Frederick Law Olmsted; SUBJECT FILE; Public and State Buildings; Albany, N.Y., State Capitol 1875-76 (1)To Lt. Gov. Dorsheimer. 19th, July 1875 My dear Governor, Under section 114 of the Charter of the city of N York any man accepting an office under the government of the State by so doing vacates any office he may have been holding under the city. I do not understand that in undertaking to give [you] your commission professional advice in connection with Messrs Richardson & Lidlitz I shall be [accept taking an office under the government but the comptroller Green may take a difft view adopt the new and it will be well that if in any official notification is intended to be which shall be addressed to me, that if the point should] taking an office under government but comptroller Green if his attention is called to the matter may think it prudent to refuse to pay my salary until satisfied I should be glad therefore to have a note from you by which the character of my employment would be established on a footing [the would enable me to accept it] which would leave me quite secure. other[if his attention is called to it, not feel authorized to pay my salary.] Dorsheimer 19 July 1875 ] 2, Nov -75 [*2 Nov*] The Hon. William Dorsheimer Chairman of the new Capitol Commission Albany, NY. Dear Sir, Will you kindly obtain for me a map [showing the] of so much of the city of Albany as lies within about one thousand feet of the new Capitol with figures of elevation at the street corners, [and] at the the four corners of the new capitol and at the front of the old capitol Very respectfully Your obedient servant Chairman, Advisory Board to the Cap Corners Wm Dorsheimer 2 Nov 1875 Plan of streets wanted Albany 2d, December 1875 The Hon. William Dorsheimer Chairman of the New Capitol Commission Dear Sir; The map and profile [sent by] received yesterday by Mr. Richardson do not give [me] the information sought in my letter of the 1st of last month. I ask for a skeleton tracing (such as may be made in 5 minutes with a pencil [on paper] on tracing paper from any map of the city of Albany), showing the position of the new capitol in relation to the street and blocks immediately adjoining it and that in this map figuresmay be placed showing the elevation of surface of the several street corners so far as [these] [they] [same] the same can be readily procured. I should especially like figures of elevation of the corners of the capitol or of the street corners nearest it [The nearest street corners especially] But if what [any intelli] any clerk can obtain [in 15 minutes] in another 5 minute by inspection of maps at the office of the city surveys will not answer my purpose I will ask for further information specifically afterwards. It ought [not to take half] to be easy to send me what I ask for [by tomorrow's mail] [an hour to give me every] within an hour after this matter [thing. I never ask for -] is taken in hand. If known the City of Albany [and] is so singularly deficient [in surveys and] in maps that this can not be done I respectfully ask that a surveyor may be employed without delay to procure the desired information by special survey. If you prefer, telegraph me and I will send a man for the purpose. He can come up in the morning and return at night. Respty Your obt servant[*Dorsheimer Dec 2.75*] [*Plan of streets wanted Albany.*] Dear Sir: I telegraphed you this morning asking when we could expect the tracings. Mr. Richardson arrived yesterday and was disappointed not to find them. If they came before Tuesday next they may be sent a special journey from Boston. [It is unnecessary that they should be complete] tracings of a side and end with our being [only] complete, the rest in outline, [and the same of the section], will answer the purpose - the same of the section. Respectfully Yours18th Dec. 1875 My Dear Dorsheimer; I have read yours of 12th. Richardson promises to be here on Monday, we will then agree when to go to Albany. Eidlitz and I have engagements [up to Thursday] which will prevent our leaving here before Thursday night. Upon resolution comes [so bro] so broad a field that of course no report can be soon made upon it. Yours faithfully --St. Mr. Dorsheimer My Dear Sir; Dorsheimer 18th Dec. 1875. about tracings [*Albany cap [1878?]*] Whereas, F. L. Olmsted Leopold Eidlitz, and H. H. Richardson, [and] have been professionally consulted by the New Capitol Commission under the title of an "Advisory Board" and under instructions of said Commissioners have, by written reports and drawings, proposed various modifications in the plans of the New Capitol with a view to greater convenience, more perfect construction and better architectural expression, and Whereas, said proposed modifications have by resolution of day of been approved and adopted by this Commission; Now, therefore, be it Resolved, that said F. L. Olmsted, Leopold Eidlitz, and H. H. Richardson [and], constituting the firm of Eidlitz, Richardson & Co., are hereby retained by this Commission as architects of the New York State Capitol to carry out said modifications and complete the designs for said building in accordance with said proposed modifications, [and] under the direction of the Capitol Commission, and to prepare all detail drawings, Specifications, Contracts, Schedules of Stone &c., and to superintend the erection of the said New Capitol building and that they receive in lieu of all commissions usually paid for such services the sum of $ per annum, and that it is hereby expressly understood that this amount is not paid for personal services only, but is to include all outlay for drawings,traveling expenses, stationary, &c., and that the payment of such salary is in no way to be so construed as to make either or all of the parties to the firm of Eidlitz Richardson & Co., officers of the State, within the meaning of the law, and that this method of arranging the compensation for the professional services as architects, is to be understood merely as taking the place of a commission. [*Albany Cap*] LAWS OF NEW YORK.— By Authority. [Every law, unless a different time shall be prescribed there, shall commence and tal [take] ect [effect] throughout the State, on and not before the twentieth day after the day of its final passage, as certified by the Secretary of State. Sec. 12, title 4, chap. 7, part 1, Revised Statutes.] CHAP. 2. AN ACT repealing so much of section one of chapter six hundred and thirty-four of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-five, as fixes a limitation upon the expenditure of the appropriation for work upon the New Capitol. PASSED January 28, 1876; three-fifths being present. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: SECTION 1. The provision relative to the New Capitol in section one of chapter six hundred and thirty-four of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-five, entitled "An act making appropriations for certain expenses of government, and supplying deficiencies in former appropriations," passed June twenty-one, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, contained in the following words, to wit.: "and not more than one-half of the said appropriation shall be expended before full detailed plans and specifications of the whole of the remainder of said building shall be made and approved, in writing, by the said Lieutenant-Governor, Auditor of the Canal Department and Attorney-General," is hereby repealed. §2. The commissioners of the New Capitol are hereby required to determine upon and adopt full detailed plans and specifications of the whole of the remainder of the New Capitol building yet to be built beyond the Legislative story, and to report their determination to the Legislature within sixty days from the passage of this act. §3. This act shall take effect immediately. STATE OF NEW YORK. } ss.: Office of the Secretary of State, I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom and of the whole of said original law. JOHN BIGELOW, Secretary of State.[*VI PR*] REPORT OF THE ADVISORY BOARD (FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, LEOPOLD EIDLITZ AND HENRY H. RICHARDSON), RELATIVE TO THE PLANS OF THE NEW CAPITOL. Submitted to the New Capitol Commissioners March 3d, 1876. ALBANY: THE ARGUS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1877.REPORT. To the HON WILLIAM DORSHEIMER, Chairman of the New Capitol Commission: SIR.—We beg to submit the following report on various matters, committed to us as a board of advice to your honorable commission. As it will be the record of a public service of an unusual and not altogether of a grateful character, we shall take leave at the outset to recall the considerations which led to our appointment and to the acceptance of it. Including the narrative of these, the order of the report will be as follows: First. As to the status of the New Capitol project. Second. As to certain alleged defects of superintendence. Third. As to the question of waste space, and the practicability of reducing the dimensions, and thereby the cost of the building. Fourth. As to what, at the present stage of the work, should be required in the plans for completing the building. Fifth. As to various questionable features of the plans for completing the building. Sixth. As to what it will cost to complete the building according to the plans and specifications as they now stand. Seventh. As to the manner in which the design could now be modified with advantage. Eighth. As to how the cost of the building would be affected by the adoption of the suggested modifications of the design. Ninth. As to what it will cost to complete and furnish the Capitol. Tenth. As to the time and outlay necessary for advancing the building sufficiently for occupation without fully completing the Capitol. I. AS TO THE STATUS OF THE PROJECT. Before the organization of our board, you explained to us the circumstances and motives of the act constituting your commission, and prescribing it duties, substantially as follows: For several years before 1875, with each annual session of the Legislature, it had become more and more apparent to the people of the State that the plans of the New Capitol had been adopted without much care in the counting of the cost of the undertaking. As concern had increased in regard to the consequences of haste in this respect, misgivings had also begun to be felt, whether all desirable deliberation had been permitted, and prudence used in the determination, which, at the same time, was effected, of innumerable questions of convenience and of architectural adequacy and fitness.4 [SENATE On the meeting of the Legislature of 1875, it was found that, after an outlay of over $5,000,000, the construction of the shell of the building had barely reached the bottom of the main story, and that a further sum of $7,000,000 was estimated to be needed to carry it to completion. The advance of the work to the floor above the entrance story also, at this time, enabled those who entered the building to better realize the great distances to be traversed in passing from one part of it to another, the height of the less important stories, the length and gloominess of its halls and the unnecessary spaciousness of some of its apartments for the purposes to which they were assigned. It was ascertained that the last and largest estimate of the cost of completing the building had not been based on fully detailed plans and specifications of what remained to be done, and, upon further inquiry, it appeared that it had not been customary to mature drawings for the work faster than they were called for by the progress of construction. Under these circumstances the disposition of the Legislature, without distinction of party, came to be one of more decided inquietude and hesitation in respect to the enterprise than that of any of its predecessors. It was finally agreed, by a vote of more than two-thirds of both houses, that the use of the additional appropriation to be made for the building should be conditional upon the fulfillment of certain requirements, of which the more important were: First, that detailed plans and specifications for completing the work should be procured as soon as possible; and, second, that these should be indorsed as satisfactory in all respects by your commission. You had found the architect uncertain whether the required plans in detail could be made ready for your review much before the end of the year, in which case, if they did not speedily obtain your unreserved approval, you would be compelled, by the unavailability of the appropriation, to stop work on the building. It was not impossible that, in the end, you would be obliged to refer the whole business back to the Legislature. In the meantime to whatever point anywhere in the building the work should have advanced, by so much the plans would be measurably fixed. You expressed a strong desire to put the work, if possible, before the end of the year, on a steady course of economical progress toward the best available conclusion; but, should this prove impracticable, then: First, to do as much toward it as you possibly could; and, second, to be ready to report the whole business in the best form for further legislative consideration. Each of these ends required in your judgment that a thorough criticism of the existing plans of the building should be immediately undertaken. You considered that both for this purpose and also for the more particular consideration of the complete detailed No. 49.] 5 plans afterward required, you would need professional advice such as the responsible author of the work to be criticised could not be expected to furnish. You thought that any such advice, coming from a board of three would be of more value than if from any individual, and you preferred that one of these should have a standing rather as with reference to the administration, management and economy of public works ruled by æsthetic considerations, than simply as an architectural designer. [*FLO*] Having upon this explanation of your motives and wishes, undertaken the desired duty, you informally advised us, as you did at the same time your architect, of several particulars in which you were inclined to think that the design might be so modified that the building would come sooner into use and at less cost, without being architecturally less satisfactory. You asked us not only to consider these matters but any others upon which in view of all the circumstances that have been referred to, we might think it desirable that you should be advised. The completed plans and detailed drawings were not ready for your review until December, and what you apprehended as a contingency actually occurred, through the expenditure of the funds available for the work, before you could well begin your consideration of them. You were consequently obliged to suspend building operations. The Legislature of 1876, however, on being informed of the facts at the opening of the present session, promptly extended the limit of expenditure, and work was resumed. Copies of the detailed plans were placed in our hands on the seventeenth day of January, and we have since been engaged in a critical review of them and in preparing an estimate of the outlay that will be required to execute them. The work required for this purpose has been one of multitudinous detail and has involved such an amount of computation that it has been impracticable, with every effort, to complete it with reasonable confidence of accuracy before the present date. Your instructions in all other respects have been diligently complied with, and it remains for us only to place the results in order before you. II. AS TO CERTAIN ALLEGED DEFECTS OF SUPERINTENDENCE. Before entering upon a review of matters of design, it is our duty to refer to the testimony of two master-builders sustaining various charges of ignorant, inefficient and culpably neglectful superintendence of the work of the Capitol, made to the Governor, and by his excellency referred to you, and to the matter of which we have been asked by you to give attention. There are but two questions of fact raised by this testimony, 6 [SENATE upon which it has seemed to us necessary that you should have our evidence. Considering the conditions under which this work has been carried on ; the number of men who have been directly employed upon it ; the manner in which it has been thought necessary by the administration that they should be enlisted ; considering also the difficulties of sustaining methods and enforcing discipline which seem unavoidable in public works under our present political customs, and finally, recognizing the disorganization and demoralization of industry which has resulted from the war and a fluctuating standard of values, the State must be thought fortunate if the Capitol presents no more and no more extensive and serious marks of imperfect success in superintendence than are fairly borne witness to in these statements. The first of the two questions of fact raised by them, to which we have referred, is whether the brick lately used in the interior walls of the building is, as alleged, of a dangerously inferior quality? Having carefully examined the walls referred to, and taken out of them sample bricks, which, on studious comparison, we determined to be rather below the average quality of their contents, we subjected them to a test by which their moment of resistance was found to be, on the average, 3,600 pounds to the square inch, which is scarcely below the average of the best class of hard burnt brick. We have no doubt of the entire adequacy of these walls for their duty, so far as the quality of the brick is concerned. The second question is as to the soundness of a part of the floor arching over a passage twelve feet wide near the Court of Appeals room. We find this floor to be insecure, not, however, for the reason indicated, but because one of the walls upon which it is designed to rest, has sprung away from it. We find also, a much more serious matter than that described, in the fact that this wall, which is fifty-six feet long and twenty inches thick, and upon which is superposed another wall, which, in its turn, supports the galleries over the Assembly chamber, rests throughout its entire length upon the arches of the entrance hall below, which arches it crosses transversely between their supporting piers. Iron columns have been introduced in the Court of Appeals room to take the weight they would otherwise have to carry, off these walls, and to lessen their own weight they are made hollow. But we must regard the whole arrangement as unsound. This error, which is wholly one of judgment in design, and not at all of superintendence, is repeated on the Senate side. III. AS TO THE QUESTION OF WASTE SPACE, AND THE PRACTICABILITY OF REDUCING THE DIMENSIONS, AND THEREBY THE COST, OF THE BUILDING. We were asked, at the time of our appointment, to give early No. 49.] 7 attention to certain special inquiries, as our judgment upon them might affect the direction of the work during the summer. They were as follows : 1st. Whether the Capitol is more spacious than is necessary. 2d. If so, whether it might be reduced in height with a gain of convenience, of architectural effect, and in economy of cost. To these questions we made, as requested, an early reply ; but, as the grounds of it are such as to limit the scope of our present report, we shall here recur to them. So far as the interior accommodations of the Capitol are concerned, it is a simple cubical block, from the center of which a smaller cube has been taken out, leaving the court. The space between the walls on the east and west sides of the court is nowhere less than 103 feet, and on the north and south nowhere less than eighty-six. If a space between two walls is divided by two partitions running parallel with them, only two of the three spaces thus formed can have direct light from the sides. As a general rule the space between the outer walls of the new Capitol is so divided, the space between the two partitions being commonly twelve feet wide, with a length varying according to circumstances. In each of two cases it is 340 feet, and even in these the only direct light received is by a single window at the end of the building. Every such intermediate space is essentially what, in an ordinary house, is called a "dark passage." The outer walls being nowhere less than eighty-six feet apart, and the dark passage twelve feet wide, the average distance between the partition walls of the passage and the outer walls is something more than thirty feet. The outer walls are broken by windows at nearly uniform intervals, the distance between the centers being about eighteen feet. It follows that, to obtain a room less than thirty feet in depth from its window end, another partition is necessary, by which a space is formed between the window and the passage, receiving no direct light. The whole structure being divided horizontally into stories of from twenty-one and one half feet to twenty-seven and one-half feet, it will be seen that, allowing for floors and walls, the normal unit of space of the Capitol is a room eighteen feet wide, twenty to twenty-five high, and at least thirty long (varying to seventeen wide by forty-two long), lighted by a single window at the end, and communicating with the rest of the building by a doorway opposite the window, opening into a dark passage. Neither by subdividing such rooms, nor by throwing two together, can much of their space be turned to good account for the ordinary work of legislative committees, or for accounting, auditing, searching, registering, filing, engrossing, or any other of the more common business of bureau officers and clerks.8 [Senate The legislative halls on two stories and the Court of Appeals on one, running through from wall to wall, interrupt the arrangement which has been described, and elsewhere light is obtained for interior rooms by means of sky-lights and wells, but the building contains more than half a mile of passage, with rooms opening from it of the general type indicated, except where the space between them and the outer walls is occupied by a cross passage; or, in part, by a chimney, air-shaft, or other dark room. It is obvious that, in this respect if in no other (and there are others), the Capitol will contain much waste space and useless wall, which, in the long run, will be less regretted on account of its prime cost than because of its making greater distances to be traveled over than might otherwise be necessary, and adding to the difficulty and expense of heating and of all house service. It will, however, be obvious, from what has been said, that this objection could now only be removed by a change of the general plan of the building from the ground upward. The question of the feasibility of any important general reduction in the proposed height of the building, turns upon that of a change in the position of the legislative chambers, as these occupy, with their galleries, a portion of the two upper stories, and the space allowed for them between floor and ceiling, it is desirable to increase rather than to diminish. Independently of the internal arrangements of these chambers, we cannot think the disposition of the legislative department a very satisfactory one, and we will briefly state why. It is the most important department and involves a larger attendance and more passing to and fro than any other. The legislative halls are, nevertheless, as remote from the entrances as they could well be. To reach them from the present level of the ground, at the east front of the building, an elevation of fifty-seven feet and a horizontal distance in a straight line of about 180 feet must be overcome, or reckoning by way of the stairs and passages, about 380 feet. That is to say, after arriving at the principal door-steps, one will need to pass through the building a distance equal to three times the length of the present Capitol and ascend the equivalent of four flights of stairs of fourteen feet each, before reaching the door of the Senate or Assembly room. It is to be expected that most persons will enter a the basement door and ascend thence by the steam lift, but the stateliest apartments of a noble building, should be capable of approach by a plainer and more dignified way than this, as well as by one less tedious, cramped and fatiguing than that offered in the narrow and dimly lighted staircases and corridors of the plan. Again, the committee rooms, between which and the legislative chambers, there is a necessary and frequent interchange of duty, are distributed over each of the four floors of the building, and while there are but four of them on the same floor with the legislative chambers, there are seventeen in the basement, two stories below. No. 49.] 9 In passing between the latter and the legislative chambers, the Executive Offices, the Court of Appeals and the State Library will be passed, extensive departments with which the legislators, as such, have nothing directly to do. This is far from being an ideal arrangement, but, to make an essentially better one, within the present outer walls, would involve the tearing out and reconstructing of almost the whole of the present interior of the building. This would greatly delay its completion, and would add much more to its cost than any amount that could be saved by a reduction in its hight. While there might, moreover, be a great gain in convenience for the legislative department, a readjustment of rooms and passages upon the present ground plan, which would be satisfactory in other respects, would be of doubtful feasibility. The fact really is, that by no possibility could the accommodations which have been required to be provided for in the new Capitol be conveniently arranged on the ground plan of the present building. [*S ite*] We know nothing of the circumstances under compulsion of which the site may have been fixed and circumscribed, but in justice to the architect, we should, perhaps, say that in its selection the State would appear to us to have been unfortunately advised. On a parallelogram of this limited extent of hill-side ground, with its longest dimension trending diagonally to the slope,and jammed in between rows of common place shops and dwellings of less than half its hight,it is hardly possible that a building of the necessary dimensions should not have a somewhat ill-conditioned aspect. One effect of setting so loft a structure in such a situation, with no proper margin, and no distinctly related dependencies carrying the eye gradually down to common things, will be to sadly dwarf and bemean the city of Albany. IV. AS TO WHAT AT THE PRESENT STAGE OF THE WORK SHOULD BE REQUIRED IN THE PLANS FOR COMPLETING THE BUILDING. The circumstances already stated reduce the field for criticism of the Capitol, for practical purposes, almost exclusively to the plans now before you. As to these our intention simply is to anticipate in some degree the extended study which you would otherwise find necessary in order o fully meet the responsibility of the law, by calling your attention to such particulars of them as in our judgment should not obtain your approval without special consideration, and to briefly indicate our reasons for placing them in question. In these reasons there will probably be in every case a more or less direct reference to ordinary and easily understood considerations 210 [SENATE tons of economy, fitness or utility of construction, but to save the time and repetitions which on the one hand would be required for tracing out such a reference for every detail, and on the other to avoid asking you to accept our dictum simply, on every point even of a professional or technical character, we shall here indicate certain general standards for determining what constitutes merit, in a work of the class under consideration, your acceptance of which we shall afterwards assume. There are two points of view from which is customary to regard such a work, and we shall for the time accept such a divided view without inquiring as to its necessity or propriety. First, then, the Capitol is to be examined as the place of business of the organization called the State government of New York, and as to the degree of the convenience which it supplies for this purpose. It is not to be inferred from our recent remarks on the difficulties of the site that we suppose that the State will obtain in the Capitol as convenient a building in all respects for its purposes as for an outlay of over twelve millions of dollars might have been placed upon it. If simple convenience had been the sole or controlling object, a much smaller sum might undoubtedly be made to provide it in a much greater degree. It is necessary, then, to a just appreciation of the plans that clear idea should be kept in view of any other motive that has been entertained, and that the necessary influence of this other motive should be distinctly understood. Looking at the ground plans and elevations and recalling the conditions by which an excess of space has been included within the walls, it will be evident that it has been desired to make as large a building as could stand upon the site, and as lofty a building as could be turned to use for the purposes of the State. To strengthen the impression which so great an extent of walls would make upon the mind, a. treatment of them has been adopted, which, through the well known effect of uniformity and repetition of breaks upon a surface, is adopted to force the mind to dwell upon the evidence of their unusual hight and breadth. The foundations and basement of the building are also of vast strength-- we know of no such structure for civic purposes of modern times in which regard for stability and endurance is better evinced. These, with other circumstances, sufficiently indicate the rank which the struc ure is designed to assume, and probably the best short expression of the purpose which the especially manifest, is the common one, that the Capitol shall be an architectural monument worthy of the grandeur of the Empire State. What an architectural monument is, may be best shown by an example. The most successful building of this class in the world undoubtedly is the Parthenon. The admiration and veneration in which it is held, is due neither to its size, its material, to an extrinsic orna NO. 49.] 11 ment, to the objects for which it was built, nor to any thing which it was intended by its builders to preserve in remembrance. So far as grandeur merely through size is concerned, standing on the same ground, the highest point of its roof would be overlooked fro the library of the Capitol. Having been designed for a single purpose, its ground plan is even simpler than that of the Capitol, while its sky-line is far simpler, no single projection appearing above the barely necessary features of its roof. Why, then, has it such monumental pre-eminence? Simply because there is nothing to be found in it-- not as much s a tool mark-- that does not manifest a refined building purpose, followed simply, conscientiously and with consummate executive skill, and because, also, there is not one such purpose to be detected, that has not been kept in harmony with every other, and in strictest subjection to the general purpose of all. It is for these reasons that, after the storms and wars of more than two thousand years, the world is held in wonder at the exquisite good judgement, and the exquisite good workmanship which the people of one small State were able to call into there service for an objection which they had a common interest. To judge in what degree the New Capitol will be found similarly monumental, we may inquire how far its various features will sustain a similar character; we may ask, for example, as we turn over the plans, why is this room entered with ease and directness, and that by a branch of the common passage and by a double turn? Why are the jambs of this door modeled into columns, of this other molded, and of that left square? What is the use of pushing up a tower at this point, of pushing out a balcony at that? What is the object of a striking elevation of the roof here, and of a deep depression there? For what reason has this pier been made heavier than another? What is the meaning of this projection's being larger, forming a cornice, and this other, forming a belting-course? There is no respectable monumental architecture in which a clearer answer cannot be given to all such questions as these than that "it is a matter of fancy," that "it is to make variety" or "ornament," or than that "it is done for symmetry's sake." When an answer cannot be found in the fact of a refinement of convenience obtained by means of that which is questioned, it may be perhaps by the fact that by it the character of some service to be performed and the degree of strength required for that service is accurately and gracefully expressed. As, for example, a small door, indirectly approached, should mean the entrance to a room of minor importance; a large door, with a. direct and spacious approach, the entrance to some grander apartment. Again, if the door jambs are modeled into columns and the arch subdivided into groups of moldings, it should indicate that the space opened through that door occupies a higher rank in the dignity of its uses than another approached through a door the jambs of which are square or plainly chamfered.But all of the answer should not be found, by examination, in this way, of the functions to be performed by the part scrutinized; the fitness of its form to the character of the material of which it is composed will need, also, to be regarded. Neglecting this, as you are more liable to do in drawings than in real constructions, you might pass much, the propriety of which we shall hereafter question only in general terms ; we will, therefore, illustrate the need for bearing it in mind by a prominent example. It is to be found in sheet number thirty-five, where you will observe that the angle formed by the junction of the front and rear slopes of the main roof is covered by a great projection, which, taken by itself, would be mistaken for a representation of a massive and deeply cut stone cornice. If you ask, however, what is the meaning of a stone cornice in this situation? and make the necessary investigation for an answer, you will be led to consider that this projection is not the crowning feature of any wall, as is a stone cornice properly, but that it must be supported in its place by the rafters of the roof, which stand eighteen feet apart. You will then recognize that slabs of stone eighteen feet long, supported in this way only at their tip ends, are hardly secure in their places. Finally you will ascertain that the projection is not what it appears, but is formed of galvan- ized sheet iron, and that its constructional purpose is simply that of a thin strip, lapping over a joint in the roof to make it weather tight. We therefore indicate its sharp angular forms, its brackets and mouldings, resembling those into which stone is chiseled, and even the great projection it is made to assume, as unquestionably entitled to your approval. On the same sheet we observe another illustration of the same point. The dormer windows throughout the building are all topped out, as here shown, with real cut stone cornices, but these cornices cannot be continued to the sloping line of the roof behind them, which it has been designed that they should appear to join, because of the absence of any interior construction by which the weight of stone could be supported. The difficulty is again everywhere met by the substitution of galvanized sheet iron, in which the form given the stone is accurately reproduced. It is intended, not merely to resemble and harmonize with the stone which it joins, and the forms of which it takes up and extends, but to be mistaken for a part of the same material. But these, it may be thought, are but shifts to keep the cost of the building down. Supposing that they are so, and that the State finds it necessary to tell a story of unbounded resource in the base- ment, and another of straitened means in the top works of the Capitol, it remains to be considered whether the method of telling it may not savor too much of mock gentility to be worthy monu- mental architecture, and whether, if in the sides of the dormers, the State cannot afford to use the same materials as on their fronts, it would not be more respectable to let the forms adopted for the sides differ from those for the fronts. If monumental architecture should in all things manifest the strong and worthy qualities of the people whom it is to com- memorate, and betray nothing of their passing weaknesses, vagaries and silly fashions, there is at the present moment special occasion for guarding against even "the appearance of evil in the direc- tion to which this sheet-iron stone work points. We stand at the close of a century in which a long series of startling inventions and discoveries has made may things common and easy of attainment which aforetime were unknown or attain- able only by the long and arduous efforts of highly trained and refined labor. The great and rapid changes thus occurring have in the main been beneficent and elevating, but they have also been, in certain respects, demoralizing and confusing. Inordinate expec- tations have been excited, as to the degree in which the fruits could be enjoyed without the pains of labor, and a singular disposi- tion has for a time prevailed, to take the show of wealth for the substance. Innumerable meretricious wares have been devised to meet the commercial demand thus arising. In nothing has the inclination to indulge in shams and makeshifts and to substitute the coarse arts for the fine arts been more manifest than in matters of building. Nothing would be more humiliating to the State, than that the vain conceit which lies at the bottom of everything of this kind should have place in the Capitol, and no more imperative duty rests on your commission than to insist that only substantial, well-tried and unmistakably genuine materials and workmanship shall enter into its construction even if in order to get them the completion of the building is delayed for years. The State can afford to wait for better times. It cannot, after spending so much for soundness in the lower walls of its building, afford to fall back on stage effects above. In point of fact we cannot suppose that sheet-iron is intended to do duty for stone in the cases referred to so much in order to save expense as because the architect has yielded to a desire for a kind of exterior effect in the upper part of the building which does not naturally spring out of its internal uses, and which its structure is consequently not adapted to sustain. This leads us back to the second lesson of the Parthenon, which, in its application to your immediate duty is, that it is not suf- ficient to ask the meaning of each particular feature, as it may be seen in the detailed plans, standing apart, or even as with reference to the other elements of the structure with which it is immediately connected; it must bear its part toward a general meaning. It would, for example, be unwise to provide, at great expense, a base- ment of firm masonry, adapted to produce an impression of great stability, strength and endurance, and then plant upon it a structure of such design as to favor an impression of extreme lightness and buoyancy. Whatever we find the meaning of which is not consistent with and helpful to the meaning that the building14 [SENATE is intended to have as a whole, or which the larger feature is designed to have of which it is a part, we must consider to be unfortunate. That is to say, we must not be satisfied unless we find consistency, congruity and unity of meaning. V. AS TO VARIOUS QUESTIONABLE FEATURES OF THE PLANS FOR COMPLETING THE BUILDING. We shall now call your attention to different parts of the plan for completing the building, briefly indicating wherein and wherefore they need to be specially questioned in the manner we have recommended. It should be recognized that the plan as shown in the detailed drawings is itself in some degree a modification of that heretofore had in view, the central tower above the roof and the upper story of the main building having been each somewhat reduced. The Exterior. - We have explained that the form of the building has advantages for an imposing effect, based on an appreciation of its length, breadth, height, stability and endurance, and that the regular and symmetrical distribution of piers and window-openings of a nearly uniform size is adapted to sustain and augment such an effect. That the building, however, might not have too plain, prosaic and clumsy a character, several methods of adding interest and beauty to its exterior appearance, have been adopted, the choice of which we do not think altogether happy, because in part they tend to a certain confusion of impressions and especially to a loss of strength, vigor and dignity of aspect. It will be observed, for instance, that on each of its four sides it is divided into five parts by vertical lines, the two outer and the middle parts standing slightly in advance of the other two. (These exterior divisions are not the result of any interior necessity, but where, as is the case with the central division on the north and south fronts, they happen to coincide with interior divisions, the effect is decidedly stronger, and in every way more satisfactory than where they are purely exterior matters.) The divisions are not of precisely equal breadth, and the relief between the advanced and the recessed divisions is greater than is usual in commercial buildings, but the spaces are so nearly equal, and the relief, relatively to the magnitude and in view of the distinguished character of the building, is comparatively so slight, that we must suggest that what is gained by the principle of unity in divided parts will hardly compensate for what is lost by disturbing the impression of massiveness and breadth of service, which the mere extend of wall would be adapted to produce. Another circumstance, which at once catches the eye in observing either front of the Capitol, is that of the great number and conspicuousness of elevated features, breaking the sky-line. These are, No. 49.] 15 doubtless, designed to give greater variety and thus greater interest to the form of the building. What has been done for this purpose, however, in towers, pavilions, embossed sheet-zinc work and cast-iron finials and crestings, is in so many parts, and of such different character in different parts, and in all these upper parts is so foreign in manner from that of the lower parts, that when seen from below in actual construction, it must have a strong tendency to draw off the mind from contemplation of the building as a single grand object, and to dissipate the impression of massive strength which it might otherwise produce. We submit to you, therefore, whether for general grandeur of effect the exterior plan of the building has any where sufficient breadth and simplicity of mass, and whether it has not too much out-rigging and top hamper, meaningless as with reference to the general artistic motive. It is here necessary to refer to a general purpose of arrangement in the design of the Capitol which is somewhat unusual in buildings of its class. It appears in the fact that two stories, which are seen wholly above ground, are designated, respectively, the basement and the entrance story. A considerable part of the two stories next above the entrance are thrown interiorly into one for the accommodation of the grand apartments of the Senate and Assembly and the State Library. These upper stories are, therefore, much more important than those below; and, in fact, the basement and the entrance story have been made what they are, have been built as strongly, solidly, and expensively as they have, chiefly that they might lift up, sustain, and lead on to that which is to be above. Whether this was judicious or not, too much has been done to admit of its being now changed; it only remains to secure, in the highest degree, all its advantages; to let them be seen, and to make artistically the most of them. Consistently with this purpose, the walls of this superior portion of the building should, it is obvious, be more elegantly formed, richer in detail, and, as a whole, should be expressive of the greater importance and dignity of the rooms they enclose than those below. Unhappily, as it appears to us, the upper story is treated in a manner directly the reverse of this, the windows being reduced in size, and the piers consequently enlarged so as to denote in the forms developed greater weight and less elegance. This effect is heightened by the square form of the windows, which seem borrowed from buildings not of a monumental character, and which, however suitable they might be in s subordinate or lower part of the building, in this situation create discord. From the larger features of the building we now ask to turn your attention to those of detail, in which we have to point out that a similar error of judgment appears to have been made in the difference of character of forms and treatment adopted in the different parts. What we refer to will be readily understood by letting the 16 [SENATE eye rest for a moment successively upon, first, the basement and the two stories immediately above it; second, at the uppermost story; third, at the east and west gables; fourth, at the general treatment of the roofs; fifth, at the special treatment of the dormers; sixth, at the eight subordinate steeples; and, ninth, at t he great central cupola. It will be found that the detail, seen by itself, might in each case be readily supposed to be designed for a quite different building, and that consequently it has a claim on the admiration of the observer in competition with, rather than in alliance to, that of all the rest. We submit that you should consider whether such a fequent change of motive is not again unfavorable to unity, repose and dignity, and does not tend to fritter away the effect which might otherwise be expected to result from the general [simplicity] of out- line and the magnitude of the essential body of the structure. We submit, also, that there is no part of this detail that has any freshness of character, as if it had grown directly out of the special monumental purpose and the occasion in hand. Finally, we recommend you to consider whether the Capitol, setting aside the great scale on which it is laid out, its positive mag- nitutde and its exceedingly disturbed sky-line is not likely to be more commonplace, conventional and uninteresting in appearance than a structure for the State so costly and lasting ought to be. The Assembly Chamber.-What is first of all to be asked for in the Assembly chamber is, that it shall possess every known or con- trivable condition favorable to the comfort and convenience of orderly debate of the more numerous branch of the Legislature. Nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of the best possible methods of securing light, air and satisfactory acoustic properties. As it will be chosen for all occasions of ceremony in which the government of the State appears as one body, and as public guests are to be received, and public ceremonies celebrated in it, it should not only be the largest, but in all respects the most august room of the Capitol. It should, therefore, as far as suitable means can be used for the purpose, consistently with undivided regard for con- venience, be so formed and fitted in all respects, that men entering it will be naturally impressed by a sense of the grandeur of the duty of government, and of the dignity which is appropriate to the supreme function of making the laws of a free people. The exe- cution of the work for this purpose, should be the best attainable with proper regard for economy. The materials employed should be genuine, the forms created should be eminently well proportioned, and the decoration used to enrich and heighten these effects, should be consistent in character with the basis of the work, sound, strong and of an elegance not to be effected by changes of fashion. In all these respects it should be more than tolerable-it should be strik- ing and thoroughly admirable. Approaching the Assembly chamber with these thoughts in mind, No. 49.] 17 the entrance to it will first of all not seem a fortunate one. After turning from the corridor and passing the doorway, one must again turn, and finally reach the floor of the chamber by mounting five contracted and spirally arranged steps, leading up as it were from a pit-an arrangement neither conducive to convenience nor dignity. (See sheet No. 21.) The highest part of the floor should be on the level with the cor- ridor, especially as after reaching it every member must again step down stairs to his place. The room when entered will be found to be 131 1/2 feet long, 85 1/2 wide and 42 high. We think it too wide and too low, relatively to its length, for impressive perspective effect. If so, the defect will be heightened by the introduction of columns, in rows transversely to its length and at a distance of twenty-five feet from the walls, and by the use of material in those parts of the ceiling lying behind them different from that in the center. Acoustically considered, what is to be feared is that an excessive reverberation will be experienced where the members sit in the central parts of the chamber, by a reflection from the ceiling of every word loudly spoken among them. The form and material adopted for the ceiling is calculated rather to increase than lessen this danger, as it is to be a flat, thin, cast-iron canopy, suspended from a bridge thrown from wall to wall above. This ceiling cannot appear and can hardly be intended to appear what it is, but will be an imitation of an arrangement of stone or wood lintels, overlaid with a paneling of the same material, which would be something impossible under the circumstances. We can- not think it a dignified arrangement, nor adapted to favor such an aesthetic impression as is desirable. The room is to be lighted wholly from above, party through sky-lights in the ceiling, partly through windows in the walls the bottoms of which are twenty-seven feet above the level of the floor. There is a tier of windows on both sides, at the level of the floor, but they are shut off from the chamber by walls under the front of the galleries. The seats for members are arranged so that their occupants must have the light from the north upper windows in their faces, and the Speaker must face the windows on the south. Such an arrangement will be found a trying one. The method of ventilation now generally adopted for rooms of this kind, has never yet proved more than measurably satisfactory. Under even the best management of experienced men the theoretic results are not reached, and the State is likely to continuously obtain the best management. The most costly and elaborate appar- 3 18 [SENATE atus for the purpose has been used in the British Houses of Parlia- ment, and in the Capitol at Washington; in both the complaints of unpleasant currents and of an offensive quality of the air have been often made, and committees formed to obtain improvements if pos- sible. In mild spring and in summer weather, it would be better that natural ventilation, by means of windows in the lower part of the chamber, should not be wholly precluded, and in our judgement it would also be better at all times that for a short period between every two sessions the room should be thrown open at the sides, as the only radical and always trustworthy means of purifying it. The Senate Chamber.-The Senate chamber is like the Assembly room, except as it is of smaller size, and nearly all the objections made to the Assembly room are applicable to it in greater or less degree. The Court of Appeals.-This room is much larger than is desirable for its business. The columns which in part support the ceiling are of iron, intended to be enameled, and considering that those of the hall by which it is approached are of polished granite, this material cannot be thought to comport with the relative dignity of its duty. There is but one judge's chamber: another is needed. The Dome, Cupola or Central Tower.-It is difficult to criticise this crowning feature of the design by reference to well established principles, because in connection with a building of the general character of the Capitol, its purposes are anomalous. The class of architectural structures which it most resembles, as ordinarily seen in monumental buildings, are mostly used to distin- guish rooms or central spaces of specially noble character in the main body of the house below, as the junction of the nave and transept in a cathedral, or the rotunda in such buildings as the Capitol at Washington. In palaces, the chapel or the grand hall of the audience is often thus exalted. In the State Capitol, instead of being thus connected with some one of its more important apartments, as the Senate or Assembly room, the Library or the Court of Appeals, or with a central hall opening into all these, the dome has no apparent relation to any purpose proper to the interior of the building, being in effect an edifice by itself, built up from the ground at one end of the interior court. Its bas occupies a space of about sixty-five feet in length and breadth, its walls being ten feet in thickness and formed inside and out of cut granite. Its height is 320 feet from the ground. At a distance of ninety-six feet from the basement floor a dome shaped ceiling is to be introduced, formed with a frame work of iron, filled in with blocks made of hydraulic lime and sand, two and one-half feet in thickness, moulded on the lower side, so as to resemble a construction of stone with deeply moulded panels. A genuine stone ceiling of sufficient thickness and of an architectural character suita- ble to the situation would be less costly. No. 49.] 19 From above this ceiling, a square base, of the same size with the walls below, is carried up through and some thirty-six feet above the roof of the main building, forming the base of the first story of the ornamental structure which is to be visible from the ground without. This story consists of a collonade on each side, with arched window openings between the columns. The next story is treated in a similar manner, but is octagonal in plan. Above it is placed a vaulted roof of sheet copper, resting on a frame-work of iron, and finished on the top with a platform supporting a cast-iron lantern, which is intended to be again surmounted by a metal statue as yet undesigned. From above the ceiling first described, the interior of the tower is faced with quarried limestone, and oc- cupied, to a height of ninety-two feet, by a square iron staircase three feet wide. From thence upwards. to the platform of the lantern, by a still narrower circular staircase, sustained by a central hollow rod, three and a half inches in diameter. The style of work of all this interior is that which would be looked for in a garret. We may assume that the purpose of this unique structure is to create an object of beauty, by which the devotion to art, the enthu- siasm and the wealth of the Empire State may be suitably mani- fested. Accepting this as a sufficient motive, we think that the future visitor will regard it as unfortunate that the love of beauty, the zeal and the means of the builders of a monument for such a purpose, were so completely exhausted on its outside. Simply as an object of beauty also, we doubt if the shape of the tower will long be regarded as entirely felicitous. The Balconies.-If you ask what do these appendages by which certain parts of the building are distinguished mean, we must say that a satisfactory answer is difficult. We find one opening out of the Court of Appeals, another out of the five subordinate offices of the Adjutant-General's department, others from the rear of the seats of the presiding officers of the Senate and Assembly. There is no custom of either of these bodies which ever requires a promenade out of windows. They are of less obvious use for the Adjutant-General than they might be for the governor, whose quarters are devoid of them. There are three committee rooms the windows of which open upon one, there are none. Regarded from the interior of the building they are practi- cally useless, and they obstruct the light. Regarded from the exterior, they are objectionable, since they create the false impres- sion that some parts of the Capitol are intended to be used in a way which makes it particularly desirable that balconies should be attached to them. If there are any proper balcony rooms in the Capitol, as in fact there are, they are without balconies. Looking at these constructions in detail, you will observe that they are supported on iron beams, which are incased in sheet iron pressed into the form of stone lintels. 20 [SENATE The Roof.-The roof must have been planned in the first place less as a cover to the building, than, like the cupola, as a means of obtaining a towering effect, and of lifting up appendages simply for purposes of ornament. Its constructive plan is consequently diffi- cult. The ridge of the principal roof is within ten feet (horizontal measurement) of the exterior wall, but is removed seventy-six feet from the interior wall; the front slope is therefore steep and the rear slope much less so than is desirable for so broad a plane. In order to support this form of roof it has been thought necessary to resort to a truss of enormous weight, the complex construction of which much interferes with the value of the space between the upper floor and the roof. The edge of the roof instead of resting as it should against the cornice of the wall is carried on the parapet. The proper office of the parapet is thus repudiated. The gutter of the roof is a furrow cut in the parapet and lined with copper; water is led from it by pipes carried at frequent intervals through the interior of the building. The main roof, as thus described, is much broken by skylights and wells or air-shafts The intersections of the numerous slopes which these make necessary with each other and with the towers, pavilions, and other constructions are irregular and complicated, and with regard to the accumulation of snow and ice in the angles and vallies, frequently unfortunate. The framework of the roof is constructed of iron beams supported on the before mentioned trusses. The spaces between the beams are occupied in the first place by arches of artificial stone eight inches in thickness and filled up to a level on the upper side. This material is covered with copper plates set in ridges and furrows, the ridges being sustained by supports of zinced iron, and the plates held down by bars of iron, bolted to the artificial stone. The whole thickness of the roof covering is one foot two inches. We must regard this plan of roofing as cumbrous and costly be- yond reason. A perfectly strong, tight, permanent roof could be constructed, with an exterior surface of tile or slate, with much lighter supports, and at half the expense. Such roofs are in existence, many hundred years old. But even if for any reason a copper surface is to be preferred, such a complicated and ponderous method of supporting it is unnecessary. The crestings of the roof are of cast iron, made to imitate wrought. If iron is used for these purposes in a building of this kind, it should really be wrought. We have before indicated our objections to the cornice-like pro- jections apparently supported upon brackets, and all in forms suit- able to solid stone-work, but really intended to be of sheet-iron. The Interior-Staircases.-In all buildings of which the principal apartments are above the ground floor, it has hitherto been con- sidered important, in monumental architecture, that the staircases should be spacious and easy of ascent, and that they should be made No. 49.] 21 impressive features. The material of the adjoining walls and of the staircases has been chosen, and the forms and decorations of it have been accordingly studied with this purpose. On this assumption, probably, that the team will leave little occasions for the use of stairways, the ordinary custom has been so far departed from, in the plans of the Capitol, that, by contrast, those provided are likely to appear cramped and undignified. They are each in a deep well, with not a single window opening into the outer air from it, and receive direct light only through a small sky-light, at a height of 100 feet from the bottom The baluster is of cast iron, with a hand-rail of bronze. One of perforated stone-work would be more dignified. The steps are but seven feet in length, with a rise of six and a half, and a tread of eleven inches, and will be found unnecessarily fatiguing. They are also faulty in construction : First, in that the bearing surface of each step is but one and a half inches, which is insufficient to carry the weight of the material; second; in that they are in part sustained, throughout their whole height of ninety-five feet, upon a lining wall of brick but eight inches thick, carried up inside the more substantial wall by which they are inclosed, and to which it cannot, in our judgment, be effectually bonded. The Outer Stairway.-The Capitol has been so placed that the problem of access to the grand entrance on the east front, is a diffi- cult one. It appears heretofore not to have been carefully studied, as the arrangement proposed in the original design was soon dis- carded in favor of that shown in the small photographed plans, and in the model exhibited to the public. This could never have been carried out without an entire change of the streets approaching the Capitol from the east, the lowest step of the (photographed) plans being at an elevation of over fourteen feet above that of State street. If carried out it would have been highly inconvenient. Where a great elevation must be overcome by stairs, their ascent will be ex- cessively wearisome, unless they are divided into several flights, with spacious intermediate landings of such character that not only is a cessation of the ascending motion made necessary, but, through observation of local objects of interest, the mind finds also a certain relief. As arranged in the model, the eastern stairway has but one recommendation, which is a certain effect of stateliness. This would be due, in part, to the least worthy of all conditions of effect, mere magnitude and repetition, and probably, in part, to an act of imagin- ation by which the stairs became the scene of grand processions and ceremonies. Otherwise nothing could be tamer and less in- teresting. These considerations, as well as the desire of the architect to reduce the estimates for completing the building, probably led to the second change, which we find in the detailed plans as now sub- mitted to you. This third proposition appears to us to go as much too far in repudiation of the stateliness as the second in exclusive regard22 SENATE for it. What we consider as the better theory of approach, under the circumstances (better because less fatiguing), is adopted, but the dimensions of the parts are so contracted that a stranger set down from a carriage at the foot of the stairs, after having obtained a glimpse of the building in perspective, and realized its scale, would be apt to think that he was asked to enter it by a postern rather than at the grand portal. The width of the stairway, at the entrance of the portico, is but eleven feet, and at no point more than fourteen. The steps have a rise of six and a half, with a tread of eleven inches, which is less than common in domestic architecture. Doors, Windows, and Interior Finish.-- Almost the only decoration of expedient of relief from bare flat walls, throughout the building is that of plaster ornaments, and with these, the bases and skirtings of the walls, the ceilings and the border of the doors and windows are in our judgement, greatly overloaded. At the edges of the more important, brick-work is to be built out, after the essential construction of the walls is complete, as a core for the mass of cement composition, itself several inches which, which on the surface is to have the form of large mouldings, framing in ornaments, cast in the same material. If the walls had been made thicker and of a suitable stone, in these situations, a somewhat similar but more refined border, worked in the stone, would give dignity to the entrance to important rooms, and would be as substantial as it might be beautiful. A substitute for it, such as is above described, no matter how fine the material, or elaborate the molder's work in a building like the Capitol, especially where work of a similar class is profusely used on all sides, cannot fail to produce other than desirable impressions. The doors themselves are also heavily loaded with molding panel-work which, while expensive, is not, as we suggest, favorable to convenience, dignity or beauty. In clerks rooms, and other subordinate officers especially, we should think hard-wood doors of much plainer treatment would tend on the whole to a more agreeable impression. On the entrance and principal floors the window are fourteen feet high, the upper part of each is fixed; the lower half is a sash seven feet in height and six feet in breath, sliding on a groove and balanced by two weights, each of seventy pounds, the box for the weights, and the sash-frame and sash being all of wood. To this we offer the following objections: First, the rooms being more than twenty feet in height and thirty feet in depth, it will at all times be desirable that the upper as well as the lower half of the window be open; second, that the lower sash is too large and heavy to be moved with convenience even when new, and with the advantage of balancing weights; third, that, with ordinary shrinkage and warping, the arrangement cannot long be expected to remain in good working order; fourth, so much wood construction in positions of special exposure is not consistent with the generally substantial and fire-proof character of the building. No. 49.] 23 VI. AS TO WHAT IT WILL COST TO COMPLETE THE CAPITOL, ACCORDING TO THE PLANS OF HE ARCHITECT AS LAST REVISED. We have computed the quantities of all the various materials and of the labor of all kinds that will be needed to carry out the revised plans of your architect, and have prepared estimates of the cost of the same. Bills of said quantities are herewith submitted, and below will be found a summary of the estimates based upon them. These estimates are reckoned, as to stone and brick-work, upon prices obtained by an examination of the cost of the material and labor as deduced by a careful canvass of the reports of the superintendent of the work for the years 175 and 1876 ; as to all other items, upon prices current at the present time, and the amounts give are those at which contracts could now be made with responsible parties. There are various matters, such as the terrace, side-walks, and other exterior work, as well as the furnishing and decorating of the building, which, not being included in your architect's plans and specifications are not here considered, but are to be estimated upon later. Summary of Estimates. Stone-work ... $2,849,612 50 Iron-work ... 382,829 02 Roof ... 101,796 59 Brick-work ... 571,734 81 Carpentry ... 371,223 85 Painting ... 31,160 00 Plastering ... 237,683 04 Plumbing and gasfitting ... 50,000 00 Heating .. 230,000 00 Total* ... $4,826,039 81 VII. AS TO THE MANNER IN WHICH THE DESIGN COULD NOW BE MODIFIED TO ADVANTAGE. Our instructions require that we shall advise you, as far as possible, in what manner the plans for completing the Capitol may be modified so as remedy or lessen the objections we have found to them, and this is without enlarging the total estimate of cost; if possible, with a reduction of it. *The estimate dates from the period when the building had been advanced to the spring of the arches of the principal story, since when some $200,000 work of work has been done. 24 [SENATE At the time these instructions were received, an estimate for com- pleting the building, fitting, furnishing, exterior, stairs etc., not included, would have stood at $7,101,393.94.+ We now estimate that the plans of your architect, as revised and completed in detail, may be carried out at a reduction of $1,331,485.45 from the above sum. We also estimate that if modified as we shall propose, they may be carried out at a reduction of $1,657,085.79. The reduction of the estimate on your architect's plans is due in part to the reduced amount of material which he now proposes to use, and partly to our adoption of rates of prices lower than he last year thought it right to assume, but which we think just in view of the present state of the markets The somewhat greater saving to be made by the adoption of our proposition, is chiefly obtained by dispensing with a number of use- less projections, and especially by reducing the number of those upon and rising above the roofs, by increasing the height of the roofs and the adoption for them of shorter and steeper slopes, dis- pensing with artificial stone and copper by the substitution of slate or tile as a covering material. Otherwise than with respect to the roof-the proposed construc- tion of which, as before said, we think less adapted to efficiency and endurance than one more nearly of the ordinary character, lighter, simpler and less costly-the changes which we are about to propose are all in the direction of a stronger, more solid and enduring build- int, both in reality and appearance. In September last we exhibited to you pencil sketches, illustrat- ing the manner in which we thought the general exterior appear- ance of the Capitol might be improved, without increasing its cost or lessening its convenience. You then instructed us to reproduce the views thus indicated in large-scale drawings, showing in greater detail the means by which certain designed effects were to be ob- tained. These larger drawings are herewith exhibited as an illus- tration of this report, together with a smaller perspective view of the Capitol as we would propose it to be. Assuming these to be under examination, and under comparison with the drawings of your architect's plan, the following observations are to be regarded as in the nature of explanations rather than as complete descrip- tions of what we would recommend. -------------- The defects of the exterior, as we have pointed them out, may be briefly summed up in the statement that considering its size, its costliness and its monumental purpose, it lacks repose and dignity. The first step toward improvement in this respect which we would advise, is the leaving off of various features extraneous to its essen- tial structure and character. The portico balconies, for example, being, as we have shown, practically useless, and, indeed, objectionable above the entrance + Architect's previous estimate, less outlay of 1874 No. 49.] 25 story, we propose that they should be built no higher. An oppor- tunity is thus at once obtained for displaying a large uninterrupted space of the main wall of the building clear of unnecessary and confusing features. We must recognize that what we have indicated as an excess of top hamper is probably due to the desire of the architect to improve the sky-line. This object can be better and more simply accom- plished by dropping the roof over that part of the building which is between the outer and middle divisions on the north and south sides so that it will rest on the third instead of on the fourth story. The roof story being lighted by dormers will then be equally valu- able for the purposes to which rooms included in this space are appropriated. The variation in the height of the walls thus obtained will, in a great degree, remove the objection of monotony on the two longer faces of the building. The other two sides being in our opinion too short to be broken into five parts, the three interior divisions are recommended to be combined in one. This arrangement together with the reduction of the porticos already advised, will tend to secure the breadth and repose of aspect which is wanting, whileit will add to the apparent magnitude of the Capitol and give it greater force of character. In the feeling already expressed that the upper story instead of being the least should be the most dignified in the expression of its openings, and that its masses should be treated with more elegance, and rather lightened than enlarged; groups of windows with circu- lar heads, consistent with those below, are recommended to be sub- stituted for those to the forms of which we have objected, and in order to show externally the union which really exists between the two upper stories, these groups of openings have been arranged to correspond rather than coincide with those immediately below them. To further accomplish the same purpose, as well as to introduce what the building greatly lacks in color, some of the stone between the window-heads and cornice are proposed to be polished and the whole space of the surface to be decorated in such a manner as to throw over all this part of the building a continuous soft maze of slight shadows. The effect of this uniform treatment would be a warmer tone of color and an increased effect of unity and magnitude. The simple treatment of the roofs, shown in the drawings, will have an influence in the same direction. ------------ The central cupola, and four of the eight steeples, are proposed to be retained without any important reduction in height and size, but with forms and a character of detail more consistent with the lower parts of the building. It is also proposed that the cupola be completed exteriorly of stone, and that all iron and copper roofing be replaced by iron and slate or tile. 426 [SENATE We recommend that the bottom of the roof should rest on the walls proper, instead of on a parapet; that there be a continuous gutter at the foot of the slope, and that the water should be carried off more directly. The liability to obstructions and to accumulations of snow and ice will thus be lessened, and the inspection, care and repair of the whole apparatus will be safer and more convenient. e recommend an interchange of positions for the Senate and Assembly chambers, the object being to place the latter where the highest part of its floor may be on a level with that of the corridor by which it is approached. The rooms below, being those of the "art gallery" and the subordinate offices of the Adjutant-General's department, will well bear to have their ceilings reduced, for this purpose, from twenty three to twenty feet three inches. The assembly room will thus become accessible without the objectionable risers within the doors. We then recommend that the desks of the presiding officers be placed at the west end of both chambers, and all the seats on the floors arranged accordingly. The light will thus fall sideways instead of in the face of their occupants. We recommend, instead of a flat ceiling of paneled cast-iron at a height of forty-two feet, a vaulted ceiling, raised in the center to a height of fifty feet, to be supported by stone columns and spanned between moulded ribs of stone. The columns will e so placed as to stand entirely clear and outside of the space necessary to be occupied by members, allowing for a much larger number in both Senate and Assembly than there are at present. The increased height and the subdivision of the width of the chambers will increase the perspective effect; will improve their acoustic qualities; will admit screens to be introduced, by which the excessive area of the floor would be apparently reduced, and will provide suitable places outside of the bar for ladies or other guests specially privileged in this respect. In each chamber we would propose an entrance opposite the seat of the presiding officer, and an aisle leading directly to it; the indirect arrangement of the architect's plan being, as we think, a very awkward one for occasions of ceremony. We would also propose, for reasons which have been indicated, to bring the lower windows into use, and to dispense with skylights, and all of the cast-iron and most of the plaster work of the architect's plan. In front of the gallery, instead of paneled wood-work, we would propose stone-work with perforated tracery, also to use cut stone on the jambs of the doors and windows. No. 49.] 27 We recommend that the Court of Appeals room be reduced in size by a wall across the west end, the space so saved being appropriated for an additional judge's chamber; and by bringing in the south wall, separating it from the corridor, to the line of the present iron columns; the increased width of this corridor would be continued through its whole length. For the ceiling of the lower room of the cupola, we recommend a vaulting of sandstone instead of iron and artificial stone. Above this we would propose that the walls in the interior be finely finished, chiefly with decorative brick and terra cotta, and the narrow iron staircases be taken out. To provide for ascending to the higher parts, we propose a small lift to run, in continuation of those provided for in the plan, as far as the second balcony, or 212 feet from the ground. From the second balcony upward, two staircases, one for ascent and one for descent, are proposed to be carried between the walls forming the roof, to a flying arch of stone, thence up that to a platform, sixteen feet below the floor of the lantern, thence a single, spiral, stone staircase would lead to the uppermost deck. The ceilings of the porticos are proposed to be supported by granite entablatures, in place of the imitation of the same, proposed in your architect's plan. The covering of hips and ridges of the roofs we should propose to form of solid cast-iron; all galvanized sheet-iron cornices and cast zinc decorations would thus be dispensed with. It is recommended that the doors leading to the Executive, Senate and Assembly chambers should be decorated with emblematic carvings in low relief, all other doors to be of hard wood, and free from heavy projecting mouldings. We recommend that all windows be divided by a stone transom, and that those of the principal and gallery stories be further divided by a mullion, and that iron sashes, revolving on central pivots, be submitted for wooden sliding sashes. We propose that the attics over the legislative halls be supplied with a flooring of concrete resting on brick arches, and that the roof space generally, which, under our previous recommendations, will 28 [Senate be clear and lofty, should be properly fitted for the orderly keeping of the documents and records of the State, now scattered at various places of storage. - It is recommended to substitute a hard sandstone for granite and iron in the principal interior stairs as both these materials soon become slippery under constant use. Also, that their railings be made of perforated stone-work instead of iron. We would propose that the length of the steps (or width of the stairs) be increased from seven to nine feet, and their depth of tread from eleven to thirteen inches, both which suggestions are practicable, except in the western stairs, where the space is too cramped. Although not included in our scheme, we would here suggest an extension of the interior court toward the west, as indicated in plan A, for the purpose of giving adequate room for these stair at the end of the building and also for the purpose of lighting them and the corridors abutting upon them.* VIII. AS TO HOW THE COST OF COMPLETING THE BUILDING WOULD BE AFFECTED BY THE ADOPTION OF THE SUGGESTED MODIFICATIONS OF THE ARCHITECT'S PLANS. We have computed complete bills of quantities for carrying out the revised plan as proposed by our board to modified, in the same manner as the revised plans without modification, which are herewith presented, and the following is a summary of estimates prepared upon this basis as prices determined in the same manner as before (Section VI): Summary of Estimate. Stone-work . . . $3,123,215 05 Iron-work . . . 196,74444 77 Roof . . . 50,567 68 Brick-work . . . 495,901 72 Carpentry . . . 217,156 85 Painting . . . 23,378 00 Plastering . . . 109,075 40 Plumbing and gasfitting . . . 50,000 00 Heating . . . 230,000 00 Total . . . $4,501,039 47 IX. AS TO WHAT IT WILL COST TO COMPLETE AND FURNISH THE CAPITOL FOR OCCUPANCY As before stated the plans of the architect do not include many *The estimated cost of enlarging the central court, as above recommended, is $166,213.18 [?] The estimate date from the period when the building had been advanced to the spring of the arches of the principal story, since when some $200,000 worth of work has been done. No. 49.] 29 things which will need to be obtained before the building can be occupied. They leave it without fireplaces, or exterior walks, for example, as well as without furniture. Under your instructions it is necessary that we should estimate what amount of expenditure will be required to fully equip the building and properly prepare the grounds about it, so far as this is a concern of the State. A building of this class particularly needs to have a broad margin about it, and not to be closely flanked by an ordinary class of houses. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the State will sooner or later acquire more land on the north and south of the Capitol, and suitable improve the same. But the necessity for doing so is not imminent and no estimate can now be formed of the necessary outlay for the purpose. The need for large improvements of the present grounds and of the streets through and by which the Capitol is chiefly to be approached, will, however, be felt as soon as the building is ready for occupancy. That it may not seem in danger of sliding down the steep grade of the hill upon which it stands, it is requisite that an apparent level base should be formed by means of revetment walls, which, at the north and south sides, will be placed at the boundary exterior to the open area required for lighting the sub-basement. On the east side, however, we recommend that it be extended in a semicircular sweep, as shown upon plan (B), and in the manner there indicated, in order to answer the purpose of easy, dignified and convenient approach to persons arriving in carriages or on foot, and also in order to screen the excess of foundation work, which would otherwise obtrude itself upon all coming to the Capitol from the city. This advanced terrace is built of stone, and is formed of a series of vaulted arches supported on columns, and presents on its top a spacious platform of tesselated pavement. A staircase of twentyfour feet in width leads from the street to the center of this platform, whence the building may be approached from the front. This structure also provides a covered carriage approach, by which passengers may be set down either to the entrance floor by the side stairs (which have been increased to a width of twenty four feet), or to enter the basement story, and thence ascend, either by the means of the elevators or by the interior stairs. The whole of the terrace is proposed to be surmounted at the outer edge with a granite parapet. The cost of work above described is estimated in the following schedule, on the same basis as the stone-work of previous estimates, and the bills of quantities will be herewith presented. Detailed estimates for the complete fitting and furnishing of the building are also apprehended, of which the sums will be found below. The item of superintendence is calculated at the rate of the actual payments for superintendence hitherto. The remaining items of the schedule re not based on actual plans but represent our judgement of what may probably be needed.30 [SENATE NO. 49.] Estimates of Work Not Contemplated in the Completed Plans. Terrace, exterior walks, area walls, etc........... $1,046,197 20 Decoration, furniture, interior fittings, etc........ 400,000 00 Elevators.................................... 120,000 00 Park improvements, approaches, lamps, telegraph, etc............................................ 300,000 00 Architect's and Superintendent's office expenses and salaries, (4.72 per cent. on cost $6,692,237.00)... 315,873 58 Total............................................. $2, 182,070 78 X. AS TO THE TIME AND OUTLAY NECESSARY FOR ADVANCING THE BUILDING SUFFICIENT FOR OCCUPATION, WITHOUT FULLY COMPLETING THE CAPITOL. The building may be made available for use by an additional expenditure of $4,400,000, over and above the amount already expended, and if the appropriations for the ensuing two years are sufficient to cover the above-mentioned amount, the building may be occupied at the opening of the session of the year 1878. Respectfully submitted, FRED. LAW OLMSTEAD. LEOPOLD EILDITZ. H. H. RICHARDSON. ALBANY, March 2, 1876.[*VI R R*] State of New York. No. 49. In Senate, March 3, 1876. Report Of the New Capitol Commission Relative to the Plans Submitted by Messrs. Frederick Law Olmstead, Leopold Eidlitz and H. H. Richardson. To the Senate: The New Capitol commissioners herewith submit to the Senate the report of Messrs Olmstead, Eidlitz and Richardson, touching the plans and estimates for the building of the New Capitol at Albany. William Dorsheimer, Chairman of the New Capitol Commission. Albany, March 3, 1876. (Senate, No. 49.) 1REPORT. To the Hon. WILLIAM DORSHEIMER, Chairman of the New Capitol Commission : SIR. -- We beg to submit the following report on various matters, committed to us as a board of advice to your honorable commission. As it will be the record of a public service of an unusual and not altogether of a grateful character, we shall take leave at the outset to recall the considerations which led to our appointment and to the acceptance of it. Including the narrative of these, the order of the report will be as follows: First. As to the status of the New Capitol project. Second. As to certain alleged defects of superintendence. Third. As to the question of waste space, and the practicability of reducing the dimensions, and thereby the cost of the building. Fourth. As to what, at the present stage of the work, should be required in the plans for completing the building. Fifth. As to various questionable features of the plans for completing the building. Sixth. As to what it will cost to complete the building according to the plans and specifications as they now stand. Seventh. As to the manner in which the design could now be modified with advantage. Eighth. As to how the cost of the building would be affected by the adoption of the suggested modifications of the design. Ninth. As to what it will cost to complete and furnish the Capitol. Tenth. As to the time and outlay necessary for advancing the building sufficiently for occupation without fully completing the Capitol. I. AS TO THE STATUS OF THE PROJECT. Before the organization of our board, you explained to us the circumstances and motives of the act constituting your commission, and prescribing its duties, substantially as follows : For several years before 1875, with each annual session of the Legislature, it had become more and more apparent to the people of the State that the plans of the New Capitol had been adopted without much care in the counting of the cost of the undertaking. As concern had increased in regard to the consequence of haste in this respect, misgivings had also begun to be felt, whether all desirable deliberation had been permitted, and prudence used in the determination 4 [SENATE tion, which, at the same time, was effected, of innumerable questions of convenience and of architectural adequacy and fitness. On the meeting of the Legislature of 1875, it was found that, after an outlay of over $5,000,000, the construction of the shell of the build- ing had barely reached the bottom of the main story, and that a fur- ther sum of $7,000,000 was estimated to be needed to carry it to com- pletion. The advance of the work to the floor above the entrance story also, at this time, enabled those who entered the building to better realize the great distances to be traversed in passing from one part of it to another, the height of the less important stories, the length and gloominess of its halls and the unnecessary spaciousness of some of its apartments for the purposes to which they were assigned. It was ascertained that the last and largest estimate of the cost of completing the building had not been based on fully detailed plans and specifications of what remained to be done, and, upon further inquiry, it appeared that it had not been customary to mature draw- ings for the work faster than they were called for by the progress of construction. Under these circumstances the disposition of the Legislature, with- out distinction of party, came to be one of more decided inquietude and hesitation in respect to the enterprise than that of any of its predecessors. It was finally agreed, by a vote of more than two-thirds of both houses, that the use of the additional appropriation to be made for the building should be conditional upon the fulfillment of certain require- ments, of which the more important were: First, that detailed plans and specifications for completing the work should be procured as soon as possible; and, second, that these should be indorsed as satisfactory in all respects by your commission. You had found the architect uncertain whether the required plans in detail could be made ready for your review much before the end of the year, in which case, if they did not speedily obtain your unre- served approval, you would be compelled, by the unavailability of the appropriation, to stop work on the building. It was not impossible that, in the end, you would be obliged to refer the whole business back to the Legislature. In the mean time to whatever point anywhere in the building the work should have advanced, by so much the plans would be measura- bly fixed. You expressed a strong desire to put the work, if possible, before the end of the year, on a steady course of economical progress toward the best available conclusion; but, should this prove impracticable then: First, to do as much toward it as you possibly could; and, second, to be ready to report the whole business in the best form for further legislative consideration. Each of these ends required in your judgment that a thorough criti- cism of the existing plans of the building should be immediately undertaken. You considered that both for this purpose and also for the more particular consideration of the complete detailed plans after- No. 49] 5 ward required, you would need professional advice such as the responsible author of the work to be criticised could not be expected to furnish. You thought that any such advice, coming from a board of three would be of more value than if from any individual, and you pre- ferred that one of these should have a standing rather as with refer- ence to the administration, management and economy of public works ruled by æsthetic considerations, than simply as an architectural designer. Having upon this explanation of your motives and wishes, under- taken the desired duty, you informally advised us, as you did at the same time your architect, of several particulars in which you were inclined to think that the design might be so modified that the build- ing would come sooner into use and at less cost, without being archi- tecturally less satisfactory. You asked us not only to consider these matters but any others upon which in view of all the circumstances that have been referred to, we might think it desirable that you should be advised. The completed plans and detailed drawings were not ready for your review until December, and what you apprehended as a contingency actually occurred, through the expenditure of the funds available for the work, before you could well begin your consideration of them. You were consequently obliged to suspend building operations. The Legislature of 1876, however, on being informed of the facts at the opening of the present session, promptly extended the limit of expenditure, and work was resumed. Copies of the detailed plans were placed in our hands on the seventeenth day of January, and we have since been engaged in a critical review of them and in preparing an estimate of the outlay that will be required to execute them. The work required for this purpose has been one of multitudinous detail and has involved such an amount of computation that it has been impracticable, with every effort, to complete it with reasonable confidence of accuracy before the present date. Your instructions in all other respects have been diligently com- plied with, and it remains for us only to place the results in order before you II. AS TO CERTAIN ALLEGED DEFECTS OF SUPERINTENDENCE Before entering upon a review of matters of design, it is our duty to refer to the testimony of two master-builders sustaining various charges of ignorant, inefficient and culpably neglectful superin- tendence of the work of the Capitol, made to the Governor, and by his excellency referred to you, and to the matter of which we have been asked by you to give attention. There are but two questions of fact raised by this testimony, upon which it has seemed to us necessary that you should have our evidence. Considering the conditions under which this work has been carried 6 [SENATE on; the number of men who have been directly employed upon it; the manner in which it has been thought necessary by the adminis- tration that they should be enlisted; considering also the difficulties of sustaining methods and enforcing discipline which seem unavoidable in public works under our present political customs, and finally, recognizing the disorganization and demoralization of industry which has resulted from the war and a fluctuating standard of values, the State must be thought fortunate if the Capitol presents no more and no more extensive and serious marks of imperfect success in super- intendence than are fairly borne witness to in these statements. The first of the two questions of fact raised by them, to which we have referred, is whether the brick lately used in the interior walls of the building is, as alleged, of a dangerously inferior quality? Having carefully examined the walls referred to, and taken out of them sample bricks, which, on studious comparison, we determined to be rather below the average quality of their contents, we sub-- jected them to a test by which their moment of resistance was found to be, on an average, 3,600 pounds to the square inch, which is scarcely below the average of the best class of hard burnt brick. We have no doubt of the entire adequacy of these walls for their duty, so far as the quality of their brick is concerned. The second question is as to the soundness of a part of a floor arching over a passage twelve feet wide near the Court of Appeals room. We find this floor to be insecure, not, however, for the reason indicated, but because one of the walls upon which it is designed to rest, has sprung away from it. We find also, a much more serious matter than that described, in the fact that this wall, which is fifty- six feet long and twenty inches thick, and upon which is superposed another wall, which, in its turn, supports the galleries over the Assem- bly chamber, rests throughout its entire length upon the arches of the entrance hall below, which arches it crosses transversely between their supporting piers. Iron columns have been introduced in the Court of Appeals room to take the weight they would otherwise have to carry, off these walls, and to lessen their own weight they are made hollow. But we must regard the whole arrangement as unsound. This error, which is wholly one of judgment in design, and not at all of superintendence, is repeated on the Senate side. III. AS TO THE QUESTION OF WASTE SPACE, AND THE PRACTICA- BILITY OF REDUCING THE DIMENSIONS, AND THEREBY THE COST, OF THE BUILDING. We were asked, at the time of our appointment, to giver early attention to certain special inquiries, as our judgment upon them might affect the direction of the work during the summer. They were as follows: 1st. Whether the Capitol is more spacious than is necessary. 2d. if so, whether it might be reduced in height with a gain of convenience, of architectural effect, and in economy of cost. No. 49.] 7 To these questions we made, as requested, an early reply; but, as the grounds of it are such as to limit the scope of our present report, we shall here recur to them. So far as the interior accommodations of the Capitol are concerned, it is a simple cubical block, from the center of which a smaller cube has been taken out, leaving the court. The space between the walls on the east and west sides of the court is nowhere less than 103 feet, and on the north and south nowhere less than eighty-six. If a space between two walls is divided by two partitions running parallel with them, only two of the three spaces thus formed can have direct light from the sides. As a general rule the space between the outer walls of the new Capitol is so divided, the space between the two partitions being commonly twelve feet wide, with a length vary- ing according to circumstances. In each of two cases it is 340 feet, and even in these the only direct light received is by a single window at the end of the building. Every such intermediate space is essen- tially what, in an ordinary house, is called a "dark passage." The outer walls being nowhere less than eighty-six feet apart, and the dark passage twelve feet wide, the average distance between the partition walls of the passage and the outer walls is something more than thirty feet. The outer walls are broken by windows at nearly uniform intervals, the distance between the centers being about eighteen feet. It follows that, to obtain a room less than thirty feet in depth from its window end, another partition is necessary, by which a space is formed between the window and the passage, receiving now direct light. The whole structure being divided horizontally into stories of from twenty-one and one-half feet to twenty-seven and one-half feet, it will be seen that, allowing for floors and walls, the normal unit of space of the Capitol is a room eighteen feet wide, twenty to twenty-five high, and at least thirty long (varying to seventeen wide by forty-two long), lighted by a single window at the end, and communicating with the rest of the building by a doorway opposite the window, opening into a dark passage. Neither by subdividing such rooms, nor by throwing two together, can much of their space be turned to good account for the ordinary work of legislative committees, or for accounting, auditing, searching, registering, filing, engrossing, or any other of the more common busi- ness of bureau officers and clerks. The legislative halls on two stories and the Court of Appeals on one, running through from wall to wall, interrupt the arrangement which has been described, and elsewhere light is obtained for interior rooms by means of sky-lights and wells, but the building contains more than half a mile of passage, with rooms opening from it of the general type indicated, except where the space between them and the outer walls is occupied by a cross passage; or, in part, by a chimney, air- shaft, or other dark room. It is obvious that, in this respect if in no other (and there are others), the Capitol will contain much waste space and useless wall, which, in the long run, will be less regretted on account of its prime cost than because of its making greater distances 8 [SENATE to be traveled over than might otherwise be necessary, and adding to the difficulty and expense of heating and of all house service. It will, however, be obvious, from what has been said, that this objection could now only be removed by a change of the general plan of the building from the ground upward. The question of the feasibility of any important general reduction in the proposed height of the building, turns upon that of a change in the position of the legislative chambers, as these occupy, with their galleries, a portion of the two upper stories, and the space allowed for them between floor and ceiling, it is desirable to increase rather than to diminish. Independently of the internal arrangements of these chambers, we cannot think the disposition of the legislative department a very satis- factory one, and we will briefly state why. It is the most important department and involves a larger attendance and more passing to and fro than any other. The legislative halls are, nevertheless, as remote from the entrances as they could well be. To reach them from the present level of the ground, at the east front of the building, an eleva- tion of fifty-seven feet and a horizontal distance in a straight line of about 180 feet must be overcome, or reckoning by way of the stairs and passages, about 380 feet. That is to say, after arriving at the principal door-steps, one will need to pass through the building a distance equal to three times the length of the present Capitol and ascend the equivalent of four flights of stairs of fourteen feet each, before reaching the door of the Senate or Assembly room. It is to be expected that most persons will enter at the basement door and ascend thence by the steam lift, but the stateliest apartments of a noble building, should be capable of approach by a plainer and more dignified way than this, as well as by one less tedious, cramped and fatiguing than that offered in the narrow and dimly lighted staircases and corridors of the plan. Again, the committee rooms, between which and the legislative chambers, there is a necessary and frequent interchange of duty, are distributed over each of the four floors of the building, and while there are but four of them on the same floor with the legislative chambers, there are seventeen in the basement, two stories below. In passsing between the latter and the legislative chambers, the Executive Offices, the Court of Appeals and the State Library will be passed, extensive departments with which the legislators, as such, have nothing directly to do. This is far from being an ideal arrangement, but, to make an essen- tially better one, within the present outer walls, would involve the tearing out and reconstructing of almost the whole of the present interior of the building. This would greatly delay its completion, and would add much more to its cost than any amount that could be saved by a reduction in its height. While there might, moreover, be a great gain in convenience for the legislative department, a readjust- ment of rooms and passages upon the present ground plan, which would be satisfactory in other respects, would be of doubtful feasi- bility. No. 49.] 9 The fact really is, that by no possibility could the accomodations which have been required to be provided for in the new Capitol be conveniently arranged on the ground plan of the present building. ----------- We know nothing of the circumstances under compulsion of which the site may have been fixed and circumscribed, but, in justice to the architect, we should, perhaps, say that in its selection the State would appear to us to have been unfortunately advised. On a parallelogram of this limited extent of hill-side ground, with its longest dimension trending diagonally to the slope, and jammed in between rows of commonplace shops and dwellings of less than half its height, it is hardly possible that a building of the necessary dimensions should not have a somewhat ill-conditioned aspect. One effect of setting so lofty a structure in such a situation, with no proper margin, and no distinctly related dependencies carrying the eye gradually down to common things, will be to sadly dwarf and demean the city of Albany. IV. AS TO WHAT AT THE PRESENT STAGE OF THE WORK SHOULD BE REQUIRED IN THE PLANS FOR COMPLETING THE BUILDING. The circumstances already stated reduce the field for criticism of the Capitol, for practical purposes, almost exclusively to the plans now before you. As to these our intention simply is to anticipate in some degree the extended study which you would otherwise find necessary in order to fully meet the responsibility of the law, by call- ing your attention to such particulars of them as in our judgment should not obtain your approval without special consideration, and to briefly indicate our reasons for placing them in questions In these reasons there will probably be in every case a more or less direct reference to ordinary and easily understood considerations of economy, fitness or utility of construction, but to save the time and repetitions which on the one hand would be required for tracing out such a reference for every detail, and on the other to avoid asking you to accept our dictum simply, on every point even of a professional or technical character, we shall here indicate certain general standards for determining what constitutes merit, and what defect of merit, in a work of the class under consideration, your acceptance of which we shall afterwards assume. There are two points of view from which it is customary to regard such a work, and we shall for the time accept such a divided view with- out inquiring as to its necessity or propriety. First, then, the Capitol is to be examined as the place of business of the organization called the State government of New York, and as to the degree of convenience which it supplies for this purpose. It is not to be inferred from our recent remarks on the difficulties of the site that we suppose that the State will obtain in the Capitol as convenient a building in all respects for its purposes as for an outlay 10 [SENATE of over twelve millions of dollars might have been placed upon it. If simple convenience had been the sole or controlling object, a much smaller sum might undoubtedly be made to provide it in a much greater degree. It is necessary then, to a just appreciation of the plans, that a clear idea should be kept in view of any other motive that has been entertained, and that the necessary influence of this other motive should be distinctly understood. Looking at the ground plans and elevations and recalling the con- ditions by which an excess of space has been included within the walls, it will be evident that it has been desired to make as large a building as could stand upon the site, and as lofty a building as could be turned to use for the purposes of the State. To strengthen the impression which so great an extent of walls would make upon the mind, a treatment of them as been adopted, which, through the well known effect of uniformity and repetitions of breaks upon a surface, is adapted to force the mind to dwell upon the evidence of their unusual height and breadth. The foundations and basement of the building are also of vast strength-we know of no structure for civic purposes of modern times in which regard for stability and endurance is better evinced. These, with other circumstances, sufficiently indicate the rank which the structure is designed to assume, and probably the best short expression of the purpose which they especially manifest, is the com- mon one, that the Capitol shall be an architectural monument worthy of the grandeur of the Empire State. What an architectural monument really is, may be best shown by an example: The most successful building of this class in the world undoubtedly is the Parthenon. The admiration and veneration in which it is held, is due neither to its size, its material, to any extrinsic ornament, to the objects for which it was built, nor to any thing which was intended by its builders to preserve in remembrance. So far as grandeur merely through size is concerned, standing on the same ground, the highest point of its roof would be overlooked form the library win- dows of the Capitol. Having been designed for a single purpose, its ground plan is even simpler than that of the Capitol, while its sky- line is far simpler, no single projection appearing above the barely necessary features of its roof. Why then has it such monumental pre- eminence ? Simply because there is nothing to be found in it - not as much as a tool-mark - that does not manifest a refined building pur- pose, followed simply, conscientiously and with consummate executive skill, and because, also, there is not one such purpose to be detected, that has not been kept in harmony with every other, and in strictest subjection to the general purpose of all. It is for these reasons that, after the storms and wars of more than two thousand years, the world is held in wonder at the exquisite good judgment, and the exquisite good workmanship which the people of one small State were able to call into their service for an object in which they had a common interest. To judge in what degree the New Capitol will be found similarly No. 49.] 11 monumental, we may inquire how far its various features will sustain a similar character ; we may ask, for example, as we turn over the plans, why is this room entered with ease and directness, and that by a branch of the common passage and by a double turn? Why are the jambs of this door modeled into columns, of this other molded, and of that left square? What is the use of pushing up a tower at this point, of pushing out a balcony at that ? What is the object of a striking elevation of the roof here, and of a deep depression there? For what reason has this pier been made heavier than another ? What is the meaning of this projection's being larger, forming a cornice, than this other, forming a belting-course ? There is no respectable monumental architecture in which a clearer answer cannot be given to all such questions as these than that "it is a matter of fancy," that "it is to make variety" or "ornament," or than that "is done for symmetry's sake." When an answer cannot be found in the fact of a refinement of convenience obtained by means of that which is questioned, it may be perhaps by the fact that by it the character of some service to be performed and the degree of strength required for that service is accurately and gracefully expressed. As, for example, a small door, indirectly approached, should mean the entrance to a room of minor importance; a large door, with direct and spacious approach, the entrance to some grander apartment. Again, if the door jambs are modeled into columns and the arch sub-divided into groups of mould- ings, it should indicate that the space opened through that door occupies a higher rank in the dignity of its uses than another approached through a door the jambs of which are square or plainly chamfered. But all of the answer should not be found, by examination, in this way, of the functions to be performed by the part scrutinized ; the fitness of its form to the character of the material of which it is composed will need, also, to be regarded. Neglecting this, as you are more liable to do in drawings than in real constructions, you might pass much, the propriety of which we shall hereafter question only in general terms; we will, therefore, illustrate the need for bearing it in mind by a prominent example. It is to be found in sheet number thirty-five, where you will observe that the angle formed by the junction of the front and rear slopes of the main roof is covered by a great projection, which, taken by itself, would be mistaken for a representation of a massive and deeply cut stone cornice. If you ask, however, what is the meaning of a stone cornice in this situation ? and make the necessary investigation for an answer, you will be led to consider that this projection is not the crowning feature of any wall, as is a stone cornice properly, but that it must be supported in its place by the rafters of the roof, which stand eighteen feet apart. You will then recognize that slabs of stone eighteen feet long, supported in this way only at their tip ends, are hardly secure in their places. Finally you will ascertain that the projection is not what it appears, but is formed of galvanized sheet iron, and that its constructional purpose is simply that of a thin strip,12 [SENATE lapping over a joint in the roof to make it weather tight. We there- fore indicate its sharp angular forms, its brackets and mouldings, resembling those into which stone is chiseled, and even the great pro- jection it is made to assume, as questionable entitled to your approval. On the same sheet we observe another illustration of the same point. The dormer windows throughout the building are all topped out, as here shown, with real cut stone cornices, but these cornices cannot be continued to the sloping line of the roof behind them, which it has been designed that they should appear to join, because of the absence of any interior construction by which the weight of stone could be supported. The difficulty is again everywhere met by the substitution of galvanized sheet iron, in which the form given the stone is accurately reproduced. It si intended, not merely to resemble and harmonize with the stone which it joins, and the forms of which it takes up and extends, but to be mistaken for a part of the same material. But these, it may be thought, are but shifts to keep the cost of the building down. Supposing that they are so, and that the State finds it necessary to tell a story of undounded resource in the basement, and another of straitened means in the top works of the Capitol, it remains to be considered whether the method of telling it may not savor too much of mock gentility to be worthy monumental archi- tecture, and whether, if in the sides of the dormers, the State cannot afford to use the same materials as on their fronts, it would not be more respectable to let the forms adopted for the sides differ from those for the fronts. If monumental architecture should in all things manifest the strong and worthy qualities of the people whom it is to commemorate, and betray nothing of their passing weaknesses, vagaries and silly fashions, there is at the present moment special occasion for guard- ing against even "the appearance of evil" in the direction to which this sheet-iron stone-work points. We stand at the close of a century in which a long series of start- ling inventions and discoveries has made many things common and easy of attainment which aforetime were unknown or attainable only by the long and arduous efforts of highly trained and refined labor. The great and rapid changes thus occurring have in the main been beneficent and elevating, but they have also been, in certain respects, demoralizing and confusing. Inordinate expectations have been excited, as to the degree in which the fruits could be enjoyed without the pains of labor, and a singular disposition has for a time prevailed, to take the show of wealth for the substance. Innumerable mere- tricious wares have been devised to meet the commercial demand thus arising. In nothing has the inclination to indulge in shams and make shifts and to substitute the coarse arts for the fine arts been more manifest than in matters of building. Nothing would be more humiliating to the State, than that the vain conceit which lies at the bottom of every thing of this kind should have place in the Capitol, and no more imperative duty rests on your commission than to insist that only substantial, well-tried and unmistakably genuine No. 49.] 13 materials and workmanship shall enter into its construction even if in in order to get them the completion of the building is delayed for years. The State can afford to wait for better times. It cannot, after spending so much for soundness in the lower walls of its building, afford to fall back on stage effects above. In point of fact we cannot suppose that sheet-iron is intended to do duty for stone in the cases referred to so much in oder to save expense as because the architect has yielded to a desire for a kind of exterior effect in the upper part of the building which does not naturally spring out of its internal uses, and which its structure is consequently not adapted to sustain. This leads us back to the second lesson of the Parthenon, which, in its application to your immediate duty is, that it is not sufficient to ask the meaning of each particular feature, as it may be seen in the detailed plans, standing apart, or even as with reference to the other elements of the structure with which it is immediately connected; it must bear its part toward a general meaning. It would, bor example, be unwise to provide, at great expense, a basement of firm masonry, adapted to produce an impression of great stability, strength and endurance, and then plant upon it a structure of such design as to favor an impression of exteme lightness and buoyancy. Whatever we find the meaning of which in not consistent with and helpful to the meaning that the building is intended to have as a whold, or which the larger feature is designed to have of which it is a part, we must consider to be unfortunate. That is to say, we must not be satisfied unless we find consistency, congruity and unity of meaning. V. AS TO VARIOUS QUESTIONABLE FEATURES OF THE PLANS FOR COMPLETING THE BUILDING. We shall now call your attention to different parts of the plan for completing the building, briefly indicating wherein and wherefore they need to be specially questioned in the manner we have recommended. It should be recognized that the plan as shown in the detailed drawings is itself in some degree a modification of that heretofore had in view, the central tower above the roof and the upper story of the main building having been each somewhat reduced. The Exterior. - We have explained that the form of the building has advantages for an imposing effect, based on an appreciation of its length, breadth, height, stability and endurance, and that the regular and symmetrical size is adapted to sustain and augment such an effect. That the building, however, might not have too plain, prosaic and clumsy a character, several methods of adding interest and beauty to its exterior appearance, have been adopted, the choice of which we do not think altogether happy, because in part they tend to a certain confusion of impressions and especailly to a loss of strength, vigor and dignity of aspect. 14 [SENATE It will be observed, for instance, that on each of its four sides it is divided into five parts by vertical lines, the two outer and the middle parts standing slightly in advance of the other two. (These exterior divisions are not the result of any interior necessity, but where, as is the case with the central divsion on the north and south fronts, they happen to coincide with interior divisions, the effect is decidedly stronger, and in every way more satisfactory than where they are purely exterior matters.) The divisions are not of preciesely equal breadth, and the relief between the advanced and the recessed divisions is greater than is usual in commercial buildings, but the spaces are so nearly equal, and the relief relatively to the magnitude and in view of the distinguished character of the building, is comparatively so slight, that we must suggest that what is gained by the principle of unity in divided parts will hardly compensate for what is lost by disturbing the impression of massveness and breadth of surface, which the mere extent of wall would be adapted to produce. Another circumstance, which at once catches the eye in observing either front of the Capitol, is that of the great number and conspic- uousness of elevated features, breaking the sky-line. These are, doubtless, designed to give greater variety and thus greater interest to the form of the building. What has been done for this purpose, however, in towers, pavilions, embossed sheet-zinc work and cast-iren finials and crestings, is in so many parts, and of such different char- acter in different parts, and in all these upper parts is so foreign in manner from that of the lower parts, that when seen from below in actual construction, it must have a stron tendency to draw off the mind from contemplation of the building as a single grand object, and to dissipate the impression of massive strength which it might other- wise produce. We submit to you, therefore, whether for general grandeur of effect the exterior plan of the building has any where sufficien breadth and simplicity of mass, and whether it has not too much out-rigging and top hamper, meaningless as with reference to the general artistic motive. It is here necessary to refer to a general purpose of arrangement in the design of the Capitol which is somewhat unusual in buildings of its class. It appears in the fact that two stories, which are seen wholly above ground, are designated, respectively, the basement and the entrance story. A considerable part of the two stories next above the entrance are thrown interiorly into one for the accommodation of the grand apartments of the Senate and Assembly and the State Library. These upper stories are, therefore, much more important than those below ; and, in fact the basement and the entrance story have been made what they are, have been built as strongly, solidly, and expensively as they have, chiefly that they might lift up, sustain, and lead on to that which is to be above. Whether this way judicious or not, too much has been done to admit of its veing now changed ; it only remains to secure, in the highest degree, all its advantages ; to let them be seen, and to make artistically the most of them. No. 49.] 15 Consistently with this purpose, the walls of this superior portion of the building should, it is obvious, be more elegantly formed, richer in detail, and, as a whole, should be expressive of the greater importance and dignity of the rooms they enclose than those below. Unhappily, as it appears to us, the upper story is treated in a manner directly the reverse of this, the windows being reduced in size, and the piers con- sequently enlarged so as to denote in the forms developed greater weight and less elegance. This effect is heightened by the square form of the windows, which seem borrowed from buildings not of a monumental character, and which however suitable they might be in a subordinate or lower part of the building, in sthis situation create discord. From the larger features of the building we now ask to turn your attention to those of detail, in which we have to point out that a similar error of judgment appears to have been made in the dif- ference of character of forms and treatment adopted in the different parts. What we refer to will be readily understood by letting the eye rest for a moment successively upon, first, the basement and the two storied immediately above it ; second, at the uppermost story ; third, at the east and west gables ; fourth, at the general treatment of the roofs ; fifth, at the special treatment of the dormers ' sixth, at the eight subordinate steeples ; and, ninth, at the great central cupola. It will be found that the detail, seen by itself, might in each case be readily supposed to be designed for a quite different building, and that consequently it has a claim on the admiration of the observer in competition with, rather than in alliance to, that of all the rest. We submit that you should consider whether such a frequent change of motive is not again unfavarable to unity, repose and dignity, and does not tend to fritter away the effect which might otherwise be expected to result from the general simplicity of outline and the magnitude of the essential body of the structure. We submit, also, that there is no part of this detail that has any freshness of character, as if it had no part of this detail that has any freshness of character, as if it had grown directly out of the special monumental purpose and the occasion in hand. Finally, we recommend you to consider whether the Capitol, setting aside the great scale on which it is laid out, its positive magnitude and its exceedingly disturbed sky-line is not likely to be more com- monplace, conventional and uninteresting in appearance than a structure for the State so costly and so lasting ought to be. The Assembly Chamber. - What is first of all to be asked for in the Assembly chamber is, that it shall possess every known or con- trivable condition favorable to the comfort and convenience of orderly debate of the more nemerous branch of the Legislature. Nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of the best possible methods of securing light, air and satifactory acoustic properties. As it will be chosen for all occasions of ceremony in which the government of the State appears as one body, and as public guests are to be received, and public ceremonies celebrated in it, it should not only be the largest, but in all respects the most august room of the Capitol. It should, therefore, as far as suitable means can be used for the purpose, con- 16 [SENATE sistently with undivided regard for convenience, be so formed and fitted in all respects, that men entering it will be naturally impresed by a sense of the grandeur of the duty of government, and of the dignity which is appropriate to the supreme function of making the laws of a free people. The execution of the work for this purpose, should be the best attainable with proper regard for economy. The materials employed should be genuine, the forms created should be eminently well proportioned, and the decoration used to enrich and heighten these effects, should be consistent in character with the basis of the work, sound, strong and of an elegance not to be affected by changes of fashion. In all the respects it should be more than tolerable-it should be striking and thoroughly admirable. Approaching the Assembly chamber with these thoughts in mind, the entrance to it will first of all not seem a fortunate one. After turning from the corridor and passing the doorway, one must again turn, and finally reach the floor of the chamber by mounting five contracted and spirally arranged steps, leading up as it were from a pit - an arrangement neither conducive to convenience nor dignity. (See sheet No. 21.) The highest part of the floor should be on the level with the corri- dor, especially as after reaching it every member must again step down stairs to his place. The room when entered will be found to be 141 1/2 feet long, 85 1/2 wide and 42 high. We think it too wide and too low, relatively to its length, for impressive perspective effect. If so, the defect will be heightened by the introduction of columns, in rows transversely to its length and at a distance of twenty-five feet from the walls, and by the use of material in those parts of the ceiling lying behind them different form that in the center. The columns are to be of cast-iron, the arches, which they support, of brick-work and plaster, the pedestals on which they stand are to be faced with wood-work, and the wall below is to be again brick covered with plaster. We suggest that, in such a situation, all this is rather ignoble. Acoustically considered, what is to be feared is that an excessive reverberation will be experienced where the members sit in the central parts of the chamber, by a reflection from the ceiling of every word loudly spoken among them. The form and material adopted for the ceiling is calculated rather to increase than lessen this danger, as it is to be a flat, thin, cast-iron canopy, suspended from a bridge thrown from wall to wall above. This ceiling cannot appear and can hardly be intended to appear what it is, but will be an imitation of an arrangement of stone or wood lintels, overlaid with a paneling of the same material, which would be something impossible under the circumstances. We cannot think it a dignified arrangement, nor adapted to favor such an aesthetic impression as is desirable. The room is to be lighted wholly from above, partly through sky- lights in the ceiling, partly through windows in the walls the bottoms of which are twenty-seven feet above the level of the floor. There No. 49.] 17 is a tier of windows on both sides, at the level of the floor, but they are shut off from the chamber by walls under the front of the galleries. The seats for members are arranged so that their occupants must have the light from the north upper windows in their faces, and the Speaker must face the windows on the south. Such an arrangement will be found a trying one. The method of ventilation now generally adopted for rooms of thie kind, has never yet proved more than measurably satisfactory. Under even the best management of experienced men the theoretic results are not reached, and the State is not likely to continuously obtain the best management. The most costly and elaborate appara- tus for the purpose has been used in the British Houses of Parlia- ment, and in the Capitol at Washington ; in both, the complaints of unpleasant currents and of an offensive quality of the air have been often made, and committees formed to obtain improvements if possible. IN mild spring and in summer weather, it would be better that natural ventilation, by means of windows in the lower part of the chamber, should not be wholly precluded, and in our judgment it would also be better at all times that for a short period between every two sessions the room should be thrown open at the sides, as the only radical and always trustworthy means of purifying it. The Senate Chamber.-The Senate chamber is like the Assembly room, except as it is of smaller size, and nearly all the objections made to the Assembly room are applicable to it in greater or less degree. The Court of Appeals.-This room is much larger than is desirable for its business. The columns which in part support the ceiling are of iron, intended to be enameled, and considering that those of the hall by which it is approached are of polished granite, this material cannot be thought to comport with the relative dignity of its duty. There is but one judge's chamber: another is needed. The Dome, Cupola or Central Tower.-It is difficult to criticise this crowning feature of the design by reference to well established prin- ciples, because in connection with a building of the general character of the Capitol, its purposes are anomalous. The class of architectural structures which it most resembles, as ordinarily seen in monumental buildings, are mostly used to distin- guish rooms or central spaces of specially noble character in the main body of the house below, as the junction of the nave and transept in a cathedral, or the rotunda in such buildings as the Capitol at Wash- ington. In palaces, the chapel or the grand hall of the audience is often thus exalted. In the State Capitol, instead of being thus connected with some one of its more important apartments, as the senate or assembly room, the Library or the Court of Appeals, or with a central hall opening into all these, the dome has no apparent relation to any purpose proper to the interior of the building, being in effect an edifice by itself, build up from the ground at one end of the interior court. Its base occu- pies a space of about sixty-five feet in length and breadth, its walls [Senate, No. 49.] 218 [SENATE being ten feet in thickness and formed inside and out of cut granite. Its height is 320 feet from the ground. At a distance of ninety-six feet from the basement floor a dome shaped ceiling is to be introduced, formed with a frame work of iron, filled in with blocks made of hydraulic lime and sand, two and one-half feet in thickness, moulded on the lower side, so as to resemble a construction of stone with deeply moulded panels. A genuine stone ceiling of sufficient thickness and of an architectural character suitable to the situation would be less costly. From above this ceiling a square base, of the same size with the walls below, is carried up through some thirty-six feet above the roof of the main building, forming the base of the first story of the ornamental structure which is to be visible from the ground without. This story consists of a collonade on each side, with arched window openings between the columns. The next story is treated in a similar manner, but is octagonal in plan. Above is placed a vaulted roof of sheet copper, resting on a frame-work of iron, and finished on the top with a platform supporting a cast-iron lantern, which is intended to be again surmounted by a metal statue as yet undesigned. From above the ceiling first described, the interior of the tower is faced with quarried limestone, and occupied, to a height of ninety-two feet, by a square iron staircase three feet wide. from thence upwards, to the platform of the lantern, by a still narrower circular staircase, sustained by a central hollow rod, three and a half inches in diameter, The style of work of all this interior is that which would be looked for in a garret. We assume that the purpose of this unique structure is to create an object of beauty, by which the devotion to art, the enthusiasm and the wealth of the Empire State may be suitably manifested. Accepting this as a sufficient motive, we think that the future visitor will regard it as unfortunate that the love of beauty, the zeal and the means of the builders of a monument for such a purpose, were so completely exhausted on its outside. Simply as an object of beauty also, we doubt if the shape of the tower will long be regarded as felicitous The Balconies.-If you ask what do these appendages by which certain parts of the building are distinguished mean, we must say that a satisfactory answer is difficult. We find one opening out of the Court of Appeals, another out of the five subordinate offices of the Adjutant General's department, others from the rear of the seats of the presiding officers of the Senate and Assembly. There is no custom of either of these bodies which ever requires a promenade out of windows. They are of less obvious use for the Adjutant-General than they might be for the Governor, whose quarters are devoid of them. There are three committee rooms the windows of which open one, there are thirty-seven committee rooms the windows of which open upon none. Regarded from the interior of the building they are practically useless, and they obstruct the light. Regarded from the exterior, they are objectionable, since they create the false impression that some parts of the No. 49.] 19 Capitol are intended to be used in a way which makes it particularly desirable that balconies should be attached to them. If there are any proper balcony rooms in the Capitol, as in fact there are, they are without balconies. Looking at these constructions in detail, you will observe that they are supported on iron beams, which are incased in sheet-iron pressed into the form of stone lintels. The Roof.- The roof must have been planned in the first place less as a cover to the building, than, like the cupola, as a means of obtaining a towering effect, and of lifting up appendages simply for purposes of ornament. Its constructive plan is consequently difficult. The ridge of the principal roof is within ten feet (horizontal measurement), of the exterior wall, but is removed seventy-six feet from the interior wall; the front slope is therefore steep and the rear slope much less so than is desirable for so broad a plane. In order to support this form of roof it has been thought necessary to resort to a truss of enormous weight, the complex construction of which much interferes with the value of the pace between the upper floor and the roof. The edge of the roof instead of resting as it should against the cornice of the wall is carried on the parapet. The proper office of the parapet is thus repudiated. The gutter for the roof is furrow cut in the parapet and lined with copper; water is led from it by pipes carried at frequent intervals through the the interior of the building. The main roof, as thus described, is much broken by skylights and wells or air-shafts. The intersection of he numerous slopes which these make necessary with each other and with the towers, pavilions, and other constructions are irregular and complicated, and with regard to the accumulation of snow and ice in the angles and vallies, frequently unfortunate. The framework of the roof is constructed of iron beams supported on the before mentioned trusses. The spaces between the beams are occupied in the first place by arches of artificial stone eight inches in thickness and filled up to a level on the upper side. This material is covered with copper plates set in ridges and furrows, the ridges being sustained by supports of zinced iron, and the plates held down by bars of iron, bolted to the artificial stone. The whole thickness of the roof covering is one foot two inches. We must regard this plan of roofing as cumbrous and costly beyond reason. A perfectly strong, tight, permanent roof could be constructed, with an exterior surface of tile or slate, with much lighter supports, and at half the expense. Such roofs are in existence, many hundred years old. But even if for any reason a copper surface is to be preferred, such a complicated and ponderous method of supporting it is unnecessary. The crestings of the roof are of cast iron, made to imitate wrought. If iron is used for these purposes in a building of tis kind, it should be really wrought. We have before indicated our objections to the cornice-like projections supported upon brackets, and all in forms suitable to solid stone-work, but really intended to be of sheet iron.20 [SENATE The Interior Staircases.-- In all buildings of which the principal apartments are above the ground floor, it has hitherto been considered important, in monumental architecture, that the staircases should be spacious and easy of ascent, and that they should be made impressive features. The material of the adjoining walls and of the staircases has been chosen, and the forms and decorations of it have been accordingly studied with this purpose. On the assumption, probably, that the steam lift will leave little occasion for the use of stairways, the ordinary custom has been so far departed from, in the plans of the Capitol, that, by contrast, those provided are likely to appear cramped and undignified. They are each in a deep well, with not a single window opening into the outer air from it, and receive direct light only through a small sky-light, at a height of 100 feet from the bottom. The baluster is of cast iron, with a hand-rail of bronze. One of perforated stone-work would be more dignified. The steps are but seven feet in length, with a rise of six and a half, and a tread of eleven inches, and will be found unnecessarily fatiguing. They are also faulty in construction: First, in that the bearing surface of each step is but one and a half inches, which is insufficient to carry the weight of the material; second, in that they are in part sustained, throughout their whole height of ninety-five feet, upon a lining wall of brick but eight inches thick, carried up inside the more substantial wall by which they are inclosed, and to which it cannot, in our judgement, be effectually bonded. The Outer Stairway.-- The Capitol has been so placed that the problem of access to the grand entrance on the east front, is a difficult one. It appears heretofore, not to have been carefully studied, as the arrangement proposed in the original design was soon discarded in favor of that shown in the small photographed plans, and in the model exhibited to the public. This could never have been carried out without an entire change of the street approaching the Capitol from the east, the lowest step of the (photographed) plans being at an elevation of over fourteen feet above that of State street. If carried out it would have been highly inconvenient. Where a great elevation must be overcome by stairs, their ascent will be excessively wearisome, unless they are divided into several flights, with spacious intermediate landings of such character that not only is a cessation of the ascending motion made necessary, but, through observation of local objects of interest, the mind finds also a certain relief. As arranged in the model, the eastern stairway has but one recommendation, which is a certain effect of stateliness. this would be due, in part, to the least worthy of all conditions of effect, mere magnitude and repetition, and probably, in part, to an act of imagination by which the stairs became the scene of grand processions and ceremonies. Otherwise nothing could be tamer and less interesting. These considerations, as well as the desire of the architect to reduce the estimates for completing the building, probably led to the second change, which we find in the detailed plans as now submitted to you. This third propositions appears to us to go as much too far in repudiation of stateliness as the second in exclusive regard for it. What we No. 49.] 21 consider as the better theory of approach, under the circumstances (better because less fatiguing), is adopted, but the dimensions of the parts are so contracted that a stranger set down from a carriage, at the foot of the stairs, after having obtained a glimpse of the building in perspective, and realized its scale, would be apt to think that he was asked to enter it by a postern rather than at the grand portal. The width of the stairway, at the entrance of the portico, is but eleven feet, and at no point more than fourteen. The steps have a rise of six and a half, with a tread of eleven inches, which is less than is common in domestic architecture. Doors, Windows and Interior Finish.-- Almost the only decoration or expedient of relief from bare flat walls, throughout the building, is that of plaster ornaments, and with these, the bases and skirtings of the walls, the ceilings and the border of the doors and windows are, in our judgement, greatly overloaded. At the edges of the more important, brick-work is to be built out, after the essential construction of the walls is complete, as a core for the mass of cement composition, itself several inches thick, which on the surface is to have the form of large mouldings, framing in ornaments, cast in the same material. If the walls had been made thicker and of a suitable stone, in these situations, a somewhat similar but more refined border, worked in the stone, would give dignity to the entrance to important rooms, and would be as substantial as it might be beautiful. A substitute for it, such as is above described, no matter how fine the material, or elaborate the molder's work, in a building like the Capitol, especially where work of a similar class is profusely used on all sides, cannot fail to produce other than desirable impressions. The doors themselves are also heavily loaded with molded panel- work, which, while expensive, is not, as we suggest, favorable to convenience, dignity or beauty. In clerks' rooms, and other subordinate offices especially, we should think that hard-wood doors of much plainer treatment would tend on the whole to a more agreeable impression. On the entrance and principal floors the windows are fourteen feet high, the upper part of each is fixed; the lower half is a sash seven feet in height and six feet in breadth, sliding in a groove and balanced by two weights, each of seventy pounds, the box for the weights, the sash-frame and sash being all of wood. To this we offer the following objections: First the rooms being more than twenty feet in height and thirty feet in depth, it will at times be desirable that the upper as well as the lower half of the window should be open; second, that the lower sash is too large and heavy to be moved with convenience even when new, and with the advantage of balancing weights; third, that, with ordinary shrinkage and warping, the arrangement cannot be long expected to remain in good working order; fourth, so much wood construction in positions of special exposure is not consistent with the generally substantial and fireproof character of the building.22 [Senate VI. As to What it Will Cost to Complete the Capitol, According to the Plans of the Architect as Last Revised. We have computed the quantities of all the various materials and of the labor of all kinds that will be needed to carry out the revised plans of your architect, and have prepared estimates of the cost of the same. Bills of said quantities are herewith submitted, and below will be found a summary of the estimates based upon them. These estimates are reckoned, as to stone and brick-work, upon prices obtained by an examination of the cost of material and labor as deduced by a careful canvass of the reports of the superintendent of the work for the years 1875 and 1876; as to all other items, upon prices current at the present time, and the amounts given are those at which contracts could now be ,made with responsible parties. These are various matters, such as the terrace, side-walks and other exterior work, as well as the furnishing and decorating of the building which, not being included in your architect's plans and specifications, are not here considered, but are to be estimated upon later. Summary of Estimates. Stone work... $2,849,612.50 Iron-work... 382,829.02 Roof... 101,796.59 Brick-work... 571,734.81 Carpentry... 371,223.85 Painting... 31,160.00 Plastering... 237,683.04 Plumbing and gasfitting... 50,000.00 Heating... 230,000.00 Total*... $4,826,039.81 VII. As to the Manner in Which the Design Could Now be Modified to Advantage. Our instructions require that we shall advise you, as far as possible, in what manner of the plans for completing the Capitol may be modified so as to remedy or lessen the objections we have found to them, and this without enlarging the total estimate of cost; if possible, with a reduction of it. At the time these instructions were received, an estimate for completing the building, fitting, furnishing, exterior stairs, etc. not included, would have stood at $7,101,393.94. ^ We now estimate that the plans of your architect, as revised and completed in detail, may be carried out at a reduction of $1,331,485.45 from the above sum. We also estimate that if modified as we shall propose, they may be carried out at a reduction of $1,657,085.79. *The estimate dates from the period when the building had been advanced to the spring of the arches of the principal story, since when some $200,000 worth of work has been done. ^Architect's previous estimate, less outlay of 1874. No.49] 23 The reduction of the estimate on your architect's plans is due in part to the reduced amount of material which he now proposes to use, and partly to our adoption of rates of prices lower than the last year thought it right to assume, but which we think just view of the present state of the markets. The somewhat greater saving to be made by the adoption of our proposition, is chiefly obtained by dispensing with a number of useless projections, and especially by reducing the number of those upon and rising above the roofs, by increasing the height of the roofs and the adoption for them of shorter and steeper slopes, dispensing with artificial stone and copper and by the substitution of slate or tile as a covering material. Otherwise than with respect to the roof- the proposed construction of which, as before said, we think less adapted to efficiency and endurance than one more nearly of the ordinary character, lighter, simpler and less costly- the changes which we are about to propose are all in the direction of a stronger, more solid and enduring building, both in reality and appearance. In September last we exhibited to you pencil sketches, illustrating the manner in which we thought the general exterior appearance of the Capitol might be improved, without increasing its cost or lessening its convenience. You then instructed us to reproduce the views thus indicated in large-scale drawings, showing in greater detail the means by which certain designed effects were to be obtained. These larger drawings are herewith exhibited as an illustration of this report, together with a smaller perspective view of the Capitol as we would propose it to be. Assuming these to be under examination, and under comparison with the drawings of your architect's plan, the following observations are to be regarded as in the nature of explanations rather than as complete descriptions of what we would recommend. The defects of the exterior, as we have pointed them out, may be briefly summed up in the statement that considering its size, its costliness and its monumental purpose, it lacks repose and dignity. The first step toward improvement in this respect which we would advise, is the leaving off of various features extraneous to its essential structure and character. The portico balconies, for example, being, as we have shown, practically useless, and indeed, objectionable above the entrance story, we propose that they should be built no higher. An opportunity is thus at once obtained for displaying a large uninterrupted space of the main wall of the building clear of unnecessary and confusing features. We must recognize that what we have indicated as an excess of top hamper is probably due to the desire of the architect to improve the sky line. This object can be better and more simply accomplished by dropping the roof over that part of the building which is between the outer and middle divisions on the north and south sides so that it will rest on the third instead of on the fourth story. The roof story being lighted by dormers will then be equally valuable for the purposes to which rooms included in this space are appropriated.24 [SENATE The variation in the height of the walls thus obtained will, in a great degree, remove the objection of monotony on the two longer faces of the building. The other two sides being in our opinion too short to be broken into five parts, the three interior divisions are recommended to be combined in one. This arrangement together with the reduction of the porticos already advised, will tend to secure the breadth and repose of aspect which is wanting, while it will add to the apparent magnitude of the Capitol and give it greater force of character. In the feeling already expressed that the upper story instead of being the lease should be the most dignified in the expression of its openings, and that its masses should be treated with more elegance, and rather lightened than enlarged; groups of windows with circular heads, consistent with those below, are recommended to be substituted for those to the forms of which we have objected, and in order to show externally the union which really exists between the two upper stories, these groups of openings have been arranged to correspond rather than coincide with those immediately below them. To further accomplish the same purpose, as well as to introduce what the building greatly lacks in color, some of the stone between the window- heads and cornice are proposed to be polished and the whole space of the surface to be decorated in such a manner as to throw over all this part of the building a continuous soft maze of slight shadows. The effect of this uniform treatment would be a warmer tone of color and an increased effect of unity and magnitude. The simple treatment of the roofs, shown in the drawings, will have an influence in the same direction. -------------------- The central cupola, and four of the eight steeples, are proposed to be retrained without any important reduction in height and size, but with forms and a character of detail more consistent with the lower parts of the building. It is also proposed that the cupola be completed exteriorly of stone, and that all iron and copper roofing be replaced by iron and slate or tile. ----------------- We recommend that the bottom of the roof should rest on the walls proper, instead of on a parapet; that there be a continuous gutter at the foot of the slope, and that the water should be carried off more directly. The liability to obstructions and to accumulations of snow and ice will thus be lessened, and the inspection, care and repair of the whole apparatus will be safer and more convenient. --------------------- We recommend an interchange of positions for the Senate and Assembly chambers, the object being to place the latter where the highest part of its floor may be on a level with that of the corridor by which it is approached. The rooms below, being those of the "art gallery" and the subordinate offices of the Adjutant-General's department, will well bear to have their ceilings reduced, for this purpose, from twenty-three to twenty feet three inches. The Assembly room No. 49.] 25 will thus become accessible without the objectionable risers within the doors. We then recommend that the desks of the presiding officers be placed at the west end of both chambers, and all the seats on the floors arranged accordingly. The light will thus fall sidewise instead of in the face of their occupants. ----------------- We recommend, instead of a flat ceiling of paneled cast-iron at a height of forty-two feet, a vaulted ceiling, raised in the center to a height of fifty feet, to be supported by stone columns and spanned between moulded ribs of stone. The columns will be so placed as to stand entirely clear and outside of the space necessary to be occupied by members, allowing for a much larger number in both Senate and Assembly than there are at present. The increased height and the subdivision of the width of the chambers will increase the perspective effect; will improve their acoustic qualities; will admit screens to be introduced, by which the excessive area of the floor would be apparently reduced, and will provide suitable places outside of the bar for ladies or other guests specially privileged in this respect. In each chamber we would propose an entrance opposite the seat of the presiding officer, and an aisle leading directly to it; the indirect arrangement of the architect's plan being, as we think, a very awkward one of occasions of ceremony. We would also propose, for reasons which have been indicated, to bring the lower windows into use, and to dispense with skylights, and all of the cast-iron and most of the plaster work of the architect's plan. In front of the gallery, instead of paneled wood-work, we would propose stone-work with perforated tracery, also to use cut stone on the jambs of the doors and windows. ---------------------- We recommend that the Court of Appeals room be reduced in size by a wall across the west end, the space so saved being appropriated for an additional judge's chamber; and by bringing in the south wall, separating it from the corridor, to the line of the present iron columns: the increased width of this corridor would be continued through its whole length. ------------------- For the ceiling of the lower room of the cupola, we recommend a vaulting of sandstone instead of iron and artificial stone. Above this we would propose that the walls in the interior be finely finished, chiefly with decorative brick and terra cotta, and the narrow iron staircase be taken out. To provide for ascending to the higher parts, we propose a small lift to run, in continuation of those provided for in the plan, as far as the second balcony, of 212 feet from the ground. From the second balcony upward, two staircases, one for ascent and one for descent, are proposed to be carried between the walls forming the roof, to a flying arch of stone, thence up that to a platform, sixteen feet below26 [SENATE the floor of the lantern, thence a single, spiral, stone staircase would lead to the uppermost deck. ---------------- The ceilings of the porticos are proposed to be supported by granite entablatures, in place of the imitation of the same, proposed in your architect's plan. ------------ The coverings of hips and ridges of the roofs we should propose to form of solid cast-iron: all galvanized sheet-iron cornices and cast zinc decorations would thus be dispensed with. --------- It is recommended that the doors leading to the Executive, Senate, and Assembly chambers should be decorated with emblematic carvings in low relief, all other doors to be of hard wood, and free from heavy projecting mouldings. We recommend that all windows be divided by a stone transom, and that those of the principal and gallery stories be further divided by a mullion, and that iron sashes, revolving on central pivots, be substituted for wooden sliding sashes. ------------ We propose that the attics over the legislative halls be supplied with a flooring of concrete resting on brick arches, and that the roof space generally, which, under our previous recommendations, will be clear and lofty, should be properly fitted for the orderly keeping of the documents and records of the State, now scattered at various places of storage. ------------ It is recommended to substitute a hard sandstone for granite and iron in the principal interior stairs, as both these materials soon become slippery under constant use. Also, that their railings be made of perforated stone-work instead of iron. We would propose that the length of the steps (or width of the stairs) be increased from seven to nine feet, and their depth of tread from eleven to thirteen inches, both which suggestions are practicable, except in the western stairs, where the space is too cramped. Although not included in our scheme, we would here suggest an extension of the interior court toward the west, as indicated in plan A, for the purpose of giving adequate room for these stairs at that tend of the building*, and also for the purpose of lighting them and the corridors abutting upon them.* VIII. AS TO HOW THE COST OF COMPLETING THE BUILDING WOULD BE AFFECTED BY THE ADOPTION OF THE SUGGESTED MODIFICATIONS OF THE ARCHITECT'S PLANS. We have computed complete bills of quantities for carrying out the revised plan as proposed by our board to be modified, in the same manner as for the revised plans without modification, which are *The estimated cost of enlarging the central court, as above recommended, is $166,213.18 No. 49.] 27 herewith presented, and the following is a summary of estimates prepared upon this basis at prices determined in the same manner as before (Section VI): Summary of Estimates Stone-work..........$3,123,215 05 Iron-work.............196,744 77 Roof..........50,567 68 Brick-work..........495,901 72 Carpentry..........217,156 85 Painting..........23,378 00 Plastering..........109,075 40 Plumbing and gasfitting..........50,000 00 Heating..........230,000 00 Total * ..........$4,501,039 47 IX. AS TO WHAT IT WILL COST TO COMPLETE AND FURNISH THE CAPITOL FOR OCCUPANCY. As before stated the plans of the architect do not include many things which will need to be obtained before the building can be occupied. They leave it without fireplaces, or exterior walks, for example, as well as without furniture. Under your instructions it is necessary that we should estimate what amount of expenditure will be required to fully equip the building and properly prepare the grounds about it, so far as this is a concern of the State. A building of this class particularly needs to have a broad margin about it, and net to be closely flanked by an ordinary class of houses. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the State will sooner or later acquire more land on the north and south of the Capitol, and suitably improve the same. But the necessity for doing so is net imminent and no estimate can now be formed of the necessary outlay for the purpose. The need for large improvements of the present grounds and of the streets through and by which the Capitol is chiefly to be approached, will, however, be felt as soon as the building is ready for occupancy. That it may not seem in danger of sliding down the steep grade of the hill upon which it stands, it is requisite that an apparent level base should be formed by means of revetment walls, which, at the north and south sides, will be placed at the boundary exterior to the open area required for lighting the sub-basement. On the east side, however, we recommend that it be extended in a semicircular sweep, as shown upon plan (B), and in the manner there indicated, in order to answer the purpose of easy, dignified and convenient approach to persons arriving in carriages or on foot, and also in order to screen the *The estimate dates form the period when the building had been advanced to the spring of the arches of the principal story, since when some $209,000 worth of work has been done. 28 [Senate No. 49.] excess of foundation work, which would otherwise obtrude itself upon all coming to the Capitol from the city. This advanced terrace is built of stone, and is formed of a series of vaulted arches supported on columns, and presents on its top a spa- cious platform of tesselated pavement. A staircase twenty-four feet in width leads from the street to the center of this platform, whence the building may be approached from the front. This structure also provides a covered carriage approach, by which passengers may be set down either to ascend to the [entrance] floor by the side stairs (which have been increased to a width of twenty-four feet), or to enter the basement story, and thence ascend, either by means of the elevators or by the interior stairs. The whole of the terrace is proposed to be surmounted at the outer edge with a granite parapet. The cost of the work above described is estimated in the following schedule, on the same basis as the stone-work of previous estimates, and the bills of quantities will be herewith presented. Detailed estimates for the complete fitting and furnishing of the building are also appended, of which the sums will be found below. The item of superintendence is calculated at the rate of the actual payments for superintendence hitherto. The remaining items of the schedule are not based on actual plans but represent our judgment of what may probably be needed. Estimates of Work Not Contemplated in the Completed PLans Terrace, exterior walks, area walls, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,046,197 20 Decoration, Furniture, interior fittings etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000 00 Elevators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120,000 00 Park Improvements, Approaches, Lamps, Tele- graph, etc., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300,000 00 Architect's and Superintendent's office expenses and salaries, (4.72 per cent. on cost $6,692,237.00). . . . . . . . . 315,873 58 --------------------- Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,182,070 78 X. AS THE TIME AND OUTLAY NECESSARY FOR ADVANCING THE BUILDING SUFFICIENTLY FOR OCCUPATION, WITHOUT FULLY COM- PLETING THE CAPITOL. The building may be made available for use by an additional expenditure of $4,400,000, over and above the amount already expended, and if the appropriations for the ensuing two years are sufficient to cover the above-mentioned amount, the building may be occupied at the opening of the session of the year 1878. Respectfully submitted. FRED. LAW OLMSTEAD. LEOPOLD EIDLITZ. H. H. RICHARDSON. ALBANY, March 2, 1876.The Hon. William Dorsheimer Dear Sir: I returned from Boston this morning and have only since seen the remonstrance [see] against the plans of our Board signed by Mr. Blow for the N.Y. Chapter of the Institute of Architects. Eidlitz and Richardson are here and I find from them that [it] this statement that it represents the unanimous opinion of the [??] chapter was certainly unwarranted But if it did it would none the less be a [very weak] [and] shamefully unsound document. We anticipated changes of the same general character, considered [in] whether we [what ground they must have to start] [?] should be at all weak with reference to them and satisfied ourselves that we should not, but we did not think that they would be presented in such a form nor think [we should] they would have a backing so apparently respectable. [???}From the first distinct charge [one of two things[ it must be inferred, either[(1)(a)] a Romanesque superstructure [upon a] [Roman base] would be "absolutely inharmonious" with a Roman base, or that [(4)(b)] the [general and] simpler forms of Italian Rennaisance are incongruous with those of its [their parents] Roman parent, or [(3)] (c) that the lower parts of Fuller's design are not of the simpler forms of Rennaisance, neither of which positions could be seriously [supported] sustained. But if [there] such a misassociation is for the sake of argument assumed, it would, again be inferred from the whole drift.[ There are certain assumptions in the Remonstrance that will bear questioning. That the lower stories are not [R] Roman in character] [seriously supported. Again it would be supposed from the whole drift of the paper that the [imposition of features of one style upon] association of Romanesque and Gothic forms with Rennaisance was held in horror by good architects. There are numerous instances in which distinguished Rennaisance architects have [imposed] practiced in defiance of this opinion.sustained notably Sir Christopher Wren, who repeatedly did so and who even [who] introduced Rennaisance features [into the [?? ??]] in the most prominent positions in Westminster Abbey. [But] There are hundreds of notable instances in which others have deliberately [committed this attrocity] done the same. You may [recall some of the following . I mention a few in which you well may recall having observed it: the interior of the [Duo] [Following] the statement that the presentation of the] recall examples in the Ducal palace, the Duomo of Milan, the Certosa of Pavia, and various other well known edifices.[the] as to the statement about the introduction of brilliant color -- you perfectly know [the] its falsity and its futility[?]. [Touching] The statement that it has always been considered indispensable[?] to pursue the axial lines of windows - has no pertinence except as it is assumed that ours is a purely [our design is a purely Rennaisance design, but the statement [it] is decidedly untrue. An example to the contrary in [the] a photograph of the Giant Stairs [as] of the Doge's palace hangs before me. ] Rennaisance design.[That in] There are many buildings which are largely Rennaisance in style, & are many the most interesting & important buildings in which [the] rennaisance appears in which this condition is disregarded -- I have anexample before me in a photograph of the Giant's stairs of the Doge's palace. In Cambridge I saw Prof Norton, " who said "I was so much pleased with your report that I [read nearly the whole] immediately read a large part of it to my class" (in the History of Art) [He] As to the propriety of [legitimacy of ] the imposition of a Romanesque superstructure upon a Roman though somewhat Rennaisance base he said he had no doubt.If we are to do anything publicly about the matter we should prefer to do so in answer to official inquiries from you. [only]Dorsheimer - 2 Apl 1876 Defending superposition of Romanesque on Rennaissance Roman. Quotes Prof. Norton Apr 2 FLO - C E N (209W46) HL Rothcock's rep good CEN Must make up mind on Capitol policy - his positn unpleas't. Whole arct'l professn is under a strong lead to ridicule views he strongly advocates. Has taken his course deliberately & thoughtfully, feels defiant but fight'g in a field in whi he is an intruder. Dorsheimer's com meets tomorrow. Wed the Senate meets on the matter. Wd apreciate word of caution or encouragm't from N Feels NY Chap has acted meanly. O & HHR old member & hon. member, but not a word said b either or any man present at meet'g wh acted on Fuller's private communications to members, & newspaper repts Longfellow has it's design & will put it in this wks Amer Arch't Apr 2 Fwd (NY) CEN 1876 HL A I A remonstrance. Cant about style often made to sustain CEN lazy architecture. Finance com. [uses it] to (of State Sen) proposes to make further aprop only on condtn Fuller's design is used. Longfellow will put it & take sides Not sure the AIA resolution expresses majority feelings draft in Albany Cap fileMy Dear Norton: While I was talking with you the dam burst here and out leapt the muddy torrent [which] of the Institute of Architects remonstrance against [you see in the enclosed article] our proposition to modify the design [[of]of remonstrance which I show] of the State Capitol. [you by the enclosed.] You will I think regard the matter as one of considerable importance, [considering] knowing how generally this cant about style is made [the] to apologize for and sustain [every] lazy and contemptible architecture. It was at oncemade the occasion and ground for a proposition presented by the Finance Committee of the State Senate (The Chairman of which was Chairman of the Commission which ordered the building on Fuller's design) to make further appropriations for the building only on the condition that the attempt to modify [for the exterior] that design should be abandoned. [Fuller's design should be followed.] [Dorsheimer has advised us that [if this] if the legislature adopts it he shall resign from the Capitol Commission, holding that it has no right to compel him to]made the ground of Fuller's design is expected to be published in this week's American Architect [which is the one] and the editor, Songfellow, will probably take sides. You will observe that the remonstrance of the [Institute] Chapter has been hastily prepared, [and] I am told that but few members were consulted and that it is by no means true that [the] [the] it [presents the] expresses their unanimous opinions. [of its members. We] I think that we shall try in some form to get up a counter professional demonstration.I know of no architect [who] of any standing who does not condemn Fuller's design. [Now do me the favor to] You will observe that the chapter itself indicates that it might do so, but it is to be considered that it has allowed it to stand [sev] nearly nine years without a word of remonstrance, [resis] and first speaks when an [unp] attempt to improve[?] is made.and we know of several architec I send you [our suggested] copies of our drawings [[showing] suggesting in what manner the building may be improved.] The Capitol [It] is built to the top of the 3d story -- the [last had but one before.] last but one below the roof. Now I should be very glad to be advised whether the lower stories are in your judgment, so far modified from the Roman, and so distinctly Rennaisance, that the charge of an abrupt transition from Rennaisance to Romanesque is wellgrounded; whether the suggestion for surface decoration of the granite is properly described as an "introduction of brilliant color" & which would be "distinctive of dignity and repose" [& whether] and generally [whether ] how far I can feel confidence that thorough study of the matter [is lik] will satisfy competent men that the [activ] chapter has seriously blundered? I ask this for my private advice, but if you will allow me, I may be glad also togrounded; whether [a] the preservation of the axes of the windows show it to[the] Dorsheimer and his Commission, who I believe will resign rather than carry out Fullers design if this should be required by the legislature.C. E. Norton. Cambridge _ Apl.2.,1876 Asking for advice about stand of N.Y. Chap. of Arch. and opinion on harmony of new designs. [show it to Dorsheimer for his encouragment.]Letter to R.M. Hunt, Pres. N.Y. Chap. Soc. of Archit. Taking exception to treatment of capitol Com. by the chap. Chap had addressed document to Senate ridiculing com. report.4th April 1876 R. M. Hunt Esqr President of the N.York Chapter; Am. Ins of Architects, Dear Sir, It [has] happened that I did not [see till this] learn until this week and through the newspapers that your Chapter last Wednesday addressed a communication tothe [Senate of New York] State Senatein question by any one, I think that I am entitled to be informed of it [and to know why in what] the question [was] raised and to [be told] know why I have not been invited to respond to it. [Senate of New York] condemning certain propositions for the improvement of the [State] Capitol [which] made to it by a Board specially constituted under tis authority for that purpose.[at] presided over by the [Presidnt of the I] presiding officer of the Senate. The chapter in taking this action was aware that for these propositions and for all the acts of [that] the Board refered to, one of its fellows, Mr H.H. Richardson and myself, [were, inasmuch as we constituted] being a majority of it, were responsible. [It has nevertheless allowed us to obtain on first information of its interest in our duty, from the public press and [after] only after the action I]It [has seen] nevertheless saw fit to take our performance of a public duty into formal consideration, [and] to debate it, [and] to record a condemnation of it, and [to address directly] [address an employer] without solicitation to address our employer in harsh terms apparently intended [and] and certainly adapted to destroy all confidence in our [professional] taste and professional knowledge. [only [very] shameful conduct on our part would justify the course thus taken by the Chapter.] The circumstance that I had been since 1866 an Honorary Member of the Institute to which your Chapter is subsidiary [surely] would seem to have entitled me to the courtesy of a hearing. [before final If not what is the significance of that title?][The crime] Conduct on our part which would justify this course would certainly be of a heinous before judgmnt was thus pronounced and sentence executed. If not what is the value of the Institute's honors? I have some reason to suppose, however, that the action of the Chapter [w] was precipitated [by] under the influence of an impression which [had] [been made] existed in the minds of [its] the members present at the meeting that our Board was pursuing[if an impression that the Advisory Board was pursuing] ends, or employing means to its ends, which, in the interest of the profession and of justice, it was [desirable] important should be [resisted by the best means for the moment avail instantly resisted by the chapter If] resisted instantly and by the most direct means. But if any thing [was] has been attained at [the board] any [Board] meeting of the chapter adapted to produce or sustain such an impression. I submit to you that I am now entitled to be [at once] informed of it, and I request that I may be.of an impression that the Advisory board had been pursuing ends or had been employing means towards its ends ¶ I also ask that if there have been any papers [or statements of fact] before the Chapter calculated to suggest, foster or sustain [any] such an impression that I may be furnished with copies of them. ¶ Further, [I request that ] if any thing in my action professionally considered, or in that of any member of [my Board, relating to this matter of the State Capitol] the Board over which I have the honor to preside, has appeared to be in question before the Chapter, or to be thought[I have some reason to suppose that the course taken by the Chapter may be explained] I have some reason to suppose that the action of the [Is] chapter was hastily taken and [there] was precipitated [by] under the influence of an impression [in any way open to censure or to fail in the slightest to sustain] to fall short in the slightest from the highest standard of professional decorum and polity, or to be unjust or ungenerous to any professional brother, or if any thing has been uttered [at] to which if I had been present I should have been expected by you from regard to my good name or that of my associates to reply, I ask to be [fully] fully and [presently?] [advised of it] and as soon as possible advised of it. [Your friend & servant] I am dear Sir very respectfully Yours I have been since 1866 an Honorary Member of the Institute [of] to which your chapter is subsidiary. [This fact should have en] It was to be presumed [in] that this circumstance would [leave] entitle me at least to a hearing before the Chapter volunteered to [address the Senate] [sit] declare judgement [and address] upon my work and without solicitation to address my employer in such [severe] harsh terms of condemnation of it. [a my service which according to my ability I had rendered.][*VI Albany dupe C*] COPY Cambridge, April 4, 1876 My dear Olmsted:- The protest of the New York Chapter Am. Inst. of Architects against the designs of your Advisory Board for the completion of the State Capitol Building is not only a foul blow but a weak one. It does not so far as published in the Tribune of the 1st inst. pay any attention to the most important features of your designs, namely, the general treatment of the walls so as to secure breadth of mass, and simplicity and dignity of aspect; and, secondly, the essential change in the character of the roof, a change which coincides in effect with your treatment of the walls, and is, apparently, further recommended by great constructive advantages. It is hardly credible that the Chapter does not recognize the excellence of your design in these respects, under the given conditions by which it was primarily determined. The work had advanced so far before you were called upon for advice that your designs are to be looked upon as simply the best modifications you can suggest in a structure radically vicious; and in this view they seem to me in-2- all essential points excellent. I certainly do not find in them any "direct antagonism to the received rules of art." They are antagonistic, it may be, to certain canons of building laid down by some architects of the Renaissance, canons deduced not from principles of art, but from what were assumed to be classical models. The objection of the N. Y. Chapter to the surmounting of the Italian Renaissance under stories by "absolutely inharmonious Romanesque stories", might have force if it were not a very open matter of question whether your upper stories are "absolutely inharmonious" with the lower. They seem to me accord sufficiently in general character, - not in simply technical style, - with the part of the original building on which they are to rest. I presume that the precise character of the moldings, and of the constructive decoration is not determined, and a very slight alteration of these subordinate elements from the apparent dispositions in your design (an alteration not affecting its essence) might, perhaps, be desirable to remove the possibility of objection on the part of the devotees to the so-called Roman Renaissance style. I do not understand what the N. Y. Chapter of Architects mean by asserting that you propose to introduce "brilliant color" in the facades. I suspect you-3- have never thought of this till you saw it suggested in protest. It is difficult also to understand their meaning when they speak of "a dome of discordant character. Renaissance in form, Gothic in treatment." I do not see a Gothic feature in it. The four spires at its base might perhaps be called Gothic, and for my own part I should incline to get rid of them altogether. Indeed, I regret the necessity of the dome. It is unmeaning, has no asthetic or constructive relation with the main building, but is a mere piece of very costly show. It will be a permanent monument not of culture but of barbarism, and had the Chapter attacked you for preserving this piece of the original design, I should have agreed with them that the building would be more respectable if less magnificant without it. I suppose the work had gone so far that you were forced to retain this too conspicuous feature, - and, being so, you certainly have given to it a very effective form, and one not incongruous with the rest of the building. I trust that the New Capitol Commissioners will not be disturbed by this attack on your designs. It is not to be conceived of as possible, since your Report that the original plan should be carried out,-4- and it is not likely that more skilful, or better considered modifications of it could be suggested even by the New York Chapter of Architects than those indicated in your designs. I hope you will not have much annoyance from this affair. Faithfully yours, (Signed) C.E. Norton[*IV Albany*] COPY Cambridge, April 4, 1876 My dear Olmsted:- I have just written to you a letter that may be shown to anybody, or used in any way you see fit. I am afraid it will be too late to be of any service. I got your first letter and the number of the American Architect with the designs this morning, and your second letter came to me this afternoon. I could not write in season to catch this afternoon's mail because I was busy with two lectures at College, from which I did not return till after four o'clock. I can well understand what a difficult and ungrateful task you have had in trying to get this building into shape. Although I have not seen Mr. Fuller's plan, your Report and designs give me a vivid conception of it. Your improved design for the roof as shown in the second copy of the Prospective View seems to me much to be preferred to the first. On all important points I have spoken my mind freely in the other letter. If there is anything further to be said, let me know.-2- I am very much obliged to you for the information about Dr. Rothrock. It confirms my impressions from what I have heard of him from Dr. Gray, who has known him a long time, and has a very warm regard for him. If Eliot were a year or two older I think I should send him off to Dr. R's. camp. We are having a superb storm tonight; happily for the sailors it is not very cold, and the wind is good for keeping off shore, but it blows a gale. We have had no such snow scene before this winter; the trees are so heavily laden that many of them will suffer. It reminds me of the storm in April twenty seven or eight years ago when the Minot Ledge Light House was broken down. Good night Ever cordially yours, (Signed) C. E. NortonApr 6 FLO (NY) CEN 1876 H2 CEN Thanks for letter Triumph in Senate yesterday - condition that Fuller's plan be [?] throughout stricken by 2/3 vote, after indirect threat from Commrs who employed "us" to resign rather than accept it Dear Mr Hunt, [Reflecting in] Considerting what you said to me at the Century I regret the word "harsh" in my letter to you of the 4th and should be glad if you would draw your pen through it.R M Hunt 10 Apl. 76 12th april 1876 W.P.P. Longfellow: Eqr My Dear Sir: If you should wish to publish Mr Nortons letter to me as has been suggested by Mr Richardson I think it better if you see no objection to omit the introductory sentence referring to the remonstrance as a foul blow. In the present slate of feeling on the subject a construction might be put on the sentence which Mr Norton would regret as I should Respy Yours.Longfellow 12 Apl 76 Apr 13 FLO (NY) CEN 1876 HL CEN We let well eno' alone for Mr. Aure, but Chapter is talking "(and you know how Hunt can talk)" Copies of remonstrance ptd. sent to all arch'ts of US & Fuller has apparently applied to all other chapters to help him. Sent copy of CEN's letter to Dorsheimer & is circulating other copies Encl. copy of F's 2nd remonstrance Apr 15 No probably Legis will [?] on F's plan or forbid ours[*VI Albany Dept C*] Cambridge, April 18, 1876 My dear Olmsted :- I am very glad to learn from your notes that the attack upon your design is likely to fail, but I fear that you may yet have trouble concerning the work, made by these men whose very failure to accomplish what they attempted will be a wound to their pride, the rankling of which will be apt to make them malignant. My impression is that you would be wise, if, when the present outcry has ceased, you were quietly to revise your plan, so far as the outside elevation is concerned, and to bring the upper stories into closer relation of style with the lower. If a fight had to be made to retain your design in its entegrity, a good one might doubtless be made. But I am sure that you personally, and I take it for granted that your associates are too reasonable to insist on adhering to a project merely because it is yours, if well founded objections are brought against it. Now, although, there is no principle of art violated by the superposition of a story with Byzantine forms, on one of the Renaissance design, it seems to me that a principle of good judgement, and possibly of good-taste, is contravened. A change in technical style in a building should be justified either by some utilitarian advantage, or by some historic change of national temper. Otherwise the change indicates a mere difference of individual taste, and is likely to displease the greater number even of the few men competent to form a judgment on an architectural design, as appearing the result of a purely arbitrary choice. In this case the question is not the abstract one of whether Romanesque or Renaissance is the better style, but whether a mingling of the two is better than the Renaissance alone. It would be safer, and in my judgment probably productive of a better artistic result, to keep to the style in which the building has thus far been constructed, so far as the outside is concerned. April 18, 1876 - C.E. Norton to F.L.O. Senior There is nothing in this contradictory to the opinions in my former note. I will stand by that if there is need to make further resistance. It is a great deal better that your plan as it exists today should be carried out, than that Mr. Fuller's design should be executed. But I think your plan admits of improvement by greater conformity with what has already been done, and (in spite of the charge that may be brought against you of shifting front) I believe that thus the end you really have at heart would be more certainly accomplished. The main external advantages of your design, greater breadth and dignity of mass, greater simplicity of line, and greater intelligibility of intention, can be secured as well with one style as the other. You may be so far committed to the Romanesque upper stories that you cannot make the change. If this be so, I will get up all the arguments I can in their favor. The article intended for the World was very clever, and I admire your self restraint in keeping it back. Faithfully Yours, (Signed) C.E. Norton You will keep me informed, I hope as to the progress of the matter. apr 22 FLO (NY) CEN 1876 HL On nt from DC rec N's of 1886 & read it to HHR & Edlitz CEN Can't hope measure N urges will be adopted. E says he cannot work in Renaissance HHR, E & O agree that less diff of style in the 2pts of the bldg is desirable not so much by aband'g Romaneqe in upper as by slight changes in lowr making its Renaissance char less pronounced. Wonders if sap of 1 style can flow into other. E admits jar to lower & upper & thinks it will persist but there wd be a jar to it, good & bad architure even in same style. Prejudice re them likely to be stimulated by removal J Fuller- plain he shd not sup't plans he thinks bad. La Farge as strongly on our side as c E N Shady Hill, April 26, 1876 My dear Olmsted:- I must thank you, which I do cordially, for your interesting letter. There seems to me a very close agreement in your and my opinions about this matter of the design, - and I am truly pleased that this should be the case. If you can do so without inconvenience, I wish you would be so kind as to send me two copies of the Commission's Report. I have not time tonight to write at length. Please keep me informed of the progress of the affair. I am interested to follow it in all its steps. My Mother continues to get on as well as possible, and there is good reason to expect that she will regain sight sufficient for her pleasure, as well as her convenience. Can you come on for a friendly visit before long? There are two or three matters on which I should be the better for an hour or two's talk with you. Faithfully Yours, (SignedC.E.Norton. 15th May 1876 My Dear Dorsheimer, I have just receivd yours of 13th. The prolonged illness of Richardson children, the distressing quarantine in which his wife has been placed the death of his friends the Cherrys and last week of his uncle have in addition to the ordinary calls of his business obliged him to go away so often and [be sud sud] suddenly and to be absent so muchas to be [very] disconnect [?] [all in calculations.] {all} The work [left to turn] assigned to them is [is consequently] behind [hand] and there are [many points] [several] important points on which we are not agreed & which [should have] demand further debate [a good deal of careful debate. We can of course We can drive to conclusions and make a report I presume in a week.] [debate] . I have not heard from Richardson now for a week and [am very] altogether am much embarrased. [If] [he comes back tomorrow] I expect him from day to day. If he comes to morrow I suppose that in a week we can present all the drawings that are necessary but I can not say that I think that with more time we should not do better.Dorsheimer 15 May 1878 June 7 FLO (NY) CEN 1876 Have submitted revised designs of state Cap - resp elevated, towers reduced & porches given Romanesque char. Roof improved but improved by Rev. dormers. Whole has "I fear a patchwork charactr". Adopted by Capitol Comms promptly, debated in hand Board by anti Tolden Dems who repeated exprsins of N.Y AIA Chap "as well as they cd recollect them" Duller quoted Hunt & Up john. feels in false positn but H & E threaten to resign if I does10th June 1876. The Hon. Wm Dorsheimer: Snt Comr Chm Cap. Com Dear Sir. We called this morning in the Commons as requested by you but found him too much occupied to undertake an examination of the plans and not likely to be tran time to do so before he gets to Albany. We therefore propose to miss before again presently them until we return to Albany next Wednesday. Yours respy F. L. O. Am Adv BrdDorsheimer 10 June 76 Dorsheimer 10 June 1876 4th july 1876 W.P.P. Longfellow, Esq. Dear Sir, I have recevd your favr of 2d - I presume that there will be no objection to our furnish'g you wiht photographic copies of [our] the suggestions we propose to make for he imprvmnt of the state Capitol plans, but we can not of course let them be given to the public before they are presented to the Commissions under whose instructions we act. We shall hardly present them in less six weeks unless [on] under some urgency not now anticipated.[Pref?] within that time our friend Richardson will probably be able to see you and arrange the matter.Longfellow 4 Feb 76 The Hon. William Dorsheimer: Lieutennt Governor and Charm of the State Capitol Commsn. Sir: You have asked us to report our news of the best means of [increasing the ] economizing in the departmnt of Supentendence of the [economy and efficiency of the managmnt of the ] [ Superintendence] [work of he ] State Capitol. [The present system of] The Superintendence [of the Capitol work] has been [thus far] divided between two offices each [with] independent of the other. That of the architect and that of the Supertendentof works, or as it emphatically designated the Superintendent. ion the first, drawigs , specifications, Bills of Material and forms of contract are [provided] prepared in the [D] second the [actual work of construction] ordering of the process of construction, [and] the examination of vouchers and the keeping of accounts is provided for , The cost of the [work done in] services performed in both these offices would under customary arrangmnts have been equal to 3 ½ per cnt on the cost of the work, [done]. Making due allowance for the small ammt of work which [has b] has been done in advance of construction, [this] the [cost] expenditure for [these] Superintendence would , at this rate have now been [two offices would have been at ] [tot his time] $230,000. It has actually been [$2] $320,000. [That is to say by] The object in [setting aside the] departing from the usual arrangement was to avoid paying what was assumed to be an exhorbitant fee for professional service; the result is the state has paid [at] the superintendence at the rate of 5 per cent [in] instead of at the rate of 3½ per cent, as it wuld had it [followed[ adopted the [usual] arrangmnt which is all but universal in the managemnt of [good] well conducted private works.A return to the better system [at] is not now, however, practicable and we see but one question of importance [by which] bearing on the cost & efficiency of Superintendence [whic] to which there is occasion at this time to ask your attention, When, in 1875, your Commission entered on its duties, it found in full operation a state workshop adapted to give employment to some 600 men, chiefly stone cutting and mechanics, [and partly] [Partly influenced by the represen-] An important part of the expense of Superintendence [is now due] [due] hithertoo has been [due] on account of the special oversight [required of this shop,] of this institution. [Partly] The law under which your Commission was constituted contemplated its abolition but influenced in part by thestatement. If the Superintendent [?] [the] under his direct supervision had stone cut [in the State Shop had] cost less than that cut by contract and partly by the consideration that an abrupt abandonment of the system in the midst of a working season would greatly delay the progress of construction, you last year [kept] in the exercise of the discretion allowed you, kept it in full operation. [the] That a state cannot, as a general rule, advantageously engage in a manufacturing business is a proposition so well established that we consider argument unnecessary on the point, and that the only question now to be considered is whether this case is one which is included within the recognized exception to the rule. [The] Such exceptions exist where a state [needs a product for which there being little general] proposes either in order to supply some pressing need or to develop or preserve a special art to produce a commodity , which, there being little general demand for it, commercial enterprise [would be] is inadequate [for its] to supply and to obtain which it is necessary to procure machinery and select, organize and [train men specially for the work] train a special class of artisans. Products so obtained are invariably of high cost, and a condensedillustration of the system may be seen in the exhibition at Philadelphia of a small saucer made at a government factory and priced at $6000. If all the plant of the establishment, the [cost of] experiments made in it and the training of the men employed were taken into account it would probably be found to have cost more than this sum. There is no parallel between such exceptional cases and that of the work [done in] of the State Shop, which is of the most ordinary character done by the most ordinary class of workmen, those parts of the stone cutting which require the most skill, such as capitols and round columns having been done by contrast at private shops. There is no [It has been suggested that If difficulty in getting much better work done and in lar] difficulty in getting any required amount of equally good work with the best [done in] of that of the State Shop, done by contract [in any desirable amount] under fair competition.It has been suggested that the work done in the State shop might be [done] paid for by the [piece] piece instead of by day's wages. To this [proposition] plan there is the objection first, that the present expense of Superintendence would not be lessened by it, as [the a large] the staff of [clerks] clerks and assistants [would] required to secure proper work and to keep accounts would be no less than it is under the days work system. Second, that there is no standard [aid by which the price of piece work b] and by which, in the present [depressed] condition of the market, the price of piece work could be determined which would be accepted as [asi] satisfactory by the workmen. [There is] The plan would be unpopular with the workmen and for this reason the more difficult to carry out. [The conclusion is irresistable that the larger part if not all of the class of work now done in the State Shop could be done [m] at less cost]The contract prices with which a comparison was last year made favorably to the shops [must have long] were much [were much] above the [present] market rates [and] of the last two and the present years we do not doubt that [the] [all the work] nearly all of the work now done by the day for the Capitol could be done [much] more economically under contracts, nor that [by] after making it a matter of contract, the expenses of Superintendence might be profitably reduced Report -- July 9, 1876 N.Y. State Capitol On cost of superintendence High cost to state due to abandoning usual plan of arch. fee and to shop where stone cutters & mechanics are employed by state. General statements in regard to state labor. No reason to suppose that it is not more expensive than contract. 20 Aug. My Dear Dorsheimer, To quell all concern abt the seeming [delay] tardiness in the progress of the Capitol work, I write to tell you that we are now fully supplied with stone {four cargoes having arrived & 3 been discharged) and that men are now being put on to cut it. [this week more men will be put on, enlisted to] Sinclair & Mr. also go to work this week and when the contracts for granite are given out we shall be entirely beyond the shoals and [sailing with under] carrying all sail possible.Dorsheimer Dorsheimer 20 Aug 1876 20 Aug 76 [*1876 12th Sept*] Eidlitz Richardson & Co, At a meeting of all the partners, [12th September 1876], at Congress Hall, Albany, it was agreed that Olmsted should act as Treasurer. [and should sign receipts] [*Sept 14*] At a meeting of all the partners, at Olmsted's Office N. York [Sept] it was agreed that Eidlitz should keep the account of expenses drawing on the Treasurer for the amount of the same, monthly. It was agreed that the Treasurer should, [at his discretion, [divide the] after paying expenses to] at any time when the previous months expense had been paid, at his discretion divide any [money provided] [furd funds remaining on hand] remaining funds equally among the parties, provided that that not less than five hundred dollars should be left in hand [to] for contingent expenses.It was agreed that [Mr] Richardson should go to Boston to see the Lieut Governor and advise with him as to supply of stone and the opening of bids.Notes on firm matters 1876 Eidlitz, Richardson & Co.New York 27 Sept 1876 The Hallowell Granite Company Mr. Bodwell, President Dear Sir, I congratulate you in being able again to outbid all competitors for supplying granite [to] for [the] our state capitol. The fact will add to the reputation of your quarry and justify increased confidence in your ability to meet all demands upon it promptly and favorablyThe present condition of the work on the Capitol constrains me to ask you if possible to make some special effort for a short time to come, to hasten the supply, particularly in respect to a few stones of former orders which are in arrears. [The former] The foundation stones under the Assembly columns are much needed. Any exertions by which their delivery can be hastened will be appreciated by the Commission and by Yours trulyNew York 27 Sept, 1876 [Jus] Jus. W. Waton Esq Superintendent. N.Y.S. Cap. Dear Sir; It seems to me that we are in much danger of not being able to efficiently use the short time that will now remain of good building weather unless Mr. Bodwell can be prevailed on to use some special immediate efforts to bring up what remains behind of old orders. But a any rate I hopethat you will spare no pains and take no avoidable risks of delay in securing [?] from whatever source it can be done soonest and surest all the [such] special stones or series of stones the lack of which prevents the employment of your force [in] on work [which] intended to be done this season. Also, there you will do all in your power to immediately increase the [facilities] accomodations and facilities for doing [work of] Sinclairs workgetting the model-house prepared for him and the piles of spalls removed as soon as [possible] it can by any means be done. Excuse me for urging the matter thus personally. Reflecting over night on [on the] what you pointed out to me last evening, [has] I am left in a good deal of anxiety lest between one cause of delay and another, the Commissioners will find themselves at the end of the season a good deal dissapointed.27th Dec. 1876 F.L.O. to C.E.Norton My dear Norton, I have not seen Sturgis for a year past but I believe that he knows that we of the Advisory Board (now the firm of Eidlitz, Richardson Co architects to the Capitol) have stood by his friend Eaton and between him and his pursurers all the time, formally and informally, publicly and privately. I should not have any fear that a hair of his head would be touched, if Uncle Sammy were not so very must past finding out and if had not taken such a mysterious interest in the matter. The design of the Capitol has since last winter grown more Romanesque but also, I hope, a little more quiet and coherent. There will be much historical incongruity in it and some that I would gladly have escaped. But we must take men as we find them and Eidlitz would not if he could have it other wise. If had been a man who could and would we might have more weak and meaningless and pottering work and it is a comfort that we are likely to escape that. I have just returned from Albany. Fuller has given notice that he intents to appeal to the Legislature and I suppose that he will have his old backing. I don't know that have to expect, but though Dorsheimer has both branches of the legislature against him, his colleagues and the governor not personally friendly he seems resolute and confident.30th Dec 1876 My Dear Dorsheimer, As requested in your note of yesterday we have arranged that the plans & specifications shall be sent to Albany on Wednesday next and Eidlitz will go with them. Doubtless you are right but [we cant help seeing] there are some disadvantages. [first in that] New York is the center of the trades interested and the great body of desirable contractors would have found it much more convenient to do their work here;[2d] the presence of the legislature will be a temptation to some to bring "influence" to bear and failure to accomplish anything by it will provoke complaint and set in foot false reports; it [3rd]— It will require Eidlitz - to leave [his] our office work here [?] as well as his private work at a time when his presence is [very] desirable [,] and it obliges a delay for the necessary change in the advertisement.Dorsheimer 30 Dec '76 Plans + Spec.