attach sufficient importance to the fact that the "Renaissances of McKim, Mead & White" was the result of a conscious reaction against the architecturally picturesque. In this relation the following quotation from some personal reminiscences of Mr. McKim by Mr. Robert Peabody, one of his close friends, is of the utmost interest. "In view of his later career it doubtless sounds strange to say that for a long time it was harder for McKim than for most foreigners (in Paris) to find himself in sympathy with the atelier and the Ecole des Beaux Arts. What little experience he brought with him (that is, when he went to Paris) had been obtained with Mr. Russell Sturgis of New York. That master and Mr. Babb were his ultimate arbiters. Mr. Ruskin was the prophet of all that was good and true in art. Plunged into a world that did not know these masters even by name, and which looked on Victorian Gothic as romantic archeology, but in no possible sense as architecture, McKim's inflexible nature had some hard rebuffs and conflicts. It required time and other influences to bring him to a sense of the great worth of the underlying principles of the Parisian training, but his sympathies were always more with the earlier than the later French masters. He was, in fact, more close to Rome than to Paris."

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Mr. Granger approaches the criticism of Mr. McKim's work from precisely the right point of view, when he states that "McKim seems to have been the first man in his profession to recognize the peculiar analogy between the conditions in Europe at the time of the Renaissance and the conditions in this country immediately after the Civil War. Both periods were times of awakening. All around them was architectural chaos. Richardson had not succeeded in implanting his rich, beautiful and romantic Romanesque style upon this soil because it could not take root; what his style became in the hands of his followers we all know. There was no real place in a nation expanding by leaps and bounds, and demanding light, air and sunshine, in which to expand still more for an architecture born in the silence and shadows of Mediaevalism. McKim saw in his dreams a realization of law and order, cities rich, spacious and necessarily conventional. He quickly grasped the adaptability of the architecture of Rome, Florence and Tuscany,

as well as the Louis XIV. period of France to the needs of America."

The experience of the past generation has sufficiently proved that he made the right selection. What American architecture needed was a stylistic tradition which would express the social, worldly, somewhat showy, but essentially practical and human purposes of contemporary America; and of all the traditional styles the only one of which could answer to their needs was the early Italian Renaissance and its nearest ancient and French analogues. McKim's judgment has been vindicated by the event. The Renaissance forms were elastic, urbane and essentially imitable. They could become conventional in the better meaning of the word. Indeed, as Mr. Granger says: "Throughout the whole of McKim's career his ideal seems to have been to establish a tradition capable of continuous development rather than to attempt anything daringly original, to produce buildings which should compel the observation and admiration of the passerby by their quiet, yet sufficiently essential, beauty."

Although the most desirable effect of the work of McKim has been to do away with the anarchy of thirty years ago and to establish a comparatively authentic tradition in American architecture, the reader must not draw the wrong inference from this success. He and his partners succeeded, not merely because they started with a sound formulated idea, but because they themselves gave to the embodiment of that idea so much fresh pursuasiveness, such rare and compelling distinction. They were as far as possible from being the lifeless copyists which some of their more superficial critics accused them of being. Both McKim and White possessed in different ways something of the spirit of the Renaissance and they both were capable of giving a sympathetic and imaginative interpretation to the Renaissance traditions. It was they who first made it live and glow for their contemporaries; and their example was sufficient to encourage others to continue and, even in some ways, to improve upon the attempt. Beauty is always profoundly original, even when embodied in conventional form. The great achievement of McKim was that he made certain phases of early Renaissance and the Roman architecture look beautiful to his fellow Americans.

A PHASE OF PHILIPPINE

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Manila has long been a city of clubs, or "casinos," but the provinces have rarely gone for club life. In ARCHITECTURE olden days each provincial capital might have had a Spanish-Filipino casino, but these were not very inviting affairs as we know them. With the coming of our civil government officials and other Americans, club buildings began to spring into existence in the large centers in the interior. The school teachers, especially, have made the most of this medium for social intercourse and recreation. These buildings are invariably of the one-story bungalow type.

Americans have introduced a few homes of the bungalow type in Manila, but at no point in the island is there such a collection of this style of construction as at Baguio.

Baguio is the beautiful little summer capital of the islands, whither the government forces move during the hot wet season. It was founded by our government to enable Americans to find relief from the heat of Manila during the warmer period, and is reached by a beautiful automobile road, a model of engineering skill.

Nothing in this, as in other Philippine sections, is built without taking into consideration the warm climate, which demands much of outdoor living; the dampness, and, last but not least, the inevitable and well nigh formidable annai.

The latter is a variety of white ant, which finds nearly every kind of wood a welcome addition to its menu card. It presents, in fact, one of the most annoying problems of the Philippine builder. Every effort has been made to halt his voraciousness. He eats into the vitals of the most dignified wooden pillar, and has no respect for even the most carefully calculated joist

or roof timber. Varnishing the wood, or coating it with poisonous paints have been tried, but to no avail. He is a sworn enemy of "constructive civilization."

The annai has, however, his preferences, and so, whether out of regard for the high cost of living, or some other reason best known to himself, he neglects the more expensive hard woods, such as mahogany, teak, ebony, etc. To bamboo he seems indifferent, and this wood is, therefore, very largely used.

Because of these ants, and also because of the usual moisture of foundations, stone, concrete, brick or stucco construction is preferably adopted, wherever financially feasible, and floor and other necessarily wood members are made of the hardest wood that can be afforded.

The call for much outdoor living in this climate, naturally, has its reflection in the design of the buildings, resulting in verandas (as many as possible), outdoor bedrooms and every possible means of ventilation for the interiors.

The windows are sliding panels made of oyster shells, which admit the light and temper the heat.

The American women, as a rule, do very little of the housework, and it is not unusual to have from three to eight servants. So ample servants quarters must not be overlooked.

The men, as well as the women, wear a great deal of white, which requires frequent changing. Therefore, a laundry is a very valuable and essential feature in all homes.

A few other items of note in Philippine architecture are:

(1) Cellars are almost a nonentity in modern Philippine rural construction, because of the moistness of the ground during the wet season, an element which must be taken into consideration even in the upper wall construction.

braided grass called suale. Paint is the usual finish for solid walls; wall paper cannot be used on account of the dampness.

With all its architectural difficulties, Baguio is a happy little town, beautiful in its rich verdure. Nearly every building is half covered with vines and creepers and flowers, which spring from the soil on every hand, and climb over every facade. Its architectural ideals are high, and every building, whether for residence, offices, or club, is in keeping with this spirit. Baguio, the bungalow town, is an illustraton of American spirit, and a development to be sincerely proud of.

An idea of the massiveness of the pediment is given in the fact that the top of the elephant's howdah will be 188 feet from the floor of the court, with the group itself 42 feet high. This arch, typical of the East, is set as a foil against a similar structure at the west end of the court, which tells the story of the nations amalgamated into Occidental civilization.

A. Sterling Calder, acting director of sculpture, conceived the general scheme and composition. Frederick G. R. Roth of New York modelled the elephant, howdah and the camels. The horsemen are by Leo Lentelli.

The three figures, the Arab falconer, Tibetan lama, and Negro slaves, are to be thirteen feet and a half high. The whole pediment will stand on a pedestal which will be 38 by 52 feet square.

Although the composition includes so many ethnic divergences, it amalgamates the basic characteristics of Indo-European, Semitic and Turanian root-stocks into an architectural synthesis in a masterly manner, which will make the group stand out as one of the interesting features of the exhibition.