Foundation (building)

“ Touch Him, and His quick Spirit passes into our hearts. Rest upon that foundation-stone and up from it, if I may so say, there is drawn, by strange capillary attraction, all the graces and powers of the Saviour's own life. The building which is reared upon the Foundation is cemented to the Foundation by the communication of the life itself, and, coming to the living Rock, we, too, become alive. ”

“ But a foundation is not a whole structure. To insure the stability of a high intricate building we must give it a good solid foundation; but the foundation does not make the building. That still remains to be built. ”

“ It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fitness in a man’s building his own house that there is in a bird’s building its own nest. ”

“ And how great soever a mass of building one may wish and design to place above it, the greater the building is to be, the deeper does he dig his foundation. The building in the course of its erection, rises up on high, but he who digs its foundation, must first go down very low. ”

“ Will you not make the beginning and lay the foundation in an inquiry whether the determination is sound or not sound, and so then build on it firmness and security? But if you lay a rotten and ruinous foundation, will not your miserable little building fall down the sooner, the more and the stronger are the materials which you shall lay on it? ”

“ If the building does not go up, the foundation is worthless. If the building does not go up, the foundation itself will crumble and decay. The only way to save a foundation is to cover it with a building. ”

“ Woe be to the pupil of the teacher who spends most of the time in teaching songs, arias, etc., before the pupil is really ready to study such things.
Good Foundations
Everything is in a good foundation. If you expect a building to last only a few weeks you might put up a foundation in a day or so—but if you watch the builders of the great edifices here in American cities you will find that more time is often spent upon the foundation than upon the building itself. They dig right down to the bed rock and pile on so much stone, concrete and steel that even great earthquakes are often withstood. ”

“ But with this foundation broadly and deeply laid, as the building progresses upward, the best of architects may, without fear, add many things that simply please the eye, but bear no relation whatever to the strength or durability of the edifice. ”

“ But sentiment alone is insufficient to guarantee success. It is but a foundation stone on which to commence the building. Rotten timber erected on the firmest foundation will not provide adequate protection against the lightest gale. ”

“ Temples and cities are supported by their foundations; yet what is built as the foundation of the entire building lies out of sight. So it is in other matters; the subsequent greatness of a thing ever eclipses its origin. I could never have obtained anything without having previously received the boon of existence from my parents ”

“ "A pretty building I'm making, without either bricks or timber. I'm up in the garret a'ready, and haven't so much as dug the foundation." ”

“ May we not hope to see our native granite reposing in the ever-during strength of the Doric, or springing up in the grand and lofty Gothic, in forms which beauty and utility, the eye and the judgment, taste and devotion, shall unite to approve and to admire? But while we regard sacred and civil architecture as highly important, let us not forget that other branch, so essential to personal comfort and happiness,—domestic architecture or common house-building. ”

“ Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when those stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labour and wrought substance of them, 'See!—this our fathers did for us'. For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its stones, nor in its gold. ”

“ Now this wall, saith the Holy Ghost, hath twelve foundations, to wit, to bear it up for the continuation of the safety and security of those that are the inhabitants of this city; a foundation is that which beareth up all, and that upon which the stress of all must lie and abide. ”

“ History is no older than architecture. How fitting, then, that the idea and art of [242] building should be made the basis of a great order of men which has no other aim than the upbuilding of humanity in Faith, Freedom, and Friendship. Seeking to ennoble and beautify life, it finds in the common task and constant labor of man its sense of human unity, its vision of life as a temple "building and built upon," and its emblems of those truths which make for purity of character and the stability of society. ”

“ If we are to have a fine architecture, we must begin at the other end from that where our sumptuously illustrated magazines on home-building and architecture begin—not with the building itself, but with the whole complex out of which architect, builder, and patron spring, and into which the finished building, whether it be a cottage or a skyscraper, is set. ”

“ This same grandeur of idea is seen in the vast masses used in construction. Man did not then regard his work as a piling together of stones, but as the erection of masses that rivalled those of nature. If a cell or chamber was required, each side was formed of one single stone.... If a building was set up, it was an artificial hill in which chambers were carved out after it was piled together.... ”

“ Equally so was it with the art of building—a living allegory in which man imitated in miniature [155] the world-temple, and sought by every device to discover the secret of its stability. Already we have shown how, from earliest times, the simple symbols of the builder became a part of the very life of humanity, giving shape to its thought, its faith, its dream. ”

“ Believe me, if you study architecture in this practical way, and cultivate your imagination in regard to convenient and beautiful forms of building, you will gain for yourselves a pleasure -giving faculty, and render yourselves, though indirectly, the means of helping your people as they rise in civilization to make their habitations, their buildings of assembly, rise in the standard of beauty too. ”

“ As the building stands now, a mere shell, bereft of roof and floors, and with all, except its noble arches and cloisters, crumbling gradually to decay, it is a noble and impressive structure, and enough remains to estimate what it must have been when perfect. ”

“ We may, in truth, be said to have no architecture at all, as exhibited in our agricultural districts, so far as any correct system, or plan is concerned, as the better taste in building, which a few years past has introduced among us, has been chiefly confined to our cities and towns of rapid growth. ”

“ Structure should never be contradicted, and in the best buildings it is pleasantly exhibited and enforced; in this very porch the joints of every stone are visible, and you will find me in the Fifth Lecture insisting on this clearness of its anatomy as a merit; yet so independent is the mechanical structure of the true design, that when I begin my Lectures on Architecture, the first building I shall give you as a standard will be one in which the structure is wholly concealed. ”

“ On tracing out and measuring the plan, you find its arrangement and proportions to be of the most perfect kind; and, though so little comparatively stands in situ, the ground is strewn here and there with masses from the superstructure, from which you may trace out the design of much which has fallen down, while the fences and agricultural buildings around are perfect storehouses of mouldings, capitals, and fragments of tracery or of groining, from which you can study the detail almost as profitably as from a perfect building. ”

“ If the architect would order lumber, stone and hardware, without system, and start to erect the building without carefully prepared plans, the building would lack symmetry and strength, and it would be most expensive. ”

“ Or, to change the metaphor, our theories and systems are but as the scaffolding which serves to raise the building. As the building rises the scaffolding is struck, and we may be content if it has answered well its temporary purpose. ”

“ But the architect who placed each block in its proper niche, who planned and designed the whole elevation, who planted the building firmly on the rock and poised the coping-stone on the topmost pinnacle, was the author of the 'System of Synthetic Philosophy,' and none other. ”

“ All these must be built with due reference to durability, convenience, and beauty. Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due proportion according to correct principles of symmetry. ”

“ May the work prosper, and from the foundation about to be laid, may structures arise ornamental to the town, beneficial to its inhabitants, and advantageous to the builders. May the promoters of these buildings live to see their great and spirited design carried out, and when it shall please the Grand Leveller of human greatness to call them from hence, may they arrive at the point or centre where the World’s Great Architect lives and reigns for ever. ”

“ The architects and builders are men of common sense and of artistic American tastes.
They know that the principles of harmony and of necessity itself require that the building of the new structure shall blend with the essential lines of the old. ”

“ I watch the workman build upon the building which by and by is to soar into the skies, to toss its pinnacles up to the heaven, and I see him looking up and wondering where those pinnacles are to be, thinking how high they are to be, measuring the feet, wondering how they are to be built, and all the time he is cramming a rotten stone into the building just where he has set to work. ”

“ But before that everything had been a simple development of the construction and the material of the building, and since that men have thought they perceived that architecture was one thing and building was another, and they have gone on to design buildings without any sort of reference to the materials of which they were composed, or the manner in which they were put together. ”

“ He, by nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material-the granite; then comes the brick or the marble. The substratum of our society is made of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know that it is best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the ordinance of the Creator. ”

“ The first gathers the materials, the second constructs the edifice, the third, by use, by practical application, tests whether it be a fit building to live in, whether it is constructed on sound architectural principles. ”

“ For the farmer who needs one of but half the size, or greater, or less, it may be remarked that the extent of this need be no hindrance to the building of one of any size—as the general design may be adopted, and carried out, either in whole or in part, according to his wants, and the economy of its accommodation preserved throughout. The principle of the structure is what is intended to be shown. ”

“ IX. It will be noticed in all these designs that whatever grace or charm they may have is the result of the simplest treatment. A building should be logically designed, and the exterior be the natural expression of the plan. This is what is meant by Truth in Architecture. But just how much need be expressed, is not always clear. A proper regard for our architectural morals does not require us to exhibit to the passer-by every detail of construction and arrangement. Only what is shown must be true. A building ought at least to declare its purpose, which should be recognizable at a glance. ”

“ If structures, however beautiful, which have no foundations, must topple, and we should feel no disappointment when they do, we would yet understand that much has been done when a foundation broad enough and strong enough has been laid. ”

“ Then architecture and its correlative arts were cultivated with a single motive and for only one purpose, that of producing the best possible building with the best possible materials that could be commanded, and without ever looking back on preceding works, except to learn how to avoid their defects and excel their beauties. ”

“ With such space and time there would be union indeed I But, again, strange as such a procedure in building a house would be, men insist or at least I can readily imagine their insistence, that houses are built in that way, and built successfully. ”

“ On that you would be able to build your position, but, if you have not got the foundation money, any edifice you may hope to build without that foundation would crumble down to pieces and you would find yourself in the open air without an edifice. ”