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Llandudno Field Club. r T THE BANGOR UNIVERSITY COLLEGE NEW BUILDINGS. [BY G. A. HUMPHREYS] No one can have passed through the City of Bangor without being impressed by the stately pile of College Buildings, now nearing completion, on the Upper Bangor plateau. Their situation is unique, and the only oppor- tunity of making anything like a comparison is with the Glasgow University site. A College which is a Constituent College of a University, and incorporated by Royal Charter, ought to be on a noble scale, and the Bangor authorities have risen to the occasion in a manner which deserves much praise. Ruskin has said that It is chiefly by private, not by public effort that your city must be adorned," and truly we here have a striking example, for what would the Bangor College buildings have been without the great financial assistance of the Drapers Company or the Prichard-Jones Hall ? But we must not forget the gift of the site by the Corpora- tion of Bangor. We gathered that the gifts and promises amount to £ 116,000 (of which only ^20,000 is Government money), and of this large amount £830340 has already been received. Even these large figures, however, will not give such an adeqnate idea of the scheme as a walk through the new buildings, especially if it is taken under the leadership of Professor J. E. Lioyd, M.A., and Mr. Henry Lewis, chairman of the executive body, tne gentlemen who were plied wit 11 questions by the Field Club members that day. The College is fortunate in having an architect, Mr H. T. Hare, F.R.I.B.A., of London, who, from an initial bold conception, is carrying through his scheme with that care and thoroughness of detail for which he is so well-known. While the essential piinciples of architecture are unchangeable, the conditions of life, mental, moral and material, rapidly change, and true architecture must respond thereto. A College with its various depart- ments and somewhat complex life creates conditions that have to be met and ends that have to be attained, which require to be dealt with by a master mind, and we cannot help congratulating Mr Hare on his fine efforts and successful result. You have in this work well-founded knowledge, simple and right aims, thorough mastery of handicraft, splendid invention in arrangement, and un- erring commonsense in treatment. The whole scheme is designed to comprise buildings around the "Great Quadrangle" and the Eastern Quadrangle," viz.. the Arts and Administrative blocks, the Great Hall, the Library and Museum, certain science blocks, and the Professors and Staff rooms. These are all on the upper level. The lower group is to consist of blocks for Botany and Zoology, Agriculture and Mining, and possibly other departments. The por- tions of the scheme now being built comprise the Arts and Administrative Departments, the Library and Museum, and the Great Hall. The whole of the buildings are faced with Cefn stone, and the roofs covered with Precelly slates. The construction throughout is fire-resisting, and the joinery is in oak and teak. Passing over the site of the great quad- rangle, we entered the Arts block, near the Registrar's Offices. Adjoining these is the blrck given by the Drapers Company, which comprises the Museum and Library, each large room destined to contain a mine of knowledge ever available to the student whether he be undergraduate or professor. The Lecture rooms are numerous, of various sizes, and the largest is specially adapted for lantern lectures. The lower ground floor is to he occupied by the student's quarters, and include an Old Student's Common Room. Provision is made for catering to a limited extent, the kitchen department being fitted up with the latest cooking apparatus and machinery. The rooms for the principal, Sir Harry Reichel, face the great quadrangle, and are clothed, as it were, in an atmosphere of repose, hrtsed upon refined thought and simplicity of purpose. Lastly, mention may be made of the Council Chamber a beautiful apartment which attracted special attention, and no wonder, for the financial reasons which had imposed ■iijid conditions in regatii to the internal fitting-up of the new College Buildings were not applicable in the case of this one room. Professor Lloyd said that the architect was allowed to have his fling-in the Council Cham- her. The result is likely to approach the ideal meeting place for the executive body. The beautiful oak panelling, the stone fire- places, the modelled plaster ceiling contain- ing the arms of the Boroughs of Wales, the arms of the past and present presidents in the window, and other features, all combine to produce the spirit of beauty which Shelley describes as dear and yet dearer for its mystery." With regard to the new buildings as a whole they appear to be a great success. The first great principle that must be sought and required in architecture is truth, and we find at Bangor an excellent illustration of truthful expression of the purpose of the building. The use and disposition of the different materials in a building must exhibit ■ egard for truth and fitness. In one instance only did we notice this principle ignored, and that was in the unfortunate lining of the ceilings of the Museum and some of the corridors. The quality of strength rightly exists. Sir Christopher Wren said that a good building ought certainly to possess the attribute of the eternal." Restraint, also, is noticeable, for each feature, ornament, and line, forms an integral part of the architectural scheme. Thoughtless profusion of ornament is like "the multiplication of words without wisdom." The quality of refinement is necessary there, for it appears in all Mr. Hare's work-every- thing the best of its kind and at the same time so suited to its purpose and place that it appears inevitable. The treatment of the subject in a simple, yet grand manner, the proper massing of the several parts, and the subordination of detail to the larger forms of the composition, is the means of bringing the whole design into such a pleasing unity that it ought to exercise an elevating influence in the future architecture of North Wales. May it do so. The members of the Club, after completing the perambulation of the College buildings, walked over to the Girls' County School, where they were entertained to tea by Miss Mason, head of the County School, Professor J. F. Lloyd, Dr. Phillips, and others. On the motion of the Rev. T. H. Guest, M.A., the members of the Club passed a very warm vote of thanks to the Hangor ladies and gentlemen who contributed to the after- noon's instruction. Llandudno, Nov. Iqth. 1910.

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