Suppiement to ihe R,-cnrd and Guide, Ju'y sS,  igoo.





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ONE of the natural, though at the same time surprising,
results that have grown out of the building boom that
the steel-construction high-building created, is the ap¬
pearance of the na'ional as listinct from the local
builder. Until within a comparatively recent period the practice
was to employ a local architect and local contractors and sub¬
contractors. This applied almost invariably to the early high
buildings in this and other cities. The architect was the first
to break away from this practice and to compete with local
architects for plans, hut the contractor was still more than
likely to be a local man.

Once the architect got away from home and made the ac¬
quaintance of the contractors in other places, it followed that
there would be a movement that would make the contractor as





whose members are prepared to undertake the construction of
any building, no matter how extensive or in what part of the
country the site may be located. It is hardly necessary to point
out that the owner benefits from the fact that his choice is no
longer confined to the local contractor whose experience, plant,
force and means were limited in the sense applying to such
things now, though they may have been extensive for their
time.

Among the still small list of these great national architectural
contractors, the name most familiar to New Yorkers is the
George A, Puller Company, which indeed stands at the head of
the list, and in every respect is typical of the best response to the
needs of the colossal industry that construction has become
through the iiinovaticn of ori.ginal methods of developing urban







GROUP  OF"  BUILDINGS  ON  MICHIGAN  AVENUE,   CHICAGO,  ILL.
Constructed  by   tbe   George  A.   Fuller   Co,.   Builders.





pervasive as the architect. This was assisted also by the move¬
ments of capital that desiring to participate in the profits of a
new system of building, amounting almost to a revolution, and
not always being able to secure a suitable opening at home
sought other desirable fields. Capital named the architect and
experience in one case, in a large measure, determined ttie con¬
tractor for another.

It became a fact, too, that the field opened by steel construction
for the more profitable employment of land was so wide, and
offered such attractive opportunities for money-making that
large capital has come into the building business, so that new
records have been established in that respect also; that is to say,
that the contractor of twenty years ago offers no comparison
to the contractor of to-day in either means, extent of plant or
force, or of experience in the many difTicult problems that the
work of construction now presents. Even the building of the
Pacific railroads, probably the largest individual work that could
be cited, affords no parallel to this case, because they were more
often than not the work of cOTistruction companies whose owner-
s"np v.'as more or less widely distributed.

It has come to pass, then, that there is no select class of archi¬
tectural contractors, which may be properly called national, and





realty resources. This company was incorporated only ten years
ago, but has in thi interval carried out contracts to the amount of
over $00,000,000, and has this year alone work in hand repre¬
senting an expenditure in round figures of $12,000,000. These
figures are certainly representative of a colossal industry and,
in their extent, of up-to-date development. It would be impos¬
sible to find such another record in the archives of the old-time
contract firms, even of those that lead the building movement*
of their day.

1 he George A, Fuller Company began their life in Chicago, and
the secret of their success is in having at their head the gentle¬
man for whom the company is named, who, previous to organi¬
zation, had had a large experience as a contractor and builder,
and who had the capacity to gauge the needs of the times and
the means to supply them. The success of the company was
rapid. They built most of the new high buildings in Chicagc
and, spreading out, secured contracts in all the important cities
east of that point. Three years ago they found it desirable to
move their headquarters to New York, where they have carried
out numerous contracts with such success that they may be
called the leading contract builders of the metropolis, and at the
moment   have   underway   the   construction   of   the   largest   office





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