Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 45, no. 1155: May 3, 1890: Supplement

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99 ESTABUSHED'^i\ARCH21^^1868. Entered at the Pott-offlce at New York, If. Y., aa secemd^lass matter." YoL. XLV. NEW YORK, MAY 3, 18y{). SUPPLEMENT. The East Side—Its Streets and Boildingc. Now that so large a proportion of the civilized populations are concentrating in cities, the proper making aud management of these centres are creating problems, the importance of which is equaled only by the grave responsibility which rest on thinking men for their successful solution. It is not part of our present pm-pose to give a comprehensive enumeration of tiiese problems, the rela¬ tion they hear one to another, their comparative importance, or even the aspect under which they present themselves in this citj^; but'the condition of that part of the city, which we intend to treat of in this article is in many respects so far from what it should be, that it is not inappropriate to embcdy in a dcecriplion of the east No. 8i'4 Fifth Avenue. side some few suggestions as to wbat this section of the city might be, or have been, if there had existed a clearer appreciation in the beginning of the possibilities of city making, and consequently a more intelligent effort to lay out the streets which it would have been a pleasure to live upon, and build houses which it would have been a pleasure to live in. And if, in so doing, we seem to place the standard too high, and find faults, where we might just as well have instanced virtues, or at least improvements, it will be because the deficiencies wliich we point out are so little appreciated that it is not unfair to emphasize them. We are most of us familiar with the susceptible creature who takes a trip to the .ountry, becomes intoxicated with the odors of verdancy; the " crowing of the chanticleer," the " soft sighing of the breezes," and other rural phenomena, and thereupon sits down and writes a poem or a rhapsody on the sweet sensuous content¬ ment of counti-y life, compared with the jarring bustle, and the inevitable stone walls of the city. And being familiar with him we generally try to avoid him, for he belongs to that raaaneT;of man who wax eloquent over comparisons which it is unnecessary to make and grow didactic over superficial distinctions. Neverthe¬ less, like many of the muddle-headed he mingles a cerlawi propor¬ tion of truth with an inconceivable amount of shiboleth. An American city is a most perfect illustration of how mathematicaUy- mind ed a creature man is. A city is " all made up " of straight lines and corners. Simplicity of arrangeinent is necessary; and to the untutored simplicity always becomes uniformity. It is just this deadly uniformity which is our first objection to the east side, as at present arranged. The engineers who are responsible for our street system in general committed this fault wherever possible; and on the east side it was indeflnitely possible; for neither the configuration of the land, nor previously existing roads had to be regarded in making street parallel to street, avenue parallel to avenue, and the streets and avenues invariably at right angles. Some streets are made broader than others; but otberwise they are in themselves exactly alike, a characteristic' which, we believe, is ■■dmirable in peas, but objectionable in streets. Such uniformity must render a district commonplace. The east side may be compared to a Chinese play, which has neither begin¬ ning, middle nor ending, which possesses neither unity as a whole nor distinction in its parts. A street leads nowhere except to the next avenup, and an avenue nowhere but to the next street. No opportunity is provided for architectural display, because no one location is more central, more inevitable, more impossible to avoid seeing than another. Tf one street is lined with a better class of houses than its neighbor—assuming both to be of the same width—' it is due to the accidental circumstances rather than to a design, which made one locality more desirable. The only possible advan¬ tage of this dreary uniformity, so far as we can see, is that it makes Yosemite Flats, Park Avenue, bet. 63d aiut ti4tli titrcvts, it impossible for anyone to get lost, provided that one has eyes to see the signs on the lamp posts; and in its conception it must bave been the outcome of a sad lack of originality among the engineers who are responsible for the design. Any child can draw a rectangle and surround it with similar rectangles ; and our engineers did nothing more. It is singular that a protest has not been raised against the system, by intelligent people. Suppose that Mr. Olm¬ stead, when he designed our beautiful Central'Park, bad made every walk and carriageway parallel or at right angles to every other walk and carriageway; suppose he had planted his trees in