RUST-EATEN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 10 December 1927, Page 5

RUST-EATEN

IRONWORK SKYSCRAPERS CAN'T LAST 40 YEARS BRITISH ARCHITECT'S CONVICTION. [By Cable — Press Assn. — Copyright.] ( Received 10. 8.55 a.m ) London, December 9. That New York's boasted skyscrapers will crumple and fall inside 40 years, is the conviction of Sir Edwin Lutyens, the famous British architect, whose works include the Whitechapel Cenotaph and British buildings in many centres, and who is one of the principal architects for the Imperial War Graves Commission. Sir Edwin doubts whether, in their present condition, they would withstand the mildest tornado. When he recently opened up one big structure, the ironwork was eaten with rust —when he recently opened the upper part of St. Paul’s he found that Christopher Wren's dome bracing chains were still brightely polished. London’s ironwork is generally bedded in five inches of solid concrete, and New York’s in a coat of paint. “New York’s skyscrapers will soon be a distinct menace,’’ says Sir Edwin. “New Yorkers say thev are all right because thev have rock foundations, but this does not matter. Westminster Abbey has stood for centuries on a marsh. If a skvscraper was built properly it,would also stand centuries. New York it merely a series of immense canyons of brick and stone. Windows are windows, and nothing more Americans are not good builders.”—(A. and N.Z.)