April 15, 1922





RECORD   AND    GUIDE





457





Activity   in   Mercantile   Building   in   Midtown   Section

Many Fine Structures Now Under Way in Districts Between Fifth and Eighth
Avenues From Thirty-fourlli  to Fortieth Streets





A STUDY of the building activity al present under way
in the mid-town district of Manhattan is probably the
best method of dispelling the impression prevailing in
the minds of many interested in the construction industry
that residential building has dominated the local field to the
extent of eliminating practically all other kinds of project.
For many months past builders and their affiliated interests
who are not concerned with the usual type of speculative
housing operations have decried an apparent lack of mercan¬
tile construction that has curtailed their opportunities for
profitable business. It is only because the volume of residen¬
tial construction now active in this city is abnormally out of
scale that this feeling exists as there is a tremendous amount
of high class commercial and industrial building now actually
in progress and infinitely more scheduled for a start in the
near future.

A very definite idea of the scope of the mercantile building
now in progress may be obtained from an analysis of this
activity in the district bounded by Thirty-fourth and Fortieth
Streets, Fifth and Eighth Avenues. An investigation made by
The Record and Guide shows that within the bounds of this
area a sum of approximately $20,000,000 is at present being
expended for commercial projects of one type or another. This
amount only represents the total cost of about a dozen modern
fireproof office, loft and light manufacturing structures and
does not take into consideration several smaller operations
involving new Duildings nor does it include the large amount
of extensive alteration work which is transforming ancient
residences into business structures. There is little doubt that
if the total cost of all commercial and industrial construction
now under way in this district were added that the expenditure
would  involve  upward  of  $24,000,000.

.'\lthough this section of the borough is particularly active
from a construction standpoint, and the total for a limited
area was only exceeded two years ago when the group of
large office buildings was erected in the Grand Central Ter¬
minal Zone, there is scattered throughout Greater New York
a large amount of building operations for commercial and
industrial occupancy the number and total cost of which would
represent a very satisfactory percentage in any normal build¬
ing year in which the tremendous volume of residential con¬
struction did not overshadow the combined totals of all other
types of project.

In the mid-town district of Manhattan there are now under¬
way several imposing banking buildings, a department store
addition of unusual size and a group of modern fireproof of¬
fice,  loft  and  light   manufacturing  buildings.

Contracts have been awarded and the site is being prepared
for the erection of an eighteen-story addition to the department
store of R. H. Macy & Co. This structure will occupy 149 to
159 West Thirty-fourth Street, through to 148 to 156 West
Thirty-fifth Street. The building will be constructed accord¬
ing to plans by R. D. Kohn under a general contract awarded
to Marc Eidlitz & Son. The cost is said to exceed $4,500,000.
The steel contract for this structure, awarded to Levering &
Garrigues, involves a total of 8,200 tons of fabricated material
and it is said to be the largest single contract for structural
steel awarded since the Equitable Building was constructed
about ten years ago.

Wrecking contractors are demolishing the old buildings on
the site of the new building for the North River Savings Bank
which will be located at 206 to 212 West Thirty-fourth Street.
This building will be two stories in height and will cost
nearly $200,000. The structure was designed by Charles E.
Birge, architect, and is being erected under a general contract
by the  Clough-Bourne  Corporation.

Foundations are under construction for a  twelve-story store







NEW  BUILDING  IN  39TH  STREET  FOR   MILLINERY
TRADES

and office building to occupy the entire block front on Eighth
.Avenue, from Thirty-fifth to Thirty-sixth Street. This opera¬
tion represents an expenditure of approximately $1,000,000 and
is being erected from plans by Buchman & Kahn, architects.
The contractors are G. Richard Davis & Co. This building is
being erected for Ludwig and Albert Baumann, furniture deal¬
ers who will utilize a large part of the space for showroom
purposes and the  balance will be rented on long term leases.

Contracts have been awarded and work will soon be started
on the new banking building to be located in tbe north side of
Thirty-sixth Street from Broadway to Sixth .'Xvcnue. This
structure is for the Greenwich Savings Bank and it will be
erected according to designs by York & Sawyer. The general
contractor is Marc Eidlitz & Son, who have already placed
contracts for wrecking and other subs. The cost is appro.xi-
mately $500,000.

Foundation work is under way for a fourteen-story office and
showroom building at 1,32 to 138 West Thirty-sixth Street,
through to 1.39 to 145 West Thirty-fifth Street. This building
is being erected at a cost of more than $2,000,000 by a corpora¬
tion in which E. Morrill Banner and Herbert H. Mitler are in¬
terested. The plans were prepared by Robert T. Lyons and
the structural engineer is Robert E. Moss. No general contract
was awarded on this operation and the owners are letting
separate  contracts  as  the  work  proceeds.

The work of erecting the structural steel skeleton is pro¬
ceeding rapidly for the fireproof office and loft building at 124
to 126 West Thirty-sixth Street for the Dongan Investing
(Continued on page 438)