HEARTH And HOME

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19498, 20 December 1928, Page 4

HEARTH And HOME

(By "Builder.")

"Builder" invites contributions from readers on any matters of interest which they might like to propose. Correspondence on various subjects peitaining to building will also be accepted.

NOTES.

Mr 0. Hands, secretary, Prebbleton Library, is calling tenders for the painting of the Library and other buildings. Mr G. W. Haines, 176 Hereford street, Christchurch, is inviting tenders, closing at noon on December 24th, for the erection of show buildings at Methven for the Methven A. and P. Association. Mr J. S. Guthrie 'will visit Australia early in the New Year in connexion with the plans for the new picture theatre in the Royal Exchange Buildings. The world's first spherical building was at Dresden, Germany, the feature of the Centennial Exhibition of the Saxony technical schools. The structure is of six storeys, thirty metres high, and twenty-four metres in diameter. It is equipped with an elevator. On the fifth and sixth floors is a restaurant. There are ten stores on the ground floor. The building covers an area of 100 square metres. Tenders will be received up till 4 p.m. Wednesday, January 9th, for the erection of offices {in brick) at Culverden, for the Amuri County Council. Mr J. S. Guthrie, 178 Manchester street, is the architect. This week work is being commenced on the excavations for the foundations for the reinforced concrete building to be eretced at the corner of Cambridge terrace and Gloucester street, for Mr E. A. Suckling. It will be of three storeys, with a frontage of 56 feet to Cambridge terrace and a depth of 84ft, and will be divided into suites of rooms for the medical ana dental professions. The cost of the structure will be about £IB,OOO. Mr G. T. Lucas is the arrh : tect, *nd Mes-rs P. Graham and Son are the building contractors. - Corporate irresponsibility is the bane of the construction industry in New York at the present time, according to Edward D. Stout, general manager of the Credit Association of the Building Trades. The use of a corporate name as the owner of a building project has become so prevalent that contractors should secure a personal guarantee of payment from one or more individuals of such companies before signing any contract, iB his advice to members of the organisation. "Practically every building operation in New York is now being erected by a corporation formed for that purpose," said Mr Stout. "Almost every speculative project is being put up by this means, which, when trouble comes, placep little if any financial responsibility upon the promoters interested in its development." Unlike American cities, Paris is planning to build downward rather than upward. The city authorities are unalterably opposed to skyscrapers. They have congestion problems, and one of the solutions favoured is the building of a new street system far below the transit subways which form a network of tunnels under the French capital. Engineers who have been consulted say that the projefet is feasible and may be accomplished at 2,000,000 dollars a mile. The plan, if carried through, would submerge some of the shoppers by putting them down several tiers below the present line of shops. Of course, this is only a supposition advanced by some Parisians. The Government has not advanced any details of the* plans for the underground streets. The prospects are that the new streets would be for the use of heavy traffic. When cars were far and few between, states the "Evening Post" (Wellington), owners thought quite a few times before leaving them on the side of the street, but ran them into town garages for safe keeping, and, equally important, to be out of the sun. When cars became more numerous the garage system largely . broke down through lack of room, until today only a very small proportion of cars brought into town are parked indoors, but it seems very probable that I the garage system, rather differently handled, will have to come into its own again, as is-so in overseas cities. Already the official parks are inadequate to accommodate the city's cars, and business streets are "cluttered up" and narrowed down by standing machines. At each meeting of the City Council the subject comes in for mention in one form or another; one suggestion that has been made several times is that a condition should be made, when applications in respect to new business premises are received, that parking space for tenants' cars should be made in the building or on the land on which it stands. Last Thursday night the matter came up in another form, in the leasing of a city property between Johnston and Waring Taylor streets on a twenty-one-year term to a syndicate, which proposes to erect upon it a five or sixstoreyed indoor park. At the present time the details of the building are not settled, as to the best method of lifting cars to the upper storeys, etc., but enquiries are being made in the "United States.

NEW YORK'S SKYLINE. ANOTHER LOFTY PEAK. Visitors to New York for the first time have described their initial impression of the sky-line of the great metropolis as similar to that experienced when picking out the peaks in a towering range of mountains. The newest tower structure on the sky-line will be ready for occupancy in March. This new structure rises 630 feet above the street level and 708 feet above the sea level. Architecturally it is Italian Renaissance, forty-four storeys high. The site is 75 feet bv 200 feet, and its volume 7,000,000 cubic feet. The net floor area is 350,000 square feet. The cost of the structure is approximately 9,000,000 dollars. Because of its location and the character of the surrounding development this tower is assured of _ unusual opportunity for sunlight and air. From the twelfth storey to the forty-fourth uninterrupted sunlight is ensured, according to the owners. Greater London has increased in population by more than 2,000,000 v since 1889, when the London County Council came into being.

RENT RESTRICTION.

PLENTY OF HOUSES. A City land agent expressed the hope yesterday that the new Government would not be influenced by statements made by Labour members of Parliament, notably by Mr P. Fraser, in the debate in the House on the subject of rent restriction. He characterised Mr Eraser's statements as ridiculous, and Baid that he was greatly surprised that such propaganda, contrary to fact as it was, had not so far been refuted. "In ten minutes," he said, "I could take you round land agents with 300 houses on their books. Take Hereford street, admitted by most people to be a good street. Well, I have on my books a beautifnl bungalow in Hereford street east, facing north, with garden and fruit trees, yet I cannot let it for 27s 6d a week." The land agent said that the Rent , Restriction Act was designed to protect unfortunate people who could not own the houses they lived in during the war, but it had outlived its usefulness. It had never really been justified, and its effect had been the reverse of what was intended. The ordinary builder or speculator erected houses for sale like any other commodity or for letting purposes, and the Act came along and dictated to him as to how much he was to charge his tenants and restricted him in other ways. This absolutely killed the business. If there had been no Act there would have been a certain amount of hardship, but the position would have righted itself. For a time house property was a profitable investment, and in due course capital would have been attracted in sufficient quantities, correcting the housing shortage, without any irritating, legislation. The position at present was that the demand had been caught up and passed by supply, with the result that there were plenty of house-ovj-ners who were not getting 5 per cent, on their money, after rates and insurance were met. There was not a lawyer in town who could tell a landlord exactly where he stood under the Rent Restriction Act, and yet it had been continued. Mr Fraser represented an electorate in which there were slums', but even in that city, notorious for its housing problem, a tenant who could pay his way and treat a landlord properly could obtain almost any kind of house he desired.

WEALTH IN BUILDINGS CAPITOL WORTH 53,000,000 DOLLARS. V The national Capitol in Washington is the most valuable building in the United States and one of the most costly in the world. The value of the seat of the American Government i& 53,000,000 dollars, according to Stanley K. Green, president of the Noyen National Realty Corporation, who, as a result of a survey of the world's most valuable structures, expressed the opinion that the price of modern commercial structures is rapidly approaching the money pul into Government building or monumental projects. An example cited by Mr Green is the sev-enty-five storey Chicago apparel mart, which, when completed in will represent a 45,000,000 dollars investment. "The construction cost of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, one of the most costly structures in existence, has been estimated at 50,000,000 dollars, only 5,000,000 dollars more than will be spent to erect the Chicago skyscraper, which will be the highest building in the world," continued Mr Green. "The Taj Mahal cost but an estimated 10,000,000 dollars to erect. "The Equitablt Building in New York is probably tne most expensive commercial building in the world. It is as. sessed at 31,000,000 dollars. The Stevens Hotel in Chicago is a close second in value, this hotel having an estimated value of 30.000,000 dollars. The White House, the residence of the President, is the most expensive dwelling in the country. Realty experts of the Government estimate its value at 22,000,000 dollars. - "New York leads the world in costly commercial structures, having twentytwo buildings now standing which have a value of 10,000,000 dollars or more. Chicago comes second with six commercial buildings with a valuation of more than 10,000,000 dollars.

AMERICAN SKYSCRAPERS. A FALSE IMPRESSION. The average height of American office buildings is approximately twelve storeys. New York and Chicago are the only two cities where the height of commerical buildings is considerably in excess of the national average. Thirty-two of the largest skyscrapers in New' York have an average of thirty-four storeys each, while in Chicago the average height of a similar number of the largest skyscrapers is twenty-two storeys. "Although the steely skeleton building, which gave origin to the term 'skyscraper,' was developed nearly half a century ago, American builders have undertaken the general construction of truly tall buildings only comparatively recently," said Walter W. Ahlschlager, architect, who has designed the seven-ty-five storey Chicago Apparel Mart, which, when completed, will be the highest building in the world: _ "The impression prevails that America is a land, crowded with huge skyscrapers, but this is untrue. The impression grows because New York and Chicago have numbers of tall buildings and because almost every city has one or more buildings which stand out above the others, but the general tendency toward really tall buildings is a recent development. This is due to the fact that economic conditions have just reached the point where the skyscraper justifies itself. "Twenty years ago a forty-storey building would have been of doubtful financial success To-day we have many high buildings paying their way, and the seventv-five storey Chicago Apparel Mart has been planned on a basis whereby, with rentals below average, it will return a profit. Modern building developments and the use of air rights make this possible. "There are many cities now where a building less than 130 feet high does not give a fair return On the investment in land. Zoning restrictions are being revised in a number of cities and the skyscraper, wisely planned, is recognised as meeting an economic need. "The next ten years will undoubtedly see the American reputation for large numbers of skyscrapers fulfilled, and it is not fantastic to predict that within a decade the average height of firstclass commercial buildings in the United States will be twenty storeys, and there will be many buildings which will be more than double the average."

AUCKLAND ASSOCIATION. ~t —

ANNUAL MEETING. Mr N. Cole presided at the anuual meeting of the Auckland Master Builders' Association. The report stated that the Association continued to do good service in the interests of its members, particularly in the settlement of matters of interpretation of specifications and other difficulties that were apt to occur between architects or owners and builders in connexion with building contracts. Various questions with regard to claims by workmen had been dealt with during the year in Conciliation Council, or in the Arbitration Court, and the Association had proved useful in negotiation where complaints were made that awards were not being strictly complied with. Reference was made to slackness of building, especially of residential properties during the past year, and of the consequent cuttiug of prices and risky trading that had ensued with unpleasant effect upon various conti actors. Consideration had been given to several schemes in the endeavour to seoure protection for qualified builders against existing evils, but while a remedy was admittedly difficult, it was hoped that improved conditions would result within the coming year. " The executive of the federation in Wellington had been watchful of legislation affecting builders, and opportunity -had been given the several associations in the Dominion of discussing -<roposed amendments of the Scaffolding Act and the establishment of a laboratory foi preservation of timber. Legal rulings were obtained in certain cases where mutters of general application were involved. The following officers were elected: President, Mr N. Cole: vice-presidenta, Messrs C. W. Ravenhall and K. A. Cornish; treasurer, Mr J. H. Hutchmson; auditor. Mr C. J. Bishop: committee, Messrs N. A. Coyle. G G. Pollard. R. H. Thurlow, A. J. Morne, C J. Bishop, S. L. Wallath, 0. E. Bartleet, T. L. Buckley, W. J. Mann ; t advisory committee and architects hoard, Messrs E. B Bambury, G, G. Pollard, fcnd J. H Hutchinson; delegates to annual conference, Messrs N. Cole, and N. A. Coyle. , At the conclusion of the business the president entertained members at a social.

NEW SYNAGOGUE. (PBBSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, December 19. The old Hebrew Synagogue on the Terrace is being demolished to make wav for a new brick and concrete sty-uc-luw costing £II,OOO. The Synagogue was about 1874 The foundation stone of the new building will be laid about the middle of next month. A double-fronted house with a large garden at Watlington, Norfolk, which was bought with pennies, the thirty years' saving of the wife of a railway signalman, has just been sold for a (rood round sum. The thrifty woman, who is now dead, saved every penny ehe received in change, changed them into silver, and 'the silver into gold, and one day astounded her husband by announcing that she had bought the house. Have you anything to sell-Do you wish to Buy? If so. a smal ment in the classified section of Thb Peess will be all you need. 12 words Is, three insertions 2s 6d. °