October 26, 1907





RECORD   AND   GTJIDE





651"







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Communications  shotild be addressed to

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By THB RECORD AND GTĨTDB CO.

Preaidect,   CLINTON  W.   SWEET                     Treasurer,  F. W.  DODGE

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(Telepbone,   Madison  Square, 4430 to 44.'Î3.)

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Copyrighted,   1907,   by  The  Becord   &  Gnide  Co.





Vol.  LXXX.





OCTOBER 26.  1907.





Nû. 2067.





INDEX TO DEPARTMBNTS.
Advertising  Section.

Page.                                              Page.

Cement   ......................svi Lumber    ......................\x

Clay   Products   ...............xvii Machinery.....................vi

Consulting   Engjneers    ........xv Metal    Work...................xiv

Contractors   and   Buiiders   ....iv Quick Job Directory  ..........xx.

Eiectrical   Interests   ...........viĩ  Real   Estate   ..................ix

Fireprooflng   ....................il Roofers & Rooíĩug Materials. .vii

Granite   .....................xviil  Stone   .......................xviii

Iron   and   Steel   ..............viii Wood   Producta   ..............xxi





Real Estate

and

Wall Street





THOSE  WHO  ARE  interested  in  the  vast





real estate interests of New York, owners,
jnvestors, speculators and brokers, are
asking, "Wliat ■will be the i-esult of the
serious financial disturbances tiiat have
occurred during the past 'week?" Con-
servative judgnient is conviuced that the outcome cannot be
otherwise than beneficial. The country has long been and
wilĩ continue to be on a sound business basis. While wide-
spread prosperity has inûuced in some directions an over-
expansion of development, there is a solid basis of legiti-
mate busîness and cori-espondiiig profîts that makes the
country as "sound as a dollar." Hence it was never bet-
ter able to withstand and recover from a temporary and lo-
cal disturbance. Had this ûisarrangement been due to a
deep-seated naticnal condition at large, a "panie" far reach-
ing and of long duration would have resulted. As a mat-
ter of fact our troubles, if not largely local, are at worst,
reparable. The house-cleaning that has resulted in whole-
sale changes in trust company directorates no doubt has
produced temporary alarm, but it must brĩng about a sounder
business conduct of affairs and with that a renewaĩ and even
an inerease of popular confidence.

ALL THIS MUST RESULT in the better-
ment of the real estate field. The public
has received a warning of the results of
"wild cat" financiering, and even if there
has been a heavy withdrawal of deposits
a portion of it at ĩeast will be placed in
solid real estate. The trust companies whose funds have
been devoted to unwĩse schemes, will seek investment in
desirable real estate loans. The real estate market as a
result will improve in all its branches and the "Wall Strect
Panic" wiJI come to be regarded as a blessing in disguiee,
to owners of and dealers in Nev/ York real estate. Mort-
gage money will be hereaíter easier to procure in quarters
where it has been selfishly ,held for private schemes for the
profit of designing directors.







Regulations

that

Conflíct





BUILDING OPERATIONS ín this city are
subject to the regulations and actions of
a number of municipal departments, and
the pressure of administrative control is
rapidly increasing, until it almost seems
that the day may arríve when every brick
and trowel full oi; mortar wiU have to be duly inspected and
regimented into position by half a dozen departments. We
havG nothing to say against the proper supervision of build-
ing operations. We do believe, however, that some objec-
tion may rightly be made to the vast multitude of legal re-
quirements, often în a way eonfiicting, that are imposeeĩ upon
^the builder and owner by separated and independent bu-
reaus.    We cannot go much further without throwîng build-







ing operations into a state of confusion. An attempt to har-
monize more or less conflicting regulatlons is necessary. All
laws that affect building ĩn this city should be codified or
unified. The ínterpr'etation and administration o£ these
laws should be assigned to, or at least controlled by, some
single adminîstrative centre. A new building law is now
under consideration, and a commission was recently ap-
pointed to revise the charter o£ Greater New York; hereiu
lies an opportunity that should not be mlssed by the archi-
tects, builders and owners of this clty. A commíttee of
responsible men should be appointed to propose an adequate
piece of machinery that, while it protects the public inter-
ests, will facilitate and simplify the transactlon of building.

TENTATIVE PROVISIONS nearer the
limits of reasonableness have aueeeeded
others of an extreme nature in the com-
mittee on height and area o£ buildings o£
the commission charged with the work of
preparing and reporting a revised build-
ing code. Substautially this commission is the Aldermanic
Committee on Buildings aided by the borough presidents
and superintendents o£ buildings, and also by a committee
o£ expert architects and buiiders. Real property interests
being not otherwise particularly represented, they are all
the more anxious concerning the changes which may be sug-
gested. ÍWost important of the possibilities from the com-
mĩssion are, first, a limit to building height; seeond, a limit
to building area; third, stricter regulations pertaining to
building materials, and fourth, a further extension o£ the
limits wiLhin whieh houses and other buildings of wood may
not be erected. All these may afCect the value of real es-
tate, either by limiting the income which it is possible to
derive from it, or by increasing the cost of building per
eubie foot. The underwriters, always representing the most
extreme provisions for safe construction, recommended at a
public hearing that the height of fireproof ofiice buildings
should be reatricted to one hundred and twenty-five feet
and to an area o£ twenty or thirty thousand square feet,
but that the height of non-fireproo£ and non-sprinkled mer-
cantile and manulacturing buildings ought not to exceed five
stories or fifty-five feet and an area of five thousand square
l'eet. It is now reported that the committee has resolved to
report to the main body a provision setting the limit £or
fireproof oflĩce buildings at two hundred and flfty £eet in
beight. This is within two feet of the altitude of the New
Plaza Hotel, it is five feet short of the top of the Commer-
cial Cable Building in Eroad Street, a hundred feet shorter
than the Times Building and fifty-eight feet less than the
Trinity Building. The desirabiiity o£ limiting the height
of buildings has been pretty generally admitted, but the
practieability of so doing has been questioned, for it is
realized that property interests are sufliciently powerful to
bring about the repeal of a law unnecessarily radical, truly
oppressive or destructĩve of values, There must be a rea-
sonable mean between the unrestraîned eommereial spirit
that would run structures a thousand feet skyward and
cover every city block to the limit, and that other kind of
commercialism, quite as Ineonsiderate in its way, wliich
would take no aecount of real estate values and prevent
owners from obtaining a legitíraate income from theĩr ĩn-
vestments. There must be in the view of many serious ob-
servers of the trend of circumstances a reasonable limit
somewhere to building bulk, or the streets of New York will
become so congested as to make life a burden for future
millions. Better spread the busĩness populatlon over a larger
area than try to heap it layer upon layer upon a small sur-
face. Granting that there must be a limitation to height,
many will incline to the opinion that a very fair line of de-
markation has been chosen.





Developiog

the

Bronx





THE BRONX 13 FARING WELL ĩn the
way of securing addltional streets. Fully
one-half of the thoroughfares to be opened
through the eftorts of the numerous com-
missions are sĩtuated across the Harlem
River. Proceedings for the opening of
more than a score were formally instituted by the Corpor-
ation Counsel on Tuesday. It is interesting to note that
these are the flrst proceedings begun within about a year.
Many of the old commissions are still taking testimony,
though their work is fast drawing to a close. Quite wlsely,
perhaps, a large number of those selected to serve on the
new commissions are members of the legal profession, and