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ARCHITECTURAL PLANS.

A MONG the unaccepted designs for the New-York Industrial Palace, there weresome whose architectural merit and beauty claim a place in its history. Uponthis page we present the elevation, and upon the fourth page, the-interior view of thebuilding designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. The original drawings were generouslypresented to the New-York Association by their distinguished Author, and thefollowing brief description has been derived from them, and the accompanyingmemoranda: «

The ground plan of the building is a parallelogram; its total area, includingthe terrace, 24 feet wide, which surrounds it, is about three acres. Its extremelength is 653 feet, and .its width 199 feet.

Each end has a porcli-ed entrance for theconvenience of tak-ing up and settingdown visitors. Theterrace, to be usedas a promenade, orfor the display ofbronze and iron sta-tues and massive min-eral specimens, is cov-ered with asphalt, andflanked with a wall ofstone, which, at in-tervals of 26 feet,supports pedestals forlamps. The interioris divided into threecompartments — thecentral nave 600 feetlong, and 79 broad,and two side ave-nues, each 584 feet inlength, and 36 inbreadth, giving an in-terior area of 89,448square feet. Galleries,both exterior and interior, traverse the whole length of the building, and are con-nected by transverse galleries at each end. They are reached by stairways builtin the turrets, which rise at each angle of the nave.

The framework of this building, like that of its great prototype, the Palace inHyde Park, is composed of cast-iron columns, connected together by wrought andcast-iron arches and girders, on which rest the wooden arches of the roofs. These,from the supposed necessity of providing against heavy falls of snow, are coveredwith slate, except the central part of the arch of the nave. With a view, perhaps,to the permanence of the building for successive exhibitions, the basement wall isbuilt of masonry, and the turrets are also of stone. The sides are inclosed withglass, and large and beautiful fan-lights surmount the entrances, and correspond to

the arch of the nave. The construction of the flooring, and the drainage of theraip and interior vapors, are the same as was employed in its English predecessor.Great skill has been shown in constructing the galleries, so as not to interfere withthe long perspective of the interior. The galleries were not designed for the dis-play of goods, but for promenades. The available space in the building will be ob-served to be only about one-fourth of that in the plan adopted by the Association,and quite too small for the requirements of the Exhibition.

Should a building hereafter be erected upon this plan, there is no doubt thatits effect would be extremely fine. Its noble nave, lofty and free, with its crowningclerestory, designed to accommodate the ventilators, combines with the generalsimplicity of the plan to give a degree of grandeur to the whole structure, which

is conducive to the

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best architectural ef-fect. It is true, thata great sacrifice ofspace is made in theexclusion of goodsfrom the galleries,but, on the otherhand, it is doubtfulwhether the sameamount of space, ifrequired, may not bemore economicallygained by an exten-sion of the plan. AtHyde Park the gal-lery space was gainedby a serious loss ofbeauty in the generalproportions of thebuilding. As else-where remarked, thesquare form, andlimited dimensionsof the plot of ground’upon which the NewYork building hasbeen erected, pre-cluded the use of

Sir Joseph Paxton’s plans. But the noble disinterestedness with which, at soearly a day in the history' of the New-York enterprise, the distinguished archi-tect of the London building came forward and presented to the Board ot Direc-tors his plans, how under consideration, is worthy of all praise, and will not besoon forgotten.

The plan of Messrs. Bogaedus and IIoppin is given in outline upon thefourth page. Its form is circular, forming an amphitheatre 1200 feet in circumfer-ence, and designed to cover the-whole ground. The entire structure is a multipleof three or four principal parts, any one of* which could afterwards be employedin constructing ordinary' iron warehouses. The curve is so gentle that no deviationfrom a straight line was requisite to secure the circular form of the whole ain-

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