The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-12-28
SKY SCRAPERs.
An Architect Who Believes There
VIII Be Forty-Story Buildings.


Bruce Price. prominent New York archi.
tect when interviewed by a reporter for the
New YORK Herald recently, gave it as his
opinion that structures of thirty and forty
stories are by no means difficult feats, and that
they may be looked for in the near future. He
says mat now The only check TO erecting such
ngs Is the elevator, about 500 or 400 feet
perfected.
, Even tnis requires piston OF fifty feet IN
t,enstu, ana the tr lotion which the rod encoun-
te as sometimes meats II red hot. Those who take
oluces IN tneSe nigh buildings, however. are not
gong 10 the trouble of changing elevators, not
az leaSt until the price OF realty forces rents far
Dlgher than they are to-day
This is really The greatest drawback to the
present lime, and there Is no reason TO suppose
mat IL VIII remain. Some one will invent an
elevator that will lift car sheerly to an In
uennlIe nelght Then we shall go on building
higher and higher until we reach q point be-
yond which no one will care TO GO. What that
point VIII be Is hard TO say. Five years ago
many would have hesitaled TO have taken an
ONCE on the twentieth story of building lust
As ten years ago they would have hesitated to
nave laken the twelfth or fourteenth floor
People become educated slowly to greater and
greater elevations, and 1t won't b so very long
before the ihirtieth floor will seem no higher
than does the twentieth now.
MIR. Price looks on the construction OF one Of
these buildings as but simple affair, cues
ton, as he puts IL OF statistics" a eomputa-
tloh OF the weight OF the persons who are 10
occupy it. Then 1t resolves itself simply INTO
providing sufficiently heavy beams 10 carry
this live and dad load. The foundations, how.
ever, Mr.. fIce looks upon as most important
problem as mere the whole strain must eyeptu-
ally come with very tail buildings. He says:
However, tue plan Is TO make The fonda
ton of the same size and area of the bniIding .
ltseii, ana 10 distribute the entire weight of the
Duudlng evenly over the foundation. Given
TINS latter broad enough and firm enough and
we coalu rear tower high that we should
nave 10 rake into consideration the fact that
me top OF the tower moved faster than the
vase. IN truth. the day when This latter calcu-
latlon must be made is not very far off,.
1ieqtenters OF the Architectural League will
remember the eXem LITIGATION of his idea
SHOWN In tail building exhibited by him three
seasons ago. This was built on a base about
90 teet square, was about 900 feet high and TO
con ain tbirty-f0ur stories. This Imaginative
shetch at The time attracted considerable at
tentlUn and comment. Such building, how
ever, is soon TO appear in Lower Broadway 1t
IS 10 occupy Nos and 8, adjoining the Field
Dulldlng and will be thirty stories high Mr.
are necessarily monstrosiUes and deTy the
artistic taste OF the profession TO overcome
their inherent ugliness.
concerning The artistic possibilities OF the
high building Mr.. Price added that so far from
being necessarily ugly the skyscraper may be
maze archit clurally perfect. Thus, for exam
pie, building may be run up TO a height ten
times the diameter and IL will then assume the
proportions OF COrinthian column, which is
the most perfectly symmetrical form known to
architecture.
Incident lily, Ii is easier to design tall build
Ing with truly artistic lines upon narrow base
making 1t approach the proportions OF a tower
or column, than it is TO design building OF
considerable height upon broad base.