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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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new building January, '35. That new building was under construction when I got to Washington. That elegance was provided for us by the Hoover administration. Of course, it's over-elaborate and a very, very inconvenient building. It was not well-designed. It was cast in that over-elaborateness which the Hoover administration specialized in, if I may say so. The Department of Commerce is the same way. It's all covered with these great pillars on the outside that have no function whatever. I protested those and wanted the money put into something else, but was told that it couldn't be changed because the designers approved. The architect actually told me that he himself had not wanted the pillars but that the plan was taken over to Hoover to look at. He had seen the elevation sketch and said that he didn't think it looked like much. They said, “Well, that do you think would improve it, Mr. President?” He said that he always liked pillars and the architect said, “That's very simple, Mr. President, we can easily put them on. You're an engineer, sir, and understand that they're not necessary in a modern steel structural building to hold up the masonry weight of the building, as they were in ancient Roman buildings and even Renaissance buildings.”

“But I think they're very impressive,” he said.

So we have a public building with pillars. It was a





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