Mexico weekly ledger., 1896-02-20
TWo NDR
The Height OF an Office Building Which
1t Is Proposed to Erect in
the Metropolis.
From the New YORK world.

From the New York World.
Harding & Gooch, the architects,
have drawn plans for the most tre-
mendous building on earth, a struc-
ture 200 stories high.
Acapitalist of this city submitted
the idea of this building to Harding g.
Gooch. They were the architects of
the Postal Telegraph building and of
other noble edifices in this city.
AT first they regarded the idea as
visionary. Examine it carefully
said their client, sand make your re-
port.n
The architects did SO. They con-
Guided that their part of the work was
practical and practicable; that a 200
story building could be erected, pro-
vided the vast sum of money neces-
sary to construct it was forthcoming.
This huge pile will be called the
King building. Its plan, as drawn by
Harding & Gooch, somewhat resem-
bles that of the Eifel Tower, that
wonder of the last Paris exposition.
But the King building will be nearly
three times as high as the Eiffel Tower
and its construction presents greater
difficulties.
The structure will occupy one large
city block; a block of the dimensions
of that between Fifth and Sixth ave-
nue., Twenty second and Twenty
third streets. 1t will, of course be
built of steel, just as the buildings
that are 20 considered tall are built
of steel. The framework of these
buildings is like that of bridge. The
bridge is placed ON one end and sur
rounded by an outer wall of stone and
granite.
In the 200-story building the bridge
will be longer, that's all.
Compared to this building, the
twenty-three story pile of the Amer
lean Surety company will be as a
mushroom %sprouting at the base of a
tall fagpole.
The King building will have 12O, 900
square feet of space on each floor;
24,000, 900 square feet of space on the
200 floors.
1t will contain 100, 600 separate offices
and suites.
1t will accommodate 4O0,0 900 people
under one roof.
Necessarily, the first question to be
answered in planning for this sky
piercing structure was: Chow will
people reach the upper stories?'
The answer is: .By electric eIeva-
tors"
Frank J. Sprague is d pioneer in the
construction of electric railways and
of electric passenger elevators. Mr..
Sprague is confident that the devel-
opmsnts In the construction of cleo
trio elevators will keep pace with any
possible progress in architecture and
building. Manufacturers of passen-
ger elevators have been consulted.
They are positive that it will be as
easy to build elevators in a 200-story
building as in a twenty story build
ing.
In the King building there will be
express elevators and way elevators.
The express elevators will stop p, say
at the twenty-fifth, fiftieth, seventy
fifth, one hundredth floors and so on
to the top story. 1t has been calcu-
lated that the express elevators will
make the journey-the word strip"
scarcely describes it-from basement
to roof in two and one-half minutes.
Tne way elevators WIN stop at each
story where passengers await them,
making an ordinary journey in ten
minutes. There will be at least fifty
elevators.
1t is the purpose of the projectors
of the building to gather on its COM
modious floors 200 distinct commun-
tiles of business men. On one floor
will be the jewellers, on another the
hardware dealers, on another the har-
ess makers, and SO IN. So the con-
duct of great interests will be simpli-
fed and more work can be done in
that building in four hours than can
be accomplished elsewhere in an or
binary workday of eight or ten days.
In the building will be retail cloth
ing stores, haberdasher's shops, bar
Der shops, restaurants, a physicians
office and a drug store. In fact, it
will be a city under a roof. 1t is pro-
posed to lay out the vast roof as a
garden in summer and to enclose it in
glass in winter. 1t is also expected
that some invaluable mete geological
will be obtained by means
of observations taken by the United
States signal service at such a tre-
mendous height.
The King building win be, in fact,
the highest type of present day devel-
opment in architecture. 1t will be
the first of the mighty fireproof struc-
lures that within the next twenty
years will real their heads in New
York below Twenty-third street.
In the plans as drawn by Messrs.
Harding & Gooch it has been deter
mined that the thickness of the lower
walls of the building will be nearly
sixteen feet, gradually diminishing
towards the upper stories.
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