Page:Architectural Record 1920-08 Vol 48 Iss 2.djvu/56

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the rear of the more desirable garden— the old American real estate conception. Only kitchens and maid’s rooms face the garden, and the rear elevations of the apartments are not designed at all, but in- stead are left unfinished in the bald, ugly manner common to row houses with “back yards.” Thus both plans and ele- vations are adjusted to the street front solely, and reveal no conception of the garden court considered as an integral feature of the group.

The second great group, Operation No. 8, has just been completed. Mr. Thomas is the architect, and, in plan- ning them, the row was abandoned for the group conception. They were planned in ten great units of three types, as described in the previous article. The block plan of the whole group and two of the units, the 120-foot and the 107-foot frontage units, as well as elevations and details, are illustrated in these pages.

In viewing this fine collection of build- ings, with the splendid long garden in the interior, one cannot help feeling that here, considered from all points of view, is the highest achievement in the garden apartment that has been reached so far. It clearly places Mr. creator of the first true garden apart- ment group on a city block that has been designed as a whole. In it the garden is,an integral part of the scheme; the rooms are planned to take full advantage of the fine garden outlook, and, besides, elevations on the garden are as attractive as those on the street fronts. In these fundamental respects it is totally differ- ent from all the earlier housing groups at Jackson Heights, which, whatever the conception behind them, as executed in plan and elevation, are only typical of the row housing.

Whether or not Mr. Thomas’s group is as well planned in all _ respects, or better planned, in the eyes of the tenant of today, of the type which lives in Jackson Heights, I do _ not pretend to say. That is a matter of the particular real estate conditions local to the place. According to the manage-

ment, some tenants prefer one type, some But for those who care for

the other.

ARCHITECTURAL

Thomas as the

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the

in cities, advantage is all with the use of isolated buildings, resembling the university dor-

architectural appearances

mitory as mentioned above. In that case

the Garden apartment as a group has form, scale, proportion, individuality.

There is not that dreary, mechanical, in- stitutionalized aspect of the whole block by which row housing has sucked out all the character and_ individuality from the streets of American cities. Each individual building of Operation No. 8, at Jackson Heights, has some- thing of individuality, of “homeiness,” that one does not expect to find in apart- ment houses, and surely cannot find in the row type. Their appearance at the rear, as soon in the court, is also far better than the row type, for the alleys between the buildings break up the length of the court, giving it character and form. The appearance of the long row housing, like No. 7, when viewed from the rear, is nothing if not distinctly ugly. In giv- ing this opinion of the superiority of the grouped apartment over the row type, | do not wish to reflect on the admirable judgment of the Queensboro Corporation. They appreciate the defects in appear- ance of the row type in its usual form, and have had Mr. Wells plan a combina- tion of the two types for a future group, No. 10, the block plan of which and an individual unit of it are herewith shown. In this scheme, the long, monotonous front of the street is broken up with set- backs or courts, and the rear wall is varied with setbacks and with narrow courts at intervals. When this plan is constructed, it will be interesting to see whether it will completely overcome the defects of the row type.

A few more details of these big Jack- son Heights apartments remain to be noted. In construction, they are sub- stantial enough, though not entirely of fire-resisting materials. The first floor only, and the stairs, are of fire-resisting construction. The interiors are simple, but in good taste, with kitchens and bath- rooms containing very good fixtures. Halls and stairs are finished in the older buildings with terrazzo floors and marble wainscots. It is interesting to know