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The three plan studies which follow are taken from Methods of
Reducing the Cost of Public Housing.
Research Report of the School of Architecture
Pratt Institute Brooklyn, New York
Sponsored by the New York State Division of
Housing New York, N. Y.
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TOWER SCHEME
this is the name given to a plan type which is approai-
mately ccninra, vith the ecois dheecel sree all
four eidag of a central service core, Thos trun used
successfully for middle-income housing in Mew York
and Chicago since the lala 1940's. As far as could
be ascertained, the tower scheme has not yet been
used for low-income housing, prebably for the reason
discussed below.
The tower-scheme has a number of advantages and
one serious disadvantage. It is readily apparent that
the compact plan results in a minimum of perimeter
construction and the shortest possible utilify runs, with
attendant economies. Even more significant is the
reduction in the amount of expensive putlic corridor
space; in the tower scheme the area of public corridor
per construction room is about half that in the interior-
corridor scheme, and public corridor space is rela-
tively expensive as will be shown in Chapter Four.
In most cases, the tower plan provides cross-ventila-
tion and two exposures for each apartment, a very
desirable arrangement as far as livability is con-
cerned, The tower scheme also offers advantages in
sife-planning. The square plan is easy to dispose,
even on an irregular site, and when used in large
projects, it results in a greater feeling of cpenness on
the site than occurs when long narrow buildings are
used,
A serious economic handicap to the tower scheme is
the high cost of elevators, Providing only four to six
apartments per floor, as compared to fen to bwelve
apartments per floor in the interior-corridor scheme,
ihe cost of elevators per dwelling unit is thus hwo to
hwo pnd one-half times higher in the tower scheme.
For this higher cost, greally improved livability is pro-
vided, This scheme is presented here in the belief
that the economies noted in the paragraphs above
will offset the higher cost of the service core, thus
affording improved livability at no increase in cost.
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OPEN-CORRIDOR SCHEME
In this type of building all of the anartments cre
reached by means of ouldoor corridors or “slevetied
sidewalks,” as they are sometimes called, The char.
oye
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an af cuch a building is lect thin,
corridor scheme has been used for haw vind
middle-income housing in many places, both in this
couniry and abroad,
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The opcs
Improved livability is the outstanding advantage of -
this scheme, Every apartment has through-ventilation
and two exposures, and every apartment can have
the most favorable orientation, All rooms, including
bathrooms,- have outside light and ventilation. The
interior corridor, which in practice is aften cn un-
pleasant space — narrow, dark, and smelly — is
eliminated entirely, These gains are partially offset
by some loss of privacy for the rooms that open on
ithe corridor,
The open-corridor scheme climinctes the cost of me-
chanical ventilation for the bathrooms and the cost of
the interior corridor with its expensive finishes, But
the open-corridor, being “single-loaded,” must be at
least 1¥% times as long as the interior corridor, Since
codes limit the maximum distance from an apartment
to a stair, the open-corridor building must either be
content with few apartments per floor or, as in the
example shown here, it must separate the two re-
quired stairs. The open-corridor, of course, need not
be heated but’some provision must be made for snow
removal; in New York the Building Department re-
quires the installation of electric heating cable in the
floors of all open corridors. Since all apartment doors
open to the outside, these doors must be of the ex-
terior type and must be weatherstripped. The long,
thin building shape, with its high proportion of per-
imeter to enclosed area, is not basically economical,
nor, in a high-rise building, is it basically stable; extra
cost for wind-bracing must be assumed,
In view of all the items noted in the previous para-
graph, it might be concluded that the ecenomic posi-
tion of the open-corridor scheme is unfavorable, But
this is not the case, Recent cost studies for a newly
designed public housing project in New York indicate
very substantial cost savings resulting from the use of
the open-corridor scheme,
In the example presented here and on the following
pages, the open-corrider scheme has been combined
with skip-stop elevators. In this arrangement the ele-
vators stop only at every third Moor; tenants on the
intermediate floors have to walk up or down one
floor. The open cerridor occurs only at elevator-stop
: A opartpterts anen of tho corridor; stairs are
within the apartmeris end are maintained by the
tecent, This scheme hos been used in a noted upper-
income project in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in
a propesed low-income project in New York,
The skip-stop scheme saves the cost of two out of three
corriders and elevator doors and controls. Against
this seving must be balanced the cost of the private
stairs and the fire escape balconies in two out of three
of the apartments. A significant advantage of this
scheme is the elimination of most of the privacy prob-
lem. By placing the larger apariments on the inter-
mediate floors, it was possible fo arrange the plan so
that no bedroom opens on a corridor,
Tho structural system employs regularly spaced rein-
forced concrete columns, two per bay, with the floor
slubs cantilevered 4 feet beyond the columns on each
side. This framing system is discussed in detail in
Chapter Two. Stair and elevator towers have been
ploced outside the building proper, and designed to
supply windbracing for the tall, narrow building,
Required distribution of apartment types is provided
in one building. The two busic floor plans ure detailed
on the following pages along with aliernate floor
plans required for complete distribution, This distri-
bution is explained in chart form on the following
poge.
ELEVATOR Sir FLOCK
(OPEN CORRIDOR)
INTERMEDIATE STOP FLOOR
(NO CORRIDOR)
° , INTERMEDIATE STOP FLOOR A
. INTERMEDIATE STOP FLOOR B
INTERMEDIATE STOP FLOOR
ELEVATOR STOP FLOOR
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Ae pF SS
SaaS eo ke
Cross-section through Open-Corridor —
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INTERTOR-CORRIDOR SCHEME -
The interior-corridor scheme is now in common use for
low and middle-income housing. It is a simple and
economical scheme, permitting ten to twelve apart-
‘ a
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rite r (tt lanes not heweayer. cre + ress
24 4 - aVGE, LPig8S
yontilaten except for the four corner aparincints. In
New York City public housing, the requirement of
cross-ventilation for cll apartments having more than
one bedroom has produced a variation of this scheme
in which the service core forms a “pinched waist” *
which permits the four adjacent apartments to meet
the technical requirements for cross-ventilation, Since
in practice the improvement in the ventilation of these
four apartments is slight, if any, and the cost of pro-
viding it is considerable, this requirement has been
ignored in the example presented in the following
pages. It is believed that if cross-ventilation is to be
considered a primary ‘value, then the open-corridor
or the tower scheme should be used rather than the
interior-corridor scheme,
Like the other examples in this Chapter the interior-
corridor scheme is shown with no basement, with
regular column spacing, and with the full distribution
of apartment types in a single building. In common
with the open-corridor scheme, it employs a two-
column bay with cantilevered floor slabs, a structural
system which is discussed further in Chapter Two.
The ground floor plan of the building is shown at the
right. Since there is no basement, the facilities usually .
found there have been located above ground. The
remainder of the ground floor has been left open to
provide useful covered space and pleasant vistas
through the building.
The main purpose of the interior-corridor scheme as
presented here is to study the suggestion that the
living room might be used also for sleeping. The
reasons for considering this idea are discussed in the
following pages, along with the suggested planning
solutions for putting it into effect. If this idea should
be considered feasible from the point of view of
livability, the cost savings would be very appreciable,
since one bedroom would be eliminated from each
apartment. The reduction in area is shown graphic-
ally at the right.
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GROUND FLOOR PLAN, LOBBY
BUILDING BLOCK B
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PERAMBULATOR ROOM
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The lower block shows the size of
the building designed according to usual housing
standards, The upper block shows, at the same scale,
the size of the building designed for this study, The
reduction in length is 47 feet and the saving in floor
area is 1927 square feet, or approximately 20%,
The reduction in cost would be somewhat less than
20% since plumbing, kitchen equipment, and ele-
vators are not affected, but the saving should amount
to more than, 15% of the cost of, the building,. .. .