Untitled

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIX, Issue 8133, 7 May 1906, Page 4

The cost, of land in New York is high, and consequently there is a tendency on the part of the buildings there to grow high in a more or less direc*: ratio. The latest case in point, according to the American correspondent to an Australian journal, /is that of a projected building which will be 51 storeys in height, and surpassed in Ifcs way only by the Eiffel lower. The loftiest New York building now standing is credited with 29 storeys. The firm which is to have the distinction of possessing the new structure is said already to occupy a large office building of the modesst height of 11 storeys, and from the central part of this the new erection ia to rise for 40 storeys more. This tower building will be 65ft square, and its steel frame will be ingeniously braced to resist the wind, while four elevators will serve its numerous tenants. From the top of its dome we are told that the venturesome sightseer will, at a height of 594 ft, be able to look down upon the Madison Square Gardens statue of Diana (322 ft), the roof of the 29-storeyed Park row building (382 ft), and even the summit (404 ft) of the new 40-stoieyed tower of the Railway and Iron Exchange now rising near the Battery Park. Moreover, in contrast with its elevation the famous spires 'of Europe would, all except that of Cologne Cathedral (515 ft) seem comparatively unayibilious. We are further told that within 200 ft of this great tower anutber lofty struo ture of 30 storeys will be completed next year, and, in less than twelve months the builders will be at work on a dozon more ranging in height from 18 to 25 storeys. Obviously the tendency to build high in the city in question is rapidly increasing. The view obtamable^ 1 from the summit of suoh growths must* be as remarkable as the manner in which they themselves dwarf the vision and circumscribe the prospect is unfortunate. The description of suoh edifices is suggestive of hills for human ants.