Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 33, no. 825: January 5, 1884

Text version:

.2 The Record and Guide. January. 5, 1884 The sales at the Exchange for the past two years were as follows 1889......................................................... $a6,4a'V53 18B1................................... -................. $i3,i;93,519 The following gives a comparison by montbss ot the building plans filed during the past two years: -1883.- No. b'Id'gs. January.......................... ri~ February......................... 168 March.............................. 353 Ap'il................................ 3 3 May ............................ 33S Jima............................... 235 July .......................... 170 Aueust............................. 185 SpptPmber.......................... 309 October......................... 283 November......................... 161 December.......................... 91 Total........................... 2,561 First three months................. 548 First si.f months.................. 1.361 Last sismonths.................. 1.197 Cost. 81.749.C85 2.34i,65l) .3.800.110 6.015,375 8 9l7,3iO 8,016,875 3,437,500 3.-401.417 8,6'3.671 5.020,736 2.077,5(10 1,596.535 $14.79-?. !86 $7.89:1645 26,44 t,H5 17,350,011 No. b'l 'es. 180 169 838 163 250 283 241 185 175 183 156 19i -1883-----------, Cost. B4.06M.075 S,741.8-J5 .5.364.5011 4,103,2« 4 870,747 5.1-I7.3i0 4.075.601 P 2,046.500 8,310.10V S,hT9.5*3 1,770 3311 3,481,880 3,62.S $13.-59,058 '87 1.482 1,141 $ia.77Mro 26.8^5,619 lli.851,0 9 The following table gives the buildinfjs projected for the last three years, divided into several districts: 1881. 1883. 1883. No. ofpTans.............................. 1.347 1,'On 1.450 No. of buildings nroiected ................ 2..586 S.-'ifil 2,6^3 EsLnnated cost ......................... $43,239,945 $14,753,186 813,859,b5fl No.snnthor 14th st....................... E28 28S 220 Cost ...........■......................... $8,104,370 $3,877,610 $8,455,"89 No.beU4thand 59thsts................... 497 430 534 Cost............................... $13,13$,1':5 $13,313,716 $13,657,480 No. Iiet59th and 135th sts, eaat of Sth av... 5,166 954 819 Cost................................ $16,374,7.10 $14,990,-375 $13,751,017 No.bet59thandl35thsts. westoE8thav... ISO 177 183 Cost............................ $a,C35.400 $3,159,100 $3,398,075 No, hpt 110th and ia5th sts, 5th and 8th avs. 71 23 39 Cost .................................. $958,300 $i01,1.50 $643,000 No. north of 135tb st ....................... 265 349 355 Cost................................ $2,022.3 0 $4,464 62! $',523,350 No. P3d and 24th Wards.................... 28S 343 4'^ Cost................................... $1,052,995 $1,409,913 $1,438,967 From the above figures it will be noticed that although last year, as a whole, compares very well with the previous year, yet the last six months of 1883 shows a decided falling off. The year we have just entered upon does not promise to make a good comparison ■with either 1883 or 1883. The following estimated classified table is also interesting: DescripMon. No. PwfI1ine-t over SSO.OOO ................ SO DweiliDgs. $:o,'on til S^O.^'O .......,..... 88 Dwellings 'imier $30,000................ 4T7 Flats over Sl.=;.n09 ................. ft77 Tcnenipnta undpr $15,000 ............ 601 H-itels and hoarding houses............ 8 S'or-'S, 1st eiiisa........................ 40 Stores, 3ii class .......................... 31 Slnres. 3d Hass......................... 50 ''ffic'e buildiiiES......................... 25 137 4 17 8 12 —1883.- Cnst. $3,030,000 £..S71,000 4.705.743 17,164.1110 8.100.100 553,000 3,619,500 610.350 196, "50 1.40H.645 1,968.010 161.000 5fi!.fl00 290,1X10 410,77S 936.-'!.^0 703.663 No. 15 118 3fi6 3'4 953 6 36 37 83 28 140 6 13 7 15 R9 535 -1883^ Cost. gi.oovnno 2.5^6,00(1 4.040,f5'! 10,710,30' ia,2S1.700 810.000 1 7.-.9,000 419,9''9 1S4,3'.0 3,rtl3.R75 l.OnO.^'Sf 4W.0 0 S39.00r 587. KSO 711,300 f>S5.(ii:f. 1,731.713 FiffonVsand workshops....... Soho'il houses................... niiiirchps...................... Miiniciool buildiuKs.......... Pines of amusement........... St.abli's .............................. 1-SO Frame buildings....................... . 262 Total((.................................2,577 44.793,186 2,748 43,214,:i46 The plans for alterations to old structures filed during 1883 repre¬ sent an aggregate in cost of ^4,540,885, against $4,267,181 for the previous year. For the purpose of showing the rapid growth of the city, as repre¬ sented yearly in the plan& fil^d, the following figures for the last ten years are given. These relate only to the estimated cost of new buildings in the years named : Year. EstimatPd cost. I 1874...........................$!6.6G7.114 1875........................ JR.2!6.ir'M 1876 .......................... I5.nnn,SaO I 1877......................... 13.-365,114 ' 1878........................ 15,319,680 Total ten years ....................................................$363,404,450 A city paper argues that the actual cost of houses is much larger than the estimates, and therefore that the ofBcial figures are mis leading. Now, it ia quite true that in great building enterprises, such as apartment houses, churches and the like, the architects' estimates are nearly always below the true figures ; yet it is also true tbat some of the plans filed are never even commenced, and when builders construct their own edifices they often cost less than the official estimates at the Building Department, But the above figures show that New York is growing ra >idly. There may be a check for a year or two. but there will be no step backward. There will not be sommycostly houses built this year, perhaps not next year, but there will be a great deal of building notwithstanding, more than in any other city in the Union. Tear. Estimated coat. 1''79.........................$22.t.07..33a IRRO......................... 29.11 ^.3;^F. 1R8I........................... 43..'19r,3 0 18-3.......................... 41,793.lFn I88J......................... 43,214.316 After all, people who confined their dealings to real estate during the past year fared much better than thise who put up margins on stocks, cotton, or grain. It is true some builders have lost money, and people who were forced to sell did not do as well as they could wish, but there was no such tremendous losses in realty as in stocks. A well-known builder went out of business in 1881. He foresaw that the high priced houses, with which his name was associated, would not sell as well as tbey had done in 1879 and 1880 so he drifted into Wall street and dabbled in stocks. He lost in the Western Union deal, he owns a thousand shares of Metropolitan, for which he paid a highe:' price than he ever may receive for it, and he purchased Ontario & Western at 32 for which there is now scarcely any market. Yet this builder is a cautious, careful operator. Had he continued building be might have lost some money, but nothing like the sums his stock operations have cost him, and his experience is that of thousands of others. The moral to be drawn from this example is that although the outlook in the building trade may not be very good, it is far better than the prospects in Wall street, A shoemaker should stick to his last. Some Up-Town Buildings, It is difficult to talk about Mr. Villard's liouse without going into reflections, which may be highly moral and instructive, but are irrelevant to architecture, the more that architecturally there is so little to be said about it. The scheme is of aa unusual ampli tude and liberality ami is very liberally carried out. The giving up of a whole block to three hous?s in the fashionable quarter of the city, is unexampled exce|)t in the Vanderbilt houses, where the three houses appear architecturally as two. The arrangement of the Villard houses is much better—a deep court with a house at the back and one on each flank—much more expressive, since the architecture distinctly explains the relations of the buildings. and abstractly more artistic since a proportion cannot exist with less than three terms or a group with le-^s tbau three members. Another great advantage that the Villard houses have over the Vanderbilt houses is that they have roofs, and all hough without roofs they would be as merely boxes as the others, the tiled roofs, although only of moderate pilch, give each of the threa buildings some form and connect the thret into a composition. Except in this general grouping, however, there is no more composilion than in the Vanderbilt houses. The openings on the outtr walls, on the projected ends and on the return of the walls in the court are equally spaced and aligned over each other. In the wall at the back of the court there is some attempt at composition. Below there is a logga of flve round arches, turned between columns now boxed, but presumably of polished granite, and the openings above are grouped iu three pairs. The simplicity of the treatment else¬ where is pr()bably tneant as a foil to this, but the simplicity is so pervading and ihe more elaborate treatment so littleelaborate, that the foil is the conspicuous part, and maki-s the whole aspect of he pile (lumpish and monotonous. This aspect is not relieved hy the decoration, which is very siiaring aorf consist,s chiffly of sinking the round-arched windows in panels, and deorating the spandrels in a conventional and somewliat tiresome way. The treatment of detail, an well aa the geoer-al scheme, is sngeested by the Florentine pahi.ces of the fifteenth century. Bjit the building lacks the mas- siveness of its prototypes, atvi the relation between the stories which made them effective ; aud even the irrational application of "orders " would be an agreeable relief to its monotony. The hori¬ zontal divisions are emphasized, but this emphasis does not relieve the monotony of the facades which, assuming the existing division of openings, could only have been effected by a differentiation in the treatment of the different divisions. The joints of the base¬ ment are beveled, but that does not difference it sensibly from the ipall above. A really bold and massive treatment of the basement, with an enrichment of the attic story, which is now only a series of square holes, would have effected this differentiation, even if the second and third stories were left as they are. The cornice is rich, but its enrichment is too small in scale to be effectual. The general effect of the houses thus is that they are big aud tiresome and as unnoticeable as so big a pile can be. But then they are in no way offensive and can never come to look trivial or vulgar, and this, with the gratifying liberality of the plan and of its execution, must be scored as a mild success. Directly opposite the Villard houses are the new residences or offices of the Cathedral, which are in the coarse aud glaring white marble of which that great structure itself is built. The glare will disappear after a while, to be replaced by an unvenerable dirtiness. The architecture conforms to that of the Cathedral, and would not be noticeable except for the absurd way in which all grace of out¬ line is destroyed by clapping on over the gables of the building a great black pan of a mansard roof. The little gable of a dormer, may be relieved against a roof in this way without offense, but here there are gables half as wide as the building, which have no meaning whatever, except as the ends of rot?fs, and when a maG* sard roof is clapped on over them simply stick out and look foolish, as confessed pieces of made architecture, besides destroying all the grace of outline which would have been gained if the butldiogs had been roofed as its walls assert that it was meant to be roofed. Whether this absurdity is the architect's fault—which is difficult to believe—or that of his client's, it is to be hoped that there is enough perception of architectural proprieties among the clergy and laity of the archdiocese to insist upon the removal of these mon¬ strosities, which vulgarize not only the buildings they cover, but the more important building to which they are appendages, and to replace them with respectable roofa. In Fifth avenue, between Fifty-sixth and Fifty-seventh atreeta, •