D   BUILDERS'   GUIDE





Vol. X.                      NEW YOEK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1872.                        No. 243.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE EECORD ASSOCIATION.

TERMS.

One year, in advance.................,....®6 GO

All communications should be addressed to

7 AND 9 WARBEN STBKET.





No receipt for money due the READ ESTATE RECORD
will be acknowledged unless signed by one of our regular
ooUectors. HENRY D. SMITH or THOMAS F. CuiQirNGS.
All bills for coUection wUl be sent from the office on a regu¬
larly printed form.





OFFICE OF THE NEW YOKKEE STAATS-

zeitung!





The press of New York seems determined
not to be left iDehind in the race of architectural
improvement in this city. While otir banks,
insurance companies, large mercantile houses
and others have found it necessary to make
their outward showing commensurate with the
growth of their prosperity, by the erection of
costly and imposing structures, some of our
leading newspapers have felt justified in doing
the same. The New Tork Times set the exam¬
ple, followed a few years after by the Herald,
but neither of these efforts—in proportion at
least to their pretension and costliness—can be
called anything like architectural successes.
The first, although forming altogether a jum¬
bled conglomerate of building, possesses som'e
few points of excellence, but the Herald build¬
ing, on the contrary, which might and ought to
have been one of the most imposing structures
in the city—considering the magnificent location
and many other unusual facilities at the dis¬
posal of the architect—is, from the very misuse
of such opportunities, one of our most painful
architectural failures. It was left to the pro¬
prietor of the JVeio Yorker Staats-ZeitU7ig to set
the example of erecting a building really worthy
of the press of this great metropolis.

The new building of this establishment is
now approaching completion on the gore or ir¬
regular piece of ground formed by the junction
of Tryon "row, Chatham and Centre, streets,
and looms up as quite an important feature in
that very prominent parb of the city. It has a
frontage of 50 feet on Chatham street, 97 feet
on Tryon row, and 63 feet on Centre street;
forming a combined frontage of 209 feet. It is
four stories, independent of basement and cel¬
lar, and is crowned by a lofty and well-propor¬
tioned Mansart roof with dormer windows.
The first story is 20 feet in height, the second
story 17 feet, the third 15 feet 6 inches, and the
fourth 15 feet; the Mansart roof being 18 feet
in the cle^r! .The" cellar and basement to that
half of the building adjoining Tryon row and
Chatham street will be occupied by the press¬
rooms, furnaces, heaters and other" working





machinery of the establishment, while the '•
same portion of the first story, immediately
above, wUl form the grand office of the Staats-
Zeitung, which -vviU be by far the largest and
most beautiful newspaper of&ce yet seen in New
York, In the fourth story will be located the
editorial rooms, and the whole of the Mansart
floor will be employed for compositors. The
remainder of the rooms throughout will be used
for general offices • those on the first floor being
intended for banks, insurance offices, and simi¬
lar institutions. The whole building has been
constructed fire-proof, in the most, solid man¬
ner, and will be furnished when completed with
an elevator and all the best-known modem im¬
provements, in the most tasteful style.

The front of the building, while having no
extraordinary pretension to architectural gran¬
deur, produces nevertheless—from its size and
location, combined with tasteful and judicious
treatment—a very grand and harmonious effect.
It is one of those structures which please by
their very simplicity, and by the manifest adap¬
tation of aU the parts to the end desired,—
which is the groundwork of all good design.
The plot was an unusually difficult one to treat,
owing to its awkward and peculiar shape.   The
divergence of the sides on both Centre and
Chatham   streets from the Tryon  row front,
forming two very obtuse angles,  could have
been managed in no other way to produce so
good an effect as the architect has achieved by
rounding the two corners, which he has done
very skilfully.   He has thereby produced a fine
result, making of them two striking angular
frontispieces; the one at the junction of Tryon
row and Chatham street being the grand en¬
trance to the Zeitung office.    In the centre of
the Tryon row fagade is another bold projec¬
tion, and one at each termination of the build¬
ing on Centre and Chatham streets, forming al¬
together a very symmetrical composition.    To
the Tryon row projection is added a two-story
portico, tbe lower part Ionic and the upper one
Corinthian, surmounted  by two fine life-size
bronze statues, representing the heroes of print¬
ing in G-ermany and America—G-uttenberg and
EranMin.    The style of the frontage is what
may be called classical Italian, better known
perhaps by the comprehensive term of PaUadian;
with attached columns and pilasters separating
arched windows on the various floors.    On the
first floor the arches are semicircular and rusti¬
cated, on the second and third floors segmental,
and on the fourth floor agaia  semicircular;
producing a pleasing and varied effect.    This
effecb is considerably heightened by the excel¬
lent material employed;   Quiacy blue granite
being used for the rusticated first story, and the
gray granite of Concord, N, H,, for aU the re¬
maining portions.    The openings are aU ele¬
gantly proportioned, aaid their deep axigles and





recesses produce that solid and substantial ap¬
pearance without which, the best-designed front
invariably displeases, by looking shallow and
ephemeral. The building was commenced in
August, 1871, from the design and under the
superintendence of Mr. Henry Fernbach, Ar¬
chitect, and is not expected to be totally finish¬
ed until about the 1st of May, 1873.





BICKNELL'S VILLAGE BUILDER.

So many excellent works have of late years
been published upon the art and science of
building and architecture that it can only be
from lack of proper study, on the part of those
intending to build, if we do not soon reach the
time when every man can be his own architect.
The truth of the poet's saying is doubtless aa
often realized in this case, as in many others,
that "a little learning is a dangerous thing,"
and many a daring experimenter in house-build¬
ing has had cause to regret, when his fine con¬
ceptions were practically carried out, that he
had not saved his time, money and patience, by
going in the first instance to some experienced
architect, instead of trusting to his own crude
fancies gleaned out of architectural books. At
the same time there are many elementary works,
full of rich suggestions and de.signs, which are
extremely useful not only to the inexperienced
proprietor in search of something to grati£y his
taste in building, but also to the practical
builder and young architect. Such a work is
"Bicknell's Village Builder," a work replete
-with designs, enlarged details and specifications,
for country-houses and villas of every style and
description, churches, farm-houses, bams, etc.
The designs are in general adapted to those of
moderate means who contemplate building, but
there are also many to meet cases of a costlier
and more pretentious character. The designs
are supplied by architects of considerable emi¬
nence in their profession, and the plates exe¬
cuted -with great care and beauty.





LIFE IKSTJEAITCE AGAIN.

The impression is gaining ground among
former believers that Life Insurance is rotten
from end to end, and that tbe only persons
who will make anytMng by the present system
will be those who have the good luck to die
during the next ten years. Persons with a
reasonable amount of vitality, who expect to
reach, their threescore and ten, will find that
they have been paying their thousands of dollars
merely for the purpose of putting money into
the pockets of a set of irresponsible scamps
who have gotten up these iogenious schemes
for tbeir own personal benefit.

The business itself is misleading and decep¬
tive. The premiums flow in, and the profits
are. made during the first few years of the