CRITICISM OF THE COMPETITION

Criticism of the popular dumbbell tenement design from a New York Times Article"

"If the prize plans are the best offered, which we can hardly believe, they simply demonstrate the problem is insoluble.  The three which have received the highest prizes offer a very slightly better arrangement than hundreds of tenements now do.  They are simply "double houses" front and rear, with the space between occupied by halls and water closets.  They have all of the disadvantages of "double houses" which have so often called forth sanitary censure and even adverse legislation.  The only access to air, apart from the front, is through the courts in the small spaces between the houses; for the rear, if these plans were generally adopted, would also be closed up by the rear wall of the house in the next street.  To add to their ill effects, each suite on the second story has apparently that old nuisance, a dark bedroom which under the present arrangement, is such a prolific source of fevers and disease.  In some of the plans, this room ventilates through other rooms, and in others by a small well.  The only advantages offered, apparently, over the old system, are in fireproof stairways, more privacy in halls, and the ventilation of the water closets. (22)