggestion that
that
SC
,,S suggestion
Mr. Scott's13
no therefore
ing and
and had
had not
1
Mr.
analyzed
ing
.
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.~
-~ now
n and as
a I see the
this change be made. As I recall his suggestion
is
thiea
get
ma
m benefit
eeite
matter on further thought, theeridea is to get the maximum
. ,,. ,
,., , r ,1 ,1 . ,
~.. ,solution
of light for the desks next to the windows,.. which
will
be
enlight
1
1 column,
than to provide a passage
' rather
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r
1
.tural
~~*~i~ ~
T
from one side of the column to the other, as I suggested this morn-s
ing*
that
However,
order
in
youmayhaveMr.Scoto
re
o
ing. However, in order that you may have Mr. Scott's own reportt on
matteI have asked
.1 Mr. Lescaze to. get in touch with him and
the matter
imand
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incbetween
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te
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th space
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h thinks
let you
the column
exactly why he
.
tbeen
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ethinks
youeknow
esp
the exterior wall should be
increased.
andldtet
I have also told Lescaze to have such changes made in the model
t.l. a so.*
ILese
toldr
have
as may* be necessary after his revision of the scheme with Seltzer
,
-1 . ,economic
and the Fuller Company.'4
and the Fuller Company.TM
on
I hope very much that I shall findr you
. - thoroughly
._
.., i convinced
,
i.and
difficult a
my return. I have already told you that I realize how
,
,
7. ~ . ,~.
,
, ~ ~.,~
~,~.
~
decision we have put up to you. On the other hand I believe you
realize that we have studied your problem with the interests of the
Fund
~alwaysS m a ,tnat the
exSaving Fund Society always in mind and that the architectural exa
in
have
arrived
at
is
result
of
these
interests
we
pression
keeping
mind. In other words, we have not tried to force the functions of
the store, bank and office building into a preconceived modernistic
and stylistic shell, but have on the contrary let these functions
guide the formation of the shell under our architectural direction,
so to speak.
Finally, may I say one word in appreciation of your interest in
the architectural side of the problem and your patience in hearing
our side of the case.
Sincerely yours,
George Howe
&
MARKET
STREETS.15
STORE
SPACES
BANKING
SPACE
The main banking room on the 2nd floor, above the stores, is
loo% available and lighted by continuous windows on two street
fronts. To overcome any possible disadvantage arising from the fact
that i is situated 20" above the sidewalk levelan imposing entrance, marked by an electric sign, is provided on Market Street. In
order not to obstruct the floor area the only location for the entrance is at the N. W. corner of the building. With its sign it will
serve as an indicator to depositors. It leads to a large vestibule in
which the depositor has the choice of approaching the banking
floor in three ways: by a wide stair, by escalator, or by elevator.
Behind the vestibule in the dark corner of the building are situated
the various necessary conveniences for the public and the banking
force. Above these are two mezzanines for additional working space,
and a safe deposit department of ample proportions in a third
mezzanine extending over the vestibule and partially over the ceiling of the banking room. These spaces are conveniently accessible
from the banking floor by stairs and elevators and also directly from
the elevator lobby of the office space if desired. A special elevator
may be assigned at certain times of day to tenants who rent safedeposit boxes from the Society, so that they may obtain direct access
to the safe-deposit department.
101
The officers are placed at the S. E. corner of the building over
the entrance to the elevator lobby of the office space in two fully
lighted floors which are connected by a private staircase and elevator. The President's room on the second floor has direct access
to the mezzanines, an advantage in case the society should ever wish
to establish special departments under his supervision in these
overflow working spaces.
The third floor, which consists of ordinary working space, may
be used in the future to house administrative departments should
they prove necessary or desirable, and is conveniently accessible by
the same means as the mezzanines.
THE
OFFICE
SPACE
The whole design is givencoherenceby the treatmentof the various elementsin theirlogicalforms.The blockcontainingthe vertical
communications,elevatorsand stairs, is treatedas a verticalspine.
To this the superposedhorizontalspaces which house the stores,
banking-roomand officefloorsare attachedmore or less like ribsof
varyingcharacterand importance.Thus the exterior is made significantof the internalfunctions.
It has been stated above that the cost of the building, 84c per
cu.ft. including subway approaches,bank finish, and other nonrevenue-producingelementsand $11.32 per sq.ft. of gross rentable
area, is low.16 The economy in construction has been obtained by
intelligent planning. The finish of the building, while not extravagant, is more than adequate to its character.The base is of dark
graypolished graniteup to the top of the bankingroom, the tower
is of light gray17limestone, and the elevatorlobby block of good
quality brick in black and gray. The interior will be finished in
sound practicalmaterialsof good design, simply and without extravagance.The whole scheme of materialsand color will be sober
and harmonious.
In conclusion the architectsstate it as their conviction that economic pressure will make the developmentof buildings of similar
design inevitablein the immediatefuture, and agreewith Mr. R. J.
Seltzerand Mr. Scott of the GeorgeA. FullerCo. that all buildings
not so designed will be obsolete beforelong. In the keen competition for tenantsthe productionof ideal workingspacesat reasonable
constructioncosts is essential. Furthermore,though the design is
not intended to startle,it will inevitablydo so until the public has
overcomethe long-standingoptical habit of judging beauty in architecture according to standardsof masonry stability instead of
steel flexibility.It will thereforebe spoken of from one end of the
country to the other. Though some of the commentit will cause
will be unfavorableat first it cannot fail to elicit praisefromintelligent architects,realestate men and builders.Both praiseand blame
will serve as valuablefree publicity and tenants will flock to share
in the notorietyof the Society'sbuilding.Marblehalls and fantastic
domes have been overdoneand no longer excite the public's interest. They have had their day. An era of sound and handsomebut
loo% practicalbuilding is at hand.
ARCHITECTURAL
P.S.F.S.
BUILDING
DESIGN
AT 12TH
OF THE
PROPOSED
& MARKET
STREET18
102
1. loo% clear and available floor space and show-windows for
stores
2. 100% clear and available floor space and light for banking
purposes
3. loo% clear and available floor space and light for offices
4. Ample elevator service, lobbies, and other communications
The height is determined as nearly as possible scientifically.
Approximately twenty-five office floors appear to be a reasonable
number to assume in the district and on the property according to
experience. The assumption is justified in the present design which
contains twenty-seven. It meets the various tests applied to office
buildings as follows:
a. Cost per cu.ft.
84c everything inc.
Fuller Bldg.
95c
1.00
Chrysler Bldg.
Girard Trust-new
9oc
None of these buildings contains a banking room or includes
subway approaches and other items in the PSFS. Bldg.
b. Cost per sq. ft. of gross rentable area
11.32
Average of five similar new buildings
16.29
c. Cost of steel required per cu.ft. is very reasonable.
d. The elevator service is ample yet does not occupy a disproportionate area of the tower.
e. The relation of one sq.ft. of rentable area to every 14 cu.ft.
of content is good.
f. The relation of the cost of the building to the land is 6.6 to
4.8 or about 1.4. The rule of relation is 1.5. However this relation
is limited by the size of the lot and the amount of rentable area it is
reasonable to provide in the district.
The elevation is a result of meeting all economic and utilitarian
requirements without compromise. It possesses the beauty and
dignity of an honest piece of work. It does not aim to compete with
temples and cathedrals designed for non-utilitarian purposes. Its
character seems peculiarly appropriate to the ideals of the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society.
GH
JOB:
Memo:
Mr. Howe
To Mr. Willcox
1200
MARKET
STREET