March 19, 1910





RECORD  AND  GUIDE





585







.KTABDSHED ^ M.M^'H SVY^ 186 8.

.tofeiED 10 Rem E:sTAjE.,BiJiLoifJG ^gKitecturh .KouseKold Deqqe^timI.
Bifsirfcss A»to Themes OF GEflER^L Interest .,

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Communications should be addressed to                  '

C. W. SWEET

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By THE RECORD AJSD GXJIDE CO.

President, CLINTON W.  SWEET      '                  Treasurer, F. W. DODGE

VlCB-Pres, Sc Genl. Mgr., H. W. DESMOND         Secretary, F. T. MILLER

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Guide




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Vol.  LXXXV-.




MARCH   10,




1910-



















No,




2192





THB real estate market has during the past two weeks
been perceptibly gaining both in the volume and in
the variety ol" current activity. The investment demand for
improved property has continued. The number of purchases
of lots for improvement with loft huildings have augmented.
Building projects of all kinds are multiplying in number.
Many sales of property are taking place in the downtown
business district. Private residences appear to be in fair
demand—a demand wbich is undoubtedly Increased because
of the large number of mid-town brownstone dwellings
which are being sold to builders. But perhaps the most
interesting single characteristic of the real estate situation
in Manhattan continues to be the continued popularity of
co-operative apartment house enterprises. Only a couple of
these schemes have been deflnitely announced this spring;
but there are fully a dozen of them In the stage of prepara¬
tion and many of these will undoubtedly develop. Buyers
have not been discouraged by the fact that certain of the
co-operative buildings already erected have not proved to be
brilliant successes; aud they are right in assuming this
attitude, because the best buildings recently erected are
often a decided improvement on the earlier ones both in
economy of plan and in the conservatism of financial ar¬
rangements- The contemporary plans have abandoned the
earlier studio idea entirely and have saved a good deal of
space thereby. They contain a much greater variety of
apartments, and can accommodate, consequently, families
of very varying means. There is a tendency also to increase
the cost of an apartment to the stockholders iu the begin¬
ning, and in this way to reduce the proposition of borrowed
money. In certain buUdings the average apartment sells for
as much as $30,000; but in that case there is a very small
chance of any subsequent assessment. The most popular
locations for these buildiugs are broad thoroughfares, like
Central Park West and Park avenue, because on such sites
buildings can be erected 150 feet high. So far as the East
Side is concerned the ultimate effect of this movement on the
value of residential real estate has been to Increase the
price of avenue as compared to street lots—excepting those
forming part of a corner. The co-operative apartment houses
have to be erected on the avenues or wide streets, and the
diversion of this demand away from the narrow streets has
kept Bast Side residential property in a stationary condition.





TO one who has followed the vicissitudes of the project
for building a new County Court House, the opposition
which has suddenly been aroused against the latest site is
not surprising. It seems impossible to find a site in the
borough of Manhattan that the county can afford to buy, aud
which is acceptable to a sufficiently large element of inter¬
ested public opinion. The first idea was merely to extend
the existing building; but that provoked so much hostility
that it was immediately abandoned. Then a commission
was appointed, and it successively recommended four dif¬
ferent sites. The first in the neighborhood of Mulberry Bend
Park was rejected because of the mean character of the
surroundings. The second in the vicinity of Broadway and
Chambers street was discovered to cost too much. A simi¬
lar objection was made to the third on Union Square. Then
the committee selected a cheaper site in Washington Square;
but the lawyers would not consider it on account of its
inconvenience. Under the new administration a new start
was made and the decision adopted to occupy an enlargea





site in City Hall Park, P'or a while this project met with
an extraordinary amount of acquiescence; but obviously
acquiescence was not tantamount to approval- The inevi¬
table opposition arose; and it has come from very respectable
sources. First, tlie local chapter of the American Institute
of Architects protested against any further occupation of
the Park and against the erection of such a huge building
near the City Hall. This lead has been followed by the
City Club aud the Bar Association. The protest may not be
sufficient to prevent the adoption of the proposed site; but
if the report of the commission is to be accepted by the
Board of Estimate it must be done quickly. The opposi¬
tion is growing, and if it is allowed to keep oh growing it
wil! soon become irresistible.





This  is  tlie forty-second  anniversary  of  tlic  Record  and
Guide.





ASSUREDLY many grave objections can be urged against
the occupation of THE WHOLE NORTHERLY END
of City Hall Park, as some propose, for the new Court House.
In the lirst place, the new building would make the City Hail
look insignificant, aud would diminish the size of one of the
most useful little parks in Manhattan. Prom the point of
view of architectural propriety, we are inclined to accept
Mr. Ernest Plagg's opinion, that if the Park has to be appro¬
priated it would be better to leave the Court House as it
is and erect two skyscrapers on the two corners of the north
end of the Park. This would have the advantage of not in
any way injuring the architectural eifect of the City Hall;
and it would, also, have the advantage of economy. The
courts would not lose the service of the existing Court House
and would not be obliged to rent courtrooms during the
several years required for the erection of the new structure.
Inasmuch as the whole project has been adopted chiefly on
the grounds of economy, the saving of some additioual mil¬
lions of dollars should appeal to the Board of Estimate.
Better still, however, w-ould be the plan of buying the prop¬
erty between the Hall of Records and Broadway, and of
erecting a building on that site, as high as Is necessary for
the accommodation of all the courts. This site has never
been considered large enough in the past, because the idea
was to erect a court house thereon similar in size and design
to the Hall of Records. But if the city is obliged to econo¬
mize upon the site, it is certainly better to take the economy
out in the erection of a skyscraper as high as necessary,
as the new municipal office building. Considering the saving
which would result from the survival of the existing Court
House, this plan would not be much more expensive than
the one adopted by the commission; and it would have the
great advantage, of protecting the City Hall and its Park
from increasing insignificance- The housing of the county
law courts in a skyscraper may be a shock to the conven¬
tional idea of a court house, but there is no reason why the
legal decisions which issue from a skyscraper may not be as
sound as the legal decisions which are promulgated from
beneath a columned portico. The plain fact is that the
county of New York, such as it is, IS NOT RICH' ENOUGH
to erect a low building on land which costs $250 a square
foot and over.





AN ARTICLE on "High Prices and the Cost of Living"
in a recent number of the Outlook by Mr. Prank
Greene gives a great deal of valuable information about this
important matter in a very brief space- He shows that the
advance in prices since 1896 in farm products has varied
from 50 per cent- in the case of live sheep to 216 per cent,
jn the case of eggs, 202 per cent, in the case of bacon, and
201 per cent, in the case of lard. Manufactured goods on
the other hand, have increased on the average about fifty per
cent, in price, while certain articles of considerable domestic
and industrial importance, such as coffee, tea, sugar, raw
silk, nails, steel beams and tin plates have all diminished in
price. Mr. Greene's short analysis of the cause of the in¬
creases in price is as useful as his facts. His opinion is that
demand and supply have more to do with high prices than
any financial cause, such as the increased gold supply or
bank circulation. The fundamental reason for the most
burdensome menaces in prices is the fact that the" great
cheapening processes witnessed from 1S70 to 1900 as a
result of the opening of the West have culminated, and that
is an apparent vacuum to be filled either by tbe opening of
new lands or by the re-entry of the farms of the East into
the fleld of production. He also attributes a great deal of
importance to the high rates of municipal taxation, and the