158 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



The tenement house law represents after all the minimum which the 

 people who were working for better public sanitation would accept and the 

 maximum that they were able to obtain. 



Districting a benefit to health 



I am of the opinion that any reasonable regulation tending to increase 

 open spaces will inevitably tend to the production of more healthful condi- 

 tions. I believe that the elimination of factories from tenement districts 

 will be helpful, especially if the regulation prevents the existence of facto- 

 ries in tenement houses. Experience has shown me that the use of tene- 

 ment houses for business or manufacturing purposes, above the ground 

 floor, is injurious to the health and morals of the occupants. 



Exit facilities in tenements 



The width of stairways and the capacity of fire-escapes and fire passages 

 in tenement houses was based upon the presumption that the building will 

 be occupied by not more than the normal family occupancy of such a 

 building, and to create a condition in which the exit facilities would be called 

 upon to serve more than that number of people in an emergency would be 

 likely to create dangerous conditions. 



Business and industry are now allowed above the ground floor in tene- 

 ment houses. Factories are permitted under regulations of the State Indus- 

 trial Commission. Businesses are regulated as to their hazardousness by 

 the city ordinances and the Tenement House Department, when it finds 

 that any business is installed in a tenement house, above the ground floor, 

 places extra requirements in the matter of exits, but, in view of the fact 

 that to provide any new exits would call almost for a reconstruction of the 

 lower parts of certain buildings, the means of exits now resorted to are 

 frequently below standard. 



Height of tenements 



The limitations on buildings require them to be fireproof, if over six 

 stories in height. This establishes a sort of automatic check on the height 

 of tenements. There has been no tendency noticeable in Brooklyn outside 

 of Williamsburgh for the four-story house to develop into the six-story 

 house. There has been very little tendency in The Bronx for five-story 

 houses, with which they practically started to build tenements up there, to 

 develop into six stories. It seems as if certain types have imposed these 

 conditions. The extra climb in non-elevator apartments makes it very dif- 

 ficult to reach the sixth floor, and so they have not put them in in certain 

 sections. Of course, there has been a certain tendency for fireproof build- 

 ings to go higher and higher. I think there again the 150-foot limitation 

 served as a check. That was imposed by a regulation of the Bureau of 

 Buildings and not by ourselves, except as far as the check afforded by the 

 width of the street was concerned — that, of course, we have in operation. 



Disastrous effects of haphazard development 



It is a fact that in many instances the splendid results, flowing from 

 the enforcement of the Tenement House Law as to light and ventilation, are 

 interfered with and in some instances almost frustrated by the erection of 

 adjacent buildings used for other purposes. I would supplement that state- 

 ment by saying that one of the things that the law sought to secure as much 

 as possible was interior block ventilation and that purpose is often frustrated 

 by the erection of buildings which are unrestricted as to depth under present 

 conditions running through blocks. 



