International Building & Architecture News

France

• M. Henri Guillaume, the architect, has been commissioned to design the monument to be raised to Gavarni. It will be a very simple design, comprising a stele surmounted by a bust of the celebrated caricaturist by M Denys Puech, who is also to execute, at the base, the figure of a woman in a carnival dress. The monument is to be erected in the centre of the basin of the Place St. Georges.
• M. L. Salomon, engineer-in-chief to the "De l'Est" Railway Company, has been elected President of the Société des Ingénieurs Civils, in place of the late M. Mesureur.
• The Government has authorised the installation of the Musée des Colonies in the shops which border the Galerie d'Orléans, Palais Royal.
• The Municipality of Lilas have opened a competition for the transformation of the Place Paul de Kock into a public square, and for the construction of a school building and a Salle des Fites.
• A monument to Voltaire is to be inaugurated at Chatenay on May 1. Mme. Syamour is the sculptor and M. Soudée the architect.
• The first stone has been laid of a new Hotel de Ville , at Creil
• The municipality of Puy has devoted a sum of ₣171,000 to the construction of a Practical School of Commerce and Industry.
• An interesting historical exhibition of wood-engraving is to be organised shortly at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. This will open on May 3, and will include a historic section a historic section ("section ancienne") for the French, Dutch, and German schools, and a modern section embracing the whole work of the nineteenth century . There will be a special section for Japan.
• A new church is to be commenced in Paris in the Quartier des Quinze-Vingt, at an estimated cost of ₣560,000.
• The sixty-ninth Archaeological Congress of France will be held this year at Troyes, from June 24 to July 2.
• The death is announcea, at the age of fifty-four, of M. Bousquet, Architecst to the Prefecture of Police and Inspector of Works under the Government.
• M. Didron, artist in stained glass, has died at Paris at the aged sixty-five. He was an able and learned artist work was much appreciated by architects, and he has carried out important works for the Commission des Moouments Historiques in various churches of Paris, notably St. Germain l'Auxerrois, St Merri, St. Severin, St. Louis d'Antin, and St. Thomas d'Aquin.

Russia

• The Minister of Finance has sanctioned a sum of 30,000 roubles for the purpose of the proposed Pansiavist Art and Industrial Exhibition, to be opened in St. Petersburg in February, 1902. Practically the whole of the Slav countries have agreed to do their best to make this art exhibition a success, and Bulgaria is taking particular interest in it.
• In order to dispense with the transport of trains across Lake Baikal by steamer, the Russian Government contemplates deviating the line east of Irkutsk, so that it passes to the south of that lake and approaches nearer the Chinese frontier, subsequently joining the eastern extension to Vladivostock. The country is of a mountainous character, and the cost of construction of that part of the Great Siberian railroad is estimated to be much greater per verst that on any other section.

Germany

• The Italian Ambassador to the Court of Berlin has recently visited the studio of Gustav Eberlein, a sculptor who has been commissioned by the Emperor William to undertake the Goethe monument which his Majesty will give to the city of Rome. The model, which has been executed represents Goethe as a youth during his first visit to Rome, in the picturesque Empire costume, with knee-breeches, etc. The monument will be over 20 ft. in height. The pedestal will be decorated with three groups representing Mignon and the old Harper as symbols of lyric poetry; Orestes flogged by the furies as a symbol of tragedy; and Faust and Mephistopheles as the symbols of philosophy.

India

• One of the features of the durbar at Delhi in connexion with the Coronation is a large art exhibition, for the purpose of which four lakhs of rupees have been voted.
• Extensive additions are about to be made to the medical college at Calcutta, at a cost of two lakhs of rupees.
• The North-Western railway are about to construct new quarters for its staff on the Nowshera-Darai branch in consequence of increased traffic.
• The Government of India contemplates laying a railway and telegraph to the Persian frontier through Balochistan. This will be one of the most important railway works of recent years.
• A bill has been introduced in the Legislative Council of the Straits Settlements for the construction of tramways in Singapore.
• New quarters for the Naval Commander-in-Chief are to be erected in Bombay.

United States

• A Bill is to be brought before the New York legislature to establish rules for the construction, ventilation, and sanitation of school houses and other public buildings, similar to those which have for several years been enforced in Massachusetts. The Bill provides for 15 cubic ft. of fresh air per minute for each pupil in schoolrooms. In this connexion it may be observed that no architect in Massachusetts may now plan shoo! buildings without first being certain that State inspectors will sanction his arrangements for the position of adequate ventilators. The inspector comes armed with an anemometer.