New-York tribune., 1919-01-08
Building of 80
Stories to Have
Fire Concerns
Structure Planned and Now
Awaiting Selection of
Sufficiently Large Site

A thirty story building to cover an
entire block, which, with the site, will
cost S8,000000, is being planned by
the leading fire underwriters. of tie
city as central home for tho fire
insurance interests of New York. For
fifteen months the fire underwriters
have been talking about this building
and although no site has been seecte d
the project has advanced sufficiently
to assure the building of the structure.
Every Insurance company is interested
IN the project, it is said, particularly
concerns which have no buildings Of
their own and which have felt seri-
ously the great shortage of space in
the downtown insurance district.
1t IS to relieve this condition that the
project was started. Clarence L. Por-
ter Of the Commercial Union Fire
Insurance Company and allied com
panles, is chairman OF a committee of
seven which has the project in hand.
Mr.. Porter said no site has been Sc
lected. He has been in consultation
with several of the large real estate
brokerage firms downtown for some
time and the general belief is that a
decision in this direction will soon be
announced
It was said yesterday that the under
writer's considered the leasing of the
Grand Central Palace in the Grand
Central district while the building in
dustrv was under government restric-
tion to relieve the seriousness of the
situation in the fire insurance district
downtown, but before any action was
taken the War Department stepped in
and took the palace for use as a
hospital for convalcscent soldiers. This
has put the insurance companies in a
position from which they must find d
way out. and soon. because the eXpan-
sion of the insurance business is keep
ing pace with general development.
The fire insurance concerns have
been working for the last two years
under conditions detrimental to eff
clency, since organizations have been
scattered through the downtown insur-
ance district wherever il was poss bile
to secure space.
Warren & Wetmore have designed a
building containing 764,057 square feet
This is about 10000 square feet more
than the most liberal estimate of the
needs of the interested fire companies
for several years to come, based on the
expansion of these concerns during the
last two years. The building would
have a plot area of $4,000 square feet
which represents the area of twenty
two city lots of the regulation 25x1O0
feet size. The tentative structure
shows thirty stories, arranged with
towers and set backs to meet the pro
visions of the building heights law. 1t
was said that this did not necessarily
mean that the structure would not be
taller than thirty stories.
The choice Of site naturally will be
downtown and in or close to the pres
ent insurance district. This belief is
based on the fact that the insurance
trade does not move often nor far. In
the last hundred years it has moved
only few blocks along William Street.
1t was forced to leave Pine and Will
lam streets about ten years ago because
expansion was impossible. The cost
details of the structure have been
figured out by the Fuller Construction
Company, which is promised the con-
tract for the erection of the building.
The structure will be known as the
Insurance Exchange and will be the
largest building Of its kind in the
world. There are three other ex-
changes in the United States, but none
of them can compare with the pro-
posed structure. The Chicago ex-
change, on La Sale Street, is about
40 per cent as large as the projected
building.