Architects Cry Foul Over Queen Anne School Contract

The letting of the contract for erecting the Queen Anne schoolhouse at a recent meeting of the school board to Skillings & Connor has aroused some feeling between the unsuccessful architects who submitted plans and the board. The men of the compass and square are indignant at the board for allowing the plans and specifications to be placed on exhibition at the board of education office without first obtaining permission from them. The claim is also made that the accepted plans were copied from others, and that the majority of the building committee waited until they were substituted before passing upon them.

The Washington chapter of architects is also mixed up in the affair, making it a three-cornered fight. Their grievance is that several of the architects who submitted plans violated a rule recently passed in the organization, and they are liable to expulsion. The citizens of Queen Anne are quietly watching the fight, and say they do not care how it terminates so long as they get the building.

Some time last spring bids were advertised for, and several architects immediately drew up plans and submitted them to the board. Action was deferred for a long time on account of more urgent business, and during that time a couple more were sent in, making in all six. A meeting was held soon after the election, at which the architects were invited to be present, and the matter was talked over. At that meeting Directors Churchill, MacDougall and King were appointed a committee to carefully examine the plans and report to the board.

The next meeting was held last Monday evening in Mr. King's office in the Boston block, at which the contract was let to Skillings & Connor upon a majority report by MacDougall and Churchill. Mr. King offered a minority report in which he expressed the opinion that it was unfair for Skillings & Connor to submit another set of plans, which were evidently copied from some of the others, as they were greatly different from the ones first sent in. The majority report was adopted, and the contract let to Skillings & Connor.

Dr. Churchill yesterday denied that a new set of plans had been submitted by Skillings & Connor, and that any such proceeding as the one recited above ever took place. He said:

"There were six sets of plans submitted, and after two or three weeks' consideration Skillings & Connor were awarded the contract. Mr. MacDougall and myself voting in the affirmative. The people of Queen Anne hill were invited by the board to call at the office of the board and investigate the plans and specifications and see which they liked best. At the meeting of the committee Mr. MacDougall was strongly in favor of Skillings & Connor, and King seemed to favor Alexander. I had but little choice between the plans of Skillings & Connor and those of Willcox & McQuivey, but to settle the matter I voted with MacDougall. The plans adopted were just the same as those that had been standing on the table for two or three weeks.

"A number of citizens of Queen Anne hill asked Mr. Skillings to draw up a plan of the roof, making it a little higher and more imposing. He did this. They were then told that the original plans could be changed to conform to the extra one if the board so desired."

Dr. Churchill said he wished to set the matter right before the public, and do away with the gossip that has been going the rounds.

William H. Wilcox, who with Mr. McQuivey submitted plans and specifications for the building, was also seen in regard to the matter yesterday. He said:

"I don't like to say much about the affair, having been a bidder, but I certainly do think the board acted very queerly, especially in throwing open all the plans for public examination and criticism before a vote had been taken by the board. It is the most unusual proceeding I ever heard of. I am told that the plans accepted are very much like the ones submitted by myself, and if that is the case they must have been changed, as the original ones presented by Skillings & Connor were plain, similar to the Pacific school, and very unlike the ones I drew.

"The trouble with the chapter of architects is, as I understand it, over a resolution passed a short time ago, refusing to give the assent of the chapter to architects to compete for this school building, because it was not in conformity with the rules of the chapter. I was a member of the chapter until recently, when I sent in my resignation because I had already promised Mr. McQuivey to bid with him on this building. As to the other architects that bid, excepting Skillings & Connor, I cannot say whether they are members of the chapter or not. I know that Skillings and Connor are not members."