Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 87, no. 2258: June 24, 1911

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Vol. LXXXVII JUNE 24, 1911 No. 2258 HAS THE NEW YORK SKYSCRAPER REACHED ITS LIMIT? Prospective Effects of the Removal of the Post Office — Manhattan's "Billion-Dollar Mile" and Its Relation to Commercial Migration Uptown. SINCE the plan to remove the city's main Post Ollice uptown to "West 33d street was announced real estate men have been wondering wlielher lower Man¬ hattan will retain its supremacy in the matter of tall buildings. Wil! there not be eventually an uptown counterpart of the famous "billion dollar mile" of sky¬ scrapers adjacent to- the existing Post Office? To malce "up one's mind on this point one must first consider why the sky¬ scrapers of New York are practically all centered within the southernmost mil6 of IVIanhattan. It is natural to suppose that the tallest and most imposing structures of the city would be erected in its oldest section. By ALLEN E. BEALS. could have before posting their letters for abroad or for tlie West. Wilh the Post OfHce at City Hall Park it was only a matter of ten minutes to get the mail in before closing time. So the hanking- interests kept to Wall street and they also kept a jealous eye upon the Post Office, lest the populace of a growing city demand that it move with them uptown. Many attempts to change its site were made, especially in later years when the Post Office became too si-nall for the business it had to handle, but Ihey were stifled in their incipiency by flnancial interests. In the meantime Wall street property was each year assessed at a higher flgure is an advertisement to the world that here in New York there is a premium upon light, air and quiet. These elements are costly to-day, even for those seeking liv¬ ing Quarters in this great cily. Capital¬ ists found a solution in buildings so high above their neighbors that they would he beyond the roar of the street and the shadow of other buildings, and so they builded business towers. The American Surety Building was one of the first, but olhers soon followed unlil to-day there are in lower Manhattan almost three hun¬ dred buildings in the skyscraper class. These structures have jumped from twelve stories to fifteen, to eighteen, to twenty, to thirty, lo forty-six and finally Copyright Underwood & Underwood. MANHATTAN'S CHANGING SKYLINE—1010 AND 1011, Since tiie days of the Church in the Fort that has been the nucleus of the city. All the linancial life blood of the lown flowed from that central point. Street car lines radiated from il and the trunk line rail¬ roads of the country brought their pass¬ engers to it from the New Jersey sliore. But why did not the financial district move uptown with other business in¬ terests? Here is suggested the reason for the skyscraper cluster. Before the Post Offlce was flnally established in a section of City Hall Park where it forms a tri¬ angle at the juncture of Broadway and Park Row, Wall street tried hard to have il located at the Battery, witli other Gov¬ ernment buildings. When the Government suggested that il be put where the new Sub-Treasury now is, there was a protest. It was loo noisy, wilh its trucks and shouting mail handlers for the city's financial center, so a compromise was reached and the Post Offlce was placed within reach, yet out of the way of busi¬ ness. Wall street needed the Post Office near it in those days. Transportation by land and sea was slow and bankers and business men needed all the time they and it became necessary to ei'ect larger and flner buildings to make occupancy of the land economically profitable. Tbe dis¬ trict rapidly passed from the four, six, and eight-story grades to tiie ten-story "sky¬ scraper," although not at first in tlie financial section, proper. The skyscraper came from reflected increased values by reason of the congestion already notice¬ able in the lower part of Manhattan. The Tribune, World and other old-time sky¬ scrapers, mark the beginning of the strug¬ gle for supremacy of building lieight, be¬ cause more income had to he obtained from tbe land to meet the constantly in¬ creasing taxes and because speculators soon found that business men saw an ad¬ vantage in locating in distinctive build¬ ings. Here again the influence of the Post Office upon higher offlce building construc¬ tion was felt, because where the main Post Office was there also was to be found the converging of all the principal trafflc lines except one, the New York Central. During al this time New Yorkers have taken pardonable pride in their constanlly changing skyline, hut the reason for the skyscrapers is not so worthy of pride. It lo fifty stories, wlien the Metropolitan tower was erected at Madison square. Now comes the fifty-six-story Woolworth building, opposite the Post Offlce, which, however, is to be removed, after many years of resistance to the migratory in¬ fluences of business. The new Post Offlce site in West 33d street is on the outskirts of the retail and wholesale business, the¬ atre and hotel center of the Greater City. The development of to-day is the block square skyscraper, but it is the mid-town section on the site of Madison Square Garden. In this fact is found the cause of won¬ derment as lo whether the new Municipal Building, the Telephone Building and the Woolworth offlce building will not mark the end of tall building competition down¬ town. In the new center the transporta¬ tion lines of the nation converge between 42d street and SSd and the great trans¬ atlantic steamship companies are docking their giant liners farther and farther up¬ town, leaving the lower section of the city for ferry and freight centers, as far as docking and transportation facilities are concerned- Announcements that giant