Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-03-26
HOTEL ALL OF CONCRETE
Largest Example of Reinforced Com
crete work Rising at
Atlantic City.

Reinforced concrete IS forging ahead a.
a building material. every month recording
more audacious use OF Il in this particular
Visitors 20 Atlantic city during the coming
season will have an opportunity OF OK
aiming one OF the most artistic adaptons
OF concrete work to he found anywhere,
and the largest example OF reinforced COLI
crete in the United States
The building in question is 12s feet wide
by S26 feet long and is eight and twelve
stories high. In almost every instance
where reinforced concrete has been used
in a building OF this magnitude It has
been in the walls and floors. as an adjunct
to a steel skeleton supporting frame work.
In this latest achievement in the use OF
cement. the usual steel framework has
been replaced by columns and girders OF
reinforced concrete.
The walls are built Of concrete and hol-
low tile. The floors are carried by con-
crete ioists which support a solid slab Of
concrete imbedded in what are mere hollow
tile The Cement Age in an editorial COM
ment upon this building declares that its
fireproof qualities. economy in first cost,
rapidly and noiseless construction, pres
age a new era In building construction
The exterior of the building is finished
In light-colored plaster, decorated with
colored Morayian tiles and mosaic and duh
glazed green terra Gotta, which gives an
aspect of airiness and lightness appropriate
to a summer watering place.
The dimensions OF the building and its
architectural lines surmounted as II ia by
great dome, add an appearance of dig
nifty not to be found in the usual hostelry
Of this character The building is sup
ported on piers Of piles some 1.sO0 of these
having been needed for the work. Upon
these were erected reinforced concrete col
umns. at 17-foot centers, measuring q
inches square at the base, and lessening I'm
diameter at successive floors until a 12-inch
section is reached in the attic. The wall
piers are connected by reinforced concrete
beams. which. for a span of II feet, con-
tain five bars OF a4-inch by Pinch iron for
reinforcement. The completed beam is
about % inches wide and u inches deep.
The outer walls consist OF hollow terra
Gotta tiles plastered on the inside and
outside with cement plaster.
In the floors the construction OF concrete
and hollow tile was effected by the use OF
reinforced concrete Orders carrying many
shallow. transverse reinforced concrete
floor beams, in connection with 2-inch con-
crete slabs. Hollow tiles occupy the
spaces between.
One of the advantages claimed for this
building is it's cheapness of first cost
sulting from the possibility OF employing
much unskilled labor on the work. AS
example Of the facility of this style OF
construction, II Is declared, by a writer
in the Cement Age that practically all
the floor tiles I'm this immense building
were laid by one briclklayer and helper.
This becomes more significant when it is
learned that the building went up more
rapidly than IL the usual steel skeleton
framework had been used. The roof con-
sists OF n 6-nch slab of cinder concrete
reinforced with lk-inch by 1z-inch iron
bars spaced at 16-inch centers. The hemi-
spherical dome shell surmountng the
structure is of 5-inch cinder concrete REIN
forced by radial and circumferential red
bars one inch clear Of the inner surface
Further stiffening Is effected by radial
ribs projecting on the interior and ex-
terror, these being made an ornamental fea-
ture The stairs throughout are made OF
reinforced concrete slabs. Altogether the
building is as fireproof as modern inge-
nuity can make it-Philadelphia Record.