posed commercial office building to be located on an avenue block front, in which the unification of the design has been more or less successfully accomplished by two deep sinkages on the avenue front, and one on the street side. The same thing has been accomplished by Mr. Harmon in the
THE SHELTON, NEW YORK
ARTHUR LOOMIS HARMON, ARCHITECT
Shelton Hotel, although in this case the surface which starts near the ground level cannot, of course, yeach the top.
Perhaps the most striking example of what we mean is the design for the Grant Hotel shown by Mr. Saarinen, in his project for a new Chicago
development which we here reproduce. This design is an object lesson of what we have in mind, for it clearly shows that a “box-on-box” treatment, such as is probably the result of any zoning, can be cut by one sheer surface forming a sinkage or courtyard, starting at the top with no depth and becoming deeper as it gets lower. A good example of a unifying vertical line is the deep vertical cut in the side of the Bush Terminal Building, now unfortunately hidden by an adjoining construction. Raymond M. Hood’s American Radiator Building is a fine example of the zoned building, though on too narrow a lot to accent the argument with which this article is concerned. The same might be said of Chickening Hall on West Fifty-seventh Street, though this is cleverly designed as an advertisement and does not follow the zoning law. This last building does, however, call to mind the inestimable boon conferred by the zoning, law in bringing about the disappearance of unsightly pent house and roof tanks which for years have awkwardly crowned our classic skyscrapers. These excrescences have now been absorbed in the natural zoned type as is proven by the fact that every one of the examples cited in this article, has eliminated and absorbed into the design the pent house, the elevator machinery space and the roof tank.
Again referring to the purely commercial aspect of zoning, it is a fact that this new resolution has resulted in imparting a natural clifflike shape and sky outline to buildings on very large lots, and has obviated the necessity of trying to give the design an artistic shape by introducing cornices and surface architectural treatment. All horizontal cornices may now, and with advantage, be eliminated. The building which Mr. Howells shows in his design is plain brick from top to bottom. This type of building can secure great economies by eliminating all decorative and even costly material from exteriors, and depending entirely for beauty and impressiveness on the study of shape and the resultant shadows and silhouette against the sky. This method of design should have a tendency to reduce costs and if the setbacks are made to correspond with the column centers, the result should be an economically constructed building. Of course, if the set-backs do not correspond with the column centers, complications of extra steelwork, girder height, and the increase of story heights at the set-backs are apt to counteract the natural economies resulting from zoning.
THE SHELTON, NEW YORK
ARTHUR LOOMIS HARMON, ARCHITECT
Shelton Hotel, although in this case the surface which starts near the ground level cannot, of course, yeach the top.
Perhaps the most striking example of what we mean is the design for the Grant Hotel shown by Mr. Saarinen, in his project for a new Chicago
development which we here reproduce. This design is an object lesson of what we have in mind, for it clearly shows that a “box-on-box” treatment, such as is probably the result of any zoning, can be cut by one sheer surface forming a sinkage or courtyard, starting at the top with no depth and becoming deeper as it gets lower. A good example of a unifying vertical line is the deep vertical cut in the side of the Bush Terminal Building, now unfortunately hidden by an adjoining construction. Raymond M. Hood’s American Radiator Building is a fine example of the zoned building, though on too narrow a lot to accent the argument with which this article is concerned. The same might be said of Chickening Hall on West Fifty-seventh Street, though this is cleverly designed as an advertisement and does not follow the zoning law. This last building does, however, call to mind the inestimable boon conferred by the zoning, law in bringing about the disappearance of unsightly pent house and roof tanks which for years have awkwardly crowned our classic skyscrapers. These excrescences have now been absorbed in the natural zoned type as is proven by the fact that every one of the examples cited in this article, has eliminated and absorbed into the design the pent house, the elevator machinery space and the roof tank.
Again referring to the purely commercial aspect of zoning, it is a fact that this new resolution has resulted in imparting a natural clifflike shape and sky outline to buildings on very large lots, and has obviated the necessity of trying to give the design an artistic shape by introducing cornices and surface architectural treatment. All horizontal cornices may now, and with advantage, be eliminated. The building which Mr. Howells shows in his design is plain brick from top to bottom. This type of building can secure great economies by eliminating all decorative and even costly material from exteriors, and depending entirely for beauty and impressiveness on the study of shape and the resultant shadows and silhouette against the sky. This method of design should have a tendency to reduce costs and if the setbacks are made to correspond with the column centers, the result should be an economically constructed building. Of course, if the set-backs do not correspond with the column centers, complications of extra steelwork, girder height, and the increase of story heights at the set-backs are apt to counteract the natural economies resulting from zoning.