The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-06-09
NO TALL BUILDINGS WANTED.
Berlin Authorities Forbid Construction
of Skyscrapers.

of Skyscrapers.
The German government will not
consider any American idea as to the
construction of buildings in her cities
and only recently refused q petition
from the Central Association of Ger
ma Industrials, which asked hat the
present building laws be so far relaxed
as to allow steel framed buildings of
more than twenty-five meters G2.1S
feet) in height to be erected.
Frank IA. Mason, United States consul
general at Berlin. Germany, in sending
this report to the state department
says that the ministries are opposed 20
any system of building which viii lead
to an increase in the number of large
buildings divided into Il great number
of small apartments or tenements.
which are leased to families of work
ing people, With the result that a great
humble of persons of both sexes and
all ages are huddled together under
v%ersive of normal family life and
~prejudicial to public morals.
Buildings so high as to be beyond
the level of the present water supply
could not be made clean and sanitary.
Any important increase in height be-
yond the present limit would put the
upper stories of the buildings beyond
the protection of the fire department
as at present equipped n organized.
Whatever might be the material inter-
ests involved. says MIR. Mason. the min
istries held themselves bound to con-
slider and protect not only the architec-
tural unity and beauty of the city. but
the health and the moral and physical
safety Of the people, all of which would,
in their opinion, be compromised by
the proposed Innovation.
With this result says Mr.. Mason,
"the authors of the petition are by no
means satisfied and have replied that
they had not proposed 20 carry build
ings in Berlin to the excessive heights
which are common in the United
sion been granted, it would have
b.. provided by careful and compe-
f.. engineering that all the require
ments of fire protection. water supply
and every sanitary necessity should be
carefully and completely met. More
over. in regard to resistance to confa-
grafton. at Baltimore high steel-fram-
ed buildings. which offer least food for
a fire, fully vindicated Their superior
safety and We're left standing like
m~anunents amid the wide waste OF
the ruins of four and five story books
built of stone and brick in the ordinary
way.
THUS the discussion stands at pres
ent, and 1T does not ppear likely that
the ministries, fortified as they are by
OolloAoCiollo1Ao Va pal OGdGty anu
public health and safety, will recede
from their present position. 1t Is diff
fcult to persuade German conserva-
tism, in SO important q matter as the
architectural construction OF cities,
with arguments drawn from expert
ence in a country which like our own
has paid during the past twenty-five
years an average annual tribute of
s125,000, 900 to the scourge of fire. and
which for the losses Of the current year
1904 must pay nearly CT quite double
that sum. However little OF our an
nual holocaust the 'skyscraper' may
be responsible for. the fact that it Is
a distinctively American type OF con-
struction will not recommend 1t tn
European municipalities"