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IJ2 10 Q A Place Among Progressives SCHEIBLER WAS A TALENTED architectural form giver. His buildings took shape as simple volumes, commonly comprised of one or two basic building blocks. He favored elemental geometric forms like the cube and basic roof types like the gable and the hip roof. But he turned gables, broke up rooflines, used subsidiary forms to extend basic volumes, and added more complex forms such as polygons to set up complicated overall geometries. He experimented with unexpected forms such as flat roofs. He explored dynamic contrasts of solids and voids by juxtaposing solid masses with incidents of fenestration that opened up and were in turn framed by those masses. He was a master of surface and line and brought flat surfaces to life with linear detail-a sense of Scheibler's pen is never far from his work. He designed buildings in the round as finely crafted objects. His work displayed the rigor of controlling mechanisms such as symmetry and axiality and compensatory mechanisms such as the balance of parts. He utilized grids to systematically subdivide and discipline everything from leaded glass windows to entire facades. Yet he was willing and able to introduce elements of complexity and contradiction-mismatching elevations and floor plans, skewing apparent symmetry , and playing rhythmic games with doorways, windows, and porches. He introduced extraordinary variety. His fenestration , for instance, ranged broadly in both form and placement-from broad expanses of ribbon windows to long vertical slits of green art glass; from windows asymmetrically afloat in a plane to those abruptly jammed under the overhanging eaves of a high roof. Fireplaces nested in corners under pointy hoods, stood free, straddling multiple rooms, or engulfed entire walls with heavy stone construction. Scheibler was an accomplished space planner. His plans were extremely compact. His spaces were interdependent , but had clearly defined roles. He used continuous circulation patterns and multiple points of entry and exit to keep hallways to a minimum. He carefully separated living spaces from service spaces and skillfully accounted for the presence of maids and their activities even in small houses. Unusually shaped or double-height spaces and dramatic staircases showed his willingness to experiment with internal spatial effects. More often, external spaces simply extended his floor plans and carried them outof -doors. He consistently used open planning devices such as broad openings between rooms, partial partitions, screen walls with internal windows, and panels of art glass to bring light into his interiors and to create a sense of spaciousness, that, while sometimes deceptive , was always welcome. Open planning had economic advantages: it required fewer interior walls and doors and accommodated lower ceilings. But it was clearly an aesthetic choice as well: it created and maximized visual axes while providing opportunities for ornamental treatments. Scheibler was an inspired decorator. With a few key exceptions, he ornamented his buildings inside and out. This ornamentation was sometimes extensive , but never showy. It was romantic and often playful, but never hackneyed. Shear and Schmertz said of Scheibler's ornamentation: "Whimsical it may be ... but its freshness and strong departure from the rules of the day must be conceded."1 He tended to spot ornament, rather than subscribe to any overall treatment, and related it to structural elements such as spandrels or columns. Scheibler himself said: "One must use ornament to emphasize construction. For a long time, years ago, I tried to discover why farmhouses and French cathedrals were beautiful. It's a matter of relationships. Simple relationships . And the relationship of the ornament to the structure is one of the most important of these."2 This concept was made apparent in Scheibler's use of the exposed steel 1-beam. As a lintel over a door or window, or as a beam supporting a porch roof, the 1beam was a structural device; but one with a distinctive visual quality that could be manipulated for dramatic effects. His other favorite decorative tools, art glass and tile, were for beautification, but they too served their larger architectural settings. Art glass substituted for clear glass in windows and cabinet doors and acted as an agent of light and continuous space in room dividers . Tile, freer by nature, was nonetheless used primarily in the architectural setting of a spandrel, a fireplace, or a doorway. Scheibler exploited these materials for their linear definition and color, and he experimented with mural painting and tile fragments embedded in concrete for similar effects. In these and other media, Scheibler favored natural motifs like...

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