April 35, 1891





Record   and   Guide.





647





the pitiful sixteen stories of its neighbor, the M orld, and a number
of smaller projects have either been announced or are under con¬
sideration. The building of new warehouses to the west of Broad¬
way and north of Broome street shows no abatement. Builders
who have been successful thus far in closing out their operations
at a iirofit are undertaking new ventures, and a number of whole¬
sale merchants are erecting buildings on their own account. There
is still plenty of room for a continuatice of operations in this
district. The warehouses are not likely to get above 14th street
for many years to come. The new ones needed will be erected
to the east and west of Broadway.

During 1890 tlie field of the greatest activity was between 14th
aud 59th streets. It is in this part of tbe city that most of our hotels,
theatres, club-houses and large retail stores are situated. Its
growth measures the growth of New York as a pleasure centre. The
iucrease in the number of hotels meaus that more people flock to this
city from all over_the country to transact business, make purchases,
see the " sights " and have a " good time." During the first three
months of the present year the amount of money to be expended
in this district showed a heavy falling off, heavier than that in any
other part of the city. It is not likely, h6wever, that the percent¬
age of this decrease, amounting so far to one-half, will he main-
,tained. A large number of important improvements have been
announced, plans for wliich have not as yet been filed. Some of
these, such as the Metropolitan Club house (for ali practical purposes
within this district), and the new Astor residences may be indefi¬
nitely postponed; others, such as the Van Ingen warehouse on the
southwest corner of 5th avenue ani 21st street will be rapidly
pushed to completion, and these will belp to swell the totals. But
while the percentage of decrease which has iieen held thus far ia
not likely to be maintained, still it is not probable that plans willbe
filed in 1891 caUing for as large an expenditure as there were in
1890. He would be a bold man, for instance, who risked any money
in hotels, mainly for transient guests, at a time when the Holland
House was but just completed, and when three such enormous car¬
avansaries as the New Netherlands, the Waldorf and Judge Dugro's
weraimderconstruction. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Com¬
pany's office building is something of an experiment, which no one
will care to imitate until its success is proved. With the exception of
the Metropolitan and Uuion Clubs, no more new club-houses are in
sight; so not very much buildiug will come from that source. Con¬
sequently tbere is liable to be a slight lull in building operations
between 14th and 59th streets, during 1891—to be followed by a
still larger amount of improvement in years to come.

Dui'ing the first two montbs of this year the filings for new
buildings on the West Side were so scarce as to justify apprehen¬
sions tbat another break, similar to that which occurred in 1888,
would be witnessed during 1891, and there were a number of
causes which rendered this view plausible. In 1890 there had been
some small amount of over-building. Some of the operators were
hardly warranted by their success during the past season in start¬
ing new enterprises and undertaking new responsibilities. Never¬
theless, the increase of fiUngs for the West Side during March,
over the same month last year, shows that the backwardness was
due rather to the inability of builders to obtain loans, for as soon
as the money market relaxed, many plans were rushed in
which had been delayed for this reason. Whether the
increase which we noted in March will be con¬
tinued during succeeding months may reasonably be
doubted, but it' there is any slackening of activity it vrill not
assume the proportions of a reaction. Many of the improvements
which are promised are of an important cbaracter, no less than
three large apartment hotels having already been announced. The
general standard of the buildings, furthermore, shows no sign of
deterioration. Oue of the main sources of the attractiveness of
the West Side is the large proportion which the dwellings bear to
the flats, and'from present indications this proportion will be main¬
tained during 1890. The East Side, also,, will be likely to fare very
well during the summer and fall. Ti:e filings for this district also
increased during March, and the decrease for the whole three
months is less than that for the West Side. Apart, however, from
the large improvements which are projected near the Plaza, and
which nominally come within this district, although really subject to
a different set of conditions, it would not seem as if 1891 will be
marked by any large undertaking. One ajjartment hotel of good
dimensions is already in the process of construction, but those
- avenues and streets which would naturally be the location of
handsome buildings are either already improved tc a large extent
or are so inaccessible that much cannot be espected of them until
the time of better transit is come.

Purposely, thus far, we have refrained from including in this
slight survey of the immediate prospects any couoiderations based
upon improved rapid transit, for it is apparent this will not be an
efficient cause to direct and swell the real estate operations during
1891. The Manhattan Company is no nearer its needed strip in
Battery Park than it was three years ago, and it is this company
alone that can supply immediatte alleviation.   No doubt, before





many weeks are passed, the Eapid Ti-ansit Commissioners will
announce at least two new routes—one for the West and one for
the East Side; but these routes have stili to be built, construction
and operating company formed, their obligations financed,
aiid a thousand obstacles overcome, so that any considerations
arising ort this score belong to the indefinite rather tban the prox¬
imate future. To that flexible period must be relegated the further
improvement of the Wasbington Heights district, for so far as
building in that part of the city depends on general instead of local
conditions not very much activity can be expected for several
years. As for the district north of ILOth street, eastof St. Nicholas
and west of Sth avenue, the outlook is none of the best, for under
any circumstances it will have to depend on the elevated roads ;
and no one can tell when or to what extent their facilities wili be

improved.

,------.—a-----------

The Reconstructecl Western Union Building.

THE reconstruction of tbe Western Union Building on lower
Broadway has been watched with more than usual curiosity;
by the Public, because people were inteiested in seeing what would
replace the high mansard roof and clock-tower of the old building
which for years were architectural features down town, so con¬
spicuous aud familiar; and by architects, because those very feat-
urtiS were in a large me;isure the logical completion of the original
design, and the curiosity of tbe prof ession was alive to discover how
the architect of the reconstruction would retain, as it were, his
predecessor's major and minor premises in tha lower six stories and
yetproduce a different but legitimate result in his own additions.
The limitations in the problem were not solely architectural; for
while tbe'artistic idea was not only given, but very conspicuously
embodied in the lower stories retained, there were Gtructural
difficulties and commercial requirements to be met in the upper
part to be added. Moreover, in view of the almost historic value
which the old form of the building had acquired in the eyes of the
public, could the architect feel quite free to totally disregard the
very features which, it is understood, he was commissioned not to
reproduce ?

After several months' work the reconstructed building is now
finished architecturally ; we were about to say " completed ;" but
that it can never be to the end of time. In mathematics two halves
may make a whole, but in architecture they do not necessarily ;
and in the example io question most decidedly they do not. The
old building, it will be remembeied, was scarcely more than a
series of not very wide pilasters, the spaces between being
fliled in with stone transoms. To minimise the extreme
" verticalness" of a scheme like this extending upwards nine
or ten stories the architect in making his horizontal divisions
not only employed very heavy coruices and band coiuses, but
as far as possible broke up the vertical lines of his pilasters by equi¬
distant bandings of stone and rectangular panels. Even iu the two
lowest stories, which are the basement of the ^building, the granite
is heavily rusticated for the same purpose. The controlling idea in
the design is to lessen, as far as possible, the apparent height of the
building. In this case an excellent idea surely, but excellent or
not, palpably one which an architect called in to add four stories to
six already standing could not with an easy artistic conscience
ignore. Yet ignore it the architect of the reconstruction did;
ignore it, moreover, he did in as complete a manner as it is possible
for material to permit, so that one is inclined to think that he
deliberately made his design out of all relation to the old building.
Indeed, the only obvious correspondence between his work
and his predecessor's is the correspondence of pier lines,
which, as necessitated by imperative structural require¬
ments could not well bo avoided. Everywhere else, how¬
ever, the architect has gone ahead in a particularly free-handed
manner. The end piers on the Dey street front, which in the old
part of the buildiog are in two planes, in the new part above are in
one. In the addition the few horizontal Hues are attenuated, and
if " verticalness " is not accentuated absolutely as far as possible,
surely nothing is done to lessen it. The stone courses of the old
piers are omitted, terra cotta of nearly the same shade of red as the
brick is used instead of granite for trimmings, semi-circular arches
are employed instead of the segmental ones and the lintels below,
the new pilaster caps are ornamented differently from those in the
old part, and even the windows above tbeseventhstory aredivjded
into three lights instead of two as iu all tbe others. One is at a loss
whether to regard the piece of work as a freak or the most
notable of those hybrid monstrosities which the conjunction of
strong commercial instincts with weaker artistic ones procuce so
prolifically in New York. But a freak it must be, for though the
Western Union Company would have good reason, after a disastrous
flre, to determine to rebuild inonly the most certain fire-proof mater¬
ial, itis difficult to understand that thoy can have ao determined,
for they are constructing their new building on Dey street of stone
as well as of brick—the very materials which, from an artistic
point of view, should have been used in the stories added to the
old building.   Besides, even if his clients did insist upon the use of