The Washburn leader., 1915-09-17
CLEvELAND'S new
HOUSING Law
Regulations For Tenements Re-
garded as Model.
COMPILED BY EXPERTS.

Il 10 Believed the New Code Will Pre-.
vent the Existence Of censsstsd Dis.
triets, Which Are the eans Of 80
Many Municipalities.
A new tenement law, known as 1.-The
sunlight code," has been adopted in
Cleveland. O., by act Of council. and it
is believed the measure will serve as a
model for the code writer's of other
American cities which are dealing with
similar problems.
The code. 1t is believed. will prevent
the existence in Cleveland Of congested
districts, which are the bane of so
many municipalities. Particular inter-
est centers. however, in the adoption
Of the suns angle as an absolute factor
i'm determining sizes of courts and
yards" for tenements.
1t was after four years of considera-
ton by the committee on housing con-
diticns of the chamber Of commerce, in
consultation with Virgil D. Allen. city
building commissioner. that the code
came into existence.
Commissioner Allen in speaking Of
the new code. which he was largely
instrumental in bringing about said:
The old rules had always been to
provide courts and yards first, accord
ing to the number of stories in height
Of the building and, second, by the
length or depth of the lot. 1t was OBJ
vious to me that it is the height Of the
wall which casts the shadow and not
the number of subdivisions back OF
the wall Therefore it seemed imma-
terial whether a wall which is 100 feet
high is divided into one or twenty sto-
ries. 1t casts exactly the same shad-
ow along its outside. l therefore de-
cided to make the width of the courts
function of the height of the wall.
that function to be the tangent of the
angle between the suns rays and the
vertical or ninety degrees. This tam
gent is 81 plus.
1t was afterward determined to
slightly modify this rule to make this
function exactly one third of the height
of the wall, which is so small varia-
ton from the true angle as to be neg
ligible. The length Of court we ar
bitrarily placed at one and one-half
times its width, which works out to
he one-half of the height of the wall.
Where passageway is provided at
the side of building from the front
of the building to the yard in the rear
we made that one-half the width of
the court or yard as above determined.
This was on the ground that. while we
lost the sunlight, we had the free cir
culation of air through this space. 1t
being open at the front and rear.
whereas the other type Of courts may
be entirely surrounded by walls. and
the circulation Of air therein Is conse-
quently much poorer. This made the
width of the yards at the sides of a
building one-sixth the height Of the ad-
joining wall.
This covers AL courts and yards
surrounded or partially surrounded by
walls of building.
For rear yards. on interior lots. the
direct rays Of the sun are allowed to
shine into the yard for at least two
months of the year. which made the
depth 50 per cent of the height of the
nearest adjacent wall. with q mini
mum of ten feet.
For corner lots the depth of the yard
is made 40 Of the height of the wall.
with minimum Of eight feet.
These rules. we believe. are the sim
plest yet written and give every advan-
tage to the designer who Is careful
In the arrangement Of his building.
both vertically and horizontally on his
lot.
The theory will apply to all cities.
irrespective Of their latitude. since ii
they are farther north where they will
get less sunlight, their courts and yard
will be wider. and II farther south,
where they will get more sunlight. the
courts and yards will be correspond
ingly smaller.
In these rules all reference to the
size of lots and number Of stories in a
building has been eliminated. and an
irreducible minimum has been estab-
lished for courts and yards, which is
that where the width is 0ne-third the
height of the wall the minimum is six
feet. which Is about equivalent to that
required for two story building where
width of one-sixth of the height OF
the wall is required. The minimum is
four feet and Is as small a passage
way as would be useful for hremen
when passing from front to rear with
fire extinguishing apparatus.
-
Plan Model Town In Alaska.