Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 82, no. 2117: October 10, 1908

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684 RECORD AND GUIDE October lo, 1908 fflllv: ^^______^ _^_ ^ 1868, Devoted pF^LE^ATE.BmLDiKi5%c^rTEcriiji^EMotJSEiloii.DDai(j^ BusiWess AifoThemes of Ge|1er^V IMtehesi.; PRICE PER YEAR IN ADVANCE EIGHT DOLLARS Communications should be addressed to C. W, SWEET Published Every Saturday By THE RECORD AND GUIDE CO. President CLINTON W. SWEET Treasurer, F. W. DODGB Vice-Pres. Sc Genl, Mgr., H, W. DESMOND Secretary, F. T. MILLER Noa. 11 to 15 East 24tli S(i-oet. New York City (Teleplione, Madison Square, ^430 to 4433.) "Entered at iho Post Office at New York, N. Y., of s-eoiid-rlass matler." Copyriglited, 1C03, by The Record & Guide Co. Vol, LXXXII, OCTOBER 10, 190S. No. 2117 (Continued from page 6S3.) he won't, as the saying is, "walk to eat." The Record and Guide, therefore, as the leading trade and building conslruc¬ tion paper in New York City, has oecided to reverse the old saying and bring the mountain to Mohammed. We will pub¬ lish an "Opportunity- Number," wherein the leading brokers, operators and corporations interested in real estate will point out where, in their judgment, the great "Opportunities" lie. This number will be issued early in December, shortly after election, when people wiil have buckled down lo business with the assurance of political calm, aud no doubt with in¬ creasing business activity and confidence based upon a vastly brighter outlook. Every sign visible today is of au optimistic nature. Business is certainly reviving all along the line. Crops, so far. are more than satisfactory. IVIanu- factories are opening up, production is increasing and the purchasing power of the people is plainly much greater than it was. In other words, the procession is on the move. Some will get In on the band wagon, but others wil! walk, some trailing along at the end. The Record and Guide, with the "OPPORTUNITY NUMBER," wants to help those who are thoroughly alert. ' This "OPPORTUNITY NUMBER" will contain Important articles contributed by many of our leading constructors, building material firms, real estate brokers aud operators. It will be fully illustrated so that its contents will insure its being very carefully read and studied by the vast number of capitalists, specialists and the public,'who are today finan¬ cially interested in real estate and building. Everybody wants to know where money can be made. Everybody turns, in what may be called an investing frame of mind, to any serious story along this line. Everybody is seeking "Opportunities." The publication of the "OPPOR¬ TUNITY NUMBER" of the Record and Guide will be the psy¬ chological moment for all who have anything to sell in con¬ nection with building and real estate. Therefore this "OP¬ PORTUNITY NUMBER" of the Record and Guide offers un usual advantages to advertisers and to all who are desirous of stimulating their business or increasing the force of their sales department. house work, taking the city over, is going ahead faster than last year at this time, for the plans filed during the last quar-, ter represented an appropriation of six hundred thousand dol¬ lars in excess of the sum specified by the plans in the third quarter of 1907. In the month of September the total amount of all work planned in each of the three largest boroughs ex¬ ceeded both in number of buildings and in estimated cost the records in these respects made by September, 1907. In Man¬ hattan tenement work has been slower in overtaking the record of the previous year than any other class of work, but the improvement in this respect will in all probability be more marked from now on, judging from the number of loans that are being made, in amount much greater than a year ago. One of the large lending corporations, to give a specific ex¬ ample, reports that its mortgage business for September of this year was more than three times that in September of last year. It is to be said, however, that not all the work that has been planned since midsummer has yet been trans¬ formed into signed building contracts even when suffieient time has elapsed, as a feeling is abroad that some advantage is to be gained by waiting until political questions are settled by the election. Other investors are taking advantage of this general disposition to make their contracts before the event with the expectation that they will save both in time and cost. They have faith in the recuperating power of this great coun¬ try of ours regardless of anything that can possibly happen, in politics at this time. No one should worry about impos¬ sibilities. To estimate the amount of work that is being held back-is not possible, but if it shall all be released after elec¬ tion dav busy times for contractors will begin about then, though "the full benefit to the trades will not be observable for several months to come, or, with allowances for the em¬ bargo of the winter season, not until next spring. /-|-^ HE upturn in building operations in New York since the i first of July was emphasized strongly in the quarterly and monthly reports appearing in last week's Record and Guide, where it was set forth that the estimated cost of the build¬ ings for which plans were filed in Manhattan during the last quarter exceeded the sum represented by the filings in the corresponding quarter of last year by four million of dollars, the increase being principally in office and loft buiid¬ ings. In the Bronx also the reeord of the quarter just ended surpasses that of the corresponding quarter in the year 1907, both in the number of buildings and in the estimated cost, the increase being mostly in dwellings and tenements, as is natural for this borough it it is to make progress. It is sig¬ nificant of the turn which affaire have taken that tenement- NOW that the plan for widening the roadway of Fifth Avenue from Twenty-fifth to Forty-seventh Streets has been definitely undertaken, the Bureau of Highways should consider one consequence of the widening, which hitherto has not received enough attention. We refer to the increased difficulty of crossing the widened higiiway. A pedestrian can cross a street forty feet from curb to curb with comparative ease even when the vehicular traffic is heavy. But a street fifty-five feet wide is a very different matter. Such a thoroughfare, when used by a large num¬ ber of vehicles, cannot be crossed with safety, unless islands are placed in the middle of the roadway upon which pedes¬ trians can remain until they find a chance of getting through the second stream of traffic, which will, of course, he travel¬ ing in a direction opposite from the first. This is the prac¬ tice in all European cities, and it must eventually be adopted on Fifth Avenue. The vehicular traffic on that avenue will undoubtedly largely increase, not only on account of the widening itself, but because of the inevitable augmentation in the use of motor-cars. In the taxicab systems. New York has for the flrst time a cab service which is satisfactory and which is destined to grow rapidly from year to year, and. of course, the good private cars, which are now being put upon the market at a comparatively low price, will soon multiply even the existing large number of automobiles in the hands of individual owners. As a consequence, Fifth Avenue will be more than ever flooded with two streams of rapidly mov¬ ing vehicles; and the safety of the pedestrian absolutely de¬ mands an island opposite every corner on which he can stop and await his chance. Moreover, these islands are just as necessary in the interest of the storekeepers of Fifth Avenue as Ihey are in that of pedestrians. Any considerable diffi¬ culty in crossing the avenue will deprive them of a great deal of trade. It is essential for their prosperity that shop¬ pers should be able to get to a store on the other side of the avenue without too much delay and without anxiety. The Fifth Avenue Association should, in their own interest, take this matter up, and see that the pians for the improvement comprise an adequate number of "Isles of Safety in the middle of the widened roadway. rr* he''Bunding Code Revision Commission has finally an- X nounced theltind and degree of limitation which It proposes lo place upon the erection of skyscrapers. In gen¬ eral the proposed regulation would restrict the height of office buildings, to 300 feet on ordinary streeta and 350 feet on public squares. That a regulation of this kind should he called a restriction is an interesting comment on the change which has recently taken place in the standard of office building construction. Only a few years ago there was but