Figure 3.
This waste space may be graphically shown by the diagrams in [Figure 3]. The large black-and-white line represents the “tower,” and the shorter the “flat.” The black part of each line denotes unavailable, and the white part available room, the sum of the two denoting the total cubical contents of each dwelling. The white parts of the lines measure the same length in each case, because the amount of available room in “tower” and “flat” is assumed at the outset to be the same. Thus in the “tower,” the front and back staircases and halls take up 22,000 cubic feet out of the total 106,000 cubic feet covered by the entire building. In the “flat” the proportional part of the halls and staircases for each suite is represented by a comparatively insignificant quantity as shown.
Again, an enormous waste is shown in the flooring, roof and air-spaces of the “tower,” while this item is but a trifle in the “flat.” The six floors, each 16 inches thick, and the roofing make up together in the “tower” 12,000 cubic feet, or nearly the equivalent of an entire story. Add to this 12,000 cubic feet of air-space under the roof and over the concrete, and we have in these items a waste of 24,000 cubic feet, against only 4,000 in the “flat.”
Thus we see that the waste space in the “tower” actually exceeds the available. Yet it must be paid for at the same rate with the latter. Deducting the waste in the “flat” from that in the “tower,” we find the balance of waste space in the “tower” to be equal to the available, showing graphically that the “tower” must cost, in these items alone, just twice as much as the “flat.”
Figure 4.
[Figure 4] shows a block-plan on a very small scale of the apartment-house, and a block-plan on the same scale of 40 “towers” adjoining each other, and having the same available space as the apartment-house. These plans show how much more land is required to give the same accommodations (minus the conveniences and luxuries of an apartment-house) in the “tower” system than in the “flat.”
The shaded portions in each block-plan represent the aggregate of available room in each case. This shows very strikingly what an enormous proportion of land and material is wasted in the “tower” system.