City Store Front
E give on the following page an elevation for a city store front; it is arranged with an important and conspicuous flight of stone stairs to the upper stories. This gives picturesqueness to the façades and increases the importance of the whole upper part of the building. This is one of the constructive features which, instead of being ignored or hidden away, is made to play a prominent part in the architectural treatment. It is the same with the girder over the broad store front; this is made to look like iron, since no other material used in a horizontal mass will satisfy the necessity of supporting the brick-work above. This girder, with its broad bearings on the substantial bracketed piers, gives a gratifying sense of security. These features, although purely constructive, can be made as rich with appropriate decoration as the mass of meaningless features so often seen. The almost invariable absence of any apparent means of support for these broad arches so frequently occurring in store fronts, of late, leaves an unpleasant feeling of insecurity, although we know that in most, if not in all, of these cases, the arch has ample invisible means of support, in the way of iron ties, or arched iron girders concealed by the masonry.
In these days of so much sham building, straightforward dealing with honest construction will give the beholder at once a comfortable sense of substantial security, and help to raise architecture to its proper position in the arts. This design is taken from the work entitled "Bicknell's Street, Store and Bank Fronts," containing 22 plates, showing 34 designs of Street Fronts for Dwellings, Stores and Banks, including several plates of details. Drawings to scale. Price, $4.00. 1:
Elevation of a City Store Front. 200 4414 gurumun السعال مس BiCKNELL & CO. ENGNY FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, ELIZABETH, N. J. 00 Country Church. Design from "House of God." One small volume, containing views, plans and sections of several Churches; price, post-paid, $1.75- DESIGN FOR A CHAPEL CHURCH.
