The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-11-05
'R VII ardingI csY nd hrdrh,

Financial prac.icability. and not
the fire hazard recently indicated
by the president OF the New York
Fire Underwriters is likely to deter
mine the height of the next. and
probably the ultimate" skyscraper
in downtown New York. The limit
of practicabiiity. in the opinion OF
Ernest Fiagg, architect of the al
ready world-famous Singer build
ing. is to be found in Duildinl
1000 feet high with tower 100
feet square This will be almost
400 feet higher than the present
giant, the tower OF which Is 60
feot square, says The New York
World
The building will be of the same
general proportions as the Singer
building, the tower OF which, com
prising the upper a stories. occu-
pies but one-sixth of the lot space.
The main Singer building. which is
26O feet high. occupies the entire
lot. the tower then rising ,36O feet
each floor having one-sixth of the
area OF floor in the building.
From this fact Mr.. Flagg explains
the Singer building. though the
highest yet constructed. is the saf-
est as regards such a roof-top con.
fiagratiOn as the president OF the
Underwriters has stated is a prob
ability. Were all skyscrapers con-
structed with the same proportion
OF space around their upper stor.
les the danger from an extensive
fire of that nature would be reduce
,ed to the minimum. In fact there
would be little or no danger from
that source.
This "ultfmate, building will
from financial point of view. be
practically the limit because he
yond that the size OF base construc-
ton will have to be such as to
confine available office space to A
point OF unproritableness. Steel
construction which made the sky
scraper possible. has its limits in
that regard, just as did the monu
mental granite construction which
preceded It.
Another point of Limitation to
which Mr.. Flagg calls attention Is
that of elevator service He saws
one-hauf elevators can he con
structed to cover 1000 feet but
beyond that probably cannot be
MADE efectice. The elevators in
the singer building are new
type, known as traction elevators
win the weight at the bottom and
the motor at the top They will
make the 40 story trip in little
less than minute.
Strange as 1t may seem. Mr..
fIagg Is opposed to high building
ana yet Is the foremost expert I'm
them. But hes admits they are a
necessity There is a practical Ger.
'aihty or great increase In the
| number OF them.
rrince Wilhelm OF Sweden. who
dined with Architect Flage after .
'isit TO the Singer building. ex-
pressed himself enthusiastically re-
sarding the record attainment
neavenward, but didn't see any
immediate likelihood of one being
punt in his country. .We are mot
dense enough for such high
building" he said. referring or
course, more to the so-manv-ner
square foot OF New Workers than
70 intellectual attachments or good
sense e'o"
The prince is sometn,ug of a
skyscraper himself, being about q
leet 3 inches, but It would take
about 100 Of his royal highnesses
standing end on end to peep into
inc tip-top windows OF the singer
building and 100 OF him to d,,st
.ne clouds off the cornice of the
'uitimate' skyscraper There have
peen all sorts of statistics com
piled and all kinds of comparisons
made to show the loftiness OF the
Singer building. These mathema-
ucians and near-m -mathematicians
may soon have to get bsuy,
preparing new material. They can
say that the ssultimatev building
VIII be about as high as the pres.
ent Singer building. capped by the
largest Egyptian pyramid, or by