.2
The Record and Guide.
January. 5, 1884
The sales at the Exchange for the past two years were as follows
1889......................................................... $a6,4a'V53
18B1................................... -................. $i3,i;93,519
The following gives a comparison by montbss ot the building
plans filed during the past two years:
-1883.-
No. b'Id'gs.
January.......................... ri~
February......................... 168
March.............................. 353
Ap'il................................ 3 3
May ............................ 33S
Jima............................... 235
July .......................... 170
Aueust............................. 185
SpptPmber.......................... 309
October......................... 283
November......................... 161
December.......................... 91
Total........................... 2,561
First three months................. 548
First si.f months.................. 1.361
Last sismonths.................. 1.197
Cost.
81.749.C85
2.34i,65l)
.3.800.110
6.015,375
8 9l7,3iO
8,016,875
3,437,500
3.-401.417
8,6'3.671
5.020,736
2.077,5(10
1,596.535
$14.79-?. !86
$7.89:1645
26,44 t,H5
17,350,011
No. b'l 'es.
180
169
838
163
250
283
241
185
175
183
156
19i
-1883-----------,
Cost.
B4.06M.075
S,741.8-J5
.5.364.5011
4,103,2«
4 870,747
5.1-I7.3i0
4.075.601 P
2,046.500
8,310.10V
S,hT9.5*3
1,770 3311
3,481,880
3,62.S $13.-59,058
'87
1.482
1,141
$ia.77Mro
26.8^5,619
lli.851,0 9
The following table gives the buildinfjs projected for the last
three years, divided into several districts:
1881. 1883. 1883.
No. ofpTans.............................. 1.347 1,'On 1.450
No. of buildings nroiected ................ 2..586 S.-'ifil 2,6^3
EsLnnated cost ......................... $43,239,945 $14,753,186 813,859,b5fl
No.snnthor 14th st....................... E28 28S 220
Cost ...........â– ......................... $8,104,370 $3,877,610 $8,455,"89
No.beU4thand 59thsts................... 497 430 534
Cost............................... $13,13$,1':5 $13,313,716 $13,657,480
No. Iiet59th and 135th sts, eaat of Sth av... 5,166 954 819
Cost................................ $16,374,7.10 $14,990,-375 $13,751,017
No.bet59thandl35thsts. westoE8thav... ISO 177 183
Cost............................ $a,C35.400 $3,159,100 $3,398,075
No, hpt 110th and ia5th sts, 5th and 8th avs. 71 23 39
Cost .................................. $958,300 $i01,1.50 $643,000
No. north of 135tb st ....................... 265 349 355
Cost................................ $2,022.3 0 $4,464 62! $',523,350
No. P3d and 24th Wards.................... 28S 343 4'^
Cost................................... $1,052,995 $1,409,913 $1,438,967
From the above figures it will be noticed that although last year,
as a whole, compares very well with the previous year, yet the last
six months of 1883 shows a decided falling off. The year we have
just entered upon does not promise to make a good comparison
â– with either 1883 or 1883. The following estimated classified
table is also interesting:
DescripMon. No.
PwfI1ine-t over SSO.OOO ................ SO
DweiliDgs. $:o,'on til S^O.^'O .......,..... 88
Dwellings 'imier $30,000................ 4T7
Flats over Sl.=;.n09 ................. ft77
Tcnenipnta undpr $15,000 ............ 601
H-itels and hoarding houses............ 8
S'or-'S, 1st eiiisa........................ 40
Stores, 3ii class .......................... 31
Slnres. 3d Hass......................... 50
''ffic'e buildiiiES......................... 25
137
4
17
8
12
—1883.-
Cnst.
$3,030,000
£..S71,000
4.705.743
17,164.1110
8.100.100
553,000
3,619,500
610.350
196, "50
1.40H.645
1,968.010
161.000
5fi!.fl00
290,1X10
410,77S
936.-'!.^0
703.663
No.
15
118
3fi6
3'4
953
6
36
37
83
28
140
6
13
7
15
R9
535
-1883^
Cost.
gi.oovnno
2.5^6,00(1
4.040,f5'!
10,710,30'
ia,2S1.700
810.000
1 7.-.9,000
419,9''9
1S4,3'.0
3,rtl3.R75
l.OnO.^'Sf
4W.0 0
S39.00r
587. KSO
711,300
f>S5.(ii:f.
1,731.713
FiffonVsand workshops.......
Soho'il houses...................
niiiirchps......................
Miiniciool buildiuKs..........
Pines of amusement...........
St.abli's .............................. 1-SO
Frame buildings....................... . 262
Total((.................................2,577 44.793,186 2,748 43,214,:i46
The plans for alterations to old structures filed during 1883 repre¬
sent an aggregate in cost of ^4,540,885, against $4,267,181 for the
previous year.
For the purpose of showing the rapid growth of the city, as repre¬
sented yearly in the plan& fil^d, the following figures for the last
ten years are given. These relate only to the estimated cost of new
buildings in the years named :
Year. EstimatPd cost. I
1874...........................$!6.6G7.114
1875........................ JR.2!6.ir'M
1876 .......................... I5.nnn,SaO I
1877......................... 13.-365,114 '
1878........................ 15,319,680
Total ten years ....................................................$363,404,450
A city paper argues that the actual cost of houses is much larger
than the estimates, and therefore that the ofBcial figures are mis
leading. Now, it ia quite true that in great building enterprises,
such as apartment houses, churches and the like, the architects'
estimates are nearly always below the true figures ; yet it is also
true tbat some of the plans filed are never even commenced, and
when builders construct their own edifices they often cost less than
the official estimates at the Building Department,
But the above figures show that New York is growing ra >idly.
There may be a check for a year or two. but there will be no step
backward. There will not be sommycostly houses built this year,
perhaps not next year, but there will be a great deal of building
notwithstanding, more than in any other city in the Union.
Tear. Estimated coat.
1''79.........................$22.t.07..33a
IRRO......................... 29.11 ^.3;^F.
1R8I........................... 43..'19r,3 0
18-3.......................... 41,793.lFn
I88J......................... 43,214.316
After all, people who confined their dealings to real estate during
the past year fared much better than thise who put up margins
on stocks, cotton, or grain. It is true some builders have lost
money, and people who were forced to sell did not do as well as
they could wish, but there was no such tremendous losses in realty
as in stocks. A well-known builder went out of business in 1881.
He foresaw that the high priced houses, with which his name was
associated, would not sell as well as tbey had done in 1879 and 1880
so he drifted into Wall street and dabbled in stocks. He lost in the
Western Union deal, he owns a thousand shares of Metropolitan,
for which he paid a highe:' price than he ever may receive for it,
and he purchased Ontario & Western at 32 for which there is now
scarcely any market. Yet this builder is a cautious, careful
operator. Had he continued building be might have lost some
money, but nothing like the sums his stock operations have cost
him, and his experience is that of thousands of others. The moral
to be drawn from this example is that although the outlook in the
building trade may not be very good, it is far better than the
prospects in Wall street, A shoemaker should stick to his last.
Some Up-Town Buildings,
It is difficult to talk about Mr. Villard's liouse without going
into reflections, which may be highly moral and instructive, but
are irrelevant to architecture, the more that architecturally there
is so little to be said about it. The scheme is of aa unusual ampli
tude and liberality ami is very liberally carried out. The giving
up of a whole block to three hous?s in the fashionable quarter of
the city, is unexampled exce|)t in the Vanderbilt houses, where
the three houses appear architecturally as two. The arrangement
of the Villard houses is much better—a deep court with a house
at the back and one on each flank—much more expressive, since
the architecture distinctly explains the relations of the buildings.
and abstractly more artistic since a proportion cannot exist with
less than three terms or a group with le-^s tbau three members.
Another great advantage that the Villard houses have over the
Vanderbilt houses is that they have roofs, and all hough without roofs
they would be as merely boxes as the others, the tiled roofs, although
only of moderate pilch, give each of the threa buildings some form
and connect the thret into a composition. Except in this general
grouping, however, there is no more composilion than in the
Vanderbilt houses. The openings on the outtr walls, on the
projected ends and on the return of the walls in the court are
equally spaced and aligned over each other. In the wall at the back
of the court there is some attempt at composition. Below there
is a logga of flve round arches, turned between columns now
boxed, but presumably of polished granite, and the openings above
are grouped iu three pairs. The simplicity of the treatment else¬
where is pr()bably tneant as a foil to this, but the simplicity is so
pervading and ihe more elaborate treatment so littleelaborate, that
the foil is the conspicuous part, and maki-s the whole aspect of he
pile (lumpish and monotonous. This aspect is not relieved hy the
decoration, which is very siiaring aorf consist,s chiffly of sinking
the round-arched windows in panels, and deorating the spandrels
in a conventional and somewliat tiresome way. The treatment of
detail, an well aa the geoer-al scheme, is sngeested by the Florentine
pahi.ces of the fifteenth century. Bjit the building lacks the mas-
siveness of its prototypes, atvi the relation between the stories
which made them effective ; aud even the irrational application of
"orders " would be an agreeable relief to its monotony. The hori¬
zontal divisions are emphasized, but this emphasis does not relieve
the monotony of the facades which, assuming the existing division
of openings, could only have been effected by a differentiation in
the treatment of the different divisions. The joints of the base¬
ment are beveled, but that does not difference it sensibly from the
ipall above. A really bold and massive treatment of the basement,
with an enrichment of the attic story, which is now only a series
of square holes, would have effected this differentiation, even if the
second and third stories were left as they are. The cornice is rich,
but its enrichment is too small in scale to be effectual. The general
effect of the houses thus is that they are big aud tiresome and as
unnoticeable as so big a pile can be. But then they are in no way
offensive and can never come to look trivial or vulgar, and this,
with the gratifying liberality of the plan and of its execution, must
be scored as a mild success.
Directly opposite the Villard houses are the new residences or
offices of the Cathedral, which are in the coarse aud glaring white
marble of which that great structure itself is built. The glare will
disappear after a while, to be replaced by an unvenerable dirtiness.
The architecture conforms to that of the Cathedral, and would not
be noticeable except for the absurd way in which all grace of out¬
line is destroyed by clapping on over the gables of the building a
great black pan of a mansard roof. The little gable of a dormer,
may be relieved against a roof in this way without offense, but
here there are gables half as wide as the building, which have no
meaning whatever, except as the ends of rot?fs, and when a maG*
sard roof is clapped on over them simply stick out and look foolish,
as confessed pieces of made architecture, besides destroying all
the grace of outline which would have been gained if the butldiogs
had been roofed as its walls assert that it was meant to be roofed.
Whether this absurdity is the architect's fault—which is difficult to
believe—or that of his client's, it is to be hoped that there is
enough perception of architectural proprieties among the clergy and
laity of the archdiocese to insist upon the removal of these mon¬
strosities, which vulgarize not only the buildings they cover, but
the more important building to which they are appendages, and
to replace them with respectable roofa.
In Fifth avenue, between Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh atreeta,
•