The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-28

Q
street and 1O1 feet on Madison street came
10 US in the fail of 1857 asking for designs
| for a building that should be as high as
we thought II might be safe to make it.
ANer several studies on conventional
lines had been abandoned, 1t was decided
to use steel Il" columns in all stories.
carrying the outside walls without any
interior columns, the entire structure to
be riveted firmly together and wind-braced
with steel construction. A full set of
drawings was made for tais building.
ready for making contracts.
Just then, however, the owner of the lot
acquired an additional ffty-five feet on La
Sale street, and the design was abandon
ed With a lot 50 by 101 feet, sketches
were made for a new building that should
be thirteen stories high, with one story
| of cast-iron columns on the front and mas
onry enclosing the walls above. The in-
terror was to be supported by a north
party wall of masonry and the remainer
on cast-iron columns.
Evolving the Sky-scraper Idea.
One day. studying over these plans, the
owner asked why 1t would not be possible
TO put the masonry on the inside and sup
| port the exterior on columns alone, just
/ as we had planned to do on the 25-foot
building. This change would save him
many square feet of rental space, which
was the most valuable in the building as
1t was upon the street fronts.
At that time it was thought to be neces-
sary to have great walls, or solid vaults
in these high buildings, in order to render
| them safe in high winds. Drawings were
made, however, In which all metal work
including columns, was of steel, with no
solid masonry walls of any description, the
wlnd-pressure being cared for by sway
! bracing. This, however, would have cost
more than the cast-iron columns and mas
| onry cross walls so il was abandoned
| New plans We're drawn at once with
columns on the exterior from the founda-
ton to the cornice, and a mere facing of
! masonry entirely Independent of the
walls, tied on by copper wire and anchored
to the structural iron by wrought-iron an
| chors
BY this method of construction, the size
of the piers and mullions was greatly re-
duced. When building permit was APP
| piled for, Building Commissioner Ed
brooks was undecided and uneasy. He
asked for time in which to consult the
| city engineer and to look over the plans
| with that official. In the meantime the
Chicago newspapers took up the question
and aired it from all sides. The permit
was granted, however, and work was be-
gun on May 10, 1885
Novelty of the Enterprise.
Eyes familiar with the old methods Of
| construction were opened wide at the
| Iacomas piers and exterior walls A
thirteen-story building of any construction
was a novelty and for such a building.
under the existing circumstances, mason
ry walls should have been thirty inches
| thick from the second to the fourth
stories. In the skeleton plans these walls
| from the second to the thirteenth stories
were only eight inches thick in bay win
dows and twelve inches thick in plain
Wah surfaces. The twelve-inch walls had
a four-inch pressed brick facing and a
lining of four inches of common brick. fur
RED with three inches of hollow tile fire
PROBING. The columns were encased with
brickwork, as were the muliions.
Under such circumstances as these. The
Tacoma building was carried to compile
ton in less than one year Experienced
men had said that the time limit was too
short, but it was done on April / 1899
even to the alterations in partitions to suit
tenants.
AS an accomplished fact the steel con-
slructlon had received an impetus from
san Francisco, where it was considered
as a possible solution of the earthouala
problem on the Pacific slope. Again. in
chicago manufacturer of terra Gotta.
IN order to create a market for his ex-
perlmental product exhibited designs In
steel, showing how his clay manufac-
lures might be tied in as an exterior
wall finish. The Home Insurance build
ing in Chicago had been an advance over
previous methods, but the scheme involv-
ed iron columns, housed in piers and
without doing away with the thick walls
ana heaVy masonry surrounding these col
umns. Bolts, too, had been used instead
Oh riVets In uniting the iron framework.
Improvement in Sky-ScraDers.
In the modern skeleton construction oil
cast iron has been replaced by steel ana
the clumsy makeshifts Of the first efforts
are superseded by well-designed steeI
shapes unknown in 1888. In brief tba
modern building of this pattern is a steel
frame skeleton, starting with the POUNDS
lions and built upward like a bridge Sur
rounding this framework is a skin Of
terra Gotta, brick of stone. which is M,
over independently-so much so that vyor-
men might easily begin at the ton ana
work down TO the street level; or. as is
oIteh done work might be carried on
at the same time on several different
stories. The walls have only their own
weight to carry, and each floor is indie
pendent of any other.
This construction has overturned the ola
ideas OF builders, who worked from heavy
foundations. building old-fashioned. solid
masonry piers, exterior walls ana nartftio,
walls together from the bottom IN T.
has reduced the size of piers that uou1d
nave been necessary for an eighteen-storv
building from seven feet square 10 two and
one-half feet square, and the wall tbick-
ness IN proportion. 1t has given more
floor space, more strength. and more lieht
ana in doing away with interior walls X
has made partition alterations siroria
matter. Once, in making nartition
changes, it was necessary to substitute
supports for floors above; now partitions
and vaults of hollow thing are nut in or
removed at the pleasure of the tenant
Walls That Can Be Washed.
One of the recent novelties in the brild.
ing of the sky-scraper is the glazed terra
Gotta which in Chicago is specially desira-
BILE, as it permits OF the washing of exile