SKYSCRAPERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 793, 14 October 1929, Page 13

SKYSCRAPERS

Startling Prediction For the Future PLANES FOR TRANSPORT Business men taking- short flights from the top of one building to another as part of their daily business life is forecast in an article on the skyscrapers of the future, in a recent issue of the “Builder.” The author describes a conference on building problems, attended by over 1,000 men and women, that was held in Montreal last June. The most interesting part of the proceedings (he says) related to the office buildings which will soon be adorning the cities of the Western Hemisphere. It is said that in New York buildings of this type will be about 200 ft by 200 ft On the outside there will be high-speed’, double-deck “automobile streets,” and double-deck “sidewalks” to handle the enormous crowds of people moving about. It will be necessary to bring natural life and air to the streets and to make city life more beautiful, agreeable and convenient. There will be ■underworids” in very truth, since it will be essential, for reasons of space, to develop areas below street levels as deep as possible. Modern artificial illumination makes it possible to work far below low-moving multitudes on surfaces above. In an age of specialisation it will also come about that special buildings for particular professions, and for financial concerns and businesses of various kinds, will be provided. “Doctor s commons” may be supplemented by doctors’ buildings, fitted with operating theatres, laboratories, dispensaries, etc., where the medico of the future may have everything “close handy ’ for the practice of his profession. Dentists’ buildings are already 111 use in America, while those occupied exclusively by members of the legal profession will be more common than ever. Pei fection may never, of course, be achieved in the construction of office buildings, or at least not in our time. Improvements will continue as civilisation advances, as fresh discoveries and new inventions are made, and as new materials for construction come into use. The latter are already foreshadowed light, water resisting, silently framed together, fireproof, and highly efficient in heat insulation—to take the place of bricks, which have been the old stand-by since the davs of the Pharaohs.

One of the notable things about the skyscraper will be its dirigible mooring masts and a helicopter landing place on the top of each building. The business man on any floor will only have to walk a few steps into a lift leading to the roof, jump into a flying machine on the helicopter principle, and then “hop off” to any part of the city he may wish to visit, and, of course, return when redy by the same means. This will relieve the pressure on street traffic as well as be the speediest means of getting about. Another innovation will be radio reception from broadcasting channels—of which America has many—which will be available for business speeches and market quotations through base plugs in offices. More speedy construction will also

be effected. It is believed by members of the American Association that skyscrapers will soon be erected in half the time now taken. Structural steel is being made of greater strength and less weight. At present walls which need to bear only a square foot are capable of bearing 751 b. If all this excess weight be cleared away an additional storey could be added. Another factor which will reduce weight in American office buildings is that there will soon be employed in such buildings as mauy women as men, instead of the present ratio of two women to three men. Americans and Canadians likewise anticipate considerable improvement in office heating. It is proposed to place electric fans near radiators, thereby fanning the heat and spreading the warm air more evenly throughout the room. There will be tubes to detect the presence of fire, by change of light intensity when smoke comes into a room, and carbon dioxide will be released. Cleanliness being a big item in office management expenses, it is proposed that dirt shall be removed from tlie shoes of people entering buildings, willy nilly, by a vacuum under a grid over which people will have to walk. Another saving of dirt will be effected by keeping buildings under a state of pressure, so that when windows are opened no dirt can come in.