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22 





The Rorists^ Review 



/ ' ' '^' "/■" ' ■ ■■■ ' '■■■■ ' ' • 



Decbmbbk 4, 1010. ' 



residential buildings in New York. 

 Three large buildings are now Sunder 

 construction in which provision for 

 gardens is being made: Holbrook Hall, 

 at 100 West Fifty-fifth street; the Pre- 

 sada, at 50 Central Park, west, and the 

 Town House Club, at the corner of Cen- 

 tral Park, west, and Sixty-seventh 

 street." 



Description of Greenhouse. 



There are two buildings composing 

 the greenhouse. The main building 

 covers one of the four south wings of 

 the hotel and is about 60 x 90 feet. The 

 other building is 18 x 45 feet and covers 

 a bridge which leads to the roof-garden 

 restaurant on the Eighth avenue side 

 ef the hotel. 



There are no interior columns in 

 either of the buildings and the entire 

 space is clear and free. The height of 

 the main building, from floor to roof 

 peak, is thirty feot and the height of 

 the sides is twelve feet. The bridge 

 house connects into the curved side of 

 the main building and is provided with 

 a removable partition at this point, so 

 that it can be closed off as desired. 



The walls are of pressed brick and 

 the floor of red tile. Above the brick- 

 work is a series of French windows, 

 glazed with plate-glass and fitted with 

 adjustable casement stays that hold 

 the Sash in any position desired. Above 

 these are wall vents glazed with ca- 

 thedral glass and operated with me- 

 chanical sash operators. 



The roof is semi-curvilinear and is 

 glazed with heavy ribbed glass laid in 



for awnings and draperies for summer 

 use and this framework is left in place 

 during the winter. 



Engineering Problems. 



The height of the site for the green- 

 house brought up the problem of wind 

 pressure. The New York building de- 

 partment was consulted as to their 

 views and two "well known engineering 

 firms, one in New York and one in Chi- 

 cago, were asked to go over the de- 

 signs for tho steel frame. It was an 

 easy task to design a steel frame to 

 carry the load, but to get one that was 

 suitable for greenhouse work and that 

 would be light and attractive was a 

 horse of another color. The first de- 

 sign was finally accepted, with slight 

 modifications. The steel frame for 

 these buildings had to be sixteen times 

 as strong as the ordinary greenhouse 

 steel frame. 



To meet the rules of the city build- 

 ing department, no wood could be used 

 in the structure; so each piece of wood- 

 work had to bo patiently covered with 

 kalameined metal. The copper work 

 for cornice and drainage work had to be 

 insulated from the steelwork to prevent 

 electrolysis. The result of electrolytic 

 action of copper •'o steel in the Atlantic 

 coast salt air would be the quick de- 

 struction of the building. 



Where the main conservatory adjoins 

 the central portion of the hotel, it was 

 not possible to use a column to support 

 the roof of the building. To carry this 

 roof for such a span on a horizontal 

 plane required a steel I-beam twenty- 



Ample Spac! for Storiag Stock is in this Skyscraper Greenhouse 60x90 feet. 



special putty. Ventilators are used on 

 the roofs similar to the ones in an or- 

 dinary greenhouse and mechanically 

 operated from convenient stations. The 

 heating system is a vacuum steam sys- 

 tem, made up with radiators and pipe 

 coils around the walls. 



There is a balcony outside of the main 

 building and this is decorated with 

 shrubs and plants. Staging is pro- 

 vided all around the sides for plants in 

 pots or beds. Provision has been made 



four inches wide and weighing 4,800 

 pounds. 



The steel columns used to support the 

 great roof of the conservatory arc ten 

 in number, but only eight of these are 

 anchored into the hotel structure, the 

 other two being the end columns, which 

 are separately supported. The eight 

 columns are anchored in the roof of the 

 building and connected with two 24-inch 

 I-beams, having a total weight of 160 

 pounds per foot. The weight of the steel 



frame in the big house is about 150,- 

 000 pounds. .' 



Feats in Building. 



The connecting fittings for the great 

 arches at the ridge each weigh 420 

 pounds. It was a feat to get these up 

 in place and join the five arches and 

 the steel ridge girder together. The 

 bolts used here were turned to an ac- 

 curate fit on an engine lathe and are 

 two inches in diameter. In some of the 

 ridge connections the metal is one and 

 one-half inches thick. 



The only available means of getting 

 material up on the roof was the hotel 

 elevators and they could accommodate 

 nothing over fourteen feet long, or 

 weighing over 1,100 pounds. The raft- 

 ers called for a length of nearly forty- 

 six fset and weight about two tons! 

 How could it be done! To put up a 

 stiff-legged derrick and hoist the steel 

 from the street would take too long and 

 be too costly and to build a scaffold 

 hoist alongside the building from side- 

 walk to roof, 300 feet, was out of the 

 question. The problem was solved by 

 moving the steel shop up on the roof and 

 there putting all the necessary pieces 

 together, fabricating most of it and 

 riveting it into one rigid frame right on 

 the spot. And so it was with the sash- 

 bars and the giant hip rafters. The 

 tinsmith and his shop moved to the 

 roof and there he worked and wrought 

 until the building was done. 



BELGIAN GLASS PRODUCTION. 



The inability of glass manufacturers 

 in this country to meet the present de- 

 mand has caused prices to advance so 

 that quotations have lately been with- 

 drawn in many cases. Should the ad- 

 vance in price continue, importations 

 of Belgian glass may become a factor 

 in the market, particularly at the fa- 

 vorable exchange rates. 



All the window-glass plants in Bel- 

 gium are now in full or partial opera- 

 tion and production is proceeding at the 

 rate of 1,500,000 square meters per 

 month, as compared with a pre-war 

 production of 3,750,000 square meters 

 per month. Exports have been resumed 

 to the extent of about 10,000,000 francs 

 per month, as against annual exports of 

 about 50,000,000 francs before the war. 

 The high value of current exports is 

 partly due to the fact that wholesale 

 prices are from five to six times the 

 pre-war quotations. 



Cost of production is not an important 

 factor at present, because of the ex- 

 tremely heavy demand. While it is 

 difficult to estimate the probable whole- 

 sale prices which will prevail after 

 normal production is resumed, there is 

 no doubt that they will continue to ex- 

 ceed greatly the pre-war quotations. At 

 the present time labor costs have in- 

 creased approximately 110 per cent 

 since 1914; the price of coal for the 

 ovens has risen about 500 per cent and 

 other raw materials have advanced 

 from 100 to 200 per cent. Most of the 

 Belgian factories have not yet adopted 

 blowing machinery and this under pres- 

 ent labor conditions will make it diffi- 

 cult for them to compete with Ameri- 

 can plants. Blowers, who are, of course, 

 highly skilled workmen, are now re- 

 ceiving 950 francs per month and the 

 wages of gatherers and flatteners have 

 also been largely increased. 



