SKYSCRAPER PERILS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 87, 6 January 1908, Page 10

SKYSCRAPER PERILS.

! Freak, skyscrapcrbuildings arc all right for advertising purposes, but (says tho New York correspondent of tho "Daily Telegraph")' they' disfigure tho city and are dangerous' from the standpoint of fn'£<. t This is tho verdict of tho Building Commission here; who will order that .no new.' building shall .be over 250 ft. high, say 20 stones. This resolution takes effect in January next, and is designed to stop tho feverish ;.raco for 1 tho construction of lofty buildings. Tho fire - insurance interests liavo .feared that the 41i story' Singer building here,, about 658 ft. I liigh, might' be followed by a and 9 then by a 60-»tory 'House, becaui'o' 'Amcrit ban architects and builders seem practically - agtocd that, with steelwork construction dee veloped to such a fine' art, the limit of height 1 might' safely go beyond that of tho- Eilfel 5 Tower, in Paris. How loiig tbeso ,skyI scrapers can last is the chief problem," wh'ich * timo'alone can solve, lnsufiiciont' material J oxists io onqble th'o'experts to'say'jusf'how ,i long they may bo safely ■ occupied by their thousands "of tenants." It is'recognised in e AmoricdV however, that one skyscraper col- .- lapso'Would mean untold damago to the sk'yf scraper family, and the inspection is now n very .sevcro, with'the object of ' detecting tho •1 first signs of corrosion in'tho stool joints or l ' otW flaws likely ttf entail a public calamity. More than 'two score of New''York's •'b^stj known skyscrapers exceed the , dead" lino a ffxed by,tho .now. regulations. ■ , '' :, . '