THE LAST SKYSCRAPER

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25090, 23 January 1947, Page 6

THE LAST SKYSCRAPER

UNITED NATIONS

[By FREDERICK GUTHEIM in the “Nation.”] (Reprinted by Exclusive Arrangement.)

Here first the duties of to-day, the lessons of the concrete. Wealth, order, travel, shelter, products, plenty; As of the building of some varied, vast, perpetual edifice,. Whence to arise inevitable in time, the towering roofs, the lamps. The solid-planted spires tall shooting to the stars. So Walt Whitman. But this original lover of Manhattan does not translate too well. Else he might have made some things clear to the delegates to the United Nations Assembly who recently decided to build their headquarters in a derelict area along the East river. He gives sounder advice than the delegates received from their technical commission of expert planners. Or from the daily papers. The best thing an editorial writer in the New York “Times” could find to say about this site was that it had plenty of rock under it. On the first page of the “Times” a more objective account noted the abattoirs, warehouses, parking lots, and Dead End kids. But clearly the United Nations are not interested in what they find on the site to-day. All that can be scraped clean. They are interested in getting down to the virgin rock and deciding what can be built there. Having accepted, on the recommendation of the United States Government and with the co-operation of the city of New York, the East river site offered by John D. Rockefeller, where does the U.N. go from here? The headquarters building must now be planned to accommodate all the U.N.’s many and varied activities. Only a Radio City type of development can fill the bill, a city of skyscrapers. But the U.N. city will stand within a city that already exists, and in one of the worst parts of the city. What limitations does this impose? The site offers no possibility of expansion; and the U.N., we hope, is to be a growing organisation. The site is too small to give much opportunity for an architectural setting, and space for many of the supporting services must be provided in the vicinity. But perhaps most important is the lack of what the French call ambiance—the lack of a suitable atmosphere, a congenial . environment. In our language we have neither the word nor the idea.

The previous owners of this site, who assembled it with the idea of creating another and larger Radio City, appear to have relinquished their plan because the co-operation of the city was necessary not only to enable them to acquire some remaining small segments of property and tp pre-empt space intended for a municipal park, but to assure the construction of a 1000 subway line to the area. Quite a lot more will be expected of the city by the new owners. i

Housing in U.N. Community In the highly professional report of the Headquarters Commission we find an analysis of the U.N.’s requirements. The housing needs of the U.N. community are set off against a bleak and cheerless summary of New York’s housing situation. With 7000 employees and their dependants. 4000 transient visitors, and the necessary service population, this community is estimated to total 52,530 persons. On the five and one half city blocks of the East river site, of course no such numbers can be accommodated. The employees of the U.N., 40 per cent, of whom earn less than 2500 dollars a year, will be fortunate il any housing is provided for them on or off the site, and the U.N. must begin to count on a permanent upward revision of the quota of American nationals it employs. The 18 acres of land along the East river will meet only the barest requirements of the United Nations.

The General Assembly must have a hall seating 1000 persons, with space for 3000 more in balconies: it must also have seven large committee rooms accommodating 400 persons, and 10 smaller rooms for 30 to 100 persons. The Security Council will need its own chamber for 200, with space for 2000 in balconies, and with seven large and two or more small committee rooms. The Economic and Social Council and the Trusteeship Council will share a third hall seating 175. with 500 in balconies, two large committee rooms, and five small ones. Nine specialised international agencies working closely with the U.N. will have staffs totalling 2500. for which room must be provided. An estimated 70 permanent missions will have staffs totalling persons.

Offices for the secretariat itself form, of course, the largest item. These will require 1.675.000 square feet. Two

small halls for lectures, films, and so on will require 15,000 square feet each. A library of a million volumes, various restaurants, bars, and lounges, arid radio and communication facilities complete the main features of the plan. With Radio City in mind, one need not doubt that this array of buildings can be erected on the chosen site. Some may even find encouragement in the fact that buildings so like their model will have a high degree of convertibility and a good resale value. Should the U.N. disintegrate, or be replaced by another and more effective form of wdrld government, no embarrassing monument like that at Geneva need stand empty to remind us of our failure to create the Parliament of Man. A Gamble? Whether New York City can bring about a sufficient measure of urban redevelopment to justify the U.N.’s gamble with this site is open to question. Few city planners will take a cheerful view of the possibility. New York real estate, particularly in Manhattan, is very sick, Despite the current false health of post-war conditions, it suffers from a chronic disease caused by the widespread movement toward metropolitan decentralisation and over-inflated realty values. U.N. delegates, most of whom come from cities a good deal smaller than Buffalo, whose adminit. trations have a large measure of control over land, may be forgiven fbr, miscalculating the importance of this factor. But our own representative have a heavy responsibility. It is too early to say that we have sold the U.N. a gold brick. But it is beginning ter look that way. Robert Moses apparently believes the U.N. will be satisfied if he rezones a fringe a block wide round the site. He can also be prevailed on, as a disciple of Baron Haussmann, to plan some monumental approaches to the U.N. headquarters. But corridor streets and pretty facades are not enough. More comprehensive planning, more municipal land ownership, and more directly controlled building plans are called for. Fifteen years have passed since the last skyscraper of any consequence was built. The U.N. skyscrapers will undoubtedly be the last we shall erect. In what now seems an ironic proposal Lewis Mumford, our most distinguished student, of architecture and city planning, recommended last summer that the United Nations select some portion of a great metropolis and redevelop it as an axample for warshattered cities. The distinguished French technical representative on the Headquarters Commission, Mr le Corbusier. has boldly championed the idea of the “vertical garden city”—a skyscraper solution to the U.N.'s site problem. Are these brave concepiione to be mocked? •

Job for American Architects In constructing the 1000-foot skyscrapers of U.N. the technical abilities of American architects and engineers will be put to the test. Bulging technicians of other nations cannot seriously compete in manipulating this essentially American building form. No other engineers are qualified by training or experience to deal with the complex questions of heating, ventilating, air conditioning, elevators, escalators, and the myriad mechanical devices that make the skyscraper possible. The only architectural expression admissible will be a tight and economical functionalism not materially different from the rent barracks of Manhattan. The possibility of an international architectural competition is an absurdity. Since American architects will inevitably determine the form of the buildings, the U.N. Headquarters Commission might well be advised to place the design problem in the hands of the Public Buildings Administration. The recently retired supervising architect of the P.8.A.. George Howe, of Philadelphia. is admirably qualified for this task by his experience in designing for the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society a skyscraper more modern than any in New York. Or the P.B.A. might make use of the experience of New York’s outstanding exponent of skyscraper design, Wallace K. Harrison, co-designer of Radio City, who has for months been at work on the development of this very East river area for Wedd and Knapp. With such designers, and a determined effort on the part of the New York City Planning Comrpission. it may yet be possible to erect or\ this most difficult and unpromising site a building that can speak to the world.