History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I, Part 48

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 818

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"So that all classes of people in New York, without any exception what- ever, are protected by the zoning law.

Advantages Possessed by Milwaukee .- "Now, here in this city you have begun with the advantage of the precedents of New York and other cities that have plowed the new ground and with the benefit of their mistakes. With your admirable lay-ont you ought to have a better zoning plan than New York has: and you have got it. Your publie servants have adopted a plan which takes in the best features of the New York plan, of that of St. Louis, and other cities. All of the great cities in this country are working on zoning plans: none of them are in as good a position as you are here. Your proposed ordinance and the maps that have been prepared by your able commission are most admirable and I sincerely hope that they will be adopted by your officials.

"As a student of this subject who has kept track of what has gone on in this country and in European cities, I want to submit a word of highest commendation for the common sense that has been applied in this city. It has been done after prolonged study of underlying data, and any one here would profit by going to the city hall and seeing that admirable system of maps and statisties that has been prepared there by Mr. Stoelting under the Board of Publie Land Commissioners, of which Mr. Whitnall is the chair- man. Mr. Comey from Boston has brought the experience of the United States to Milwaukee, and with his knowledge, which is the most exaet and sound, I think, of any of the practitioners in this science in the United States, your city has the benefit of a very, very able man, as well as the experience of every other great city in the country.

"You are on the threshold of an improvement which will be as important to yon as new streets or rapid transit railroads. When you think that in my city the zoning plan cost $67,000 and the subway plan cost $400,000,000, and the zoning plan is doing as much for my city as the rapid transit plan is doing, then it brings to you some appreciation of the helpfulness of diserim- inating and far seeing zoning work as applied to a city like Milwaukee. If von are going to grow to be a city of two, three, four and five million peo- ple-and you are-now is the time to put some of these sensible, sound regu- latory ordinances into effect beeanse in New York City today the only fault that is found with the zoning plan is that the city did not adopt it forty years ago."

Heights of Buildings Considered .- History is written not only to record the past with its mistakes and failures for the instruction of posterity, and to point the way so far as it is within the ability of the historian to do so,

STEUBEN

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THE VON STEUBEN MONUMENT Located near the entrance to Washington Park

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towards a better and safer course in the future; but also to place a proper valuation upon the grand achievements of the self-sacrifieing men engaged in their promotion. The most efficient means of realizing the aims and pur- poses of those who labor for the improvement of our laws and customs, for the welfare of our community and the betterment of methods, is the duty and within the scope of the historian for the guidance of those who may here- after be elothed with authority.

We therefore willingly dwell upon the accounts of the various movements and far-seeing proposals of our boards and commissions which have striven for the ends held in view. Some repetition is inevitable in the historieal dis- cussion of the great movements which in recent years have arisen and which are practically new in this generation. Thus, for example, we shall present the subject of the heights of buildings in Milwaukee in the following pages. though as we have seen in Edward M. Bassett's address he has had mneh to say on the subject. The views embodied in the 1920 report of the Board of Publie Land Commissioners in the pamphlet, "Restricted Heights of Build- ings," demand appropriate attention.

"Four years ago," the report says, "the City of New York broke away from the old established principle that a man may do with his property what- ever he wishes to, and accepted the more democratie principle that the gen- eral welfare of the public precedes the rights of individuals. Great property losses, excessive congestion and a serious menace to the health of the com- munity resulted to such an extent from haphazard development of real estate and particularly because of the increase in so-called 'skyscrapers' that a proper coordination of many of the factors in city organization became im- perative. It became distressingly evident that certain facilities, such as trans- portation, street accommodation, ete., no longer funetioned properly, and that the desperate situation required an immediate remedy.

"To many good citizens in almost all American cities skyscrapers were tangible evidence of material wealth and prosperity, and civic pride or a convietion that high buildings were desirable, prompted their erection in large numbers. But the plight in which New York now finds itself began to appear in incipient form in all coast and inland cities of considerable size, and the necessity of checking its growth became a recognized civic duty. Zoning ordinances are therefore under consideration in a majority of our larger cities and in Milwaukee the Board of Public Land Commissioners has for upwards of a year gathered necessary data and has prepared an ordinance which is now ready for adoption.

Outline of the Proposed Zoning Ordinance .- " By virtue of this ordinance the city is divided into districts or zones under three headings: The first is the 'nse' districting designed to prevent the encroachment of undesirable types of buildings or nses to which such buildings may be put in certain districts, thus affording a protection to property values and the general wel- fare of the public. The second is the 'area' districting which is designed to provide sufficient light and air in all types of buildings or districts. The third " is the 'height' districting designed to provide sufficient light and air and to prevent congestion and other conditions inimical to the general welfare.

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"In the public hearings eondneted by the Board of Public Land Commis- sioners, little opposition was expressed regarding the 'use' and 'area' pro- visions of the proposed ordinance. But to the limitation of building heights considerable objection was taken. The reasons which led the Board of Public Land Commissioners to propose certain height restrictions were not known or understood and unsupported charges of impracticability were frequently made. Because the restrictions are eminently practical and most highly de- sirable and beeanse a thorough understanding of the underlying reasons for such restrictions is thought to remove many if not all objections, this pres- entation of facts is offered.

Various Heights of Buildings Considered .- "'It has been charged that the comparatively low limits provided for in the proposed ordinance were adopted mainly because of aesthetic considerations. Were this true the height limits obtaining in European cities would have been preferred. London, whose volume of business is equal to or exceeds that of New York, limits its buikl. ings to a height of eighty feet. Paris has set a limit of sixty-six feet, Berlin a limit of seventy-two feet, Edinburgh sixty feet, Hamburg seventy-eight feet, and in spite of the fact that American cities have erected skyscrapers for thirty odd years, no European city has chosen to emulate us in that respeet.

"That concentration of workers is not without value is conceded. But it is only within certain limits, a happy medium as it were, that the value so achieved is not offset by serious disadvantages and it is the problem of a city planning board to determine where the disadvantages become serious.

"To those who are familiar with New York and Philadelphia, or for that matter, with the business center of any large American city, it must be evident that there exists a definite relation between street capacity and the capacity of buildings ereeted on those streets. And it must be evident also that this relation has been so little regarded that few downtown streets in America are now adequate for the proper distribution of pedestrians. In New York, during peak hours, many streets have become quite useless to retail dealers because of excessive crowding and in many other cities the progress of pe- destrians is so retarded as to cause serious difficulties in the event of fire or panic. There is not a street in lower New York which will hold 100 per cent of the ocenpants of the buildings fronting on it and the same hokls true of most of the business streets in other large cities.

"During the peak hours there are to be found on Grand Avenue between West Water Street and Second Street and on the south side of the street an average of four to six hundred pedestrians. Were this block to hold a six- teen-story office building, having a frontage of the entire block, an addition of some four thousand persons would use this block during these peak times. And were all the bloeks, from the river to Sixth Street, likewise covered with sixteen-story office buildings, a eongestion would result which it would be difficult to cope with ; for the sidewalk capacity in any one of these bloeks is only about nine hundred persons. Milwaukee will one day be a city of a million or more inhabitants, and such a development of skyserapers on each side of the street is not'an impossibility if restrictions are withheld.

The Problem of Transportation .- "The problem of rapid transportation

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A LAKE FRONT STUDY

The above shows a bridge which will span the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad tracks at the head of Mason Street. In the background will be noted a Memorial Peristile. This plan has been accepted by the Milwaukee Park Board.

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A STUDY FOR MILWAUKEE'S FUTURE BRIDGE AND RIVER DOCK AREA IN THE CENTER OF THE CITY Designed by Alfred (. Clas, architect

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of passengers from highly congested areas to outlying districts is always a difficult and most costly one to solve. It is one of the very undesirable by- prodnets of unrestricted building heights, and seems never possible of a satis- factory solution. It has been stated by a prominent city planning expert that had New York restricted its office buildings to a reasonable height the street and transportation facilities would have been adequate for several hun- dred years to come. To-day, in the words of Lawson Purdy, the former tax 'commissioner of the great metropolis, the situation in New York is desperate and the future hopeless. Similar conditions, though perhaps not so aggra- vated, confront Milwaukee if skyscrapers are permitted to be erected in great numbers.

"Isolated skyscrapers afford as a rule air and light to its occupants in sufficient amount, but often at the expense of adjoining properties. When many skyserapers are erected in elose proximity to one another, they destroy many of the advantages enjoyed by the first of their number. In some in- stanees it has become necessary to abondon for office purposes lower floors because of lack of light and ventilation and by reducing rentals induce small manufacturers or storage concerns to occupy the premises. But where sueh changes in the type of tenants have been effected increasing deterioration in the health of persons employed in these buildings has been noted. * * Dr. Gustav F. Boehme, Jr., neurologist, testified to the rapid increase in nervous disorders and troubles, and to the very direct relation between sneh increase and the present high buildings and hap-hazard development and the congestion, noise and confusion incident thereto. The necessity for ro- ducing the stress and strain of city life is becoming more and more apparent. Public health and vitality must be conserved rather than abused and ex- hausted.

The Danger From Fires .- "That fireproof buildings are proof against danger in a general conflagration has been amply disproved in the catastrophes which visited Baltimore and San Francisco many years ago. While their destruction may not be complete they and their contents are sufficiently sub- jeet to fire damage to cause panie and thereby may cause congestion in the streets sufficient to seriously hamper the work of the fire department. Streets densely packed with crowds of people that quickly form in the event of fire, . render the movement of fire apparatus difficult and the outpouring of large numbers of people from nearby buildings is more than likely to result in tragie consequences. It is more than foolhardy to ignore sneh possibilities by piling story on story and further extending the danger zone.

"The fire department cannot fight a fire from the outside more than 85 feet to 100 feet above the ground. Above that they must rely on stand pipes in the building. If the stand pipe does not work or if the fire is so near the stand pipe as to render its use impracticable the fire department becomes helpless. No fatal fire in a modern high builling has yet oeeurred but it is not an impossibility. Though fires in tall buildings may be controlled, panies cannot be.

"Edward S. Devlin, superintendent of the New York Life Insurance Com- pany, testified before the New York Commission that insurance companies

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recognized the additional hazard attending so-called skyserapers by increas- ing their rates with progressive stories.

"Edmund Dwight, president of the Casualty Insurance Company, in pleading for lower buildings, testified as follows: 'I desire to put myself on record as believing that the time has come in New York when there should be a most rigid limitation to the height of buildings and that very high build- ings constitute a greatly added menace and peril to the community.'

"William Guerin, acting chief, Burean of Fire Prevention, (1913) testified that for New York a height limits of 150 feet could be supported as a reason- able regulation under the police powers of the state and Edward Hardy, rep- resenting the New York Fire Insurance Exchange, held a limit of 125 feet to be satisfactory.

"Sewage and water supply problems are also greatly complicated by the presence of very tall buildings through the over taxing of their capacities.

Land Valuations .- "It has been held that skyserapers are necessitated by the high valuation placed on downtown property by tax assessors. This con- tention is not borne out by the records of the local tax commissioner's office. The inerease in assessed valuations of downtown properties is on a par with inereases in other parts of the eity where skyserapers are little likely to be ereeted. The effect of skyserapers on adjoining properties seems to be detri- mental rather than otherwise because of the eurtailment of light and air, as the attached letter from E. H. Bodden, Milwaukee's tax commissioner, illus- trates. It is a condition common to all large cities. In New York many hun- dred thousands of dollars are lost to the city because of the lowered assessed valuation of costly skyscrapers due to loss of air and light when such build- ings were erowded one next to the other. In taking to themselves a majority of offiec tenants, skyserapers further retard a general development of prop- erty for many years, giving the eity a ragged, wild and provincial appearance.

"As the areliiteets of Milwaukee have asked that a limit of 185 feet be considered for downtown properties, it is but just to them to state why a limit of 125 feet is preferable.

"Any height limit exceeding the street width is a concession to Ameriean precedent and what are thought to be business requirements. From the stand- point of public health, congestion and fire dangers, the height limitations set by European eities would be preferable by far. But in the opinion of lead- ing architects and others who testified before the New York Heights of Build- ings Commission, a skyseraper is not a source of great profit at best. These architects also testified that a ten or twelve-story building has reached the logical limit because the eost per eubie foot increases arithmetically with the inerease of stories beyond such heights.

"A limitation of 125 feet is therefore not a hardship on property own- ers, and though a concession as above stated, it will tend to keep in hand the dangers incident to groups of skyscrapers. For such reasons Boston set a limit of 125 feet in 1911, Washington a limit of 110 feet, and New York a limit of 125 feet for Fifth Avenue. A similar limit for Milwaukee seems to be well within reason."

The letter of E. H. Bodden, Milwaukee's tax commissioner, referred to in

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جسمالسيد

DR. E. B. WOLCOTT MONUMENT, LAKE PARK

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 527

a previous paragraph, is appended : "Answering your questionnaire of October 6, 1920, 'Does the height, area and use of buildings erected in any loeality affect the assessable value of adjoining property ?' will say that my annual instructions to the assessors of this department recognizes the fact that it does and the assessment rolls show numerous instances where allow- ances have been made upon adjoining property due to the detrimental effeet of such buildings. One of the late cases in point is the Abbot building, sit- uated on the northwest corner of Milwaukee and Mason streets, just east of the Milwaukee Athletic Club. Mr. Abbot appeared before the board and pointed out the fact that, due to the extreme height of the elub building, the five lower floors on the west side of the Abbot building have been greatly affeeted, making it necessary to use artificial light throughout the day and thereby materially reducing the revenue derived from said buikling. The committee appointed to investigate the situation reported back to the board that an allowance of $25,000 should be made, and the same was ratified by the board. Numerous allowances have been made in residence distriets due to apartment houses, public garages and other objectionable buildings being placed therein.

"My personal views on zoning is that it is a step in the right direction which should have been taken years ago. I heartily agree with Lawson Purdy, former tax commissioner of New York City, in his eonelusion on zoning, 'Zoning, properly conceived and carried out, constitutes not only a definite recognition of equality in ownership, but an important protection of taxable values. ' "'

Examples of Various Cities .- In the introduction to the 1920 report of the Board of Public Land Commissioners, the examples of certain foreign and American eities are considered.

"Hundreds of Milwaukeeans have visited or lived in the great and beauti- ful cities of the world, and, through the moving pictures and other sources, thousands have become familiar with the renowned streets and publie squares of Europe and of this country. And it is safe to assume that in the minds of all but those to whom imagination and publie spirit have been denied, there has often arisen a wish that our city might also boast of such evidences of eivie pride and prosperity as they have learned to admire.

"Milwaukee County has been richly blessed with natural beauties which a far-seeing and courageous Park Board is now striving to conserve for the benefit of future generations. *

** That the 'Cream City' would ever count a half million souls within its confines was not thought likely in the early days, and adequate provision for the business and social activities of such multitudes was not considered a pressing problem. And so the city grew, heedless of its future possibilities, developing a half dozen business districts, none of them more interesting than a ledger page, ignoring for years the beauty of its bay, indifferent to the appearance of its river front, entirely uneonseious of the relation between business prosperity and a well-planned system of highways and secondary streets. Be it said that to the credit of the founders that the old Courthouse Park and City Hall Square do indicate an early appreciation of the desirablity of civic beauty. However, after the

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City of Milwaukee had joined to itself Kilbourn Town and Walker's Point, the mere multiplieation of streets and blocks, one like the other, gives ample proof that foresight and courageous leadership were not conspicuous ele- ments in the city's physical growth.

Milwaukee's Relation to Chicago .- "Milwaukee bears to Chicago much the same relation that Philadelphia bears to New York. Both cities are an equal distance from their larger neighbors. Both cities have become im- portant manufacturing centers, providing homes for thousands of working people. New York and Chicago are by virtue of their geographical positions enormous trading points, dominating commercially all the eities, large and small, within a radius of hundreds of miles. Philadelphia has become a city of two millions of souls and Milwaukee, but seventy-five years old, has nearly reached the half million mark. It is, therefore, no idle speculation to assert that our eity may also be classed among the eities of upward of a million in the not distant future. It is, indeed. a certainty that in growth of numbers we shall also resemble the Quaker City unless we deliberately thwart natural tendeneies through laek of courage and foresight, or parsimony * *

"The Board of Publie Land Commissioners is confident that the people of the County and City of Milwaukee, through their county board of supervisors and common council, accept the belief that we are at the threshold of a great future. It is also convinced that these two legislative bodies desire the prob- lems of city planning to be approached in a spirit of courage and in the light of a great responsibility. For to do otherwise is to invite two consequences which will not redound to the eredit of the Milwaukee of the first decades of this eentury. Timidity and parsimony can only result in half measures, which in a comparatively short time, must prove inadequate and then will require of the citizens additional appropriations to meet the demands at a cost many times enhaneed. Or if we laek courage, if we refuse to lay the foundation for what we are more than reasonably sure is bound to come, other cities, more alive to the situation, will attract to themselves those industries and wide awake citizens who demand advantages and not alone low taxes.

"Fortunately the errors of commission and omission. with which we must deal are not insurmountable. In comparison with the problems of other cities, ours are not difficult of solution. Chicago, through the efforts of the Chicago Commereial Club, has prepared a plan for rearranging and recon- strueting a considerable part of that city, which, if carried out in its entirety. will require many years of time and scores of millions of dollars to complete. But our neighbor's motto is "I WILL," and the foundations for a city of four million people are well advaneed. Philadelphia has completed a diagonal boulevard through the heart of the city at a cost of $16,000,000 and in 1916 appropriated $114,000,000 for other city planning projects. St. Paul, Min- neapolis, St. Louis, Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh. Boston and New York, in fact all of the leading cities of America are contemplating or engaged in making corrections of past errors. Every European capital and many of the large commercial centers have for years paid constant attention to city planning problems and have rebuilt many seetions to meet modern condi- tions and to avoid future waste. Such problems as transportation, harbor

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and river improvements, arterial highway systems, industrial housing, parks, recreation grounds, civic eenters, zoning, and a multitude of other needs classed under the head of 'City Planning' confront all large and growing cities, and Milwaukee eannot, and will not, ignore them.

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History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I, Part 48

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844 Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 818