Skyscrapers, Efficiency, and Fast Service

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 974, 17 May 1930, Page 30

Skyscrapers, Efficiency, and Fast Service

Auckland Architect Visi ts A inerica INTERESTING IMPRESSIONS A most interesting series ot sidelights on his recent tour of America was given by Mr. C. A. Trevithick, the Auckland architect, in an address the other evening. I have been asked many times since t returned: “What was it that struck you most in the 'United States?” and f am reminded of the reply of an Irishman, when asked the same question. His reply was: “The thing which struck me most was the number of motor-cars which missed me.”

I arrived at Buffalo late at night and naturally could form no impression iP the dark, so that the Statler Hotel itself and its organisation really formed my first impression. The enormous lounge, the brilliant lighting, and hurrying crowds, and the music of a band playing somewhere in a dining-room, all gave me the impression of bustling life and prosperity. The equipment of one’s bedroom and bathroom, shows thoroughness down to the smallest detail. This equipment included writing-desk and all manner of printed forms for cables, telegrams, and wireless messages, telephone, wireless with the choice of three stations, a Bible, needles and cotton and buttons, and even a corkscrew and bottle-opener chained to the wall of the bathroom.

The only occasion on which I found the name of New Zealand mentioned in their newspapers was when the earthquake occurred in the South Island, and then I read that several whole towns had been wiped out, one thousand people killed, and that airplanes had flown over the affected area and could see no sign of life whatever.

# ★ * My first feeling, I must admit, after gazing skyward at New York’s buildings, was a severe crick in the neck. These huge structures are of almost unlimited storeys, some are 60, others 70, others SO —I could name the height of one or two correctly perhaps: but In any case, what are x few storeys when talking of American architecture —present problems in design, engineering, construction, heating and ventilation, elevator services, etc., which call for the very closest collaboration of outside expert services. In the planning ot the building, the first consideration as I saw it, was the position of the elevators, as it is of the very utmost importance that the tenants must be moved to their respective floors with the minimum of

inconvenience and the maximum of speed. The importance of the elevator service v> IT be readily recognised when it is rea’' ’ that in some of these office buildings the normal number of people in the building when all offices are occupied, amounts to from 12,000 to 16,000, and it can be safely assumed that many thousands of people apart from the tenants call at the building daily. Some of these office buifdings have as many as 20 or even more elevators, and they are wonderful. The locals, say to the tenth of . fifteenth floors, travel at only slightly higher speeds than ours in New Zealand, say 300 to 400 feet a minute, but the expresses travel at 900 to 1,000 feet a minute, and their construction and equipment is such that there is no feeling what.evei of any undue speed. They are equipped with self-levelling devices at each floor and the doors automatically open when the absolute floor level is reached. In the endeavour to cut down the amount of space required for elevators, experiments are being made with two elevators in one common shaft, and also double-decker elevators serving two floors at once.

Of all the works I saw in process of construction, the merchandise mart in Chicago fascinated me the most. The building is approximately 700 ft long by 300 ft wide and is 19 storeys high. Bach floor covers approximately five acres so that there are nearly 100 acres of floor space in the building. The promoters of the scheme have bought the air rights of the site only and not the freehold of the actual ground. The ground is still owned by one of the railway companies and the promoters have bought the site from the ground level upward. To take care of the enormous amount of merchandise daily entering or leaving the building when completed, there will be space beneath the ground floor for 118 railway cars to stand at one lime, and there will be 14 freight elevators to handle these goods. The building was about half completed when I was in Chicago and there were nine cranes erecting steel framing simultaneously at different parts of the building, altogether these cranes had to handle 60,000 tons of steel, and the noise of dozens of automatic rlvetters all going at once was truly awful.

The housing of cars belonging to professional men in the cities is one which is receiving a great deal of attention and ramp garages are to be found everywhere. A new thirtystorey building which has just been completed in San Francisco for doctors and dentists has the first seven floors devoted exclusively to the housing of the motor-cars of the occupants of the building. The owner gives up his car to the care ot one of the attendants on the ground floor and the car is parked somewhere in the building. The owner simply rings up when he wants his car again and it is ready for him when he reaches the ground floor.

Steel is playiug a very big part in the equipment of the modern

structures not only in office desks, cabinets and shelving etc., but in the construction of doors, elevators, steel window's, etc., including double-hung windows. Internal door frames are mainly of steel and come to the works with hinges attached, and the sheetsteel doors arrive later with holes tapped to receive the hinge screws, so that the hanging of doors is a simple matter. I was surprised to find that in most cases metal sashes and frames were not galvanised or zinc sprayed, and were built into the walls w'itk no more protection than a coat of paint. This was not only so in the cheaper structures: I noticed it in the Royal York Hotel which was nearing completion in Toronto when I was there, a structure costing £3,500,000.

I saw a cemetery for dogs and other pet animals, where purchasers paid anything up to £4O for a lot for their pet. It had head-stones and obelisks, and all manner of strange devices of every size and shape and cost. Aquariums are recognised as of absorbing interest to the w'hole community, and I found that many cities were very well catered for in this respect. The New York aquarium is quite extensive, and while the methods of clarifying and aerating the w'ater are up-to-date, the construction of the tanks and general arrangement of plan are not so good as in other cities. This aquarium is the gift to the City of Mrs. Shedd and is costing approximately £1,000,000. In the New York aquarium 100.000 gallons of salt water are stored in a reservoir under the ground iu Battery Park adjacent to the building, and this water is supplied to each of the tanks and the return pipes from the tanks are taken through filters where it is cleaned and then goes back into the reservoir. The curator of this aquarium informed me that the same salt water bad been in constant use for 20 years, and it was only a year or two ago that the water was changed. The salt water was collected in tanks by vessels several miles out at sea in order to get as clean and pure water as possible. The Chicago aquarium has many fine features both architecturally and in its planning and equipment. The lighting of the tanks is excellent. As in the case of modern picture galleries where the visitor stands more or less in shadow- while all the light is concentrated on the picture, so in this aquarium.

One is always tempted to place one’s hand on the glass front of the tank to try and make a fish jump, and this action has been the cause of much cracked glass, due to the heat of the hand producing sudden expansion forces which have resulted iu fracture. In Chicago this has been obviated by the placing of a brass rail to prevent the public reaching the front of the tanks.

Speaking of churches, there is an interesting one in Chicago—the First Methodist Church, which is built iu the heart of the city. The church

itself occupies a position right in the centre of an office building thirty storeys in height and is situated on the ground floor. It has no external windows whatever. It is quite lofty, running through three or perhaps four storeys, above this the remainder of the building is subdivided into offices. Access to the church is either from the main elevator lobby or through a door on the side street. The building is finished with a steeple much like other churches. I was told that the whole building w'as owned by the Church and was free of debt, with the rental of hundreds of offices coming in each week. There is no Sunday collection, and I was led to understand that ■the congregation springs mostly from Aberdonian stock.

The heating in most buildings was far too efficient for me. q’ke system which appealed to me most was the vacuum steam one, which differed from the usual high pressure system in that the steam was drawn through the radiators instead of being forced through. In New York there is a steam service in pipes under the street which can be laid on just as water and gas services. The steam is at about 701bs pressure and Is used in many cases for heating or cooking or the running of machinery. I was forcibly struck by the system of expert co-ordination when being conducted over the new Bell Telephone building at Newark, New Jersey. The number of operatives in the building is approximately 2.500. The building first of all has to handle all these people in local and express elevators, then it has its own auditorium with cinema arrangements and stage, fully equipped hospital with doctor and nurses, and a small operating theatre and rooms for the treatment of eyes or throat, an X-ray rbom. gymnasium and recreation rooms, dining room and cafeteria, with beautifully-equipped kitchens, hot water heating systems, one for heating the building, and the other for domestic use in all toilet rooms, and fresh air systems where the air is washed and heated or cooled as the case may be.

Synthetic materials are in evidence everywhere in the building world. I saw huge grauite columns being cast and later set up in lathes and turned, which were cast and then the cement face removed with the aid of fine automatic steel tools; granite facing blocks which were cast and sawn and fine-axed, or finished in any desired face; oak panelling, or so it seemed; and pilasters and carved capitals stained and polished showing every took mark and every bit of grain in the wood, which proved to be asbestos, or in other cases, wood pulp or fibrous plaster, ceiling beams with adze marks and knot-holes and gnarled grain, cast in moulds which were made from the actual old oak ceiling beams imported from England and all made from the materials mentioned above.