Evening star., 1894-04-12

UNITED States Court House and Post Office
PrittsIuTg Pa saperssing Architects Once lsso
cents. Time Of construction 1872 months)
Both have stated, one in a letter or inter-
view before Congress. and the latter in a
paper read in Chicago before the worlds
congress of architects, in effect that gov
ernment buildings are fully equal to num-
icipal and private work of like magnitude
in artistic effect, time of erection and cost
of construction. In this paper 1 propose to
make comparison of a small number of
private and government buildings. which
/ hope will answer some of the doubts rails
ed by this difference of opinion.
Basis of Comparison.
'In making this comparison, as nearly as
possible 1 propose to take buildings located
in the same sections Of the country, and
constructed in the same manner and of
similar material The comparison will be
made on the following basis: Cost of
building. time Of completion. cost Of archi-
tect's services, business methods and last
and most important, character of design.
- 1t is difficult to determine the exact
time Of either the beginning completion
of public buildings from the Information
contained in these reports, but have taken
as time of beginning the date when money
was appropriated to begin the structure;
and for time of completion the year when
the reports mention the building as COM
plete In many cases work seems to have
gone on IOr years a1ter tney were called
complete. the work on them in these cases
being classed under the head of alterations
or repairs. in some cases the cost Of such
repairs running up from $2U0,OO0 TO $780,
600. The time designated rather under-esti-
mates than over estimates the actual time"
Government Building. More Costly.
Elaborate tables are given showing the
cost Of buildings Of three different grades
built by public and private architects. 1t is
haf 10 of irst-
fre-proof private buildings is 81 cents per
cubic foot, and for first-class government
buildings the average is 59.6 cents per cubic
foot, or 81 per cent more than private work
For second-class government buildings we
have cost per cubic foot of 1916 cents; for
private buildings of similar class 245 cents
per cubic foot or 6l.9 per cent more than
private work. For brick structures with
stone trimmings, wooden joists and roofs
without fire-proof qualities government
buildings average % 1-2 cents per cubic foot,
while private buildings of same character
cost only about is cents per cubic foot-that
is, government work costs 81 per cent more
than private work.
1.-The average time Of completion Of large
private structures is twenty-nine months: of
government buildings 1t is ninety-six months;
this is allowing about two years after the
first appropriation for acquiring titles to the
building site. A curious instance of long de-
lays may be mentioned in connection with
appropriated for the Detroit site in 1882
From that time on, to March 2, 1889, S1374-
635 was appropriated and in the hands of
the supervising architect. On September 80
1892, three years and seven months after, he
had more than a million dollars in hand
while only $500, 400 had been spent on the
building, and only the masonry of the prin-
cipal story was complete. No claim could
be made in this case for lack of appropria-
ton in bulk to prosecute the work.
Slow Work in This City
"At Washington, on August 80 1890
$3.50, 600 was appropriated, exclusive of cost
Of lot, to commence building. August 2,
1892 $3.50 900 more was appropriated; yet in
December 1898, only the excavation piling
and part Of cellar walls had been completed.
These are not isolated cases, for the same
may be said Of Troy. n. Y, Scranton. Pa.
Milwaukee, Newark, Pittsburg st. Paul and
so on, almost indefinitely. Instead of lack
Of appropriation to carry on the work ra mid
ly, there seem to have been inherent defects
in the business methods Of the office and a
failure to utilize or use up the money in
hand in so many instances, that Congress
has had quite a plausible excuse for giving
small appropriations yearly"
Mr.. Brown makes a comparison Of the
cost Of architectural service under the two
systems and shows that the cost Of the gov
ernment service is about per cent, while II
the service had been rendered by a private
architect, 1t would have been about ner
cent including the cost Of local supa in
tendence. 1t appears that as government
buildings cost 90 per cent more than the
same class of private buildings. and as gov
ernment architectural service is . per cent
paying about IL per cent for architectural
service when private parties pay g. II is
asserted that the organization Of the super
vising architects Office the method Of max