New Work on Paper 1

GOING OUT GUIDE

By Richard F. SHEPARD

PAPERING THE HOUSE The house is not being papered this time in a style that Boss Tweed would have appreciated back in 1872 when he had the place, the courthouse on Chambers Street, behind City Hall, built at an outrageous cost of $14 million, all but $4 million of which apparently went into the pockets of himself and his colleagues. The Tweed Courthouse, for all that its sponsors gouged the public by overcharges on paper, is a handsome public building in the AngloItalianate style, unvirtuous testimony to a situation in which corruption may be the cornerstone without notably depreciating quality. This despite the fact that honest administrations in later years managed to do so by additions and transformations that were less than esthetic.

New York Times • Movies; Arts • page 11 • 739 words