January 23, 1910





KECOKD   AJND   GUIDE





157





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Dp6teD f I^l Estate . Building ^cKitectui^e .HouseHoid DESOfiATOrf..
Bi/sufess A^toThemes of GeiJer|>1 lliTERESi,_

PRICE   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE   EIGHT   DOLLARS

Communications  should  be   addressed tO

C. W. SWEET

published Every Saturday

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

Vice-Pres. & Gen!, Mgr,, H. W. DESMOND         Secretary, F. T. MILLER

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Vol.   LXXXV.





JANUARY 22, 1910.





No.   21S4.





THB Building Department has prepared recently a table
of the projected buildings and their estimated cost
of the old city of New York and the present borough of
Manhattan from the year 1868 to the present time. A sim¬
ilar table has frequently been published in the Record and
Guide, for 1S6S WAS THE YEAR IN WHICH THB RBAL
ESTATE RECORD BEGAN PUBLICATION. The peculiar
interest of this table just at present consists in the proof it
affords of the exceptional record made by the year 1909 in
the building history of the borough. Four times during the
past forty-one years has the estimated cost of the pro,iected
buildings reached a sum in excess of $120,000,000—1899,
1901, 1905 and 1909. The total in 1899 was $129,250,000;
in 1901 it was $122,170,000; in 1905 it was $124,746,000;
in 1909 it was $131,246,000, According to these totals the
record of 1909 was better by about $2,000,000 than the
best previous year, viz, 1S99. But in reality the difference
between the figures for the two years, in so far as they
stand for buildings constructed and not merely projected, is
much larger than is indicated by the figures. The total for
1899 was swollen by the filing of an enormous number of
plans in anticipation of the operation of the new Building
Code, which became effective in that year, la the same way
the large figures for 1901 represent not the actual current
demand for new buildings, but a large number of plans, re¬
corded just before the new Tenement House Law went into
effect. In both of these years the proportion of plans filed
and never subsequently carried out, was exceptionally large,
amounting if we remember aright, to at least 2 5 per cent,
of those submitted to the Building Department inimediately
before the new laws became effective. The consequence is
that the totals for these two years, measured by the same
standards as other years, sliould he reduced by anywhere
from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000. The only year, conse¬
quently, in the past history of Manhattan, whose building
record in any way compares to that oC 1909, is 1905; and the
past year has an advantage of some $6,0 0 0,000 over its
predecessor. The figures for 1909 are all the more remark¬
able when it is remembered that the vacant area in Manhat¬
tan has been constantly decreasing, and that, consequently,
the new coustruction represents to a much larger extent
the replacement of old with new and modern buildings. This
fact is brought out very clearly by the increase in the average
estimated cost of each building. Tn 1871 the average was
about $14,000. In ISSl it had become $16,000. In 1S91
the building of more flats had made it $20,000, In 1901
$46,000 on the average was invested in each structure; aud
this figure was not substantially increased in 1905. But in
1909 the average was no less than $132,000, three times as
large as it was only four years before. What these figures
mean, of course, is that the elevator apartment house, meas¬
uring, 100 X 100, has become THE NORMAL TYPE of resi¬
dence building in Manhattan and the twelve story fire-proof
structure the normal type of business building.





IT seems probable that the building record of 19(9 will, so
far as the borough of Manhattan is concerned,, never be
exceeded. In the future, of course, the whole city of New
York will spend much larger sums on building than it did
in 1909, hut there are reasons to believe that ]909 MAY
REPRESENT THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF MANHATTAN
CONSTRUCTION. If anyone is disposed to question this
prediction, let him consider carefully the building situation





in the borough. Of the $131,000,000 which has been or will
be spent on the buildings projected during the past year
three-fifths will be spent upon apartment liouses. These
houses bave almost all been built either on the West Side or
on Washington Heights. Enormous inroads have been made
upon the vacant land remaining in the horough, and while
the supply of lots on Washington Heights will last for an¬
other five years, the number which will be improved every
year will ^necessarily dimitfflth. Of course the DYCKMAN
TRACT will remain; and the activity which is beginning in
that section indicates clearly that building operations there¬
abouts will soon assume a vei'y considerable volume, but it
is improbable that considering the amount of vacant land
remaining, considering the enormous construction now un¬
derway to be inhabited and considering the increasing com¬
petition of "the other borotighs, apartment houses and tene¬
ments to the value of $75,000,000 wil! ever again be needed
in one year in this borough. There is a possibility that the
figures for the current year 1910, will be about as large; but
we doubt it. Before the end of this year general business
conditions will probably act as a check on building. As¬
suming, then, that hereafter the amount of money spent in
Manhattan on tenements and apartments is likely to diminish,
is it reasonable to expect that their place will be taken hy an
increasing amount of construction for general business pur¬
poses? The Record and Guide does not believe that any such
expectation is reasonable. There is room for a certain in¬
crease in the amount of money spent upon office and loft
buildings. Ten years from now it may be fifty per cent,
greater than it is at present, but even then it cannot take
the place of the money which will not be spent upon tene¬
ments and apartment houses. As the price of business real
estate and of rents augments in Manhattan an increasing
proportion of business will necessarily be transacted in the
other boroughs, and the only way in which this immigration
of business can he prevented from assuming large propor¬
tions would be by the construction of freight subways. On
the other hund, it is certain the average price of the new
buildings erected in Manhattan will still further increase, in
fact, within the next ten years it is prohable that prac¬
tically NOTHING BUT PIREPROOP STRUCTURES will be
built on the island of Manhattan and that this result will
be brought about not by law but by the operation of purely
economic conditions.





THE recent election in Boston of a professional politician
to be Mayor of that city under She new charter has
been frequently referred to as an indication that tbe new
Boston Instrument of Government is by way of being a
failure. Nothing could be more erroneous. How the new
charter will actually worli is still a matter of prediction.
Tt carries further than the charter of any other large Amer¬
ican city the principle of making the Mayor substantially
responsible for the good goverment of the city. Indeed,
his power is restricted only by a small council, elected on
a general ticket, whose power is negative rather than posi¬
tive. That a professional politician with little or no inter¬
est in efficient and economical government should be elected
to such an oflice is undoubtedly an unfortunate fact; but it
is a fact that has been foreseen and provided against in the
iievj Boston charter. There is no possible way of guarantee¬
ing by law either that the most desirable candidate will be
elected to any office, or that the successful candidate, who¬
ever he may be, will prove to be a thoroughly admirable
executive. What the law can do, however, is to see that an
honest and efficient man, if elected, will have the, power to
accomplish something for the good of the city, and that,
on tlie other hand, a dishonest or an inefficient man cannot
avoid full responsibility for his misbehavoir. That is pre¬
cisely what the new Boston charter does provide. The Mayor
will have so much power and responsibility that he will
have to make some use of it, good or bad. He cannot help
betraying himself one way or another; and public opinion
will soon make up its mind whether or not it is satisfied
with his method of administration. In case it is dissatisfied
it has a remedy. The term of the Mayor is four years, but
in case he has proved himself to he incompetent to use the
powers entrusted to him for the benefit of the city, a certain
percentage of the voters can by petition at the end of two
years challenge his right to continue to occupy the offlce.
In that case a new election becomes necessary, and the
Mayor has to defend his administration at the bar of public
opinion. Just how well this device of the "recall" will work
cannot  as yet  be  tried  in  a  sufficient  number  of  instances





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