Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 89, no. 2287]: January 13, 1912

Text version:

January 13, 1912 RECORD AND GUIDE LESSONS FROM THE EQUITABLE FIRE. Report of a Preliminary Survey By the Underwriters—No Protection on Columns and Beams—Large Floor Areas and Numerous Floor Openings Aided Spread of the Flames. Q INCE the destruction of the Equitable *~^ Building by fire on Tuesday morning, the pians which had been on file at the Building Bureau for a G2-story edifice on the same site have been withdrawn by the architects and the best information obtain¬ able is to the effect that it is improbable they will ever be used. The mem¬ bers of the executive committee of the Equitable Life Assurance Society are re¬ ported lo be almost unanimously of the opinion that the site on which the burned building stands should be sold and a more modest home erected elsewhere. At the Building Bureau and at the local offices of the architects of the projected building the understanding is to the same effect. "We have virtually decided," said an of¬ ficial representative of the insurance com¬ pany, "that the advertisement afforded by a large downtown office building is too costly. We believe better value can be ob¬ tained for our money from advertise¬ ments in the press." The bui'ning of the Equitable Building was one of the biggest fires and on ac¬ count of the intense cold then prevailing it was one of the most trying experiences for firemen in many years. The greater portion of the original building, facing on Broadway, is entirely gutted, and the floors to the extent of one-fourth of the area of the building, to the west end, have collapsed. Seven lives were lost. The as¬ sessed valuation of the building, exclu¬ sive of the vaults was $2,200,000, The original cost was much larger. This was the first iarge office building to be erected in New York. It was also the first "elevator building," in that the flrst section of it was the first building in the cily designed to have an elevator. El¬ evators were in use in the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the St. James Hotel before the Equitable Building was erected, but the buildings were not originallj' intended for elevators. The first section of the Equit¬ able was built in 1869-70. Pireiiruof Construction. The term "fireproof" has meant differ¬ ent things at different eras. Before the Chicago fire it did not exclude wooden doors, window-frames, floors and parti¬ tions—all of wood. The first so-called fire¬ proof building to be erected in this city was the Park Bank, in 1868; the second was the old New Yorlc Life Insurance . Building, in 1S69. The Equitable Build¬ ing was built w-ith granite front walls ih the prevailing French style, with Man¬ sard roof. The interior construction was of masonry partition walls, iron beams and segmental brick arches. It was orig¬ inally five stories high. Jer. T, Smith was the mason; J. G. Patterson the gran¬ ite contractor and J. B. & J. M. Cornell, the iron contractors. The additions at 78 to 82 Cedar street were built in 1874, from plans by E. H. Kendall. In 1887, the building was enlarged to its present symmetrical dimensions, George B. Post being the architect, and David H. King, Jr., the builder. In the first sec¬ tion the fioors were constructed of com¬ mon brick arches between iron beams and furred underneath with metal lath, plas¬ tered, to get level ceilings; the minor par¬ titions were of angle-iron studs, covered with metal lath and plastered. In the added portions of the building the floors were of hollow burnt clay flat arches, be¬ tween iron beams, and the partitions were of burnt clay blocks. In its last form the building was mostly nine stories and basement, except at the northeast and southeast corners, w-hicli were six and seven stories and basement. The area was 48.000 square feel. Walls were mostly stone and brick bearing walls, except the portion at 13-15 Nassau street, which had skeleton walls. Floors of old-style brick arches and part flat tile arches supported on unprotected steel beams, cast iron columns and bearing walls, except in the Nassau street section before mentioned. A Surveyor's Report. Supt. F. J. A. Stewart, of the Bureau of Surveys of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, in a preliminary report, states that there was no protection on col¬ umns or beams in the main building ex¬ cept that afforded by the brick and tile floor arch construction. The floors were surfaced mostly with wood, though there was lile and other incombustible finish in some of the hallways and other minor parts. Floor openings were numerous— stairs, elevators and light shafts. Some stairs and elevators were protected on three sides by terra cotta shafts, but they had open grills or wooden doors on one side. There was one large interior court extending above the second floor; approx¬ imately 35x90 feet, and four shafts, each 10x2s feet, near the north -n'all, enclosed in terra cotta blocks, but having thin glas,-3 window openings to offices and halls. A large portion of the building was occupied by banking concerns, railroad offices, club- rooms and the Equitable offices, all hav¬ ing large unbroken floor areas. The report of Superintendent Stewart further says: tiOention nud Progrress of Fire. "Fire is said lo have started about 5 a. m. in the basement storeroom at the Broadway end. Considerable time is said lo have been wasted before a public flre alarm was turned in, owing to the fact that efforts were made by employees to extinguish the fire. When the Fire De¬ partment finally arrived the fire liad made great headway, principally through stair and elevator shafts to the floors above. The greater portion of the original build¬ ing facing on Broadway is entirely gut¬ ted and the floors to the extent of about one-fourth of the area of the building, at the west end have collapsed. "The rapid spread of the flre seems un¬ doubtedly to have been due to the fact that a number of the tenants occupied large unbroken floor areas, and there was nothing to retard the vertical spread of the fire o-^ving to numerous open light wells, stair and elevator shafts. The spread of the fire was further facilitated by the fact that the abnormally high wind con¬ verted many of the hose streams into flne spray, reducing their effectiveness. Wood was also extensively used in the partitions and interior trim." It is apparent from the foregoing that the building was not "fireproof" as the term is understood now. Perhaps on the w'hole it represented the best construction of Us time. The Equitable Society had both the means and the desire to build in the most substantial manner, but the fact remains that instead of the building be¬ ing one solid unit it was a collection of units of various ages and types of con¬ struction, and planned by different archi¬ tects. The last architect, George B. Post, designed but one corner of the structure as a whole, other than the alterations. With the contents of the building he had nothing to do. The application to present-day construc¬ tion is not very close, so far as the struc¬ ture of the building is concerned, but the reference in the report of Supt. Stewart to "large unbroken floor areas" is signifi¬ cant. There is nothing that will not burn if exposed to flames long enough. The contents of a building rather than the nature of its structure is the danger ele¬ ment in the modern skyscraper. A prom¬ inent underwriter expressed the opinion that the collapse of some of the floors was due primarily to the failure of an unpro¬ tected vertical column. Fire Commissioner Johnson said in a statement that the destruction of the Equitable Building, with its attendant loss of life was an object lesson to New York¬ ers on the danger from methods of con¬ struction in the city. He described the burned building as "an unrelated patch- worli, started forty-two years ago, when the paid department was in its infancy, and W'as known to underwriters as 'sub¬ standard construction.' This simply means that the building was not fireproof; but it was permitted to exist in its haz¬ ardous condition in the face of modern fire preventive construction." "New Yorkers, I fear," his statement goes on, "are under the delusion that New York w-ill always be free from such con¬ flagrations as visited Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. The same fuel for conflagra¬ tion which existed in those cities exists in Manhattan in the old wholesale drygoods district and in the mass of buildings in the "Swamp" and ail the way up the East Side, as well as in several parts of the Brooklyn waterfront. With weather con¬ ditions such as prevailed Tuesday morn¬ ing, and with an area of highly inflamma¬ ble buildings such as exists in the dis¬ tricts I have described, w-ith no barriers of fireproof buildings around them. I am somewhat fearful that history may repeat itself." Stnudintj; WaUs Not MenaciuK. Deputy Commissioner Ludwig, upon an inspection of the ruins, decided that the exterior walls did not present a serious menace to the surrounding buildings. He found the north ■wall, somewhat forced out of plumb, but not to a dangerous degree. AU the walls, however, would have to come down eventually. The Building Bu¬ reau early put Co men at work, flrst, lo make the ruins safe for workmen, and, second, to look for bodies, and incident¬ ally clearing away the debris. Later the force was strengthened to two hundred. Mr. Ludwig said that the plans on file in the Buildmg Bureau showed that the building w-as a composite structure as it had been erected in several sections at different times, and had been the subject of alterations repeatedly. "It has always been supposed," said an insurance man, "that what is know'n as the old style fireproof building, which has brick arches and exposed iron beams, was a good risk when the structure was used as an office structure as was the Equi¬ table Building. It has been clearly demon¬ strated that the old style fireproof struc¬ ture is not as safe as has been presumed." The Equitable Building was distin¬ guished from others of its kind chiefly by the magnificence of its appointments and finishings. Artistically it was one of the finest specimens of American architecture, and for more than thirty years was one of the show places of the city. Its mar¬ ble wainscotings on every one of its eleven floors, with bronze and marble statuary accentuating its mural decora¬ tions, gave to it a character that bespoke both excellent taste and lavish and un¬ hampered expenditure on the part of Henry E. Hyde, who founded the insur¬ ance company that was housed within its marble walls. The general design of the building was the Renaissance, the roof of the structure being finished with cupolas several stories high set around the base of a gigantic tower. The building was last assessed on the tax books at $12,100,000—$9,500,000 for the land, $2,200,000 for buildings and §400,000 for vaults. It was in 190S that the society figured for a time on erecting the tallest building in the world on the site. Plans were drawn by architects and estimates of the cost obtained. The building was to be sixty-two stories in height—909 feet in the air—not counting a flag pole. This would have made it 209 feet higher than the Metropolitan Life Building, 292 feet higher than the Singer, 354 feet higher than the Washington Monument, and 75 feet lower than the Eiffel Tower. The cost was estimated at $10,000,000 which, with the $10,000,000 valuation on the land, would have made the amount in¬ vested $25,000,000. The present inten¬ tion of the directors is reported to be to abandon this enterprise for a less costly one. The first architect was Bradford L. Gil¬ bert, who, with the founder of the so¬ ciety, planned things in the construction and accommodations of an office building that had never before been attempted. The first unit of the immense structure was erected at the southeast corner of Broadway and Cedar street. It was oc¬ cupied in 1S70, and was enlarged until the building fronted on four streets. A Growing Town, The city of Poughkeepsie is at present growing faster than any other place on the central Hudson. Last year it erected lb9 buildings of ali descriptions. When It IS remembered that the Hudson River towns were for many years—following the panic of 1S93 and up to the present dec¬ ade—almost lifeless in their real estate and construction departments, the rec¬ ord made by Poughkeepsie last year is significant of a decided ciiange for the better along the river. Poughkeepsie has recently acquired a number of new manufacturing industries and is also getting the beneflt of an im¬ proved back-country ti-ade, owing to the prosperous times farmers are having at the expense of those who must pay high prices for farm products. Poughkeepsie, Newburgh and Kingston have for genera¬ tions grown at about the same slow rate. They were thriving centers for large sec¬ tions of Eastern New York State before the Erie Canal and the railroads were built, and long before the big cities of the West were on the map.