Evening star., 1926-11-18
$25, ,OOO,0 900 TO BUY
AVENUE BUILDINGS
IS SOUGHT AT ONCE

AVENUE BUILDINGS
IS SOUGHT AT ONCE
Continued from First Page)
| take care Of the growth Of tho city
i business for half a century. But
already the ends Of all corridors have
| been partitioned off and used for
| Offices. On the fifth floor the En-
gineer Commissioner has his secre-
| tary occupying the east corridor cut
off. Along the west side Of that cor
| ridor is the entire fire alarm system
plant and headquarters On the west
corridor are offices of the department
/ of trees and parking and on the OPP
| posite side a series of laboratories for
| the inspector of asphalt and cement.
| On the fourth floor Mr.. Donovan
| showed the congressional visitors that
! the corporation counsel has several
| Of his assistants working in the west
corridor cutoff. and all Of the Offices
are packed. A section Of the municipal
architects Office occupies the cutoff
on the east corridor. One room has
been cut in two to provide small
| quarters for one Of the assistants to
! the Engineer Commissioner. The
drafting room Of the engineer Of high
WAYS occupies the front OF the build
! ing.
On the third floor one corridor cut
| Off is used by the purchasing officer
and the other hy the refuse division
| The superintendent Of weights. meas
ures and markets has Laboratories on
| this floor
Corridors Cut or.
| The entire front Of the second floor
| is taken up with three laboratories for
| the Health Department. running from
| the office Of the health officer, in the
west corner, to the Office of the audi
| tor, in the east corner. The entire east
side is occupied by the workrooms of
| the auditors office. One large room
! on the west side of the building is used
| by the inspectors of the Health De
| partment The corridor cut off on the
! west side is used by the overflow from
| the police headquarters, and on the
| east side by overflow from the audi
| tors office.
On the first floor the cut-on is oc-
| cupied by the overflow from the as
| SCISSORS office. Here there are espe-
| cially crowded conditions in the
| rooms used for plat books and the tax
ledgers, with only one short counter
| to accommodate thousands Of persons
who come there for their tax bills.
| The rear structure is used now to
| house the. office of both the collector
| Of taxes and the superintendent Of
| licenses This space is hardly large
| enough for the work of either office.
| The corridor off on the east end
| is used by the inspector Of buildings.
| In the basement the west cutoff Is
| used by part of the detective head
| quarters and the. east cutoff by part
| of the Board of Public Welfare. The
| important Traffic Bureau is crowded
! into two rooms on the first floor. The
| Public Utilities Commission is now
| crowded into two small and one large
room on the first floor.
Already it is impossible to find a
| place for the new Public Utilities
! Commission authorized by Congress-.
| Practically all of the more important
| service agencies already are in need
/ of larger quarters.
Employment Agency Needs Room.
Room must he found somewhere
| also to house the public employment
agency at 1410 pennsylvania avenue,
which is operated by the District
| government and the department Of
| Labor in cooperation. and which is
| now on the site allotted for the new
| state Department Building. Space
! must also be found for the Traffic
| Bureau and the House Of Detention,
| which are also on the State Depart
| ment site.
! The first precinct police station, the
Municipal Lodging House and No. Is
Engine Co. are on the site set
| aside for the Archives Building. No
! 16 Truck, which has the water tower
and the deputy chiefs headquarters,
| is on the land intended for use for
Labor Department Building. All Of
! these must be relocated.
The new Public Utilities Commits
sion should be given quarters I'm the
present District Building. Auditor
Donovan has decided, and he contem-
plates making recommendations to the
Gibson subcommittee that the pres
ent building be used primarily for I'd
ministrative or headquarters offices.
Central Police Building.
| He will recommend that all of the
laboratories be brought together in
one building. He believes that an
other building should be a central po-
lice headquarters building, which
would house police headquarters, the
Detective Bureau, the first precinct,
! the Traffic Bureau, the Police Court
and Traffic Court, the House of De-
tention and headquarters of the
! Women's Bureau. the fire alarm sys-
tenn and the headquarters of the chief
| of the Fire Department.
| Serious consideration is also being
given to the advisa bility of providing
! Headquarters for the Board of Edu-
cation in the municipal group so as
| to get better coordination and to
| leave the Franklin School free for
use as a classroom school instead of
department headquarters
| other agencies which it is cOntem
plated to house in the municipal
/ group are Juvenile Court. Municipal
Court and recorder Of deeds.
| If Congress carries through the
, recommendations Of the Gibson sub
committee for a careful and complete
reerouping of the various district
| offices for better coordination. CO.
| operation and administration. a num-
| Der of the activities will be moved
| out of the present building. leaving
! room for the expansion and growth
| OF other agencies.
| The Board of Public Welfare, which
co-ordinates all of the charities and
1 correctitnal work, Is an example OF
how tina pnoposed coordination would