Ernest Flagg Quotes

The Parthenon stands as a reproach to the rest of the world. May not this be because the rest of the world has forgotten, or never knew, the principles which made the Parthenon possible and of which harmony of proportion... was one?

When, in architecture, one uses a fixed unit and combinations of it, to produce harmony, the effect should be most striking and apparent... as it is in music by the measured beat and in poetry by the cadence and rhythm.

In the human form, as nature tries to make it, every feature is useful and every feature is beautiful. Each member is perfectly adapted to the function it has to perform; nothing is superfluous, yet the whole and every part is supremely decorative.

While it is not hard to suggest improvements on common methods of design and construction, it is very hard to introduce them.

Beauty is largely dependent on fitness, and fitting methods are usually the most convenient and economical; therein, indeed, to a great extent, lies their very fitness.

The most perfectly constructed object in nature, and also the most beautiful object in nature, is the human form as it approaches perfection. This, then, is the criterion of construction as it is of design. The study of its beauties is the veritable key to art...

The most economical way of obtaining good results is to apply the great, fundamental principles of art; and depend on them for beauty, rather than upon the use of either applied ornament or more expensive materials... much better results are likely to accrue from truth than falsehood, and from architectural [rather] than archaeological methods.

There have always seemed to the writer sound reasons for using the module system in architectural design.

One of the most ancient and inexpensive ways of obtaining shelter, was to utilize the space under sloping roof rafters. Indian wigwams have no other kind. Where civilization is slightly more advanced, low stone walls are built upon which the feet of the rafters rest.

Dormers may easily lose, in winter, the credit they gained in summer. ...If, however, they are properly made and securely closed in cold weather, this will not happen.

In the human figure as it approaches perfection... is contained the sure guide for the determination of all true principles of design. ...it was because the ancient Greeks... realized this truth that they excelled all others in art.

Refinement. While the possession of this quality is due, in the first instance, to education, it is also largely a matter of temperament.

When one understands the principles of design, his taste will have something more solid as a basis than mere whim or fancy, which in the untutored is more likely to be bad than good. Acquainted with the rules of good design he will not accept articles made in defiance of them.

It is clearly apparent that in building the best results should accrue in proportion as every element in the structure is fitted both to the function it has to perform and the materials of which it is made. It follows from this that disguise and complication are hindrances, both to good construction and good design, and as complication and disguise are expensive and wasteful, that the interests of good art and true economy run on parallel lines.

5th. Savings by the use of more economical devices, materials, and methods: (a) in the matter of roof-covering... (b) in heating and plumbing drainage... (c) in hardware... (d) in use of tiling... (e) in the use of cement... (f) in the matter of damp-proofing... (g) in the method of flashing... (h) in the preparation of floors for tiling... (i)in the construction of bearing partitions... (j) in the arrangement of screens and shades... (k) in the avoidance of excavation and grading by adapting the building to the conformation of the land... (l) in the more economical use of land by the European method of placing the buildings at the side of the road... (m) in furring... and (n) in the standardization of methods by which the work of construction becomes simply a matter of routine in which each mechanic can perform his part without special direction.