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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, JUNE 10, 1916
CAUSE AND EFFECT IN APARTMENT HOUSE
CONSTRUCTION IN NEW YORK CITY
By REGINALD PELHAM BOLTON
Author of "Building for Profit"—"Power for Profit''
PART IV.
A T the beginning of the current year
â– ** there were still in existence 77,960
tenement buildings of the old law type,
constructed prior to 1902, forming the
iiabitation of a majority of the popula¬
tion of the metropolis. Most of these
liuildings are in fairly good physical
condition, by no means at the end of
their existence, but the)' represent a
form of construction which is no longer
permitted, and in many respects a char¬
acter of accommodation which is no
longei; to be desired.
The investment which lias heen made
in their construction runs into enormous
figures, and a natural inquiry arises as
to what is to be done with this vast
extent of investment, in order to main¬
tain it upon a sound basis.
The number of family spaces or apart¬
ments in these old buildings is very
large. In Manhattan the old type of
buildings is 87 per cent, of the whole.
In these structures there are 392.48S
apartment spaces, accommodating fully
one million people, and constituting 73
per cent, of all the apartment accommo¬
dation in the borough.
In Brooklyn the old buildings are 74.7
per cent, of the whole number, and the
number of apartments therein consti¬
tutes 62 per cent, of the whole.
In the Bronx the situation is fortu¬
nately reversed, on account of the com¬
paratively recent building up of that sec¬
tion. There the old apartments are but
26 per cent, of the whole number; and
in Queens they constitute but 30 per
cent, of the total.
Increasing Population.
It must be conceded that the construc¬
tion of these old buildings was a long
step in the problem of housing the enor¬
mously increasing population of the city,
and that they served a useful purpose in
this regard, whatever have been and still
are their deficiencies. From the point
of view of Manhattan only, it would
appear that it would have been impos¬
sible to house more than one-third of
the population the borough now sup¬
ports, without the tenement.
.\ large question therefore arises as to
what may be and should be done with
the old class of buildings—whether the
process should be one of radical altera¬
tion to meet inodern conditions, or of
complete removal and reconstruction.
So far as the removal of old buildings
is concerned, the process is noticeably
slow, and it is interesting to observe
that the replacement of buildings of this
character by other buildings of improved
type is only a minor part of the total
process of replacement, as shown in the
following table:
OLD TENEMENTS REPLACED
"13 «y nj
bo
L gS SS § 5
_: iSg ,5-5 |g . 3 3 >
ra -w 01 ° 3 Ji
>• t^ m^nnra a j
1910..: 337 65 176 28 21 22 25
1911... 321 63 171 11 21 19 36
1912... 300 72 118 27 9 28 46
1913... 217 32 70 35 17 16 47
1914... 321 37 as 89 'H 19 63
REGINALD PELHAM BOLTON.
The replacement of au apartment
building by another is not so attractive
a proposition to the builder or specu¬
lator as the construction of a new struc¬
ture on vacant property; and so long as
the latter is available in desirable posi¬
tions there will be little attempt to de¬
velop the replacement of old buildings
by new. There are still, for instance,
in Manhattan some two thousand vacant
lots awaiting utilization, and very many
old and small stores and dwellings which
could be more profitably removed to
make way for modern apartments than
would be the case with old five-story
tenements.
Rate of Removal.
The rate of removal of old apartments
is barely one-half of one per cent, of the
total per annum, and it would seem that
this rate must be speeded up as the
buildings become older. The situation
is probalily due to the fact that the age
of the majority of these buildings is not
great enough to have affected their
physical conditions. It becomes, there¬
fore, of much interest to inquire whether
this large nunilier of existing buildings
could by any means be profitably altered
so as to meet modernized requirements.
Some such process is constantly pro¬
ceeding, but tlie alterations which are
recorded by the Tenement House De¬
partment are largely minor modifica¬
tions, necessary to comply with health
and fire regulations. Alterations, to be
wholly effective, must be more thor¬
ough and must deal with the large defi¬
ciencies of these older types of build¬
ings from several standpoints.
The defects of the old buildings are
largelv the shortage of light, ventilation
and air supply. This point is illustrated
by the fact that no less than 248,625
rooms have required the provision of
windows or the enlargement of exist¬
ing windows during the past twelve
years, an average of twenty thousand a
year, of which number upwards of 62
per cent, were in the Borough of Man¬
hattan.
The outlook of apartments into yards
and courts is a deplorable, if necessary,
feature of apartment house construction.
To a considerable extent, it is a feature
of even the most advanced form of con¬
struction. In 1915 only 48 per cent, of
all the new apartments constructed in
Manhattan had an outlook on the street,
and all tlie rest faced into courts and
yards.
The proportions were the same in the
Borough of the Bronx, and in the Bor¬
ough of Brooklyn were but little better,
being SO per cent. In the Borough of
Queens the conditions are much better,
because the prevailing type is the
"through" apartment, having street out¬
look at one end and a yard outlook at
the other, and thus only 23 per cent,
of the apartments in that borough have
no outlook on the street.
OUTLOOK OF APARTMEXTS I.X TENEMENTS
ERECTED DURING 1915
Manhattan Bronx
.Apartments with % %
outlook to street.. 2.607 .54.6 3,.5.31 48 6
outlook to yard ... 1,576 32.9 2,679 36.8
outlook to court . . 434 9.1 587 8.1
Through apartments. 166 3.4 474 6.5
Total apartments.
4.783
7,271
Brooklyn
Queens
Apartments with
%
%
outlook to street..
3,9.37 41.8
406 18.9
outlook to yard . ..
3,819 40.6
386 18.1
outlook to court...
830 8.8
106 4.9
Through apartments.
830 8.8
1,249 58.1
Total apartments.. 9.416 2,147
Richmond New York City
Apartments with % %
outlook to street.......... 10,481 44.4
outlook to yard........... 8,460 35.8
outlook to court.......... 1,957 8.3
Through apartments.
2,719 11.5
23,617
Total apartments.......
Of all the forms of deficiency the
most deplorable is the lack of interior
conveniences, a condition which has been
considerably rectified by the action of
the Health and Tenement House Depart¬
ments: yet it is strange to read that
there were still being constructed so
late as last year apartments having no
liaths as part of their equipment, al¬
though, fortunately, the rate of such
deficiencies is on a decreasing scale.
NEW LAW TENEMENT BUILDINGS, 1912-1915.
.Ipartments wth no baths
1912 1,156
1913 731
1914 200
1915 198
Apartments with piiblic baths only
1012 129
1913 None
1914 None
1915 62
It seems evident that unless steps are
taken to improve and rectify these con¬
ditions the increasing intelligence of the
great body of tenants will lead to the
comparative desertion of the older type
of building, in favor of newer forms;
and, inasmuch as the demolition and
changes of e.xisting buildings are largely
in the older settled parts of the city,
while the majority of the new construc¬
tion is in the outlying regions, this pro¬
cess if not advanced by some more rapid
method of improvement in the old build¬
ings will lead to a gradual desertion of
the older districts in favor of the out-