Please note: this text may be incomplete. For more information about this OCR, view
About OCR text.
REAL ESTATE
BUILDERS
AND
NEW YORK, MARCH 29, 1913
I SHALL BUILDING HEIGHTS BE RESTRICTED? |
-By ROBERT GRIER COOKE-
Absolutely Necessary in
the Case of Fifth Avenue
Where Retail Tracde Is
Being Blasted by Factories.
â– â– iltilllilMllllillM^^^^^^^
AT FIRST sight, the proposal to
"regulate the height, size and ar¬
rangement" of buildings to be erected
in New York City, which the recent
action of the Board of Estimate and
Apportionment has placed squarely be¬
fore the public, may seem revolutionary.
This is an entirely mistaken view. New
York, great as it is, progressive as it is,
is simply behind the times in safeguard¬
ing its future in the matter of the size
and character of its buildings. Boston,
Washington, Chicago, Baltimore, Cleve¬
land, St. Louis, and other cities, both
in this country and in Europe, have long
since realized the vital necessity of mak¬
ing their buildings and streets conform
to the highest standards not only of
usefulness and efficiency but of beauty,
safety and healthfulness. In many com¬
munities restrictive and regulative build¬
ing laws have been in effect for years,
and the courts, so far as I know, have
invariably upheld them.
The time has now come for New York
to fall into line in this movement. The
resolution of the Board of Estimate for
the appointment of a commission to in¬
vestigate the advisability of restricting
the building height throughout the entire
city, by a zone system or otherwise, is
the first step in the direction of a long-
needed reform.
The Financial District an Exception,
By this I do not mean to say that the
building height should everywhere be
limited. There are sections, such as the
Financial District, where the small avail¬
able amount of space and the tremendous
requirements make it inevitable that the
skyscraper must not only exist but con¬
tinue to multiply and perhaps even reach
an average height greater than that of
to-day.
There are, however, no such conditions
as these in the Fifth avenue section,
which is conspicuous as a part of New
York where the skyscraper, or even the
ultra-high building, is not wanted. In
making this statement—and I cannot
make it strongly enough—I am stating
the views not alone of the Fifth Avenue
.\ssociation but also of a large number of
property owners, business men and resi¬
dents of the avenue and of the great
section of Manhattan of which it is the
main artery. There is no question but
that the many bitter experiences which
the substantial Fifth avenue interests have
suffered in the last half dozen years or
so, as a result of the invasion of the
district by hundreds of loft buildings
with their crowds of garment workers
and other factory operatives, have mold¬
ed a public sentiment in favor of regu¬
lating the size and character of future
MR. COOKE IS PRESIDENT OF THE FIFTH
AVE.NUE ASSOCIATION.
Fifth avenue structures. This sentiment
is too powerful to be withstood.
Blasting Retail Business,
One has but to visit the avenue below
23d street any business day during the
noon hour to see what will be the fate
of the thoroughfare north of that street,
unless some change is speedily made to
prevent the further erection of high loft
and factory structures in what is now
the finest retail and shopping section in
the world. Nothing so blasting to the
best class of business and property in¬
terests has ever before been seen or
known in any great retail district in any
large city as this vast flood of workers
which sweeps down the pavements at
noontime every day and literally over¬
whelms and engulfs shops, shopkeepers
and the shopping public. This appalling
condition of affairs, directly due to the
presence on or near the avenue of high
The Overproduction of Fac¬
tory Buildings is Impairing
Values and Draining Old
Buildings Near Them.
i!r-i'':::;::"!iiiiS!°Ki!
Noon-day crowd on lower Fifth avenue, the loft
building section.
buildings, housing multitudes of toilers,
has made it imperative on all who take
a real pride in Fifth avenue and want
to see it preserved, to demand the restric¬
tion and regulation of future buildings
throughout the district in order to put
an effectual stop to the evil.
But it is asked, "How is the mere cut¬
ting down of the height of buildings
to 125 feet to rid the section of the
crowds of garment workers and other
factory hands?" We answer that we
do not expect the limiting of the size
of future structures to do all the work
of reform. What we do hope and ex¬
pect is that the new regulations pro¬
posed by the State Factory Commission,
making it obligatory on builders to pro¬
vide more and wider staircases, to great¬
ly reduce the number of operatives in
a room, and to provide more light, bet¬
ter ventilation and improved hygienic
conditions, will work, together with the
laws compelling a reasonable height of
building, so as to make it impossible for
factories to exist in the heart of New
York's best shopping section. This will
lead to their seeking localities more
suited to their real needs.
Practical Considerations.
Although there is no street for which
Americans have a higher sentimental re¬
gard than Fifth avenue, the demand for
keeping future buildings in the street
within reasonable limits as to height and
architecture is not actuated by sentiment
but by the highest practical considera¬
tions. Those who love and admire Fifth
avenue cannot afford to have it become
a mere cheerless canyon like so many
of the city's streets farther downtown.
As the fairest and most charming street
of the New World, Fifth avenue is and
has been for many years one of New
York's most valued assets. Tolerate the
skyscrapers and it will lose the charac¬
teristics which have made it second to
no street anywhere and which have made
its land values among the highest in the
world.
Misconstruction,
It is high time to put a stop to the
operations of a certain type of builders,
who, growing more and more bold as
the years have gone by, have ruthlessly
invaded neighborhood after neighbor¬
hood in New York and entered upon a
riot of building out of all proportion to
the character and needs of the district.
Wherever they have operated, they have
worked serious harm; rents have fallen,
and a cheaper class of tenants has come
in. It is this class of conscienceless
builders that offers the greatest menace
to Fifth avenue to-day.
The indignation felt by many owners