Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 80, no. 2063: September 28, 1907

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474 RECORD AND GUIDE Sept ,1- 28, 1907 rare, they indicated the necessity for a thorough cleanĩng of the steel beEore it is painted, Furthermore, there is a senso in vvhich the prcservative paint may defeat the very object at which it aims, by serviug to conceal badly-rusted surfaces from inspection. Th'e ideal protective cov- ering, boíh for steel which is to be inclosed from view, and that vvhich wĩU be permanently exposed lo the attack of the weatber, would be a covering which, like varnish, would be sutficiently trans- parent to enable the i-ondition of the underlying steel to be care- fully ĩnspected, If some composition could be produced which combineâ transparency vvith protective qualities, a long step would be takea in the direction oE rendering all steel work, whether ex- posed or conccaleâ, imperishablc, Ceraent is one of t!ie most impenetrable opponents oE rust that Steel has yet callcd to its defence, and one oE the most effective paints intended for covcring stee! shapes is said to have cement for' a basic ingredient. The Safety of Our Skyscrapers. n Co-Operative Houses. CO-OPERATIVE apartment houses, joint building ventures for artists and those in other proEessions, are making such rapid headway in New Tork that they have become a prominent feafure of t!ie realty sĩtuation. Many millions have been invested in sueh enterprises and the idea is getting more popular daily. ^ Mr. Charles A, Gerlach, of Ô^th st and Madison av, the well known real estate expert and authority, was a pioneer în co- operative apartment ownership. In 1S83 he bought oE the buîtd- ers and promoted and sold the "Gramercy" apartment house No. 34 Gramerey Park. Each subscriber of the capital stock reeeîved a proprietary or perpetual lease to the apartment, se- lected also shares of the eapital stoek of fhe corporation that owned the land and buildlng and elected directors Erom araong themselves to' manage and handle the property. Some owners who rented their holdings received over thirty per cent. a year net on their investment over and above expenses. Under this system ît is claimed that expensive apartments, cheap flats, offlce buildings, family hotels and even Earms can be sold and divîded profltably, and Mr. Gerlach asserts-that ■such prop- crties will bring a iarger and safer return on the investraent than any other form of real estate ownership. This has been demonstrated by actual Eacts and figures, Tiiere are enthusiasts who say that when this new idea—a variation of the old prineiple oE co-operation—becomes better understood that it wilĩ sweep not only New York, but all other large American cities. The scheme is revoiutionary, is at once novel and attractive, and its possibiUties are practically with- out ĩimit, Walter Russell, an artist, is assoeiated vvith the movement, Through the brokers, Aiwyn Ball, Jr., Prank Hughes and Cliarles N. Bliss, Mr, Russell purchased for his company, the Stuyvesant Co-operative Building, Incorporated, the south- east corner of 5Sth st and 7th av from Michael Coleman. The approximate price was halE a million dollars. Here is to rĩse a studio paiace w'ith a hundred feet frontage on 7th av and a 5Sth st írontage oE 125 feet. The edifice tweive stories high, after designs by Harde & Short, arehitects, About $1,500,0110 wiU probably be the cost. Mr. Russell says that the demand for co-operative apart- ments seems to he uniimited and that the idea is spreading rapidly, Apparently the new plan has come to the front just in the nick oE time, because large numbers of New Yorkers are seinng theîr private houses because of their rapidly growing land values. An argument advanced is that it is costĩng too much for the average man who is wel! ofE td live in the centre of New Tork in his ovv-n home. The luxury is too great. Pro- vision, then, has to be made for those people who do not care to live in the country, Co-operative apartraent houses, co-operative hotels, co-opera- tive office buĩldings, with the owners having their own apart- ments, rooms and offices, and owning an interest in the rent paid by other people are already in course oE eonstruction on an extensive seale. Mr. Gerlach says the co-opetative plan has no weak point in it. Getting down to figures the systera has been briefly outlined as followsi So many years' rental pays for an apartment outright. That is to say, a man who has faeen paying $5,000 a year rent for an apartment as big as a private house under this new plan pays $30,000 or $40,000, according to the situation of the property, and gets not ownership oE that actual apartment but the right to occupy it on a perpetual iease. He becomes also one' oE the co-operative owners of the whole property and receives what is called a "proprietary lease," lîe pays no rent and is guaranteed against any liability of assessments, For this guarantee he pays a nom'inal per cent annually as a community tax on the value oE his purchase, The charge is Eor the management of the property and the guar- antee. On a $30,000 investment the community tax would be about $450 a year, Tlie eo-operative owner need not pay the entire $30,000 down at once. He pays 25 per cent, of it down in about six months and has ten years in which to pay the remaining 50 per cent. On an apartment such as would rent for $5,000 a year the co-operative investor would pay .$7,500 only down and $7,600 in a few months. The entire $30,000 only costs $1,500 to carry, and with a tax of $450 mentioned the total ^xpense is $1,950 against $5,000 rental. By F. W, FITZPATRICK, AS is the habĩt of our insurance friends, who invariably come in at the eleventh hour and say how things Oiii/ht to have been done, we are now informed by Mr. Babb, the President oE the New Tork Eoard oE Underwriters, that it is only a question of time when the downtown, the skyscraper, district of New York, will be utterly wiped out by fire. This must be the cruelest cut of all, particularly to the big in- surance companies, who have been advertising their build- ings as "absolutely íîreproof," Fortunately, Mr, Babb's alarm need not he taken too seri- ously, for while, of course, such a catastrophe is possibĩe, there is slight probability of its com'ing to pass, Tet it is a most favorable opportunity, for bis remarks cerlainly have raised a hubbub in the building and financial circles, to emphasize that, while those buildings are weli constructed, still more could be done to perfect thera and make tlie fulfillment of his prophecy utterly impossible, The aggravating thing about it is that it has always been, and is in the povver oE those same insurance corapanies to oblige the builders oE skyscrapers and oE all other structures to erect those buildings well and to make them far nearer absolutely fireproof than tliey are, and in spite of the fact that the buiĩding regulations do not compel it. The com- panies know well enough how things should be done, but they have never had the snap or the courage to make their rates accord with their knowledge. Some people are so constituted that they will only build as well as they are obliged to, and the standard of construction has, unEortunately, been the low- est the insuranee companies would permit under what was deemed a reasonable rate, Had the corapanies ever made a commensurately low rate on real flrst-class construetion, and a virtually prohibitive one upon shoddy construction, it would not have taken us twenty-five years to get the people into the humor oE building as well as they do today. To me this sudden discovory that our skyscrapers are dan- gerous structures does not ring vcry true. It sounds more like a premonition, a sort of little prelude, a pav'ing o£ the way to an establishing oE higher rates all around and more proflt to the companies than any real misgivings as to the stability of the New Tork skyseraper construction, The companies are not infallible, you know, and, naturally, desire to recoup them- selves for San Franciseo, a flre, by the way, for vvhich they were very largely to blame, Eor they had wantonly nursed and eneouraged cheap, wooden, shoddy construction by a ridicu- lously low rate, granted because oE the wonderEul excellence oE San Franciseo's Fire Department! Most oE tbe New Tork tall buildings are very well built; as a class tliey are far superior to the tall bnildings oE San Fran- cisco or Baltimore. Danger of fire Erom within is not alarm- ingiy ĩmminent, and externally these buildings are surrounded by a pretty fair class oE minor structures. The entire district is what might be termed "fair," and the fact that there are so many ta!l buildings together constitutes an element of safety. It was the Eew tall buildings of Ealtimore, though they were damaged themselves, that saved the city beyond them. But since attention has been centered upon them, it would be well, indeed, to so protect those buildings, adding to them the things that really ought to have been done in the flrst place, and making tbem truly, absolutely flreproof and undamage- able to any serious extent by flre from within or without. Their stair and elevator walls should at once be closed up with fireproof partitions of some sort, and with self-closing fire doors, making of each story a separate unit. The wooden sash and ordinary glass of the windows should be replaced with wire-glass and metal sash. Cut off the window route and you bave cut down your fi.re risk full SO per cent. Provĩde abun- dant water supply, tanlís, ctc, on the buildings, and drill the employes of the buildings so that any incipient blaze in any one unit can be readily handled and without calling in the aid of tlie city departments, Surely these are not extraordi- narily co'stly provisions to 'make, particularly as their eost eould be more than raade up in a siiort time by reducing the amount of insurancc carried on those buildings, If one would only build wcll enough in the ,first instance he need bother his head very little, if at all, with insurance companies and their idiosyncrasios. Compai'ative Efficiency of Certain Electric Lights. Notes of eomparative tests made between three types oE electric lights, appearing with the sanetion oE the Electrical Worĩd upon their accuracy, convey information 6f rare im- portance—inasmuch as the experiments and measurements seem to have been impartially conducted, Moore tubes, Nernst lamps and ordinary incandescent lamps vvere the three kinds selected for the tests, The Moore tube used was 179 feet ĩong and 1% inches in diameter. It was placed 17 inches below the eeiling, which latter vvas 10 feet 11 inches from tlie floor. There vvere seven six-glower Nernst lamps, having opaĩescent globes of a bluish tint. The incandeseents 'were 113 in number, 88 being of S candle povver each, and 25 of 16 candle power. All w§re wired to moiding on the eeiling, exeepting 20 of the larger