e common practice of representing a
diminutive Grecian temple surrounding a factory bell perched in mid
air. There were also windows with Romanesque arches copied from
churches, and Mansard roofs, exiled from their true function of
decorating the home, covering a factory without an answering line
anywhere on its flat walls.

I do not mean to criticise any of these elements of design in their
proper place and environment; but utility is the fundamental element
in design, and should be especially noticeable in a building
constructed for industrial purposes, and used solely as a source of
commercial profit in such applications. Its lines therefore fulfill
their true function in design in such measure as they suggest
stability and convenience; and this can be obtained in such structures
without the adoption of bad proportions offensive to the taste. In
fact, certain decorative effects have been made with good results; but
these have been wholly subordinate to the fundamental idea of utility.

The endurance with which brick will withstand frost and fires, and the
disintegrating forces of nature, in addition to its resistance to
crushing and the facility of construction, constitute very important
reasons for its value for building purposes. But the use of this has
been too often limited to plain brick in plain walls, whose monotony
portrayed no artistic effect beyond that furnished by a few
geometrical designs of the most primitive form of ornament, and
falling far short of what the practice of recent years has shown to be
possible with this material.

Additions of cast iron serve as ornaments only in the phraseology of
trade catalogues; and the mixture of stone with brick shows results in
flaring contrasts, producing harsh dissonance in the effect. The
facades of such buildings show that this is brick, this is stone, or
this is cast iron; but they always fail to impress the beholder with
the idea of harmonious design. The use of finer varieties of clay in
terra cotta figures laid among the brickwork furnishes a field of
architectural design hardly appreciated. The heavy mass of brick,
divided by regular lines of demarkation, serves as the groundwork of
such ornamentation, while the suitable introduction in the proper
places of the same material in terra cotta imparts the most
appropriate elements of beauty in design; for clay in both forms shows
alike its capacity for utility and decoration. The absorption of light
by bo