New-York tribune., 1907-12-17
A ASKYSCRAPER FOR CITY
Big Office Building Planned tc
House Various Departments.

A municipal office building of at least twenty
stories. and costing between 100000 and 100000
is TO be built the old Tryon Row site opposite
the Brooklyn Bridge terminal
The ground floor and basement will be used as
bridge terminal From the second floor up it will
used Offices and It Is planned TO put all the
municipal offices. with the possible exception of the
Health and Police departments. into this building.
The preliminary steps for the construction OF the
new skyscraper were taken yesterday. when the
Mayor announced that well known architects would
compete in submitting plans for the building These
architects J. Stewart Barney. Carrere & Hast
ings. Clark & Russell. ]. H Freedlander. Cass
Gilbert Helms & Lafarge, Helrnle & Huberty, Hop
min &, Koen HoweIis & Stokes II. r Marshall,
McKi1n Mead & White. Trowbrtdge & Livingston
and Warren & Wetmore.
These architects will meet this forenoon at the
Mayors Office and appoint jury OF three 10 pass
on the designs. which to be submitted on OF
before April Il and be reported OF by the jury On
May Il
Each competing architect receives n."o TOT nus
design. and each Juror the same. The successful
competitor will receive 5000 for the winning Go
sign II his plans are not accepted by the CITY.
The new building will cover two blocks. spanning
Chambers street and reaching north as far as CITY
Hall Place, with Centre street for the "eSteii
boundary and Park Row for the eastern me orluse
terminal is to reconstructed so as to enable .e
cars to enter the building will also those Oh te
new subway loop and the trains that run oVe' ''i0
Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges
The building viii contain floor space OF not less
than 10000 square feet, exclusive OF haiis anu
vators The ground floor will De for the oistrlou-
tion OF passengers
This building ought to provide Office space for
the city for many years. allowing for reasonao'e
enlargement Of the city's business. said Mayor
Mcclellan in discussing the plans we are ho"
paving about s55o0Oo year for Office rent Assuni-
ing that the new building will cost as nlucn as
IS 100000 we shall still be saving nearly slS'.vU
year OF our rent bill by having Office building
OF our OWL"
will the building conform archtecturahy 10
the general style OF the Hall of RecorosE
Mo- said the Mayor. Il do not think such q
thing is possible. The building will be hand-
some but II will be for servics rather than orna-
ment The builders Of business buildings In thiS
CITY have given US plenty Of object lessons IN
sensible construction. and we hope TO take ac7sn-
tage of some Of them
The Mayor said the city was paying from - 10
81 80 square foot for floor space. He expects that
the cost square foot after the city Is housed IN
its own building will not exceed s. 90
Some months ago the Board Of Estimate re-
ouestsd the heads Of departments to turn in esti-
mates OF floor area needed for their business The
estimates, aggregated. taken as sent In mace
necessary an Office building OF thirty-six stories
By making n reasonable reduction IN the requisi-
tons the Mayor says the building need not De
much more than twenty stories high, depending
to some extent much court space Is planned
for In the design that is accepted The more room
required for court space in the interior or the
building the higher the building will have TO De-
There will be twenty-five elevators in the new
str11cture The Mayor suggested that the top
stories could be used for parts OF the Supreme
Court pending the building OF separate quarters
for the courts. Proposals win not be asked for be-
fore mex. fall.