DIVISION OF ARCHITECTURE

EDGAR MARTIN, Supervising Architect

Notwithstanding the difficulties confronting the Division of Architecture in view of the fact that on the first of July last the division was only in process of perfecting its organization, contracts have been awarded against appropriations for permanent improvements comprising forty-three separate contracts aggregating in amount approximately $865,000.00 and sixty-eight contracts have been awarded for repairs and replacements.

Construction of the Centennial Building is well under way and it will be completed within the biennium.

Contracts will be awarded for the Central Group Hospital in the carly spring.

The Division of Architecture has to date of this writing awarded contracts and has under construction the building for tubercular patients, the building for mothers and small children and delinquent women, and the laundry building at the Lincoln State School and Colony, an addition to nurses' home at the Chicago State Hospital, an addition to the industrial building at the St. Charles School for Boys, an industrial building at the Jacksonville State Hospital, an industrial building at the Illinois State Reformatory, a custodian's cottage at the Douglas Monument, a bridge over the right of way at the Dixon State Colony.

The drafting room has under way or completed, drawings for the new Colony for Feeble Minded at Dixon, comprising the administration building, the diagnostic ward buildings for both male and female patients. An Acute Disease Hospital, the conversion of the present administration building into an employees building, the conversion of the present ward buildings into custodial ward buildings, the conversion. of one present dining hall building into an industrial building, and for ward buildings for patients of the industrial and educational classifications, custodial classifications and ward buildings for patients of the infirmary classification for ambulatory, semi-ambulatory and dormitory classes. Drawings are also in course of preparation for buildings for the Alton State Hospital for ward buildings for patients of the infirmary, industrial and educational group and an Acute Disease Hospital. The Dixon Colony for Feeble Minded and the new colony for epileptics will be in readiness for proposal the first of the coming year.

These buildings, as well as the development at Alton have been considered as units of a group rather than single unrelated buildings, as has been the practice in the past, and as a development of a general building scheme to form a component part of a progressive development of each institution up towards a definite, predetermined ultimate growth. A great deal of attention has been given to compact group planning and the orderly interrelation of the several institutional functions with the consequent consideration for economy in the installations of utilities and an increased facility of administration. The individual buildings and their internal arrangement have been designed to conform and to make workable the system of classifications and subdivision of the insane and feeble minded so admirably developed by Dr. Singer and the Department of Public Welfare.

The drafting room is also at work on an Acute Disease Hospital for the Elgin State Hospital, an infirmary building for tubercular patients for the Jacksonville State Hospital and at the Chicago State Hospital. A kitchen and bakery building for the Watertown State Hospital; an addition to school building and an Isolation Hospital for the Geneva. School for Girls, an addition to the power plant and storage bins and housing of a rock crusher at the Southern Illinois State Penitentiary. Drawings have been completed for the museum and custodian's quarters at Old Salem State Park.

The division undertook with its own men the restoration of Fort Chartres and was able to perform about double the quantity of work for the amount appropriated than the best figures secured by competition.

The division has its own Superintendent and employees at work in the operation of the stone quarry and gravel pit at the Dixon State School and Colony and is preparing to start the manufacture of cement blocks for the construction of the new buildings at this institution on a large scale, as well as the construction of roadways and the furnishing of the gravel and crushed stone that will be required by the contractors in the construction of the new buildings. It is expected to undertake similar work at Alton.

Under the law the responsibility for the repair and upkeep of the buildings under the control of the several departments, rests with the Departments of Public Works and Buildings. This work has been actively prosecuted but the award of the appropriations for repairs direct. to the various institutions, has been a handicap to the Division of Architecture in this duty and it seemed that at times there has been reluctance on the part of managing officers toward accepting its offices. The repair fund aggregates close to $900,000.00. In the past it had come. to be generally regarded as a contingent fund and abuse in its adminisFormer administrations neglected upkeep tration was not uncommon. while the appropriation was diverted to every purpose. The general practice was for the chief engineer to direct the expenditure of what

was left. This division cannot emphasize too strongly and it believes the activity of the chief engineer lies in the engine room. It feels that had he been so occupied, the physical conditions of the mechanical plants of the State would be in a far better condition of upkeep and that economy in coal consumption would have received greater consideration. Under the old system, the State institutions, with but few exceptions, deteriorated to an unwarranted state of depreciation. Roofs generally were in a state of dis-repair that carried with it damage to the interior of the buildings. Metal work was unpainted and approaching total destruction; woodwork was unprotected and rapidly coming to pieces; plastering was broken and coming from the laths, fire protection was neglected, floors were decaying from want of protective paint, brick work was watersoaked and disintegrating.

The Department of Finance by requiring the approval of the Supervising Architect on all vouchers against the repair fund and the verification by the Department of Architecture of the quarterly requisitions drawn against the repair fund, and its consistent disapproval of requisitions for permanent improvements of equipment where drawn against the repair fund has afforded the Supervising Architect material assistance in the correcting of the conditions above described.

The Division of Architecture from the time of its establishment July 1, 1917, has been hampered by the failure of the Forty-ninth General Assembly, possibly because of war conditions, to provide an appropriation sufficient for the securing of a suitable personnel and its organization and training of its employees in their special duties could not proceed. Funds were available shortly before the adjournment of the Fiftieth General Assembly but by that time there had developed, coincident with the shortage of all kinds of labor, a situation in the building industry whereby it was very difficult to secure the services of technically trained and experienced assistants required for the work for the division and entirely impossible to secure the number of men needed. The eligible lists of the Civil Service Commission were inadequate. For a period of months it was necessary to continue advertisements in the Chicago papers and in the papers of all the nearby large cities. The demand for men during this time was so great that on occasions as many as twenty-seven separate advertisements for draftsmen appeared in a single issue of the Chicago Tribune.

This condition at first delayed very seriously the organization of the division on a working basis and the systemization of the work of the office.

Appropriations of the Fiftieth General Assembly for new buildings carried something like six hundred seventy-nine thousand seven hundred dollars an amount of work that called for a highly specialized organization, such as was impossible to bring together in a limited time. To a layman the nature of this difficulty is probably not at all understood.

The bookkeeping and clerical work alone of this division, a minor department of its activities, is possibly as great in volume as the entire work of some other divisions. It may be stated as an example that for the preparation of the drawings of a building of the type of the Centennial Memorial Building, a competent corps of designers, structural engineers, construction experts, detail draftsmen, perspective draftsmen renderers, general draftsmen and specification writers, could not be secured, brought together and trained in several years.

Because of the importance attached to the immediate commencement of construction work it was believed advisable for the division to take advantage of the authority conferred by law on the Director of Public Works and Buildings to avail himself, under the direction of the Supervising Architect, of the organization of outside architects in the preparation of the drawings for three of the most important groups of buildings for which appropriations were made, the Centennial Memorial Building, the Central Group Hospital, and the new Illinois Epileptic School and Colony. The amount of architectural work in the preparation of the plans for a monumental building of the type of the Centennial Memorial Building is enormous. For at least a year a group of highly trained men, specialists in design, made surveys, collected and coordinated data, investigated the requirements of occupancy, consulted precedents, and developed the preliminary designs. Probably as many as ten tentative schemes were considered, involving one hundred or more drawings and sketches. The most appropriate scheme was determined on and then worked up into scale drawings, plans, elevations, details and structural diagrams requiring the employment of ten to twenty men for not less than six months. During this stage, perspectives in line and color were made from every view point for study and composition. Bird's eye views were drawn of the several schemes of grouping, full sized cartoons were made shaded and studied for effect of detail. A plaster model was prepared of the building for the consideration of projections and shadows. Large water color renderings were made of the finished design. Parallel structural designs were worked up for comparison of relative cost. This was followed by the specifications, a mass of written matter, furnishing precise and detailed instructions for the methods, the materials and the procedure of construction.

The making of full sized drawings of every varying detail of the building, which will comprise some two hundred drawings, is now in progress. This will be followed by full sized clay models of all ornaments, these will be followed in turn by the various shop setting diagrams, in which every individual stone, steel bar, piece of bronze, ornamental iron or other material, will be designated by a symbol referring to a key drawing and indicated in its proper sequence and position for the guidance of the mechanics in the field.

The buildings of the Central Group Hospital are to house one of the most notable institutions in the country. The establishment of the Central Group Hospital follows a working agreement made between the Department of Public Welfare and the University of Illinois, whereby certain of the activities of the Department of Public Welfare are consolidated with the Hospital Department of the Medical School of the University of Illinois, to combine the research and clinical laboratories required by the courses of the Medical Department of the University with the State Charities. The initial group comprises buildings for the Illinois State Eye and Ear Infirmary, Children's Surgical Institute, Phycopathic Institute and Clinical Institute. The site occupies about ten acres formerly the grounds of the Chicago Base Ball Club. The plan requirements of such a group of buildings is very intricate and involved, not so much for the present stage, but in the considerations for its progressive expansion and ultimate development. It was the desire of those interested that the architectural treatment should be collegiate rather than institutional. The drawings of this group of buildings are now in their preliminary stage; numerous conferences are being held with the Medical Faculty of the University of Illinois, the trustees of the University and the officers of the Department of Public Welfare. It is planned that a large force of men will be placed on these drawings as soon as the preliminaries are crystalized, and that the contracts will be ready for award in the early spring.

The new State Epileptic Colony will be a small village in general appearance, conforming as far as has ever been practical to what is known as the cottage type of institution. The essential principal of the plan is the maintenance of the patients in living conditions as slightly removed from normal as their disability will permit. The site selected has great natural beauties, which have been well taken advantage of in its architectural design.

The law does not provide that the Division of Architecture shall perform services for other than the departments under the Civil Administration; nevertheless the proffer of its cooperation has been extended and accepted by the Adjutant General, The Commission for the Repairs and Maintenance of the Capitol, and plans drawn and thirteen contracts let for these bodies. Notwithstanding that no appropriation was made for this purpose by the General Assembly, the division has when called upon by the county school boards, made numerous inspections of county school buildings, and reported as required by law.

The large experience of the Director of the department in the conduct of public works and building construction has been of great assistance in increasing the efficiency of the Division of Architecture.

The following is a detailed report of the Division of Architecture as regards its activities, management and financial transaction covering the period from December 1, 1918, to December 1, 1919:

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