Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 90, no. 2315]: July 27, 1912

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July 27, 1912 RECORD AND GUIDE 171 Panel No. 4—Stucco wail touilt by last- ening metal lath to wood studding. The mixture ol the cement plaster used in this wall was particularly designed to pre¬ vent hair cracks and other imperfections to which stucco walls under alternating weather conditions, when not properly built, are subject, but it seemed to stand the abuse about as well if not better than Panel No. 1. This furnace was fired the full two.hours, the highest temperature reached being 1,943 degrees. Plate. No. 41 shows the condition of the wall after "fire and water." Panel Xo. 5—Four-inch hollow metal lath. It had full two hours' fire, reach¬ ing 1,976 degrees at the highest. Plate No. 29 shows the metal lath slightly exposed on the inside of the wall. The outside of the wall received no damage and the inside is still good. Panel No. G—P.laster board on wood studding. This partition had a total fire of 74 minutes at a maximum ol 1,562 de¬ grees and then water was allowed to flow on it at low pressure to quench the fire in the partition and after that the full stream was turned on for half a minute with the result shown in Plate 35. Cniumittee Coiuiilling Data. Mr. Allen is having the committee com¬ pile the data with the expectation that very shortly the full official report illus¬ trated and In pamphlet form can be had for a small fee. Research of th's c'.iaracter so carefully carried on means much to all who are interested in .building construction. In these times ol exhaustive study ol all subjects pertaining to fire-waste and its prevention, it would seem necessary that any cities having pride in their growth and the welfare of their citizens should follow up such educational work as this in all lines in a way that will solve these problems. Too often the good salesman¬ ship of the manufacturers and a mental inertia on the part of the one who says what shall be used, result in the accept¬ ance of materials whose use is a menace to life and property. The United States Bureau of Standards has begun investigations to determine the physical properties of all 'building ma¬ terials and it would seem proper that the State and city governments should make appropriations in a similar course, that they may determine for themselves what is s'ale to use. , , . . Cleveland has made a good beginnmg and what it has done has been well done. ENDS DELAY IN JAMAICA. Terminal Improvements Will Create Great Center Here. Justice Crane's granting ol a certificate ol necessltv allowed the Long Island Rail¬ road Company to take possession ol the J. K. O. Sherwood plot and resume work on the big terminal improvements at Ja¬ maica, which some authorities predict will make Jamaica the business as well as the traffic center of Long Island. The property had been in litigation for three years. Condemnation commissioners will be appointed. It is expected that the entire work ot yard elevation and im¬ provement will be completed by the end of next year and the new station and ter¬ minals for transfer of passengers will be completed in time for use for next sum¬ mer's traffic. The plan provides for the elimination of ten or twelve existing grade crossings in the villages of Jamaica and Richmond Hill and tor the carrying of eight or ten highways that do not now cross the tracks beneath the elevated line ot the railroad, thus providing for that number of new crossings to connect the north and south sides of the village. The company will also next year begin the elevation of its tracks east of Ja¬ maica and through Queens village to the Nassau County lines, the order for which has been issued by the Public Service Commission, the State having appropri¬ ated $250,000 as its one-fourth share of the work. Eventually the electric service will be extended to points as far eajst as Baby- Ion on the Montauk division and to Oyster Ray and Huntington* on the north side. Site for Richmond Court House. Mayor Gaynor has approved the selec¬ tion that has been made of a site for the additional county court house in the county of Richmond. The Corporation Counsel is now authorized to instittue con¬ demnation proceedings for the acquisition of the land. The site is north of the Borough Hall in the block bounded by Stuyvesant place, DeKalb avenue. Jay street and South street. Carrere & Hastings, are drawing the plans for the building. GRAND CENTRAL \^ORK. Contract for Hotel Biltmore—Last Bite in Excavating. The awarding ol the general contract lor the erection ol the Hotel Biltmore, which will be an integral p&rt ol the Grand Central Station, to the George A. Fuller Company, of 111 Broadway, signal¬ izes the' advent of a very important stage of the construction of the great terminal works. It means that the last "bite" of the underground operations Is well ad¬ vanced, and that from now on the evi¬ dence of the progress of the work will be more visible to the public eye. The hotel will occupy the plot between 43d and 44th streets. Vanderbilt and Madi¬ son avenues, will be twenty-five stories high and contain a thousand rooms, not counting baths, expansive corridors, re¬ ception rooms, banquet halls, and other attachments that char^icterize the modern inn. It will cost $5,500,000, exclusive of furnishings and the value of the land. The site is owned by the New York and Harlem and the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad companies, and the building is being erected jointly by the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Rail¬ road companies. The hotel will be oper¬ ated by Gustave Baumann and John M. Bowman. Beneath the building will be the Incoming station for the railroads. The first fioor of the hotel will be a lew leet above the street level. The base of the superstructure will have a granite exterior, the next section will be limestone, and the main body of the building, which will have two wings, will be faced with brick. In ail respects the building will be fireproof, and the materials and workmanship will be the best. The south half ol the hotel will be given over to commercial business, where rates reasonable, but yet consistent with successlul operation and the best service will be in vogue. The dining rooms in the north wing will be operated on a somewhat higher scale. All the public dining rooms will be on the flrst floor, but there will be private dining rooms on other flo(/rs, with separate ways ol getting to and Irom the kitchen. On the twenty-third floor will be a large banquet hall and ball room. Guests arriving by the railroads will pass into elevators connecting with the lobby ol the hotel. Unless the railroad managers are mis¬ taken, the hotel and the other buildings which will eventually cover the twenty blocks included in the terminal premises will be the uptown civic and social cen¬ ter for the whole city. It will ibe even more tlian a semi-subterranean capital of a vast transportation empire. The magnitude ol the terminal work as a whole exceeds anything of like nature ever undertaken before, when a compari¬ son . is made on the basis of cost, as it will represent an expenditure of some¬ thing like $180,000,000, which includes the cost of electrification, as well as of land and buildings. The facade of the "head house" is now far enough advanced for the public to glimpse the general architecture scheme which suggests a "gateway" to the city. The central part is in the form of a triumphal arch, to and through which Park avenue with Its tesselated pave¬ ment will lead from the north, flanked on either side all the way from SOth street by monumental buildings each ot which contributes to the general effect. The problem out of which the whole big improvement scheme was evolved was to create a loop system that would per¬ mit trains to enter and leave the station without being switched. Then in Janu¬ ary, 1902, an accident happened in the tunnel which prompted the Legislature to demand the abolition of steam and the use ol electricity as a motive power. This act lurnished another and the larger motive lor the whole project. Electrification meant underground tracks and platlorms, and this use ol the lower areas, in turn, enabled the architects to restore the ground-level space, lormerly used lor yards, to the public for high¬ ways and buildings. Must of the streets had been closed, and were represented only by foot brodges. It put at the disposal of the railroad company many acres of new surface over the tracks, but level with the ground and suitable for occupation by buildings. In a measure this added space for rev¬ enue producing structures recompensed the owners for having to put the tracks underneath. The excavating Is three quarters fin¬ ished. In another year what remains to be done under that head' Will not Inter¬ fere with the general usefulness of the station. Next January the Concourse in the main building is due to be ready. and in the lollowing October the hotel will be ready also. In- 1915 the -whole project, so lar as the railroad end of it is concerned, will be completed, but long before that time the temporary Incon¬ venience to the public will have ceased and all the new facilities-will be in use. The real estate development of the sec¬ tion will continue until' the' surface of the Park avenue approach consists of two unbroken lines of monumental- build¬ ings, erected by the railroad corporations, with rows of private apartment houses beyond, and on either side—on the east as well as on the west^a general re¬ construction of private premises in con¬ formity with the new character of the sec¬ tion. THE HOTEL BILTMORE. The general contract for its construction was awarded this week.