Ralston Holcombe is an enormous fellow, sixty-five, president of the Architects' Guild of America. He finds eclecticism in architecture abominable. There is only one correct style: Renaissance. His forty-two-year-old wife, Costance, calls herself Kiki in an attempt to maintain a death-grip on her youth.
Keating and Francon are at a party at the Holcombe mansion. Keating has just fended off a flirtation by Kiki when he spies Dominique. Keating (to Francon): Introduce me to your daughter! Francon: Your funeral.... Peter—Dominique; Dominique—lunch. Dominique tolerates Peter longer than she tolerates most men. Francon is impressed.
The Snyte firm is getting a chance to propose a design for a home for Austen Heller. The site is to be atop a jagged cliff overlooking the sea. Roark's design, an idiosyncratic house of granite that reflects and extends the cliff, is selected by Snyte over the sketches of the other four designers. Of course it is civilized by changing the granite to brick, and various incongruous classical forms are pasted on before the design is presented to the prospective customer. Heller, who knows nothing about architecture but wants a home that doesn't look like all other homes, likes some aspects of the design, but overall it doesn't quite grab him. Roark grabs the design and sketches his original design elements back in. Snyte: This is an outrage! Roark, you're fired. Heller: I love this! Roark, let's talk privately so I can ask you to build this for me yourself! Snyte: D'oh!
The scene with Snyte, Heller, and Roark is quite well done. So far, I'm really liking this book, but I have the feeling that somewhere in the remaining 566 pages it will get bogged down in silly ideology. But maybe not! ... Oh, who am I kidding?
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