COMPETITION FOR BEST TENEMENT DESIGN

"The object of the competition was to demonstrate if it is possible to build a model house for workingmen on the existing city lot [25x100 feet]…[The] committee emphatically declare that in their view it is impossible to secure the requirements of physical and moral health within these narrow and arbitrary limits."(20)

The jury selected to judge the competition consisted of:
1) Charles F. Chandler, a professor at Columbia College and an active housing reformer who, as president of the NYC Board of Health, had at last succeeded in seeing to the enforcement of the provisions of the Tenement House Law of 1867
 2) Reverend Henry C. Potter of Grace Church
 3) Reverend John Hall of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
 4) Robert J. Hoe, head of a leading press works and machine shop
5) Architect, R.G. Hatfield (Hatfield also drew up the terms of the competition, but died before the results were announced.) (21)

    Before the jury reviewed the entries, all 190 entries were put on public display for ten days in the Leavitt Art Rooms, on Broadway.
The winner of the contest was James E. Ware.  His design was arranged like a dumbbell.  Although 90% of the lot was covered, small courts and an areaway guaranteed that at least a portion of light and air would reach every room of the four apartments that were accommodated on each floor.  If his buildings were built adjacent to one another, the areaway of each would double the space for the tenants.  Four dwellings on each floor surrounded a central core that contained a water closet and stairway.

WARE'S BLUEPRINTS (O)
 
 

ONE OF THE "MODEL TENEMENTS" (P)

    It’s an interesting coincidence that of the 209 entries submitted to the competition for the best tenement design, the prize-winning schemes were without a doubt the most conservative designs making the most minimal changes.

  Other notable designs from the competition came from architect George Da Cunha.  His design placed open-air galleries at the center of the plan to help expand the area of the interior courtyard.
  A second design submitted by James Ware (placed 9th) also emphasized open space at the center of the plan.
  Philadelphia architect Robert G. Kennedy’s design left a five-foot-wide slot along the entire length of the lot.  When adjoined with another building, it would create a 10 foot space between buildings.