The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1897-12-04
SEYSCRAPERS ON DECLINE
Plans For Only Three of Them
Filed Since Sept. |.
p STORIES THE TALLEST
Business Law Apparently Has Done Away
With Demand For State Law
On the Subject

At the office of the cltys building de-
pautment they say a halt appears to
have bssn called for the present, at least,
in the erection of enormously high struc-
lures on Manhattan Island. Only three
permits for structures of ten stories or
over have been asked for since Sept. l.
Moreover, none of these three is to be
skyscraper in the present sense of the
term, since one, to be located at Nos.
1872 and 1874 Front street, is Planned for
only ten stories, and the other two, at
Nos SIS and 50 Blsec1er street and at
Fifth avenue and Fifty-fourth street, for
only twelve.
DENOMINATION of the records of each
month in 1897 said the department p an
clerk to a Sunday Press reporter, would
show a like falling off in the number OF
projected slSy-scrapers. In fact there
was a decided decrease in this direction
in 1896 compared with 1894 and 1885, This
was naturally apparent at this office
only, however, since the construction of
tall buildings is still going on right
menrily, and some of those for which
plans were filed in those years are only
just nearing completion. 1t seems prob
able to us hene that it will be some time
before New York will witness another
such a boom In high buildings as that
now drawing to a Close"
A NATURAL TERMINATION.
Several contractors with whom the
Press reporter talked expressed vbsws
similar to those held by the pan clerk,
though for business reasons, none of
them wished to be quoted SPEAKING OF
the causes for the coming cessation of
bodybuilding construction, one OF these
men said:
.sThere was a good deal of talk last
year about limiting the Esfght of build
dngs by law, and a bill drawn fer that
PURPOSE was actually presented to the
legislature, though it failed of passage.
This years exceptional activity was to
some extent caused by this bill, the erec-
ton of some of the -scrapers having
been hurraed along in fear of adverse
legislation, and it may be that the pres
emit lull is only reaction after abnor-
mai haste; but 1 think otherwise. l
said last year that the bodybuilding
movement would soon be terminated by
the working clf business laws, and the
event has justified the statement 1t
is theoretically true that four times as
much floor space can be provided in
twenty-story building put up on a given
piece of ground as in a five-story build
Ing erected on the same lot, but the no
ton doesn't pan out that way at all in
actual practice.
"lne DuuQ(WS OF Sky-SCTdpGES DdNc
made one mistake, about which little has
been said" he continued, "in occupying
the entire lot in so many instances. AT
present their upper stories are well light
ed, because the adjoining buildings are
much lower, but should the Sky-soGaper
boom revive and these low buildings be
eplaced with high ones, many of the
rooms which are now SO light and COM
mand such fine views would be shut in
completely and become mere dark cells"
ELEVATOR BUILDERS TO BLAME.
Frank A. Wallis, the architect, who
planned j. Massey Rhinds handsome
studio on the Palisades i'm Hoboken,
holds that this elevator builders furnish
one reason why sky-scrapers will not be
so popular for time with men who are
about to erect new buildings
There has been race letwesn the
makers of steel construction and the
make of elevators" said Mr.. Wallis,
land the elevator msn are just now
away tlshind. They are not able to
move the passengers fast enough to
meet the conditions without a sacrifice of
safety, and UNTIL thIsy can do this, sky
sorapers will suffer much in popularity.
Let us suppose that you are possible
customer of a man whose office is high
up in tall building. You prefer to
deal with this man, but you are busy,
and you know that you may be obliged
to wait several minutes for the elevator
that Is to carry you to his lofty office.
If another man in the same business has
an Office in the next buJ ding or just
around the corner, which you can reach
more easily and quickly, you will be
likely to give him your custom, and
this fact is sure to keep many tenants
An the lower buildings, who would other
wise remove to the Sky-Scrapers.
ITS all a question Of economy. Other
things being equal, when the elevator
manufacturers can make it more eco
nomdcal to go up forty stories than
Ground the corner, the forty-story build
ing Will come, but not till then. And in
present conditions there are reasons for
believing that few new twenty-story
structures will be planned in the near
future"
RUINoUs COMPETITION.
One builder was seen who believed
the present lull In the skyscraper boom
to be only temporary.
why, they will have to go on put
ting up tail buildings" he said 1.-THE
skyscrapers are offering such advan-
tages to tenants that the oid-style low
buildings are being deserted, not alto
gether, nor by the tenants of the lower
two floors perhaps. when the location Is
good, but enough to make the build
ings Improbable. And when a land
lord finds his building yields less than
the interest on its value, plus the taxes,
insurance, ETC., what can he do but re-
place lit with one that will pay a profit?
will be Impossible to find tenants to fill
all the high buildings should their con-
struction be continued at the rate 1t has
recently been going on. l notice, how
ever, that 1t is not the skyscrapers that
are vacant, but the old buildings You
can see more signs of Lofts to let in the
upper windows of the downtown cross
streets today than you ever could be-
fore, but a surprisingly small proper
Mon of these signs are to be found in the
skyscrapets, and There win always be
tenants enough to fill such structures as
fast as they can be built"
In spite of what this contractor said
at the beginning of HTS talk II is held
by many who are we'll informed that
tenants would be lacking at profitable
rentals were the erection of skyscrapers
to continue at the fastest rate. There
are only two sources upon which the
high buildings can draw for tenants--old
buildings and the city's natural increase.
The latter Is by no means sufficient for
the demand continued skyscraper cree
tion would furnish. and rather than lose
all their reYenua the oWred-s OF the old