New-York tribune., 1920-07-18
Means Island of Manhat-
tan, After Three Cen
turtles of Growth, Has
Reached HI eight of
Progress i'm This Direc-
ton; Another Twenty
Years Will See Entire
Downtown District Built
to the L egal Limit

~>T - y "
to the L e gal Linn i I
There are three blocks on Broadway
south of Fulton Street which have been
taken off the map Of possibilities.
Within the next two years two other
blocks in this stretch of Broadway also
will have reached the stage of finality
in structural development and must be
tion. Buildings taller or more spa
cious cannot be projected for these
locations, because Father Knicker-
booker says they have been carried into
the clouds high enough, and the physi-
cal boundaries which he has laid down
in the form of streets or avenues of
travel will not permit of expansion.
The situation is most interesting, be-
cause these blocks are the first in this
city to have reached that stage where
more stories cannot be piled up or
greater space added to those standing
by spreading the building over addi-
tional property. 1t means that prog
ress, or, rather, structural develop
ment, has reached its limit at five spots
in New York.
Leave Feeling of Apprehension
Boosters of New York cannot help
but observe that in these properties
the stage of finality has been reached
which cannot be dismissed from the
mind without leaving behind feeling
been regarded in the light of place
of continuous changes, developments
and progress, it is hard to realize that
the end, SO far as physical develop
ment is concerned, has come for five
Broadway blocks in the older section
of the city. Observing and farseeing,
men claim that twenty years will bring
to an end the structural possibilities
in the lower city. The reason for nam
ing twenty years, instead of fifty, is
the rapidity with which blocks have
passed into this stage in the
last few years and from the knowledge
that there are other blocks in the low
er city which are subject to negoti
alton which means such an end for
them. At this time two blocks on the
west side of Broadway are being de-
veloped along these lines.
Do Not Realize What Is Happeninp
Those who pass the block just south
of st. Paul's Church and the one FACING
on the west side of Bowling Green do
not realize that the work in progress
there means the end of building con.
struction on this property for all time.
The block on Broadway between
oortiandt, Liberty and Church streets
was the frst to reach the limit of i'm
provement in this city. On it were
built the City Investing and the sinrer
Building and tower, two of the taliest
structures IN the world. Several wears
later the twin Trinity buildings were
put up on the west side of Broadway
covering the two blocks between Trin,
lty. church yard, Trinity Place. Thames
and Cedar streets. They are not.
strictly speaking, regarded in the light
OF structures of final character. al
though it must be admitted that there
is nothing that could be imagined that
would induce or warrant their destruc-
ton since they rise twenty and TWENTY
one stories and really cover two square
blocks.
Not Likely Equitable Will Be Removed
The Equitable block was the next 10
he placed in the fnality class. An acre
IN area. building of unbroken front
has been carried up thrty-eight
stories. 1t is mentioned as the great
est Office building in point of area in
the whole world The city saws it is
worth $26,o00,0O0. At the time of com
pletlon the story was that it cost $685.
oOo,000. 1t is hardly imaginable, the
scrapping of 28,000,000 worth of con
struction; a pile Of thirty-eight stories,
each floor of which contains an acre
of space.
The completion of the Equitable
Building hastened the maturity of the
plans of the American Telephone and
Telegraph Company for the develop
ment of the block facing st. Paul's
Church, that between Broadway and
Church Street, Dey and Fulton streets.
Difficulty in obtaining control of the
various. parcels in the square has. de-
layed the fulfllment of these develop
ments, but time will see the entire
square holding a building such as that
which the company has completed on
the northwest corner of Broadway and
Deyi Street and extending west on that
street almost to Church Street. Prepa-
rations are now in progress for ex-
tending the Broadway section of the
building north to Fulton Street over
the site of the old Mail and Express
Building and adjoining property, at the
Broadway and Fulton Street corner.
Marine Interest at Battery
At the lower end of Broadway fac
ing Bowling Green and the beautiful
Custom House is the block which has
come to be termed steamship Square,
because in it will be located the bust
ness homes of the greatest steamship
companies in the world On the north
half of the block extending from
A 1OsCn of Made-Over
TO-