Ernest Flagg Quotes

61 Sourced Quotes

Certain combinations of dimensions produce harmonious results, but since the time of the ancient Greeks no system of design, consistently base on that knowledge, has been formulated.

Ernest Flagg
The system of building, described in this work, is intended for repetition. It would hardly pay to adopt it in its entirety for a single house if the matter were to end there. Where the processes and apparatus is used, over and over again, great economy should result; but for a single building, the trouble and expense of introducing so many new or unusual features and methods, might well offset the benefits which should accrue under more favorable conditions. Standardization both of parts and workmanship plays a great part in the economies obtained and standardization implies quantity.

Ernest Flagg
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.

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

Ernest Flagg
How few people, even among the supposedly well educated, can give an intelligent explanation of the qualities of a design!... the essential ones... are necessary in order that the design may be worthy to be classed at all as a work of art. Among the essential qualities are reason, unity, harmony, clarity, and variety. Among the desirable qualities are imagination, interest, refinement, simplicity, dignity, and style.

Ernest Flagg
The qualities called personal... and the ability to impart them, in greater or less degree, is the gage of genius in art.

Ernest Flagg
These houses are intended to have stone walls.... The fact that a stone house is better in many ways than a wooden one, and also more economical in the long run has, for the most part, been overlooked... The conditions are... ripe for a change from wood to stone or other incombustible material, but it will doubtless come about slowly.

Ernest Flagg
Unity.... Unity of purpose is shown by continuity, or the proper relationship of the parts with each other, and with the whole as one sees it best expressed in the human form. Unity of mass is obtained by giving predominance of mass to some one feature...

Ernest Flagg
Harmony.... it is all embracing and should reign throughout—harmony in purpose, harmony in dimensions, harmony in form and harmony in color. In good design discord can have no place.... all may unite to form a complete, harmonious, and well-rounded composition...

Ernest Flagg
As in poetry and music, even the unskilled ear may be offended by a mistake in measure, without discerning the cause, may not also a mistake in the harmony of dimensions unconsciously offend us in design?

Ernest Flagg
The object of this work is to improve the design and construction of small houses while reducing their cost.

Ernest Flagg
Low walls are much less expensive to build than high ones... it is possible to use forms without the usual waste of lumber... when waste is avoided, forms greatly reduce the cost of stonework... much can be saved in the construction of foundations by methods described...

Ernest Flagg
It was only within comparatively recent times that several refinements in Greek architecture... such as the slight entasis of the columns, the greater size of the corner columns, and the convex curve of the stylobate were discovered.

Ernest Flagg
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.

Ernest Flagg
The best art, and the only art which will ever lead to great results, must have for its basis the interpretation of beauty in nature.

Ernest Flagg
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.

Ernest Flagg
One of the best ways to economize in building is to economize on ugliness.... Nothing can be greater service in avoiding ugliness than a knowledge of the principles of design.

Ernest Flagg
Reason requires all things to have a use and be appropriate and fitted to the purpose for which they are used.

Ernest Flagg
New York ought to have such an avenue like the Champs Elysées of Paris, Unter den Linden of Berlin, or the Ring Strasse of Vienna, but more ample than any of them; for here, of all places, owing to the shape of the island, there is the most need of such a thing.

Ernest Flagg
Instead of the dormers, skylights... are easier to make and operate, need no double sash, cost less, and some may prefer their appearance.

Ernest Flagg
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...

Ernest Flagg
Interest.... a design to be great must have great interest.... the most potent of all ways to impart interest is to endow the design with beauty of form, and... the one which makes the strongest appeal to human interest and admiration is physical beauty in human shape.

Ernest Flagg
It is hard to change long-established building habits; such habits sometimes endure for ages in certain localities with little or no change. It is, however, easy for new communities to acquire bad building habits.

Ernest Flagg
With dignity and simplicity come repose... the natural state of one at home in his surroundings and sure of his ground. Repose is a distinguished characteristic of Greek art.

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

Ernest Flagg
The Greeks were men of sense; if they used the system they did so for a purpose, as artists rather than mathematicians and imperceptible irregularities could not affect that purpose.

Ernest Flagg
Variety.... Movement, contrast, and accent all contribute to variety... the spice of life... Monotony and dryness are lurking enemies which may be vanquished by variety.

Ernest Flagg
Simplicity and Dignity are so nearly related that they may be considered together.... A quiet air of reserved power is characteristic of dignity, and that is best obtained by simple means and the absence of apparent effort. Simplicity is the mark of genius. The giant in art does his work easily, without straining and without affectation; his ways are direct and to the point.

Ernest Flagg
Disadvantages... can be entirely removed by... the ridge-dormer. By its use space in the roof, otherwise of little value, becomes the most desirable. Instead of being gloomy, stuffy and hot, the dormers render it perfectly ventilated, light at all times, and cool in hot weather. In frame buildings, it is not so easy, because there must be tie beams... to withstand the thrust of the roof.... Where low stone walls are used... the strength of the walls is sufficient to withstand the thrust...

Ernest Flagg
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.

Ernest Flagg