Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-03-28
LONDON TENEMENT HOUSES.
Laws That Govern Construction In that
City.


City.
First of all should be mentioned the
provisions for the two great requisites
of light and air. The buildings will
be four and five stories high, and each
building must be separated in all direc-
tions from any opposing building by
an open space at least equal to its own
height. It was with the greatest diff
ficulty that the New York commission
secured the passage of an act limiting
the ground area to be covered to 20 per
cent. These official London tenements
will not cover more than 55 per cent.
of the building lots.
Habitable rooms must not be less
than eight feet six inches in height.
Rooms must have efficient ventilation,
" The principle on which 'back-to-back'
houses are built being carefully avoid
ed" This precludes the construction
of building more than two rooms
deep. If such a rule were enforced IN
New York, the city would be revolu-
tionized. The aim of tenement house
architecture in America is to get at
least two, and perhaps four, families
On each floor of 25 feet width. The
London houses, as a matter of fact,
will be only one room deep. Living
rooms in them must be of not less than
LA feet superficial floor area. Bed
rooms must be of not less than 90 feet
superficial floor area nor less than
seven feet nine inches wide. Staircases
must have horizontal ventilation di-
rect to the open air; corridors must be
ventilated on the open air; staircases
and halls must be lighted day and
night. The last-named regulation is
with IA view to prevent the immortality
and frequent accidents which lack of
light in such places is known to pro-
duce in tenement houses. A proposed
statute calling for light after eight a.
IN. until ten p. m. aroused much opposi-
ton in Albany.
After light and air, safety from fire
may be regarded as the next essential
of model tenement house construction.
The London law provides that all walls
shall be of ''fre-resisting" material,
and that all staireases must be fire.
proof, and SO separated from apart
ments that they will not afford a fue
for the conduct of fire from one floor
to another. as so often occurred in the
tenements of New York. But the county
council has learned that it will pay
10 go beyond the law, and to make the
buildings absolutely freproof. The
first cost will be very little
greater, and will be. far more than Off
set by the decreased cost of repairs
and the greater permanence of the
buildings. Without going into techni-
cal details of construction, it may be
said the stairways are of iron, stone
and cement; that floors are built with
iron girders and brick arches; that the
wooden surface is laid on solid cement;
that as little woodwork is used in the
rooms as possible; and that the plaster,
even of the partitions between rooms of
the same apartment, is laid on iron or
wire instead of on wooden lathing. OF
the buildings completed it is no idle
boast for the architect to say that fire
might be started in any room without
endangering any other room. The cost
of repairs is thus reduced to minimum,
and the life OF the buildings is increased
until it is estimated at $50 years, simply
because it seems absurd to name a
longer period. AS a matter of fact, the
buildings, if undisturbed, will practi-
cally last forever.-Edward Marshall,
in Century