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 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2016 
 
 https://archive.org/details/reportofadfhamliOOhaml 
 
REPORT 
 
 A. D. F. HAMLIN 
 
 Consulting Architect 
 
 COMMITTEE HAVING CHARGE OF THE ERECTION OF 
 
 CARNEGIE LIBRARY BUILDINGS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 BOROUGH OF BROOKLYN 
 
 1901 
 
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To the Committee for Erecting Carnegie Libraries in Brooklyn : 
 
 Gentlemen — In compliance with your request, I have care- 
 fully studied the problem upon which you have asked my advice, 
 and beg to submit herewith my conclusions. 
 
 The question of the wisest possible procedure for procuring 
 the designs and selecting the architects of the proposed Carnegie 
 libraries in Brooklyn, concerns chiefly three classes of interests : 
 those of the libraries themselves ; those of the general public 
 who use them ; and those of the architectural profession, upon 
 whose members you must depend for the proper satisfaction 
 of the other two classes. 
 
 It is plain that whatever architectural solution of the pr<5Tblem 
 best serves the needs and functions of the library, serves also to 
 the same extent the people who use it and the community of 
 which they are a part. But in the matter of aesthetic beauty the 
 general public have also an interest independent of the library 
 itself. For a well-planned and convenient edifice, serving well 
 the needs of the library, may yet be a cause of offense to the 
 public by reason of its unattractiveness or its positive ugliness 
 of architectural treatment. 
 
 It is therefore essential, first, to make sure of such planning 
 and arrangement as will most perfectly subserve the uses of the 
 proposed libraries ; and, secondly, to secure an architectural 
 treatment of the buildings that shall be satisfactory from an 
 architectural point of view. These libraries are in a sense public 
 monuments, destined to endure for long periods of tim’e, and 
 should possess those permanent qualities of artistic dignity and'' 
 refined elegance which always win the approval of good taste, in 
 spite of changes of style or fashion. 
 
 So far as the architectural profession is concerned, results such 
 as have been outlined above will command the approval of archi- 
 tects generally. Private and local preferences must not interfere 
 with the higher interests of the enterprise, and any procedure 
 that demonstrably serves these interests fulfills also your obliga- 
 tions to the profession at large. 
 
 X. 
 
4 
 
 The above considerations are fundamental and axiomatic. The 
 questions really requiring discussion relate to details. They 
 seem to me to be as follows : 
 
 (I.) What shall be the type or types of the proposed libraries, 
 and how shall they be determined ? 
 
 (II.) To what extent shall the architectural treatment of the 
 buildings be uniform, and to what extent varied ? 
 
 (III.) How many architects shall be employed ? 
 
 (IV.) How shall these be selected ? 
 
 (V.) Shall the procedure adopted be limited to the buildings 
 first undertaken, or extended to cover the whole enterprise, from 
 inception to completion ? 
 
 (I.) What shall be the type or types of the proposed libraries, and 
 how shall it or they be determined l 
 
 In answer to this I recommend that you instruct your profes- 
 sional adviser to prepare, in conference with the Librarian of 
 the Public Library, a program of instructions to architects, em- 
 bodying in a form similar to that of a competition program a 
 detailed statement of the requirements of the proposed libraries; 
 this program, when approved by your Committee, to serve for the 
 guidance of the architects employed. 
 
 I recommend further, that each of the architects selected be 
 instructed to prepare a design for one building; but that in the 
 preparation of these designs all the architects collaborate and 
 confer with the utmost freedom, both formally and informally, 
 alike with each other and with your Librarian and your profes- 
 sional adviser, as representing your Committee; so that each 
 design shall represent its author’s conception of the building as 
 developed in the light of the fullest discussion and information. 
 The conditions will thus be very different from those of an ordi- 
 nary competition, which involve a large measure of secrecy in 
 each man’s work. 
 
 The sketch-designs thus prepared will furnish the Committee 
 with the necessary data for deciding the question of type. It 
 will be, in all likelihood, clear from these designs whether one 
 among them is so superior as to furnish a manifest type to be 
 followed in all the libraries; or whether on the other hand two or 
 more designs differing materially in arrangement and yet equally 
 
5 
 
 serviceable and convenient, are worthy of adoption and can be 
 employed consistently with that unity of general character which 
 ought to mark all the libraries under this gift. It may well prove 
 to be the case in Brooklyn, where the topography, shape and 
 dimensions of lots and the cost of land are so much more varied 
 than they are in Manhattan, that no such unity of type can be 
 maintained as is possible in Manhattan. There is likely at least 
 to be the variation required by the difference between a lot 
 between party-walls and one at the corner of two streets. The 
 Committee will be able, after examining the plans submitted and 
 listening to the recommendations of their architects, to decide 
 the question in the light of practical experience in the solution of 
 specific problems, instead of reaching in advance an arbitrary 
 decision on abstract principles. 
 
 (II.) To what extent should the architectural treat?nent of all the 
 libraries be uniform , and to what exte?it varied l 
 
 The size and requirements of the libraries being presumably 
 identical, or nearly so, and these requirements being set forth in 
 precise terms in the instructions to your architects, there must 
 result a measure of similarity in the arrangements of the different 
 buildings. 
 
 How far this will be modified by differences of site and by the 
 personal equation of the designers, it is impossible to foretell. 
 While the Committee may in its program of instructions, and as 
 a matter of general policy, insist on the desirability of a prevail- 
 ing unity of style and character in the architecture of all the 
 buildings, which should mark them as unmistakably Carnegie 
 libraries, it would hardly be wise to go farther than this. The 
 precise measure of restraint to be imposed on individual varia- 
 tions of design can be better determined in the light of actual 
 experience, as the result of the experiment in cooperative design 
 above outlined. 
 
 (in.) How many architects shall be employed ? 
 
 As many, in my opinion, as there are libraries to be undertaken 
 the first year, provided these be no more than five. A larger 
 number would form an unwieldy body, liable to work at cross- 
 purposes, or at least in entire independence of each other, frus- 
 trating the mutual cooperation which this scheme proposes as an 
 
6 
 
 essential feature of the preliminary stages of the enterprise. If 
 more than five libraries are to be undertaken at the outset, five of 
 them should be assigned to the five architects, to start with, and 
 the question left open whether the balance should be given to 
 them, and if so, to which ones among them, or to outside archi- 
 tects. Your experience with them and their designs will make 
 this question comparatively easy of solution. The probability is 
 wholly in favor of continuing them in office, and entrusting to 
 them the remaining libraries. 
 
 (IV.) Hoiv shall the architects be selected l 
 
 It is possible to select the architects by a competition. This 
 is, however, a slow and expensive procedure. If it be adopted 
 not less than ten to fifteen architects should be invited to com- 
 pete, and be paid an honorarium of $250 each ; only sketch- 
 designs should be required, and the authors of the five best de- 
 signs should receive appointment as your architects. The only 
 advantage of this procedure would be the quieting of the clamor 
 of a certain small class of objectors, who insist that the oppor- 
 tunity of such an architectural enterprise should be thrown open 
 to as many as possible of the architects of Brooklyn. 
 
 My own preference is distinctly for direct selection and appoint- 
 ment of the architects who are to serve you. In this selection 
 both actual achievement, in the case of the older men, and, in the 
 case of the younger practitioners, evidence of decided talent and 
 thorough training, are legitimate considerations. It is also wise 
 to include in the selection men of somewhat diverse talents, so 
 as to embrace engineering experience, artistic ability, and mature 
 practical judgment. The men should be such as can work 
 together in harmony. For reasons of local civic policy, so far as 
 these do not conflict with the higher interests of the enterprise, 
 it may be desirable to select only residents of the Borough. Each 
 one of those selected may represent a firm, but only he should 
 appear and have a vote in consultations on matters of common 
 interest. Your adviser will willingly assist in making the selec- 
 tion, if so desired. 
 
 (V.) Shall this procedure be limited to the first group of libraries or 
 extended to cover all l 
 
 The underlying thought of this scheme has been to safeguard 
 the freedom of action of your Committee by refusing to cross 
 
7 
 
 bridges before they were reached. Hard and fast rules could 
 easily be laid down to control the whole enterprise from start to 
 finish. But this is too important and complex an undertaking to 
 be confined within the limits of arbitrary preconceptions. This 
 scheme provides for meeting each question as it comes up and 
 not before, with the help of all the experience previously acquired. 
 Whether the same architects who design the first group of libraries 
 should also design all the others or not depends largely upon 
 their success with the first group. Whether the type adopted for 
 this group shall be insisted upon for the later libraries must like- 
 wise depend in great measure upon how successful the first group 
 turn out to be. 
 
 To sum up, then, your adviser recommends: 
 
 1. That your Committee select and appoint a small number of 
 architects, preferably five (each being permitted to represent a 
 firm), to constitute an Advisory Commission upon all the archi- 
 tectural questions involved in the first group of libraries to be 
 erected, and upon such further questions as you may choose to 
 refer to their judgment. 
 
 2. That you issue to this Advisory Commission a definite pro- 
 gram, to be prepared by your professional adviser in conference 
 with the Librarian of the Public Library, setting forth the condi- 
 tions and requirements of the proposed buildings. 
 
 3. That each member of the Advisory Commission be instructed 
 to prepare a design for one library, the apportionment among 
 them to be determined by the members themselves, who shall 
 also, meeting as a Commission, have power to determine all gen- 
 eral questions affecting their work, riot already determined in the 
 instructions given them. These designs shall represent the result 
 of full collaboration and free discussion in Commission, and the 
 members shall have free access to the Librarian and to your ad- 
 viser in all matters in which these can be of assistance. 
 
 4. The Advisory Commission shall submit these designs to 
 your Committee, and with them also such recommendations as 
 they may choose to make with regard to the general policy and 
 further procedure of your Committee and the details of the archi- 
 tectural treatment of the Carnegie Gift. Your Committee shall 
 then, in the light of these recommendations, and of the designs 
 submitted, prepare their final instructions to the members of the 
 
8 
 
 Advisory Commission, who shall then proceed to prepare the 
 working drawings for the proposed group of libraries, in accord- 
 ance with these instructions. In these deliberations the services 
 of your professional adviser shall be always at the service of your 
 Committee. 
 
 5. The policy to govern the next and all subsequent groups of 
 libraries shall be formulated and announced at such later time as 
 your Committee may appoint. 
 
 6. For their services as architects to the Committee for erecting 
 Carnegie libraries in Brooklyn all architects employed shall be 
 paid the customary commission of five per cent, for full services; 
 and for partial services at the rates established by the American 
 Institute of Architects, except that, when two or more libraries 
 are erected from the same design, the commission shall be four 
 per cent, for the second and three per cent, for the third and 
 subsequent libraries; and for partial services in proportion. 
 
 All which is respectfully submitted, 
 
 A, D. F. HAMLIN. 
 
 The report was adopted by the Carnegie Committee, consisting 
 of Messrs. David A. Boody, Daniel W. McWilliams, R. Ross Ap- 
 pleton, John W. Devoy, and becomes the basis of agreement 
 between the Committee and the architects. More detailed in- 
 formation will be given in a later circular. 
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
UNIVERSITY 
 
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