November 23, 1907





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By THB RECORD AND GUIDE CO.

President,  CLINTON  W.  SWEBT                     Treasurer,  P.  W. DQDGB

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Copyrighted,




1S07,   by




The




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Guide  Co.















Vol.




LXXX.









NÔVÉMBER




23,




1907.









No.




2071,





New

Forms of.
Building





INDBX  TO   DEPARTMENTS.

Advertising  Section.

Page.                                              Paga.

Cement   .......................xvi Lumber   .....................xvii

Clay Products   ................xiii  Machinery   ..................xiv

Consulting Engineers   .........xv Metal  Work   ...................xii

ContrfLCtors    and   Builders.....iv  Quick   Job    Directory..........x\

Electrical   Interests   ...........xv Real   Estate    ..................vii

Fireprooflug   ..................xi Roofers & Rooflng Materials.xviii

Granite   ....................xix Stone    .....................xviii

IroB   and   Steel................vi Wood   Products   ...........:,.xvii





IT IS STATED that the committee oí the
Building Code Commissioti which is for-
miilating tlie regulations limiting the
Jieights of buiĩdiugs has somewhat modi-
fled jts recently reported provision, and
that it now contemplates "a progressive
reductĩon" in the area of each story of a hotel or office build-
ing for all stories above a two hundred-foot height. The
other portions of the section, providing that other buildings
shall not be erected over one hundred and flfty'feet ín height,
etc, remain about as first drafted. Why "other" buildings
should not enjoy the same privilege as hotels and ofRce build-
îngs is not altogetber apparent, for the latter are rather
more in need of restriction than the former, and it really
seems useless to provide against dweĩlings, theaters, waré-
houses auá factorĩes being built over twelve stories high. A
regulation, however, not setting a deflnite height lîmit, but
actually limiting by the-worlting out of its provisions, seema
a happy expedĩent, íor such a restriction is much less likely
to meet with serious opposition. The pyramidal form will,
moreover, cnrtail but littie the light and air whieh are so
valuable in lower Manhattan, and will undoubtedly result in
pleasiug architectural effects in the way of towers and steep
mansard roofs, such as contribute so largely to the beauty of
structures like the West Street building and the Washington
Life. But it seems as if this new regulation loses sight en-
tirely of a fundamental upon which it should be based, name-
ly, that the proper height for a building shou'ld be some
portion of the wîdth of the street upon which it faees, if the
considerations of light and air and tbe capacity of the streets
be observed. A twenty-story buiiding on Broadway may not
he improper, while it would be highly so on Nassau street.
Again, this regulation should make the ateppĩng-back particu-
larly apply to the street front, else much of its value will be
lost. The Building Codé Commission has very wisely granted
the public the privilege of expressing their views at public
hearings reĩative to needed changes iu the old code, and it is
to be hoped that the public may again have a like opportunity
to be heard when the commissioners have drafted su<;h new
provisions as they will suggest to the Board of Aldermen.





REALTY AND BUILDING interests, both
iu Manhattan and the Bronx, are taking
new courage from an assurance that the
Public Service Commissioners are seriously
preparing "to give their attention" to
these sections of the tri-borough transit
system, and for our own part we attach more importance to
the announcement than to any previous promise of subway
extension in several years, believing the eommissioners are
fully resoĩved to preserve the baĩance between the boroughs.







At the time when the deeision was made to -build on the
Fourth  avenire  route  in  Brooklyn  it  seemed that  the  door
had been closed against the possibility of financing any simi-
lar undertaking in Manhattan and the Bronx £or a period oE
years, but recently there have been intimations tiiat when the
tax  vaVues  are  again  computed  they  will   diselose  that  the
borrowing capacily has beeu enlarged suíflciently to warrant
the  eity incurring  obligations for the  construction  of addi-
tional   lines  immediately,     This   assurance  being  strong,   it
has tended to allay mueh opposition in Manhattan and the
Bronx to the authorization of the Brooklyn work.    Whiîe it
is assumed that it is the particular duty and busîness of the
Commission to build on all the subway routes that have been
legally adopted as speedily as it is possible to make flnancial
arrangements for them, an oíReial utterance more definite in
respect to time and plaee would be appropriate at this junc-
ture, seeing that there have been so many disappointments
in the past, aud thal: so much is at stake.    The opening of a
subway  extension  through  South  Brooklyn  and  Bay  Ridge
to   Fort  Hamiltoh  and   Coney   Island,   making  the   cheaper
houaes and lands of at least some of these seetions more
accessible in point of time from the City Hall than are parts
of the Bronx and even o£ Manhattan, would be a blow so
severe  to   property  interests  here,   if  it   were   not   counter-
balanced  by  the  opening  of  a  similar  line  in  the  opposite
direction, that we cannot conceive of the Commission work-
ing such an injustice, and it would be no more than fair to
have the  Manhattan and  Bronx sections  of the tri-borough
system seleeted and advaneed to the same stage as the Fourth
avenue route  in  Brooklyn  before  any  construction  contract
is signed.    An even-handed poliey like this on the part of the
Publie  Service   Commissĩonecs   would  be  suflicĩent  of  itseĩf
aĩmost to restore good times in New York.    None would note
it witii more appreciation than the countleas number of de-
serving people who have attested their faith in the city by
investing in real estate which depends for its developraent
upon fair treatment £rom the transit commissioners.





Street
and Park

Openings





IN A RECBNT PROCEEDING for opening
a small park the expense o£ acquiring the
land, which was assessed at $4,300,
reached the sum of ?336,bO0. It is the
practĩce to plaee upon the city all the cost
of opening parks, half the cost of publie
■places and a portion of the expense of opening streets ex-
ceeding sixty feet in width. From tables exhibited this week
before the Board of Estimate it appears that during the last
five years relief has been extended, in the cases of streets.
over sixty feet wide, in lííl proceedings, and that in 19 pro-
ceedinga the whole eost of street openings has been plaeed
upon the city. The number of park openings (all the cost
assumed by the oity) has been 35, and the number of public-
place openings (one-haK the cost placed on the city) has
been nine. The resulting addition to the bonded debt is esti-
mated by the Board's engineera at forty million dollars, more
than half of which is chargeable to park openings. The cer-
tain consoquencos of continuing a policy so liberal com-
pose a problera that gives the Board of Estimate much con-
cern. Formerly all public improvements were assumed to
earry a local benefit. Thus, about thirty-two per cent. of the
cost of aequiring title to Central Park waa levied upon the
property beneflted; and ît was all collected in one înstall-
ment. The Chief Bngineer for the Board of Estimate, Mr.
Neison P. Lewis, holding the view that the whole question
of assessment for benefit cau be redueed to a scientiflc basis,
has raised the question as to the wisdom of continuing the
policy of the past flve years, and whether it would not be
better to assess the whole cost of proceedíngs for the acquisi-
tion of title to streets, parks aad boulevards uĩjon the prop-
erty beneflted, in so far as benefit ean be established. Vir-
tually this wouĩd be a return to the basis of assessment in
vogue previous to July 25, 1902, with this exception, tbat it
was customary to grant relief, after laying the assessment,
whereas now the Board probably would flx a maximum bene-
fit to be allowed, and formulate a rule for determining the
proportion of general benefit in park proceedings, An ob-
vious consequence of the change, with a strict adherence to
the new principles, would be fewer petitions for large im-
provements, also, a more careful scrutiny on the part of tax-
payers of the bil! of costa in condenination proceedings, and,
in brief, a saving to the city at large. Tbe general prop-
osition seems to commend itself at this time of flnancial
stress, especially as it could be discontinued or modified at
any time should it be found to work a real hardship in any
particular.





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