The Washington herald., 1915-08-01
J. H. PARKER CO. Wins
Big BUILDING CONTRACT
Awarded Construction Work on New
Interior Department Structure-Two
Other Contracts Given Out.

Three contracts. aggregating g, 100000
for the construction and equipment of tn
new Interior Department Building, to b.
| erected in the square bounded by Eight
| zenith, Nineteenth, E and streets north
| west, were awarded yesterday by Actin!
Secretary of the Treasury Newton. Con
struction of the building will commence
| this week.
The John H. Parker Company. 81
| Fourth avenue, New York. was awarded
the contract for construction on a bid o.
| 81, 60 .4S7, the lowest out of the fifteer
| submitted. The next lowest vas that OF
the George a. Fuller Company, of New
York. One of the most notable previou:
| contracts of the Parker Company wa:
that which involved s6,00O,OOO of work or
the s12O0oOOO Bellevue Hospital in New
| York City.
Contract for the mechanical equipment
of the new Interior Department building
| was awarded the William Gordon Com
pany. of New York, the bid being
| s237. 21S.
The Otis Elevator Company. of Wash
! ington. was awarded the contract for the
| insta llation of elevators in the building,
winning the award over five competitors
| with a bid of si9.S49
The total available for the construction
| and equipment is s2,5e6, 900. The difference
| between the total of the three awards
and the total available sum shows saw
| ing to the government of approximately
| $500. COO
The site of the new building was
cleared of the old Juvenile Court building
some time ago. and the ground is in
readiness for the commencement of the
construction work this week The Par
ker Company bid provides for the COM
pletion of the building by December 81.
1916, but the firm promises to finish It
sooner.
Having been awarded the contract,
William A. Campbell, of New York, vice
president of the Parker company, who
came to Washington yesterday as soon
as news of the award reached the COM
pany in New York. said to a Herald re-
porter:
I'VE now propose to please the govern
ment by constructing the building with
utmost speed. We are determined to
break a record for rapid work in the
construction of this building. just as we
did in the case of the Terminal Building
in New York. We plan to begin work
on the building twenty-four hours after
the contract is signed. and as we ex-
pect to sign the contract Monday or
Tuesday. We should be at work Wednes-
day."
Bynum E. Hinton. attorney, who repre-
sents the Parker company's interests
in Washington, when asked what he
thought of the merit of the competitive
system in awards, said:
The John H. Parker Company was
generally considered from the first to
be the regular low bidder. The George
A. Fuller Company. however. had a
very troublesome proposition AL
though slightly higher in price than
the Parker Company. the firm agreed
to complete the building in a shorter
time by five months. The specifications.
however. did not state that a premium
would be paid fof shorter time. This
fact, together with the fact that the
Fuller Company modified the specihca-
tons by inserting strike clause. in
our opinion. made 1t impossible for the
Treasury oficials to accept Fuller's bid
without doing violence to the competi-
tive system"