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Octoljcr iS. 1902.
RECORD AND GUIDE.
561
JJev&teD ro f^L Estat;: . Buildij/g ^RCifiTECTiJfiE .HousEiKOLo DegohatidiI.
BusitJESs Alb Themes OF GeWer^I INterhsx.
PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE SIX DOLLARS
Published eVery Saturday
Cninmunirationa sliould be addressed to
C. W. STVEET. 14-16 Vesey Slreel, New YorR
J. T. LINDSEY, Business llanascr Telephone, Cortlandt 3157
"Enlered at the Post O.ffice at New York. N. T.. as second-class matter."
Vol, LXX.
OCTOBER 18, 1902.
No. 1805
THE response of the Stook Market to the settlement of the
coal strike, in which J. P. Morgan seems to have done
something again where everyone else failed, has been so prompt
and substantial, that people are beginning to think times and
conditions were not so bad as they were painted. This view will
find encouragement for a time in the continued ease of money,
compared with the recent past, but it must be remembered that
the point of normality has not been reached and until it is
money must be more or less of a factor that will give anxiety.
Prices will contini;e to respond to improved conditions and to
the absence of burdensome rates for accommodations; because
with a rising market operator can afford to pay the rate if they
can only get the money; but the Treasury Department is still
distributing famine relief and the settlements of the year have
yet to be made. We have, then, still to look forward, with pos¬
sibly intervals of ease, to comparatively high rates for the bal¬
ance of the year,—
AND the Bank of England maintains its minimum discount
rate unchanged at the high figure of 4 per cent, while, at
the same time, recent advances of typical rates at other Euro¬
pean centres are still adhered to. These markets are holding
themselves ready to receive the forthcoming government loans,
the first of which is likely to be the British, though some time
ago the indications were that the French would be first in the
field. It is now generally accepted that the former will take the
form of a Transvaal obligation guaranteed by Great Britain.
This would procure the required funds, $150,000,000, at a fair
price and relieve the pressure upon Consols, which have suffered
under the belief that the government's wants were to be sup¬
plied through a fresh issue of these. Buyers will probably prefer
this because, while getting all the security practically required,
they do not expect to pay so much for the guaranteed bond as
they would be asked for the direct obligation. Accompanying
the report that the Transvaal is to issue the loan appear state¬
ments from the government expert. Sir Edward Barbour, who
has been oa a special mission to examine into the resources of
the new South African colonies, of the encouraging prospects in
the gold fields and sequently in the fields of agriculture and
commerce. Sir Edward looks to see the output of the Rand $100,-
OCO.OCO a year in a reasonably short space of time, the labor ob¬
stacle being regarded as temporary only. While speaking of
gold production it is interesting to note that estimates for the
Australian yield this year are of 4,000,000 02s., which will be
equivalent to ?80,000,OCO. or equal to about the best record of the
United States. Indeed the prospective enlargement of the
world's supply of gold is making economists wonder what in an
age of credit and paper is to be done with the immense unused
reserves that they think must accumulate, the general business
conditions of Europe shows no alteration for the week. The
process going on is one of inward recuperation and outward ap¬
pearance of distress in the form of reported low prices and re¬
duced wages. One or two interesting facts can be culled from
our exchanges, one of which is that the iVIorgan syndicate is to
receive $2,500,000 in preferred stock and $25,000,000 in common
stock for organizing the company and guaranteeing the sale of
?00,CCO,000 of the $75,000,000 4M. per cent, debenture bonds of the
International Mercantile Marine Company. The stock capital
is $GO,000,(JOO C per cent, preferred and $00,000,000 common, but, it
is said, none will come upon the market. Another interesting
item is that an official inquiry has been made to determine the
amount of French capital invested abroad and as a result this is
estimated at SOmillards of francs or $G,O00,OOO,0O0. The inquiry
extended to all four quarters of the globe as well as to the fifth.
Oceania, 5G countries are specified, but about four-fifths of the
foreign, investments are in Europe. .' ; : ..:â– / r-: :
The Use and Abuse of ** Sky=Scrapers."
"7" HE announcement that the purchaser of a lot in the most
â– i- exclusive residential district of Fifth avenue proposes to
build a sixteen-story "sky-scraper" upon the property he has
acquired has naturally excited unusual interest among the resi¬
dents thereabouts, as well as some apprehension. That the ap¬
prehension is in this particular case not justified is the opinion
of everyone who is entitled to have one. In another column, the
proposed building is discussed as a business proposition by Mr.
Mark Rafalsky, an expert in that line, and it is shown con¬
vincingly that, if Mr. Marx carries out his published plans, he
will have on his hands an investment that cannot possibly pay
any sufficient interest. Consequently, it is scarcely worth while
for neighboring property owners to make any attempt at self-
protection. It is obvious, however, that this particular instance
does not exhaust all the possibilities of the case. What cannot
proritably be done on a 25-foot frontage in the middle of a block
might conceivably be done on a large plot situated on a corner.
There are now building ou corners of 55th street two eighteen-
story apartment holds, the owners of which, one of whom is the
Astor Estate, expect to make them profitable; and Fifth avenue
property at 55th street is worth little less than Fifth avenue
property north of GOth street. Hence, however unnecessary any
apprehension may be in the present instance, it is not impos¬
sible that in other cases Fifth avenue property owners may be
forced to take the same step that George Vanderbilt did in the
case of the five lots next to the new Union Club—that is, they
may be forced to buy the property in order to prevent the erec¬
tion of an obnoxious building. There are now under construc¬
tion three "sky-scrapers" between SOth street and GOth street;
and there are a number of plots just as large for sale on upper
Fifth avenue. It is very much ia the normal course of things
that some speculative syndicate might fix upon one of these
plots as a paying site for the latest thing in expensive apartment
hotels. The only way in which such a possibility could be pre¬
vented would be by a combination of owners of each block to
restrict the lots on that block—a combination, which it woulij
be obviously difficult to effect at the present time. It is because
these combinations are so difficult to effect and because the pres¬
ent multiplication of apartment hotels so frequently injures
property in the immediate vicinity of these buildings that we
may soon expect a renewal of former effects to restrict the
heights of fireproof buildings—at least in certain parts of the
city.
Nothing is more obvious about the current tendencies in real
estate thau the fact that the area within which "sky-scrapers"
can be profitably erected is constantly increasing. It now in¬
cludes almost any part of Broadway south of 125th street, any
part of Fifth avenue south of 95th street, and almost all
the side streets in the central part of the city. The
popularity of the apartment hotel has given to specu¬
lative builders a type of building, which must be erected
to a great height and on a large plot, in order to be profitable;
and the erection of so many of them, amounting in two years to
over ninety, while it has made some property more valuable,
has decreased the value of other property immediately adjoin¬
ing these huge buildings. It is improbable that apartment hotels
will continue to be erected at their present rate; but, if so. other
buildings equally tall will take their place. Office buildings are
beginning to be built on the avenues and main streets in the
upper part of the city, and will continue to be built in still
larger numbers. Loft buildings from nine to twelve stories high
are steadily pushing their way up town, and have now almost
reached the 23d street line. The whole middle part of the city
has become available as sites for "sky-scrapers" designed to
meet a dozen different purposes.
It is for reasons such as these that the statement, frequently
made, that "sky-scrapers" will be a decreasing quantity in New
York building, is quite incredible. This assertion has been made
by Mr. Burton J. Hendrick in the October number of the At¬
lantic Monthly. "The conclusion of all of which is," he says,
"that while the exigencies of our practical American life wili
still demand the erection of large office buildings, the rate of
production is likely to deci-ease rather than increase; that the
mania for mere bigness is subsiding, and is bound to give place
to a better conception of corporate eminence; and that the pro¬
duction of the 'sky-scraper' itself Inevitably necessitates the de¬
velopment of a large amount of urban property along more
modest lines," Iu this extract, and indeed in his whole article,
Mr. Hendrick apparently restricts the meaning of "sky-scraper"
to offlce buildings at least eighteen stories high. Even with
this restriction of the meaning, his assertion is more than
doubtful. The onlyproof he gives of it is the well-known fact that
many of the owners of twenty-story buildings in the financial