June 2,  igo6





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





1043





mortgages so-called subject to assessment for local taxation.
The existence also of three systems of morigage taxation within
a period of a little over a year necessarily creates annoyance
and perplexities; hut, as time wears on, and as people learn lo
appreciate llie advantages of the nc\i' law, the measure will he-
come more and more popular.

"Much money will, I think, be attracted to investment in the
new mortgages, and the rate of interest will gradually fall to a
point below that prevailing before the passage of the Annual
Tax Law. This process, however, may be somewhat slow, and
our real estate friends must not be disappointed if the advan¬
tages are not immediately apparent.

"I thank you again, gentlemen, many times for your kindly
appreciation of my worl;, and lor tbese beautiful gifts, which I
shall always cherish among my most precious possessions."





Three  Great Contracts.

THINK of a builder putting into bis pocket in one week
three contracts aggregating about thirty-flve million dol-
lare. As Arlhur Brisbane says, Thinkl Tbe George A.
Fuller Company, of which Paul Starrett is president, will build
the Pennsylvania Depot, the Hudson Tunnel Company's terminal
at Church and Fulton sts, and the North or Second Trinity
Building on lower Broadway, together with the addition to the
First  or   South   Trinity,

The one from the Pennsylvania is the largest single building
contract ever given out in this city. It will anionnt in value
to fifteen or twenty million dollars, and will include everything
within tlie huilding lines. The general contractor erects every¬
thing, inchiding the granite and sleel, the first of which comes
from tbe Milford quarries by a contract made months ago. and
the steel, upwards of 50,000 tons, will be furnished by the
American Bridge Co. McKim, Mead Se White are architects of
the superstructure, and Westinghouse. Church. Kerr & Co. are
tbe engineers. No sub-contracts have yet been issued by the
George A. Fuller Company. Work will begin in August, and if
he is not interfered with or held up from one cause or another
Mr. Starrett will have it finished in about eighteen months.

For completing the Hudson terminal buildings the general
contractor will receive seven million dollars. They will con¬
tain each twenty-one and twenty-three stories. Underground
there will be five stories. With the superstructure from the
hands of the Fuller Company, the O'Rourke Engineering and
Contracting Co, will build the foundations. Upwards of 28,000
tons of steel will be required, and for this the American Bridge
Co. has the contract. W^alls will he built of limestone and brick.
There will he two buildings, as Dey st intersects the property,
and it cannot be closed, Tbe entire Ciiurcli st frontage of the
two blocks between Cortlandt and Fulton will be occupied.





HUDSON   TERMINAL   BUILDINGS,

Each building will cover a block front, but tbe stories below
the street level will be connected so tbat the station platforms
will be two blocks long, north and south. The floors above the
Cortlandt st level will be used as offlces. There will he an
underground passageway from the tunnel buildings to the Ful¬
ton st station of the Broadway subway. In two years the work
Is to be flnished.

The annex or addition to the First Trinity Building will have
a frontage of twenty-eight feet on Broadway, and will be on the
north side, the line of Thames st being changed so as to run
between the north and the south Trinity buildings. The new
work will have a similarity in architectural style and con-
Btruction to the first edifice, whose elegance made it an Instant





success as an investmeni. Marble and mahogany will together
play the same beautiful part as in tbe olher building, which
came from the same architect and builder, Tbe contract for the
,';teel has been given to the American Bridge Co., and amounts
to 10,000 tons.

The fioor area of tbe present Trinity Building is liJS.OOO square
feet. In the completed twin building there will be 380,S73 square
feet of additional space, or 052,873 in all. The new structure
is lo be completed by May 1, 1907, and the contractor feels
quite equal to the task of flnishing it on lime. It will have an
exterior wall  of Indiana  limestone.

The Foundation Company has taken , the contract for ' the
foundations of both buildings. Solid concrete, installed by pneu¬
matic caissons carried down to bed rock (an average depth of
SO feet below the curb), will compose the foundations. In the
portion of the building just commenced there will he 89 such
caissons in tbe foundations. In the foundations of the portion
of the building already completed there are 52 caissons, making
a total of 141 for the entire building. The foundations for the
Trinity Building as it now stands were also put in by the
Foundation Company. When completed tbe entire structure
will consist of two buildings of almost equal dimensions, being
separated by Thames st. Temple st will be eliminated from
Thames  to Cedar st.







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Building Code Revision.

At this week's meeting of the Board of Aldermen the resolu¬
tion {introductory No. 88) adopted by the Board January 23,
ittstructing the Committee on Buildings lo prepare a Building
Code, was rescinded and the following, which has been pending
for several months, was adopted instead:

Resolved, That, in pursuance of .Section -107 of lhe Greater
New York Charter, the Building Committee of this Board be
and is hereby directed to prepare and report to this Board a
"Building Code" in amended aud revised form, providing therein
for all matters concerning, affecting or relating to the con¬
struction, alteration and removal of buildings or structures
erecled, or to be erected, in the City of New York; and it is
further

Resolved, That for the purpose of properly preparing said
Building Code the said committee be and it is hereby authorized
to engage the "services of the following experts, each of whom
shall be a resident of tbe City of New York, and shall have been
engaged not less tban five years in bis respective calling, to wit;

Two architects, one structural engineer, one sanitary engineer,
one engineer recommended by tbe Board of Fire Underwriters,
two master builders, two mechanics skilled in building trades,
and one laywer, and such clerical assistants as may be neces¬
sary.^Max S. Grifenhagen. John J. Farrell, Jacob Bartscherer,
J. Hann. Charles Kuntze. Wm, P, Kenneally. Committee on
Buildinga.

The intention of the committee is now to formally invite
building, engineering and archileclural bodies to each submit a
list of five, from which the committee will select one to be a
member of the Board of Revision.





The Mayor on Realty Values.

A thorough and informing statement of the financial con¬
dition of the city was that presented by Mayor McClellan to
tbe Board  of Aldermen  this week.

The Mayor finds that the total borrowing capacity of the city
for the whole year will be $132,!>fi8,3GS.2S, out of which there
will be borrowed about $r:0,Ot:0,000 for general purposes, which
is the average for recent years. This would leave approxi¬
mately $83,000,000 available for new improvements.

Having a close relation to the ability and intention of the
administration lo extend those pubiic improvements needed for
tbe development of real eslate, the message has been read with
deep attention by property owners, and especially the parts in
which the matter of improvements is particularly treated; and
it is noted that tbe Mayor gives expression to these views;

"The city since 1!*03 has tried to assess its real estate for
purposes of taxation at market value as the law requires. This
has resulted in furnishing substantial borrowing capacity and
has been followed by corresponding Increases in tbe debt.

"If the city, in its endeavor to furnish further borrowing ca¬
pacity to enable it to enter upon extensive and expensive im^
provements, raises the valuations from year to year beyond a
reasonable amount representing normal increases in values, the
time must certainly come when the limit will be reached. Full
assessment values, with debt incurred to the limit of the margin
thereby created, would mean that the city bad substantially
reached its limit of development.

"If history is to repeat itself and real estate values suffer a
heavy decline through overspeculation, a condition Indicated
by the present activity, tbe risk run is tbat the city may be com¬
pelled because of its policy of assessing at full values to make
material reductions In such values, thereby placing it in the
position of having a debt larger than tbat allowed by tbe Con¬
stitution. It w'ould be several years before such excess could
be adjusted. Conservative management is essential If a con¬
tinuing but gradual development of the city is to be maintained."