S80





RECORD   AND   GUIDE





April 27, 1912





A MADISON AVENUE CORNER.





Three Private Dwellings Under Construc¬
tion—An Infrequent Operation.

Private dwelling house construction on
new foundations has become so infrequent
that the operation now being advanced
by the Charies Buek Construction Com¬
pany at the southwest corner of Madison
avenue and 7!>th street would be notable
for this reason alone, if il were not for
the exceptional nature of the undertak¬
ing in other respects. The houses are situ¬
ated al •20 East Tilth street, 2^2 East Tilth
street and 1l»20 Madison avenue. These
are. we believe, ihe only private houses
now building for the market in the bor¬
ough of Jlanhattan.

The first mentioned is about forty-two
feet wide, but only fifty-three feet deep
in its main part. In its appointments it
is on a par with the most costly houses
in the cily. Owing to its frontage and
comparatively shallow depth, a much
lighter, more spacious and yet compact
and a bctior planned house ;han it is pos¬
sible lo produce on the usual deep lot wilh
narrow front. The front is of limestone
and granite. The equipment includes an
automatic passenger elevator and every
p.issible   convenience   and   improvement.

Xo, ■2'2 East Tilth streel is but eighteen
feet wide, being the corner of Madison
avenue. It is suited for a physician's use,
hut will be found also to be as well suit-





competition the basis for estimating the
cost of the huilding will be thirty-five
cents per cubic foot. The designs must
therefore not show a building exceeding
7,l.")0,tMtO feet in gross volume, measured
from the level of the underside of the
sub-basement floor to the average height
of the roof. Any porlion above the roof
or any portion which would add to the
bulk of the building must be included in
the calculation.

The competition is for the purpose ot
selecting an architect to erect the capitol.
and nol to select a design merely. The
board reserves the right lo invite five
architects who have had experience in
designing and supervising capitol build¬
ings to submit plans in this competition
and lo pay them one thousand dollars
each in the event that they are not win¬
ners of one of the awards. The winner
will receive six per cent, on the first
million dollars and five per cent, on the
remainder of the total cost of the build¬
ing, exclusive of decorations and furnish¬
ings. The three next meritorious designs
will be designated "premiated designs"
and each author thereof will receive a
cash prize of one thousand dollars.





BUILDING MATERIALS.





Double   Tracking the   Putnam   Division.

It was definitely announced by Super¬
intendent Van Tassell. of the Putnam Di¬
vision of the New York Central, that
within  a  few   weehs work  will  be com-













THE   ONLY  PRIVATE   HOUSES   XOW   BUILDING   FOR   THE   MARKET   ON   MAX-

HATTAX   ISLAXD,
Southwest  Corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and  TSth  Street.





ed for t'le uses of an ordinary family.
The exterior is buff brick with limestone
in the lower stories.

No. 1020 Madison avenue contains
every convenience and perfection of the
larger fnrty-two-fnot house, though on a
somewhat reduced scale, and is a much
more convenient and livable dwelling than
the usual twenty-hve-foot house. The ex¬
terior is in the Spanish style, with light
brick and limestone trimmings.





Competition for Missouri State Hospital.

The Slate Capitol Commission Board of
Missouri gives notice that it will receive
application from all architects desiring
to submit plans in competition for the
proposed new State capitol of Missouri
on or before May 15, at the ofiice of the
commission, Jefferson City. All plajis
must be submitted in strict conformity
to the program issued by the board and
must be delivered not later than July 1.
The program will be mailed upon appli¬
cation to the secretary of the commission.
J. Kelly Pool, at Jefferson City, Missouri.
R. W. Stephens is the chairman of the
commission.

The cost of the building, including heat-





menced on the double-tracking of the
main Une of the Putnam. The work will
be begun at Nepperhan and carried aa
far north as the present appropriation will
allow. This will not be less than to Ards¬
ley, and by the time this is completed, ot
not very long afterward, it was said, an¬
other and larger appropriation will be
made by the directors so as to make it
possible to double-track the entire division,
and it was said by Mr. Van Tassell that
the double-tracking is only part of a plan
for an entire overhauling of the road and
its complete electrification.

The importance of this announcement to
adjacent real estate interests is apparent.
It is believed that the improved railroad
service is certain lo attract a larger pro¬
portion of investors ever\- year.

The stations south of Nepperhan are
Bryn Mawr Park, Dunwoodie, Lincoln,
Van Cortlandl, Kingsbridge, University
Heights. Highbridge and at the southern
terminal l-'ioth street and Eighth avenue.
Those north of Nepperhan ase Gray
Oaks, Nepera Park, Mount Hope, Chaun¬
cey, Ardsley, Woodlands, Worthington.
Elmsford, Beaver Hill, Bast View, Tarry¬
town Heights, Tower Hill, Pocantico Hills.
Briarcliff Manor, Millwood (Merrills).
Kitchawan. Croton Lake, Yorktowp
Heights, Amawalk, West Somers, Baldwin
Place.   Thompson   House,   Lake   Mahopac,





ing.   ventilating and  wiring,  shall not ex¬
ceed   $2,500,000,   exclusiye__of   decorations    ^Crafts,   Carmel,   Tilly  Foster,   Mines  and
and-ftirnnttr~e. ""TTor'Oie  purposes" of   this      Brewster.





New Building Code Expected to Stimu¬
late Filing of Plans.

Brick Market Stronger Than  Last  Year—Steel and
Iron   Active— Money   Easier — Electric   Supply
Business   Improving—Plumbing  Conliacls   Back¬
ward—Builders Busy.
CONSTRUCTION    interests    still    com¬
plain  about  the  weather.     Rain and
night frosts have interfered with progress
in   masonry   of   all   kinds.      Conseciuently
materials have been accumulating on city
jobs, and a greater quantity is coming in
from the mills than has been reported al
any lime so far this year.

Within the week, the entire building
material situation has changed aboul. In¬
stead of deliveries being hard to get, sup¬
plies are coming in heavily. The strike
of the anthracite coal miners has turned
a larger ciuantity of cars into the idle
account and the railroads are striving
lo keep these busy by moving other ma¬
terial in them, wherever it is feasible to
do so.

With consiruction work hampered here
and delayed shipments being rushed
East, distributors began this week to have
visions of a congested maierial market
before the end of the first week in May
and the result was that concessions were
a little more liberal, although prices in
all lines are holding firm on immediate
and near-futures.

The labor market has been a fluctuat¬
ing one since spring began. Building ar¬
tisans have been less than fifty per cent,
employed whereas at this time of the
year the demand is almost as great as
the supply. The trades which haye been
most eniploj-ed are those of the house-
smiths and foundation men. Painters
and decorators are reporting about one-
third the average volume of spring busi¬
ness and interior concrete layers and
plasterers are working about half their
usual spring capacity. The plumbing
trade is reflecting the backwardness of
new contracts and while the prospects
are good, the call for plumbers is mark¬
edly lower than at this time last year.
But despite these soniewhat gloomy
liLiilding trade conditions, the prospects
for the immediate future are bright. It
would not be at all surprising to well in¬
formed authorities on building matters to
see the markel Jump from ils present de¬
pressed stale into pronounced stimula¬
tion next week or the week afterward.

May first used to be the crucial point
upon which builders turned their year's
business for better or for worse. That
day has long heen associated in the minds
of employers as "Strike Day," but while
conditions have changed for the better
in that respect in recent years, there is
unqueslionablj' a lingering feeling of hesi¬
tation among certain employers that be¬
comes discernible just prior lo that date
The marked hesitation shown in numer¬
ous construction departments within the
last few weeks may be traceable to this
tradition. If the present ultra-conserva¬
tive attitude of builders actually does re¬
flect this feeling, another week will flnd
all important agreements signed and work
progressing under somewhat unexpected
stimulation.

This stimulation is in the form of a
new building code Tvhich -was introduced
by Alderman Polks, Republican floor lead¬
er in the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday
afternoon. This is the code upon which
Benjamin D. Traittel, chairman, and Rob-
bert D. Kohn, Secretary of the new build¬
ing code committee, have been working
on for more than a year.

The introduction of this code into the
Board of Aldermen, in which many of the
negative influences of former codes have
been renloved, would seem to assure rea¬
sonably prompt action, according to the
views of builders and building material in¬
terests, and since some of its provisions
will add to the cost of construction, it is
probable that there will be more freedom
in flling plans than heretofore, so as to
get their plans approved while the pres¬
ent code is operative.

It would, therefore, appear as though
building activity for 1912 would develop
a volume of business equal to that of
1909, if it did not actually establish a
precedent.

Brick,
Hudson river common brick favorably
compares in activity with the movements
of the corresponding week last year.
Manufacturers are beginning to list their
requirements for starting up their kilns,
which already promises to be delayed,
through adverse weather conditions, from
three to five weeks- Under favorable
weather conditions, there have been years
when new brick has come into this market

bv the first of May.^ ___

The demand here is moi3erate"^r" Hud-