El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-12-08
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

NONG the numerous new business
"a professions that have been Gre
1 \ ated by the increasing complex
tiles of modern life in the United
States. none is more interesting than
that of the building manager Two
decades ago, before builders hal
learned the possibilities Of structural
steel and before employers found out
that it was money in their pockets 20
provide their employees with good lght
and agreeable surroundings the OiilCe
building was a sort of Dy-prouucl-
Somebody had a store and rented OUT
the upstairs. Some bank haq extra
rooms in its building and let them out
ar banhazard or. in the larger cities,
there were buildings designed as oILlce
buildings bv the owner, but the design
had been ignored by architect con-
tractor and Janitor.
At a later period of developmenI OF
flee buildings began to be consloeEeu
as office buildings-the builders IN
sisted that the architects pay some
attention 10 the proposed uses of the
rooms But here the matter enOeu-
The buildings were turned over 10
ianitors to be run as the Janltor de-
sired The renting was s1de-nne Iot
some real estate office. and the build
ing was repaired whenever the ten
ants kicked hard enough 20 comps
the real estate clerk to report trOuoi0
to the head of the firm.
The office building soon outgreW tnls
stage of its development ana vas
placed. along with other offlce DulIu-
ings in the hands OF a real estate con-
Germ dealing with office building rem
tails exclusively. Then the chief in
terest Of the rental agent ended when
he got his commission on the 1lISl
months rent and still the bull0lnB
was left to the tender mercies OF
Of the tenants.
All Of these things are. now past
and gone. They are numbered with
the hOrsecar and the hanson cab The
new order of things is typified by the
automobile. and woe be unto that man
who permits his automobile to run II
self He must look after his machine
Is Boss OF the Building.
So it is with the office building.
The new buildings, the ones that are
abreast of the times, almost without
exception are placed IN charge or a
man who is a trained expert in DulId-
ing MANAGEMENT The building man
ager is the sole boss Of the building
He attends to leasing the rooms 70
collecting the rents. to employing the
ianitOr and other members OF the Sta1I
and to everything that falls within
the province of a general manager
Tt is his business to see that tn9
building pays a return on the invest
ment II represents, that no money IS
wasted by eXtrava gance, and that the
building is so ordered and maintained
that no reasonable tenant viii have
any grounds to make a kick
The first thing competent building
manager does when he takes charge
of a building is to investigate the
cost Of operation with a view to re-
ducing It, For instance, it may be that
he viii find that the daily accumu-
lation Of waste paper takes up con-
siderable room in the basement, space
that might be used for something else.
l. HnanHe 81
a cost Of $50 to $50, and bales the waste
paper for sale. 1t occupies less spaca
than the rubbish pile, it turns the rub
bish into revenue, and 1t removes 4
serious fire risk
It may be that the tenants are COM
planning Of poor elevator service in
spite Of the fact that the building has
a battery of elevators large enough to
take care of its population" The
manager looks into the matter Per-
haps he finds, some managers have,
that the elevator boys are delayed al
most every trip by persons asking
The manager investigates and. finds
that the directory of the tenants Of
the building is placed high up on
shaded wall Of a dark corridor where
it is worse than useless. He thers-
upon puts in a new directory, standing
out in the main pathway of the traf-
ftc of the ground floor corridor. That
ends the questioning Of the elevator
boys. the elevator service is improved
and the kick stops.
Some Elevator Statistics.
Tt is an interesting fact that care
full observations taken in many cities
Of the United States show that certain
personal peculiarities with respect to
elevator traffic are universal. For in
stance, the average person takes al
most twice as much time to enter an
elevator on the ground floor of an
office building as he does to leave
1t on the ground floor. statistics show
that the average person takes one and