LEWIS F. PItCHER.
State Architect of New York. ARCHITECTURE, Education in. Train The ideal architect is an artist who em ploys structure as his medium .of expression,— whose function it is to produce beautiful build ings.
That this ideal is realized by relatively few of those who are called architects in our day is due to the fact that its embodiment under modern conditions involves the correlation of activities of very diverse nature; and few there arc who display in just proportion the ties these diverse activities involve. These may be placed in three great groups, and the archi tect's training may be considered under three headings, namely, his artistic education, his technical education, his business education.
The student who hopes to be an artist-archi tect must train himself somewhat, as do all artists in all other fields. Yet he cannot with his own hands bring into existence the building his imagination pictures ; he is compelled, as no other artist is, to rely upon the work of others in the realization of his artistic creations. Hence it becomes very important for him to gain a very special technical training in order (1) that he may learn how to indicate to his artisan helpers the nature of the work to be done, and (2) that he may become acquainted with the methods proper to these artisans in the accomplishment of their several tasks.
But beyond this the architect who would reach the highest goal should prepare himself for a business career. For unlike other artists he is usually unable to express himself in his chosen medium unless others entrust to him the expenditure of large sums of money. And if he is to be thus trusted he must exhibit executive ability, a knowledge of men and capacity to manage them, and at the same time he must possess unquestioned reliability and business sagacity.
In this connection it may perhaps be well to note that in our time there are not a few men who are counted as successful architects who are really merely good business men working in a special field, men without high artistic ideals or susceptibilities, and who gain such success as they attain by the mere direction of hired designers, and by the careful management of the business of their clients. The education
of such men involves only such general training as is required by other business men, with the addition of such studies as will give them a knowledge of the architectural forms current in our time, and such a superficial acquaintance with the principles of architectural design as will enable them to choose as employees de signers whose work will satisfy the average taste of their clients.
We need not concern ourselves, however, with business men of this type, for they will not be looked upon as architects by those to follow us unless they combine with their busi ness skill the other qualities demanded of the ideal architect, to the consideration of whose training we may now turn our attention.
Apprentice As is indicated by the etymology of his name, the architect was originally a master workman; one who had arisen from the ranks because he had evinced skill and imagination in guiding the construc tion of buildings after the methods current in his time, and who through the exercise of this skill and imagination had produced buildings which were looked upon as beautiful by his fellows.
The methods employed by the architects of antiquity are little known to us, yet as the work tinder their control became more com plicated they must have found it necessary to employ assistants who at first were without doubt merely trade apprentices, and from among these the architects of the next genera tion would most naturally be chosen.
In modern times, as the use of complicated drawings has become more and more import ant, the architect has found it necessary to use his assistants on special work which does not involve the skill acquired by artisans in construction; and thus the type of man serving as the architect's apprentice has changed. While not an artisan himself he has learned his master's methods, and presently we find men thus trained assuming the function of the architect without any preliminary practice as constructors.