BUILDING IN U.S.A.

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 892, 8 February 1930, Page 22

BUILDING IN U.S.A.

BETTER WORK THAN IN ENGLAND EFFICIENCY METHODS Comparing English and American building methods, Mr. Alfred C. Bossom, the London architect, is convinced that the advantage rests with the United States. Mr. Bossom, who has designed several American skyscrapers, has just returned from a tour of the Middle West and the American eastern seaboard. “Everywhere we went we found building operations being carried out in ways that have not only inspired us, but have made us sad,” Mr. Bpssom stated, “If such methods could be adopted in England, buildings would be more frequently replaced by more desirable structures. Not that old and beautiful ones should be destroyed, but that poor and mediocre specimens would give place to more desirable buildings. “A million pound building is regularly built in America in fifteen months, and the men get through three times as much work as at home. “The workers, almost without exception, own motor-cars, and it has become quite a problem to find space for the building mechanics to park their cars during the daytime. “Work goes on all the year round. The buildings are enclosed, and special mixtures are put into the concrete or mortar so that cold weather has no bad effect. The men are given rubber coats, and so on, to enablfe them to go ahead on rainy days. “The supply of materials is so organised that the exact quantity comes each day and every day, so that no time is wasted. The men work full time, and jobs go forward almost like clockwork.

“We could. I am sure, easily do as well. If people in England would only realise that well-built buildings can be made to pay, and that we can cure a whole lot of the present building trouble by adopting better and welltried methods, it would result in benefit to all.

“There would be work for many of the workless and homes for many of the homeless.”