Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1922-04-06
A Wonderful Piece of Work.


City of New York, where there are so
many remarkable buildings, is the new
thirty-one story syscraper to be built
for the Standard Oil Company. The
architects are Carrere, Hastings,
Shreve Lamb & Blake, and the
builders are Charles T. Wills, In
corporated. One of the greatest ac-
cbmplishments connected with the con-
Sruction of this building is the foun-
dations, which are designed and con-
structed by the Jarrett Chambers
Company Of New York-of which Mr..
Edwin S. Jarrett, Of Shepherdstown
and New York, is the head. A recent
article in the New York Times de-
seribes the work of Mr.. Jarrett's com
pany.
When plans for the new Offices ad-
joining 20 Broadway were first dis
cussed, architects and engineers agreed
that the undertaking would be difficult.
New quarters to take care Of the in
creased business Of gigantic corpo-
ration were to be constructed, and, at
the same time, there was to be no in
terruption in the work Of that organi7
zation. Then the land on which tho
structure was to stand was composed
OF five separate pieces of property,
four Of them containing a building full
Of tenants
All this meant that the new struc-
ture had to go up in sections, to be
pieced together as a child builds a
picture puzzle, each section sepa-
rate unit, yet each one a component
part Of the complete building.
Such was the job when Carrere &
Hastings (now known as Carrere,
Hastings, Shreve, Lamb & Blake) the
firm OF architects which had designed
the New York Public Library. the
United States Rubber Company's
building, the Fisk building, and tho
new Liggett Building in Forty-sccond
Street, started work on the plans. Their
difficulties are graphically set forth in
the record Of day-to-day operations.
X. III. Shreve, the architect directly in
charge, has interpreted here and there,
aiding the layman to understand tech
meal details of why this shaft was
sunk and how that obstacle was over
come, until the story is complete.
Plans were filed in the Building
Bureau of the Borough of Manhattan
early in the spring of 1921. Rudolph
T. Miller, Superintendent of Buildings
fer the borough, agreed to grant a
temporary certificate of occupancy for
each unit as it was finished, although
maintaining on it technical violation
rs an incomplete structure.
.'fter all the prelimnaries were ac-
ccmplished and the contractors began
work, an obstacle was discovered thai
threatened many months DELAY. I'm
d:rneath the Lisbon Building, and ex-
ming over the whole area, tidewater
vs. found twelve feet below the curb
-. 1t lay there twenty-five feet
O., mocking the haste Of the engi-
20 get their steel girders aloft
- bottom Of this subterranean pond
!. 1T bed rock, as had been at first
'. 1t was earth, or rather a mix
tuE, Of earth AMI shale that is known
= 'ard pan. The hard pan went
down from fifteen to twenty feet fur
ttc- before anything WAS found solid
CT Oh on which to rest the foundation
of modern skyscraper, with giant
tower of steel and masonry shooting
500 feet straight into. the air.
There were conferences between the
architects, engineers and Theodore
Pratt who has represented the Stan
dard Oil Company all along in the
proposition. There was hardly an in
corruption in the work, but like All
army hathas met an unexpected re-
verse, the men On the Job had to re-
form along certain lines. They hat
to meet new and unforeseen condi-
tions. The conferences determined
one thing, obstacles or no obstacles,
the building was going to be bulls,
1t was going 10 be built on schedule
time, too.
The problem row was this. The
checker-board design CT the structure
with its column, along the lot lines
was adhered to. There was to be no
interruption in the daily routine of
business of the tenants on other lots
than the one % which the work of
construction WIS ACTUALLY NINA On