Hamilton's Palace

Small Hector Hamilton of East Orange, N. J. did not lose his head last week. To the frenzied congratulations of friends and reporters he kept repeating: "Yes. Yes. but officially I haven't been awarded anything yet." Dispatches from abroad carried the news that lucky Hector

Hamilton had won a 12,000 rouble first prize in an international competition for the proposed Palace of the Soviets, to be erected in Moscow on the site of the many domed Cathedral of the Redeemer.

Hector Hamilton, 28, 5 ft. 5 in., is only recently an Orangeman. Born a Briton, he came to the U. S. 14 years ago determined to be an architect. He studied at New York's Cooper Union, joined the real estate firm of Frank H. Taylor & Son, Inc. More to keep his hand in than anything else, he entered the Soviet contest.

"I knew before entering," said he. "that there were from 300 to 400 entries from about 40 countries. There was only a roulette wheel chance for me to win."

The wheel turned up his design. Ardent disciples of what is called the International Style sniffed at drawings of his design, called it "fake modernism." But the Hamilton design by no means represents what the completed palace will actually look like. Two Russians, B. M. Yofan and I. V. Zholtovsky, share first prize with Mr. Hamilton. Second prize went to the U. S. firm of Kastnor & Storonoff, both members of which have already won awards in a Soviet architectural competition. The Moscow idea is that all these men. and possibly 20 or 30 of the other competitors, will assemble in Moscow in the near future and together attempt to work out a final design.

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