HOUSING PROBLEM.

Northern Advocate, 18 October 1920, Page 4

HOUSING PROBLEM.

ACUTE IN AMERICA.

APAJRTMENT BLOCKS FAY-

OUEED

Mr James Bennie, a Wellington arciutect, who recently returned from a trip to America, states that a housing problem exists in every town and city in the United States and Canada. The tide of immigration uas set in heavily, and with thousands of immigrants arriving- almost daily the Dg cities of the East are faced With great difficulties in accommodatiTig these as well as their own people. In j\ew York, Boston, and other big centres, the apartment house is the most favoured way of meeting tiiis demand. Huge blocks of buildings are erected, with hundreds of "apart-ment"-—two, three, and up ito ten rooms in an apartment/each self-co n--1/ained and wonderfully fitted for the style of life the Americans lead. Few r..odern Americans of moderate means contemplate having a deitached house of tiheir own. They seam to prefer living in apartments within

easy reach of the city. They caa, ,f ihey so wish, prepare their food in

their own quarters, but the accepted tbing is to take their meals in '.he restaurant attached'to the. block, or £0 out ito some other restaurant.

The convenience and up-to-date nature of these apartment blocks— each suite of which has its own bathroom, kitchenette, telephone, hot water supply, heating pipes, and electrical devices for making life easy— was an eye-opener to Mr Bennie, and he came away convinced that some modification would suit the -requirements of Wellington admirably. Mi Bennie said that in America, the building contractor, as New Zeaiand knows him, does not exist. The architect is the builder. He works on a percentage 'of the cost, usually 20 }jo.r cent., as tendering is out of the question owing to the rapid fluctuations in th e cost of materials and

labour,

The way in which the .Americans lavish money on building opened Mr Bonnie's eyes. They .specialised particularly in mosaic and mural decorations for entrances in a most ©laborate and altogether beautiful style. Questioned as to methods of 'Construction, M!r Bennie said that America vas still loyal to the steel frame, but be was of opinion that reinforced concrete was gradually supplant ;ng that form of 'Construction.