Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 80.djvu/195

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HERE are now being completed in New York City two groups of tenement buildings, which without doubt embody more real improvements in tenement house construction than have ever before been seen in any one structure. Both groups are on East 77th Street near the East River. One is being erected by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Sr., and the other by the Open Stair Tenement Co. Henry Atterbury Smith is the architect in each case and similar buildings after his designs are soon to be erected in Hoboken and further downtown in New York, in West 47th Street.

Whether science, learning or practical common sense has contributed more to the latest improvements in tenement-house construction as revealed in these buildings, it would be hard to say, but whichever it is Mr. Smith deserves the credit. He has given many years to the study of this problem and it was some time after he worked out its solution before he was able to persuade capital to adopt his plans. All of