Dublin Core
Text Item Type Metadata
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nor
Vi U £
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9957 “OE AoqioAON - SuITE woz Ns
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— —<s Rie mere
" Moments later, unit is lowered tow ard roof of the building
for which it is destined, an unoccupied old-law tenement
in which a hole has been made from the roof down.
ota oe —
‘Dangling on hook ofa "tne bana, proaesenbled kitchen
and “bathroom unit is hoisted over East Fifth Street on
Lower Last Side in “instant rehabilitation” demonsiration.
Experiment Testing
New Rehabilitation
~* Methods Here
By STEVEN V. ROBERTS
A giant crane swung a pre-
assembled kitchen and bath-
room unit through a hole in
the roof of a five-story old-
law tenement on the Lower
East Side yesterday. Within an
hour workmen had bolted it
into place and would have had
it ready for use except for the
plumbers’ strike.
The job was part of a prog-
ress report on “instant rehabil-
itation” — an experiment that; —
aims at cutting the time for| :
renovation of a slum building
to 48 hours.
When the experiment began
last April the plan was to test
new materials and rehabilita-
tion techniques on two unoc-| =
cupied tenements at 623 and 635] -~
East Fifth Street. Conrad En-
gineers, the California cornpany
that is conducting the experi-
ment said it would be ready
for the 48-hour trial on No. 637) |
in midsurmmer. i
0 Rea oe ener
The four-monih strike of con-
struction plumbers and other
delays have set back the final
trial witil February or March,|
according to Edward Rice, pres-
ident of Conrad Engincers,
When the glistening bath-
rooms and kitchens were in-
‘stalled yesterday at No. 630,
structural defects in the 70-
year-old tenement caused the
unit to rest at least an inch
above the existing floor,
This secrned to symbolize the! Abelcs,
consensus among housing e¢x-
perss on “Instant rehdbilita-
tion’—that it is a promising
experiment that has produced
some, but by no means all, of
the answers to the problem
of renovaiing slum housing.
Moreover, the experts be-
lieve, it should be only the be-
ginning of an intensified re-
search program to find better
technical and financial tools to
produce decent housing in the
sountry’s sluni areas.
Mr, Rice noted that many
eonstruction materials had been
tested in the first building. The
tenement now contains vinyl
coors that require no refinish-
ing for 10 years, ceramic bath-
room tiles that stick together
avithout liquid cement and wall-
poard that is so tough that
workmen had trouble cutting
holes in it for electric wiring.
Expandable windows that
adapt to the irregular shapes
of the old window frames have
-peen installed. Garbage chutes
Jead into 2 Swedish device that
compresses the refuse, disin-
fects it, and even sprays it
with perfume.
Two one-bedroom and one
three-bedroom apartment will
be buit on each floor of the
tenement buildings, The average
development cost will be about
$13,000 an apartment, Mr, Rice
estimated, as opposed to about
$23,000 for new construction.
“There is such @ tremendous
need for better housing in New
York that it is worth rehabili-
tating these tenements,” he said.
He asserted that the cost of
demolishing the city’s 43,000
old-law tenements — those built
before 1901, with minimal stand-
ards for ventilation and sani-
tary facilities —- would be pro-
hibitive.
(whether oldtaw tenements are|“seriousl i - i
; TaN ‘sc sly questions’ the wis-
worth rehabilitating. Peter L.!doro . Le
housing director n
Mohilizati
poy
poverty prop
CUrTeNnt
eer,
New York Times - 11/30/66
or renovatne tne
tene-
= forlments_on_ ine Lower mast Side.
a maith art as ee
Sth ANE They cover 55 pcr cent of their
sed_ thelbuilding lots
on f
nm, and front. on
= a
sperhiicnt ouc said hejstreets only 60 feet wide.
Housing experts are debating