Municipal building

“ There is another large field for pro-municipal activity in the work of building homes for the people. The municipality would be attempting too much if it essayed this task, at least at the outset. To do so would be perhaps to depart too widely from the path which experience has justified, however much might be said in favour of such a course on the part of a municipal body in command of ample funds. The municipality has, however, done much to make the building of bright and beautiful homes for the people possible. ”

“ Where any house or building situated in any street in an urban district, or the front thereof, has been taken down in order to be rebuilt or altered, the urban authority may prescribe the line in which any house or building, or the front thereof, to be built or rebuilt in the same situation shall be erected, and such house or building or the front thereof shall be erected in accordance therewith. ”

“ Suggestions have been made to the Commissioners that the nature of the thoroughfares, and the structure and internal arrangement of the buildings in districts inhabited by the working classes in large towns would be greatly improved if subject to the regulations of a Building Act enforced by the municipal authorities, or by a local board of health; they invite you to reflect on the provisions of such a law, and to state under what circumstances and to what extent you conceive such interference desirable. ”

“ Every person who shall intend to erect any new building shall give notice to the urban authority of such intention by writing delivered to them at their office or at the office of their surveyor, and shall at the same time leave or cause to be left at the said office detail plans and sections of every floor of such intended new building, drawn to a scale of not less than 1 inch to every 8 feet, showing the position, form and dimensions of the several parts of such building, and of the watercloset, earth closet, privy, cesspool, ashpit, well, and all other appurtenances ”

“ Its height from the ground to the top of the tower is a hundred and eighty feet, and the three ample stories above the basement furnish accommodation to the city and county offices, in addition to the Circuit and Recorder's Courts. The walls are frescoed, the floors laid in mosaics of colored marbles, and the Council Chamber and other public rooms are furnished with black walnut chairs and desks, and paneled in oak. With these exceptions, there is no woodwork about the immense building. Everything, from basement to dome, is brick and iron and stone. ”

“ The new houses built of wood, being large, neatly finished, and painted white, are more imposing in their appearance than those of brick and stone. Amongst the public buildings, the government house,—the residence of the governor of the province for the time,—is a large gloomy-looking structure, built of freestone, and situated at the southern extremity of the town. The Province Building, which is admitted to be the most splendid edifice in North America, stands within a square in the centre of the town. ”

“ I should like further, to ask you to publish to the New York City public, the fact that the "Department", the "Health Department", with its Bureau of Plumbing and Light and Ventilation, and the Building Bureau of the Fire Department, are unable to protect property owners and purchasers from errors in sanitation and construction as they are supposed by too many to do. Owners frequently think that unless they want "fancy" drawings and fronts, an architect is superfluous. ”

“ When the first important step in the public-buildings program was taken in 1926 the Commission urged the purchase of all of the land necessary for a plan of the group as a whole instead of undertaking individual building projects as separate units in the scheme. The problems of parking and transit facilities in relation to the public-buildings groups have caused the Commission great concern, and efforts have been made to secure the cooperation of the architects in charge of the building program in order to solve these problems. ”

“ The buildings listed been previously visited by the district officer and memb the advisory committee, approved, and written permiss
take measurements and photographs, secured from owner and occupant. It has been found convenient for the men to mea sure four buildings in succession; then, returning to their head quarters, they work simultaneously, each man making the drawings for one building with the mental impressions still clearly in his mind. ”

“ Regulations of the sites of town buildings have comparatively little effect on the cost of construction, and it may 288in general be said that a Building Act would effect what any enlightened owner of a district would effect for himself, of laying it out with a view to the most permanent advantage ”

“ Down near the railroad station, where the "red-light [ 60] district" used to be, there has long stood a tract of several blocks of little buildings, dismal and dilapidated. They are coming down. Some of them have come down. And there, in that place which was the home of ugliness and vice, there now shows the beginning of the city's Municipal Group Plan. This plan is one of the finest things which any city in the land has contemplated for its own beautification. ”

“ As a means to secure the completest success in the reconstruction of the building, I would recommend that the Secretary of the Interior be authorized to invite competition in the submission of plans for the new structure, and to appoint a commission of three practical men skilled in the art of building to determine upon the best plan submitted. ”

“ The site suggested in the Regent's Park has been found, since it was visited by the Building Committee, not to be available, as the leases under which the houses in the neighbourhood are held contain a clear and stringent provision that no new building of any kind shall be erected within the limits of the park. ”

“ Soon plans and specifications were drawn and laid before the Council which were fully considered and finally adopted, and the committee was instructed to advertise for bids, let the contract and have the building completed as soon as possible. Work is now progressing on the building, which is to be quite a commodious one, with twelve rooms, with all the modern improvements as to heating, fire protection, &c. ”

“ All new houses are monolithic and must be built from plans approved by the General Council of Architects. The law requires, under heavy penalties, that every building shall have a liberal and specified window-area, and be properly warmed and ventilated. ”

“ The small economy is the more injurious, because a noble regardlessness of expense is of the essence of the architecture, and an integral part of its effectiveness. The most monumental feature of the projected building has never been supplied—a huge arch in the centre of each of the shorter fronts, giving access to the central court, and marking the division between the property of the city and of the county. ”

“ In our public buildings we still suffer from the method of appropriation, which has been so much criticized in connection with our rivers and harbors. Some method should be devised for controlling the supply of public buildings, so that they will harmonize with the actual needs of the Government. Then, when it comes to the actual construction, there has been in the past too little study of the building plans and sites with a view to the actual needs of the Government. ”

“ It is to be regretted that the town and city authorities, during the last 35 years, have not, as in other places, exerted their authority in the arrangement and laying off of building lots, and by wholesome regulations, prevented the crowding of buildings on pieces of land not sufficiently deep to admit of proper ventilation. ”

“ These by-laws are an expense to ratepayers, and they increase the cost of buildings. Elaborate plans and descriptions have to be furnished, and the buildings have to be inspected at various periods of their construction, and, of course, all variations of plan which may appear necessary in the course of construction must also be submitted and 'passed' by the local authority. It may happen that there are members of the local council who understand the technicalities of the building trade ”

“ Many of the ancient houses with flat roofs and severely simple facades have been substituted by highly ornamented dwellings of two, three, or more stories; and, with a desire to add to the embellishment of the city, the Municipality offers a gold medal and a diploma to the architect, and an immunity from payment of the building tax to the owner, of the building for the most artistic façade, the jury being composed of representatives of different bodies exercising authority in relation to such matters as architecture, surveys, public works, engineering and fine arts. ”

“ The public buildings now in process of construction, numbering 80, involving constant supervision, are all the building projects which the Government ought to have on hand at one time, unless a very palpable necessity exists for an increase in the number. ”

“ The value of property in a City is much enhanced by the erection of solid and durable buildings, and every proper facility to perfect them should be given to builders. If it is necessary, in order to make a better building to occupy the sidewalk and dig an area, and it can be occupied, and the area dug and secured without danger to the public, then the encroachment made on the street is reasonable, and the work lawful. ”

“ Again, it is an important part of the project that each ward, or one-sixth part of the city, should be in some sense a complete town by itself, and thus the school buildings might serve, in the earlier stages, not only as schools, but as places for religious worship, for concerts, for libraries, and for meetings of various kinds, so that all outlay on expensive municipal and other buildings might be deferred until the later stages of the enterprise. ”

“ Where a city is wholly a political city, as is Washington, the public buildings largely determine the structure of the city. The smaller public buildings found in all cities, such as the Post Office and City Hall, have considerable influence in determininig the line of early growth, but are of constantly diminishing importance as the other factors of a city's life become stronger, so that not infrequently the public building which created a street in time becomes a detriment to it. It is easy to find public buildings badly located which have no effect on the. ”

“ With long narrow blocks, as in New York, the development would be more irregular, the tendency being to alternate high and low buildings. Further variations occur where a skyscraper owns one or two lots in an adjoining tract in order to block the erection of another high building, as with the Park Row Realty Building, and the Broad Exchange Building, or the purchase of low buildings across narrow streets to insure light and air, as with some of the life insurance company buildings. ”

“ It is a sad pity that so many have disappeared and been replaced by modern and uninteresting structures. If a new town hall be required in order to keep pace with the increasing dignity of an important borough, the Corporation can at least preserve their ancient municipal hall which has so long watched over the fortunes of the town and shared in its joys and sorrows, and seek a fresh site for their new home without destroying the old. ”

“ All the enterprises just described have one feature in common, namely, the laying out of sites on a plan which takes cognizance of the future, secures a due proportion of open space, variety in the arrangement of streets and the most advantageous disposition of the houses and other buildings. They go beyond sanitary requirements and take account of higher needs. They have lent force to the advocacy of municipal “town-planning,” as practised by several towns in Germany; and provision was made for this procedure in the Housing and Town Planning Act of 1909. ”

“ There should be at least four out-buildings, detached from the main edifice and from each other, and in such positions as shall at once answer the purposes of the institution, and be consistent with the symmetry of the whole establishment: each building should be, as far as practicable, devoted to a distinct purpose ”

“ The taking of the whole of those estates the remnants of which would not be suited for the erection of proper buildings may well be deemed a taking for those public uses for which building regulations and those limiting the height of buildings on public areas have been upheld. ”

“ On account of the decrease in the population, by which great numbers of houses are vacant, building has ceased for years past and these once great associations have dwindled down. The Board of Ethical Control has caused public buildings to be constructed in order to give them work and has ordered landlords to make repairs to the same end. ”

“ An idea appears to prevail in some quarters that the occupation of the Park is intended to be of a permanent, and not, as has been repeatedly announced, of a merely temporary character, and the Commissioners are given to understand that by proposing to construct a building into which a good deal of brickwork is to enter, they have shown an intention at variance with their professions. ”

“ No construction or erection in a city of the first class of any building, bridge or its approaches, arch, gate, fence, or other structure or fixture which is to be paid for wholly or in part by appropriation from the city treasury or other public funds, or for which the city or any other public authority is to furnish a site, shall be begun until the approval of the jury shall have been given to the design and proposed location thereof. ”

“ It is as logical to provide a larger proportion of open space in districts where the demand for land is less as it is to provide less height for buildings in such districts. An ordinance which prescribes for different building districts varying amounts of land which may be occupied, as well as varying heights of buildings, is much more calculated to lessen the fire [Pg 149] risk and to safeguard the health of the community than one which is operative only in the area of greatest land values and most congested occupancy. ”