Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-10

safety when used for the purpose for
which it was designed
There are ten assistant inspectors of
buildings. of whom eight are field inspect
ors. and these have to inspect all build
ings in course Of construction in the Dis
trict Of Columbia. The district of each
one is quite large, and they visit each
building in their districts in course Of con-
struction as often as they can.
Duty of Inspectors.
1T is mistakenly supposed by some peo-
pie that 1t is the duty of these inspectors
to act as superintendents of construc-
tion on private buildings. To do this
would require the presence of an inspect
or at all times during the construction
Of the building. and it is absurd to eX-
pect this to be done by the force en-
ployed in the inspector of buildings Of
flee. In private work. where an architect
is employed to design a building. he
charges per cent for designing the
building and per cent of the cost for
supervising it's construction.
when the District of Columbia con-
structs buildings under appropriations
of Congress it employs an inspector of
construction, who is at the building at all
times during its construction to see that
the plans and specifications are carried
out. There is no duty, however. placed
by law! on the inspector Of buildings to
act as inspector of construction of pri-
vate buildings and it would be absurd to
expect that such supervision should be
furnished private citizens at public ex-
pense. No other city gives more super
vision to building construction than the
city Of Washington.
Larger Force Needed.
I'm their estimates to Congress the
Commissioners have called attention to
the fact that the force in the building
inspectors office was insufficient to give
the necessary periodical inspection OF
buildings. and that owing to the passage
of the fire escape law it was necessary
even to reduce this inspection by assign
ing inspectors to see that provisions OF
the fire escape law were complied with.
Last year one additional ssistaht in
spector was provided by Congress and
for the next year one fire escape in
spector was appropriated for, which ia
about one-half OF the increase which the
commissioners have asked. Even if this
increased force had been granted. how
ever. 1t would not be possible to prevent
accidents such as occurred Yesterday
which seems so far as we now know to
De que TO the fact that there was in
sumcient supervision of the work of con-
structlon. which supervision should have
oeen furnished by the architect or builder
as II is not required by any law or regu-
latlon to be furnished to private builder
at pub bic expense
reference has been made in the press
reports to the fact that the lower floor
walls Of this building did not comply
with the regulations for q building of the
he1ght proposed to be erected It should
De stated. however. that the lower floors
were absolutely in compliance with the
building regulations, for the building as
originally designed. and the wall of the
floor at the point where the failure appar-
entity occurred was five inches thicker
than required by the building regula
tons for a building of basement and
five floors. and. in fact. in compliance
with the building regulations for a build
ing with basement and six floors.
Warning Was on Way.
"A notice was on the way to the build
er at the time of the accident to submit
for approval plans for reinforcement and
to reconstruct or reinforce the walls of
the basement and first floor at once. or to
suspend operations above the fourth floor
until such plans were submitted and ap-
proved and the reinforcement on these
approved plans had been constructed: or
in default Of the submission of such plans
to abandon the idea of extending the
height of the building.
1T can be seen that this had abso-
lutely nothing to do with the failure Of
the building up to the point to which it
had been erected. as 1t was in compli-
ance with the regulations for a building
Of five stories and basement, and could
have been completed with the lower floors
as they were built had the builder de-
cided to abandon the plan for the extra
floor He would not have been permitted
to have gone higher than five stories un-
I'll the lower walls had been thickened
o. reinforced to the satisfaction of the
inspector Of BUILDINGS