Bank Buildings

BANK BUILDINGS The planning of modern banks and financial institutions involves the many mechanical improvements that affect lighting, ventila tion and control, and the new inter-communicating devices that fa cilitate the rapid transaction of business. Due largely to experi ments made by the Federal Reserve System of the United States, established by act of Dec. 23, 1913, vault construction has made notable advances, certain types of vault being virtually impregna ble to fire, burglar and even mob attack. Although these practical matters are part of the architect's work, they do not materially affect the aesthetic problem. One tendency that does concern the purely architectural aspect should be noted. The main banking room, where the major part of the public transacts business, is becoming more and more the architectural feature of the interior. Even the officers of the bank, from the president down, are quar tered in this space, and the various partitions necessary to sepa rate bank employees and public take the form of screens, counters, rails, etc., which thereby become a kind of furniture rather than an architectural separation. Some of these great banking rooms are among the most magnificent and richly treated spaces in mod ern architecture, comparable to the interiors of government build ings (see GOVERNMENTAL ARCHITECTURE), or those of the palaces of former times.

The period when it was considered necessary for banks to be designed like Greek temples has passed, and their most character istic exterior feature to-day is an air of solidity and perma nence. They frequently occupy part or all of the ground floor in office buildings, but where a whole building is constructed for one, the exterior (through few windows and wide expanses of smooth wall and imposing metal ornament) is designed to give an effect of impregnability and endurance. Iron, especially since the invention of non-rustable iron alloys, has been used increasingly in grilles, for it has inherent decorative qualities as well as the appearance of strength. The vault is usually placed in the base ment, for it is more easily protected there, and, according to the psychology of safety, it is a better advertising feature for it to be situated underground than on the main floor where it is con spicuous to every passer-by. Among large banks it is becoming customary for the same architects to design all the branches, giv ing them a characteristic style; their common qualities, however.

are usually achieved through decoration. since the dissimilarity in lot sizes and building shapes makes it difficult to get much similar ity in exterior design.

Following the trend of all commercial and industrial construc tion, stores are being concentrated in larger units. The small shop on the street level continues to exist, and, the modern designers of its facade, in both Europe and America, in their efforts to at tract the passer-by, have taken full advantage of new materials, combinations of colours and tastes in composition (see SHOP FRONT DESIGN). The great department store is the principal mod ern solution of the retailing problem. The building often covers an entire city block (occasionally even two), and is sometimes many storeys in height. By means of quantity purchase and elaborately developed service and delivery systems, the department store sup plies the public with every kind of commodity, so competing with the specialty shops. In its design the architect must consider (I) the movement of people, and (2) the movement of merchandise.

In Paris and Berlin the centrally lighted "well" type of store, with its surrounding galleries, is still the rule and gives an im pressive interior which is both airy and attractive. But in Lon don and New York every inch of floor-space is utilized, and artificial illumination takes the place of the natural light pro ceeding from the sky-light over the central well. In fact, Ameri can building laws in most cities do not permit the open well form of store because of fire hazard. In addition to the usual lifts, the movement of shoppers is facilitated by means of mechanical devices such as escalators and ramps. Intercommunicating belt conveyors, etc., are usually installed to speed the movement of merchandise.

Although architecture relating to transport is here listed in the commercial category, transport affects every branch of human endeavour more or less directly and might well be discussed under any or all subdivisions of contemporary architecture.

Railway Terminals.

This is the most important problem the architect has to deal with in this group. Mammoth stations are becoming an impressive feature of the modern city and, since the advent of electricity has largely eliminated the old-fashioned smoke-filled shed that architects formerly tried to express, they offer fine opportunities for architectural genius. There are two reasons : the tendency to combine the terminals of several rail ways in a central or union depot, and the increasing realization that railway stations are the real gateways of the modern city. Moreover, business communities grow up around railway stations, property values increase, and the terminal may then take the form of a sky-scraper with income producing offices in its upper storeys. Hotels adjacent to, and even connected with, the terminal are, of course, frequent. First impressions are likely to be lasting ones, and no better point could be chosen at which to make an effective display. Even in small towns and villages, stations are being erected in keeping with the local environment and designed with an eye to artistic fitness. Generally speaking, two classes of people make use of a station; those travelling daily to adjacent suburbs, who know precisely where and how to go, and desire to reach their trains with the least possible inconvenience ; and strangers who must make inquiries at every turn. The architect, therefore, has to provide an entrance of generous proportions leading directly to a central hall where information booths, booking-offices, luggage rooms, parcel deposits, news-stands, etc., are convenient, and from which gates to trains, conspicuously marked, are readily accessible. Furthermore, the movement of trains, luggage and freight in volves engineering complications of no mean order. These exact ing requirements have been met with notable success in several imposing structures. The Pennsylvania station (McKim, Mead and White, architects), and the Grand Central terminal (Warren and Wetmore, architects), both in New York, the Union station in Washington, D.C. (D. H. Burnham and Company, architects), the new Union station in Chicago (Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, architects), and the station at Helsingfors, Finland (Eliel Saarinen, architect), are some of the most impressive examples. (See RAILROAD PASSENGER TERMINALS.) Airports.—The growing popularity of air transport has cast a new challenge to the architect. International air travel is an accepted fact on the continent of Europe to-day, and its air terminals require all the passenger facilities of railway stations plus the customs provisions of steamship docks. At the airport of the future passengers will doubtless be able to take different lines to different countries and transfer from one line to another. Fu ture airports will be centres of international as well as domestic travel; the boundaries of a country will no longer mark its ports of foreign call. Since the first requisite of an airport is a good flying field, it is usually situated outside the city that it serves; consequently hotel and restaurant facilities must be provided for both passengers and pilots, and subway or bus terminals for the lines transporting people to and from the field.

The architectural development of the airport is in its infancy. For the most part flying fields have been equipped merely with mechanical requisites, and planned mainly from an engineering viewpoint. With the present rapid growth of the industry, how ever, the possibilities afforded for designing airports with imposing and striking effect, making use of the most recent methods of con struction and lighting, and the need for these new entrances to nations and cities to be impressively planned is becoming appre ciated.

Perhaps the most striking design at the present time is that planned by Maurice Chauchon for Pau, France, 5o m. from Bor deaux, which is considered a strategic site for airway travel. The international aerodrome, 3 7o ft. wide by 26o ft. long, will hold three giant commercial continental passenger planes, the wing spread of each being about 13o feet. The plan is conceived in such a way that the hangars can be made longer and more added when necessary. Parts of aeroplanes and all mechanical supplies required will be kept on hand in adjoining machine shops. The project calls for a restaurant, hotel, customs-house, information bureau, ticket office, money change booth with provisions for the exchange of foreign money, porters, radio and meteorological service. A roof of glass slabs set in reinforced concrete provides daylight illumination for the main hangar. At night, at either side of the aerodrome, two lateral beams can be deflected over the ground to indicate the best angles for landing, according to the direction of the wind; two vertical beams, each of r,000,000 candle power, are especially adapted for foggy weather; a perma nent light will always be displayed in the right-hand corner of the field; the name PAU, in illuminated letters 7o ft. long, will be so sunk in the ground that planes can taxi over it safely.

(H. W. C.)