2l8'-____________________________RECORD   -AND    GUIDE_________                  January 30, 1904

as is predicted, money can be borrowed on real estate after the      It is calculated that a house of this character can be leased bji

bill has become a law, for one-half of one per cent. less than it     the owner unfurnished to a lessee at the rate of about one dollai

can be borrowed now, the result will be, in the aggregate, a sav-      and twenty-flve cents per week per room—the difference of three

ing to property amounting to many millions of dollars a year;      dollars and seventy-five cents being the amount assigned to th(

and this saving would, as Mr. Hurd states, react favorably upon     latter for the cost of furniture, and to meet running charges ant

■the value of real property.    The present opportunity seems so      provide profit, etc.    Supposing the furniture of each room to be

favorable for the passage of the bill, and the settlement of this      worth  one hundred dollars, then  the necessary outlay for the

vexed question, that property-owners, builders, brokers, opera-      equipment of the house will  be twelve  thousand  dollars.    But

lors and building material dealers should all, as is suggested in      not all  of this amount will be required in cash.    Perhaps noi

the. letter, exercise what influence they can at Albany in favor of      more than flve thousand dollars down will be needed and the

.its enactment.                                                                                                lessee's equity in the furniture will provide a security for the

_________,_________                                             lease.

„.        „           ..        -             ,. IJ       ,)          ^    -4.      I      *      4.          -'^^ ^^ '■^^ owner's investment, it is supposed that he will pay

Ihe   UrOWtn   ot   an        Idea       and   its   Latest     fifty thousand dollars for the land and sixty-five thousand dol-

Modification.                                         ^^''^ ^°'' "^^^ construction of the building, one hundred aud fifteeB

.   _,  .                ,,,                         ,.                 ■         .u    fl    .-           .        t       thousand dollars in all, upon which he will carry a morteace ol

IT IS more than a generation ago since the first apartment-      t,„„„„f„ «„.,,           ,,  a  ,,          . ^             .          ,         ^loii-sasc ui

house  in  this  city  was  orected-the Stuyvesant on  East      f' °";°l„ s b^     A   TT '        \u              .      '" """^ °"

Eighteenth Street.    The experiment, an importation itself, due.      ''""''' f J'"''^' ,'^■"' ''^•^"^ ■" ""=^ ';»>-' "' «">='" " ■»'

no doubt, to a suggestion derived from the French experiences      Jia^as "oHo^^;^'"''' "'"='■"«■" <" "rty-thousand dollars somel

of  its  architect,  still  exists  devoted   to  its  original  purposes.                                  '

To-day Manhattan is a city of apartment-houses.                                ^^^^ p^,. ^^^^^_         .....                                               "■-

Perhaps it cannot be said that in the whirl that has produced     ^^^^^^^^ ^^ j^^^O^O at 4^^%...            .............  $3 375

this change, the idea of the initial building has been actually      Taxes     sav                    "                        .........    I'joo

outgrown; but it is plain enough that the development of this      -v^rater rent' say...............................      200

type of domicile, which possibly has been the characteristic fact     iTigurance    sav

ot building operations in the last thirty-five years, has carried                       '         .................................

us away an immense distance from the beginning.    The plain                                                                                                                      ^M

uncomplicated flat—the home of "one direction" as the geome-                        „  .                                                                     o'ooc                ^|

trician might say—the more highly developed apartment-house,                                      ...............................                      ^|

the apartment-hotel, the bachelor apartment-house, these, with

S8 000        JR 000

their minor  derivations  and   modifications,   are the steps   by         st„„,„g ^ p,„„j „, ^j„„j ^^

which   New  York   has   been   rendered   "homeless."   conquered.

overrun, revolutionized by Hunfs modest experiment,  the idea         These   are    the    rough    calculations    susceptible    to    modi-

of '69.   Have we reached the limit of that "idea"?                               fication and amendments in many items.    Calculations of this

The private house, in the full sense of the term, within the      kind,   as  everybody  is aware  contain  queer  twists  and  unex-

bounds of Manhattan, is fast becoming the  trade-mark of our     pected outcomes.   Nobody would care to certify in advauce to the

most  flagrant  millionaires,  the  smaller house  for  the  man of     result before a notary.    Nevertheless, figures are the prelimin-

smaller, but still substantial, means is almost extinct;  and, as     ?'"'ies to enterprise, and indicate in a general way the possibilities

for the "m&n on a salary list," the really poor person, the tene-      of  the  case.    Be  the  flgures  true  witnesses  or  not,  however,

ment-house has long been his fixed and ouly habitat, unless—      the experiment is to be tried, and so  the initial computations

and this is the last awful retreat—he boards, or "rooms."                  will   in  the  course of time be substantiated or  chastened  and'

We see that the apartment "idea" has dominated everywhere      corrected by experience, or refined and modified by the hand of

«lse.    Is there opportunity for advance and  conquest in this      skillful  finance to a success beyond the anticipations of the

direction also?    Apparently there is.    At any rate an attempt      pioneers.

is to be made, indeed, is already making.   And this is how the         The "roomer," of course, has yet to be heard from.    Many

innovators are calculating.   Those who "room" are a multitude,      questions suggest themselves.   Can he afford, or, at least, how

scattered, ill contented,  waging war with sour landladies  and      many of his kind can afford five dollars a week for the needed

inpecunious landlords.    Are uot they, like the rest of us, ac-     modest requirements?     Will   "modern   improvements"   seduce

cessible to the blandishments of "modern  improvements,"  hot      I'im f'"oin the old time landlady and her cheap, if inadequate,

and  cold running water, steam heat,  tiled bath-rooms, and so      felicities?    Human nature and particularly the pocket-books ot

forth?    Why, even  the tenement houses, that is,  the new law      ordinary human nature have their limits, and possibly here is a

products, possess them, and by and by they too will be fireproof      case where even the "idea" will prove inadequate to the re-

and equipped with elevators.    We are moving rapidly in that      quired result,

direction and the demand for "improvements" is persistent even                                            ■     =-------♦--------------

where the law is hot Insistent; and indeed, are not ttiesc con-         Soundness of Concrete Construction.

veniences the essence of the    idea,    and if so, why should uot

this  multitude of  "roomers"  be  apartmentised.    For  we must      To  the  Editor  of  The   Record  and  Guide:

not overlook the fact—and this is part of the calculation-that         Whenever one has the presumption to question the dictum of

two principles of merchandising are a proved financial success in      ^^  architect   upon  concrete  construction,   he  immediately  goes

New York.    The principle of the very expensive and the prin-      ^^^^.^^ .^^^ ^^^.^^^ ^.^^^^,^_ ^^^ ^^ ^^ illustration of the dura-

ciple of the very inexpensive, so long always as the product of      , .,.         ^                                          ,        t..      ,                  ^           ._   -,    o-

,    ,,    ,            ,               _,          ^      ,   1        ,^1,     ■   ..           ,-,-.,      fl  , 1      bility  of concrete,   trots  out  the  "Pantheon"  at  Rome,  built 23

both IS modern and up to date.    The intermediate is the field

of failui-e.    Or to express the matter illustratively and by refer-      ^^^^^     ■    ■■

ence to two conspicuous but antithetical exemplars of the stated                         "In  the eider days of Art

processes—the   Delmonico   principle   and   the   Child   principle.                              Builders   wrought   with   greatest   care

seem to govern us here in New York.    Speaking in these terms                           ^=ich minute and unseen  pari;

then and from the point of view, the problem involved in the                              ^°'^ ^^^ ^°^^ ^^^ everywhere."

new housing project is to reduce the Delmonico apartment-house        The bearings of this observation are in the application on ifl

standard to a thoroughly Child basis, and thus provide for and      as Jack Bunsby says, and as the "Pantheon" was, as its nam

capture the "roomer."                                                                      ■ ■            implies, erected to all the gods, they probably saw to it that tH

.T,    ., .         J ..1.       1       ■    ,            1.        -      i.        1    -ij-                 1  •.      Rreatest care was given to its construction; and here is the vera

To this end the plan is to erect a six-story building on a lot     ^                                      ...           ,  ,.                                ,    ■         s

.n  ,nn   .    .     „.        .      .                ,  ,        ,          ,   .            ...                point I wished to emphasize in my letter; great care and constai

50x100  feet.    The  structure  must be  planned  to meet  the  re-      ^^^^^^^^-.^^ j^ concrete construction.

quirements of the hotel provisions of the building law. This         ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^ appears from Mr. Angell's letter, that concrete i
necessitates fireproofing; but then, as a compensation, ninety     p^^ j^ to-day by men handling hoes and shovels, may accoui^
per cent, of the lot can be covered, as against sixty-two per     far that other fact, that present day concrete is not durable:
cent, under the stricter requirements of the tenement-bouse     "Fireproof" of September last, on pages 30. <!1 and 32, are photoS
law. On each fioor of the proposed building there will be twenty      graphs of a concrete building in Chicago, erected about twenty
rooms, each room 9x15, equipped with closets and hot and cold     years ago—the walls crumbling away and necessitating the tear-
running water and, of course, steam heat. A bath-room will be     ins down of the 'building. In Europe all concrete operatives are
provided for each three rooms, so that, as the apartments will     held to the highest development and standard of skilled work-
intercommunicate, it will always be possible to rent to a tenant     nianship; and I perfectly agree with Mr. Angell that it la a
^, . , J i- ^, J          misnomer to call the men of hoe and shovel skilled workmen,
that may reQuirc so much accommodation, three rooms and a         ^^ ^^^ ^^^.^^ ^^^^ _^^_^^^^,^ ,^ ,^^ „^(^^,., ,„ ^^.           ,^„„_

bath-room as a single unit, rinally. an elevator will he installed.      ^^^.^^^   ^^^ ^._^,,^^ construction; but when you come to walls.
Now, this plan permits, in a huUding ot the size mentioned,      egpecaiiy m our varying climate, and floors, it becomes an al¬
one hundred and twenty rooms, all of which presumably may      together different proposition.                                 A. MUI.LBR.
be rented furnished for four or five dollars per room per week.         628 Carlton av. Brooklyn, January 25th, 1904.