Evening star., 1935-12-14
LIGHT AND AIR
FACTOR STRESSED
Production of Housing Units
in Many Cases
Neglected.

value of light and air has been the
greatest single and fundamental error
in the production of housing units
for sale, according to William Stanley
Parker, fellow of the American In
stitute of Architects.
ct am not referring to the aesthetic
and social values OF light ana air
but to their cold hard-boiled flnan-
ciaI value" Mr.. Parker explains. THE
real estate expert and businessman
of the time, with nothing much but
dollars and cents in mind. wholly
failed to gauge this underlying eco
nomic asset.
This is not so strange in the real
estate broker with current sales prl-
marily in mind, but it is more signi-
fcant in the loaning agencies pre-
sumably interested in long-term in
vestment values back of their mort
cages"
Progress that has been made toward
greater light and air in low-rental
housing units Mr. Parker credits to
social agencies fighting for improved
living conditions, while real estate
interests were concerned chiefly with
immediate sales.
MarketabiIity Question
During the early portion of the
past half century various forces were
impelling the development of areas
of loW-rental housing units with re-
gard solely to their immediate mar
reliability" he points out. THE pro-
ducers of these housing units were
not concerned with problems of city
planning and the development of de-
sirable neighborhoods. Neither was
the community at large, Social
agencies were concerned, and various
individuals and groups face to face
with the living conditions being
created were fighting for more light,
air and sanitation.
Building laws, step by step and
slowly, reflected this pressure with
improved minimum provisions for
courts and coverage which imne-
diately became maximum provisions
in the eyes of the speculative builder
of low-cost housing. In Boston a
first enactment of requirement for
a 10-foot rear yard to every tene-
ment house illustrates a step that
when taken was progressive if not
revolutionary but which now is seen
to have legalized wholly undesirable
conditions.
This thought should give us pause
today, as We now look back on many
similar inadequate minimum provi-
sions, when we attempt to determine
any new legal minima with which
to control future low-rental housing. -
Crowded tenements resulted from
this early shortsightedness and, MIR.
Parker adds. the same failure is visi-
BILE today in small house developments
where the houses are being placed too
close together"
Needs Considered.
In the type of housing selected for
q site, as well as in the matter of
light and air, he urges that the needs
of the families be considered. Elm
mating the two-family house which
he believes better for investment than
for rental, Mr.. Parker limits the
choice in large-scale rental operations
to three types-the single free-stand-
ing house, the row house and the null
ti-family dwelling.
Conferences can continue to debate
the relative values of these types" he
says, but housing authorities and
their architects and other advisers
must make specific decisions on each
point in the light of the special condi-
tions connected with given site. Here
they meet the necessity for the vari-
Gus compromises always inherent in
a building operation due to special To-
cal conditions and differences of opin-
ion.
"A construction program neceSsi-
tates keeping ones feet on the ground
and on the particular piece of ground
that constitutes the site of the prof.
.ect In doing this, local statistics re-
.quire careful study and yet cannot
be accepted too readily as proof of
what sort of housing units are needed.
The existing units were provided not
because they were right and desira-
BILE or actually desired, but because
they were being built and bought or
rented and others like them could be
marketed at a profit.
Certain sections Of Queens County
In New York were not developed on
an idealistic basis or on any conscious
expression by the residents as to what
sort of accommodations they desired
or what kind of neighborhood char
acter they preferred, and the same
can be said of similar districts in any
Of our large cities"