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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 26, 1916)
OMAHASUNDAYBEEi NOVEMBER 26, 1916. Building Omaha'sSky Line Big Problems Involved Cities, like verythlng mortal, pass through et stages of development Time u when Mr!t Twain very truthfully called the national, capital a "r.ltv of masnlfleent distances." 'Who wouldn't If the city of Washington had flashed across his mental vision som forty years ago, when cattle usurped the muddy streets and hovel sat at ih rii-M hand nf nalatlal residence. New York ones was limited to a half mile of lowly buildings blow my Hull nnrk, and youths and maidens strolled picturesque Maiden Len wltMn a stone's throw of predatory R'-ill afreet of todav. Omaha la "beating the time" of older listers among the Important dtles of the United States. She Is acoulrtng skv line, a ruggedly outlined galaxy of mnny storied structures wnicn, dotted here and there, are a challenge to supercilious visitors from the "effote east" and a matter of prlds to the local booster, To the stranger who comes to Omaha nowadays, to th Omaha which Is the buckle of the oorn belt and a progressive of progreeslvlsm, It may well be that the thoucht shall come, "If this be Omaha, who be L times change, stranger, and things go on apace. Swift elevators and not hanks mare are Incident to dally Ufa this year of 1811 Ton are as likely to find the lawyer, the business man. or that old aoqualntanoe naoonoed upon the sixteenth floor at a big mod ern building, as to find an autocrat In helmet and brass buttons regulat ing trafflo at a busy oornor adjacent thereto. . . Omaha ts ttiere in the march of in im The aeroplane which ne gotiate the air Unas of the Gate City bad beet fly high, else the luckless 41ot win coma to grief on the Jotting pDa of soma big bnatnasa building or oaring hotel. Yet. given a sat aerial landing .ha would not far so bad: for omana sano " a bit chesty, no one can say that wa are not hospitable. Snppoa an aviator breesed Into Omaha of a dark foggy night and fw bricks from off the coping of Omaha's latest hostelry, th Blackstone, rising eight stories In the atr at Thlrty-alxth and Farnamt It would be "weloome to our dty" and "now what are wa going to do. For wham yon have a sky Una and some on do you the honor to encounter ft, why not be agreeable? From a meroenary viewpoint It would ha good advertising, to say nothing of prover bial kindness of heart And tn this latest addition to Omaha's sky Una on majj find sur eease from most of the Ills and trials nf modern Ufa. Servants cease to trouble and oooksry to vox. Nowhere In th whole United State Is Ufa more pleasant Stephen Phillips wrote of th River Lethe, where to drink of charmed waters, was to forget ail earthly troubles. Well, at the Blsck- ston on may forget an the troubles that are not worth while. And there la a distinction and a difference. Th Bankers Realty mvestment Company sent the' Blackatone Family Hotel skyward and In th flnlshd pile Is epitomised what th modern builder of a city's sky "ne tol.'Tf Blackstone boasts every comfort and convenience known to modern build ing scienoe. If Is physically and psychologically without a superior In the hotel buildings of th country. Th huge white Plasa which Is at . seethe social roecea and mentor of the famUy hotels of the country, d situated on Central Park. H TJA ta nothing more to oner m u YT7. lmu the Blackstone. True, it Is a littl taller, a Utile more expensive and has the fame of maturity and brasen self conceit, but Its silken draped and be- - Jeweled habitues know no more rax- at H n fWTTI fVll'C But more Important than the oer- fect facilities the BlacKsrone aire. luxuryJovIng Omaha, more significant .v.. .v.. .mntx answer beck ana call, more to be desired than the beau ties of a wonaenui umwu -delectable cuisine. Is th fact that here, In Omaha, Is the organisation which can and will put up th city's coming "Woolworths," "Singers" and -Metropolitans." No need to go abroad for the ooloasal sky line which Omaha Is creating by leaps and bounds. Onoe th mafia to Chicago and New Tork carried requests for figures on Steel and stress, on foundations and adequate planning, on engineering problems and furnishings. Now, In stead, such problems can be an rwered In Omaha. Th buildings which mvolve such Inquiry can be erected by looal enterprise. Th material to be nmmA mnat of It can be bad In Omaha. And as th dty fulfills Its promise It win be more and more a local busi ness, tn entirety, when the new sky eraser ha birth In th Oat City. And for that matter a large terri tory Is coming to depend on Omaha for Ita big buildings. Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and outlying Nebraska are to line. Kansas City, be It noted, comes to Omaha for a new building to cost a mlUlon dollars,, and many other cltlea look to the same source for ether strue tinea of varying tmrtanoe. When Horace Oreeley said, "(Jo west young man, go west," h fore law a vtrtl country when self -suf ficient men might find reward for ef fort. In a famous building at Twenty- lecond and Broadway, New Tork. there Is a big building company which bin fathered many a skyscraper. In iJhlladelphla, Pittsburg, San Franda o and other dtlee the thew and sinew )f the multl-etorled structure are con nived and the force generated and lirected which makes them actuaU- But not for Omaha, not for the Oat "liy of the future. Now, and for the coming years she, or her citizens, for tier, has created bnlldlng facilities second tn none. In the Bee building thnre exists the counterpart of the big .onntructton companies which have riven older dtles their sky lines. Visit there some day, especially If you have In mind some big building, ask questions, be Inquisitive. Suppose you want to know Just how much Iron work there will be required If you are 'o erect a twenty-story building. Sup pose you want to know Just what sort tf materials for a hundred and one purposes wlU be necessary to secure the best possible building for your money. Suppose you want to knew. How Efficiency Is Achieved Just what your building win cost whan It 1 finished. High pressor Information win b forthcoming if yon are serious In your Inquiries. Construction engineers, ar chitects, purchasing agents and every human faotor In the business of big building will b at your set-rlee. Of course you oant expect to have all your questions answered off hand; for Intri cate calculation, painstaking Investi gation of your personal problem, study ot th future and what It mat your project how to create a build ing which win provide a revenue ade quate to the Investment all these questions must be considered. But definite, trustworthy Information will be forthcoming. Few people, cernaoe. realise th hug responsibility lnoldent to th building of a dty sky Una. Whoever undertakes th work must be compe tent even beyond th weU devdoped modern Ida of what oompetenoe a. Assuming that a building might be erected which would possess th necessary strength and serve Its purpose, there Is a hundred fold more than this demanded. When th engineers and architects and construction experts figure on modern building they do so with th Idea in mind that It shall be Just right accurately balanced as to strength of girder and floor. They would have don less than their duty to make It too strong, for lnstanoe, since that would mean an unneces sary expenditure for materials. They would have been derellot If not conver sant with th vary latest Improve ments in materials and equipment Th Bankers Realty Investment Company tn handling th problems of big buildings employs th services of men who are experienced and expert m all neoeesary fields and branches of the building business. The pros pective building owner may feel as sured that upon the turning over to him of his completed structure It will be a modem of the moderns. More over he may rest assured that It will b so planned that It wfll be as much In style years hence as the day upon which It was completed. Tins feature of permanence Is one that Is glvsn serious consideration by the big construction companies of to day. Th architecture oarrles but this Idea by embodying, proven style only. Away with the freak. Is the note ot oaotlon. Thar are, says th architect many enduring styles of architecture to select from and beauty of a per manent character Is best obtained by sticking close to th formal. Then another thing which th con struction company sees to Is that the interior, and not the exterior of the proposed building, governs Its evolu tion. That Is to say, the interior ar rangements are oarefuUy planned to meet the needs of the prospective ten ants, or th owner, if the owner Is to be the occupant of the building. If It la Intended that the building shall attract a general class of office rent ers, then the appointments are con sidered from a wide point of view. It Is the policy In this case to suit the many. Of course, if a bank, or a building for stock brokers, or lawyers, etc. Is contemplated, there will be special needs that must be considered. Most important of all the character istic efflclendes which make the com plete building organisation a blessing io ouiiding owners la the centralisa tion of responsibility and th guaran tee wnicn suoli an organisation atves of the ultimate cost of the bull ding. Onoe a capitalist has a building erect ed ha Is, under old time conditions, prone to encounter a sad experience. In other' words, what might be called the old method Involves an estimate from the architect of the cost of the building. But the architect merely s tl mates. He does not guarantee. And having to set his figure without the essential collaboration with the con struction engineer, the purchasing sgent, eta, it transpires, in th gnat majority of oases, that he plaoes this figure too low by a third. But the complete building organiza tion, one which, like the Bankers Realty Investment Company, operates under the "single contract" plan, de parts entirely from the Idea of "esti mating" and ventures Into the realm of fixed guarantee. It can do this be cause It has at its finger tips all th data and Information necessary to forecast the exact cost of the work. Then It merely adds Its legitimate profit and advises the building owner that his building will cost him such and such a figure. Of course In the case of the big construction company suoh an agree ment Is never violated. In the first place It is financially able to back up Its statement in regard to coat and In the second place It has a reputation to sustain for service and eapablUty. No deal with th modern building or ganisation la regarded as earn plate which does not result in the entire sat isfaction of th building client An Interesting prediction is mad by those familiar with the conditions In Omaha, L e., that It win be a dty of wonderful sky line. That prediction Is bared upon the fact that the bust- Im-; no6s district Is confined, and must be confined. In a comparatively small ares. And whan such 'conditions ob tain, a dty grows vertically and not laterally, tall buildings are the ruls Instead of low rambling structures whloh oover a great deal of space. So the Bankers Realty Investment Company seems to have been wise In the establishment of Its business In Omaha. It seems to have been wise because Omaha is going to have great demand for Its services, for one thing, and because Omaha, being a central point for a east territory unequipped In modern building faculties, will un doubtedly be the point of call for a widespread dlentele of building owners. Perhaps Mark Twain would say tnat Omaha was still a dty of mag nificent distances. But that would only be because of and In case of his avoidance of Famam street The great author, or anyone with an eye open to the progress of dtlee, as dtles go, must concede that Omaha Is ad vancing with the best of them. Not New Tork. not Chicago, not boastful Atlanta, not Kansas City, nor any of the Important centers of population In the United States Is forging to the forefront of big buildings and sky line, faster than old Omaha Adrt, , 1 T VI I The Tools of Big Building Huge derricks, powerful hoists, clamorous concrete mixers, the ubiquitous wheelbarrow all these are the tools of big building. But they are relatively unimportant Busy hordes of workmen, delving deep into the earth for foundations, or clinging dizzily .aloft in the fabrication of a giant steel skeleton they are tools of big building. But still we have not reached the heart of the matter. ' It is "ORGANIZATION," spelled with a big "0," and given resound ing emphasis, which most nearly expresses the idea of modern building. Not one profession, but ten; not one trade, but 46, have part in the com pleted whole of a big building. Not one, but hundreds of materials and ap pliances entered into the finished structure. Not one, but a thousand problems arise to vex the Creators of that twentieth century monster dub bed the skyscraper. ; Enter Organization worthy of the name ; enter the genius and energy to gather into a single unit the elements of a great organization which surely and certainly fashions, to a given end the steel sinews of a big building, and to these sinews' fits a gloss of adamant concrete, scintillant glass, deco rative plaster, speeding elevators, glowing lights, facade, pilaster, carven marble, decorative brass jajid all the. hundred and one appurtenances which burgeon forth in the multi-storied Titan of modern need." East, west, south and north, the country has its big construction com panies, exponents of efficiency, doers of stupendous tasks. Dominant in the Central Western States is the Bankers Realty Investment Company, forging steadily to the forefront in its chosen field. Time WAS when the West went East for big building service. Time IS when the West can confidently call upon its own. This is not a boast, but a condition.' A few years ago the Bankers Realty Investment Com pany entered the field of building construction from the angle of creating an organization competent to undertake any building, from a modest home to the most elaborate business structure. Today its ideals are realized. A staff of architects has been recruited from the best men of the pro fession, construction engineers, estimating experts, the most competent purchasing agents, highly efficient building superintendents, a permanent group of artisans and laborers these and many other factors, human, me chanical and executive, have been welded into one strong, competent con struction engine which guarantees to clients the very best building that ingenuity can evolve for a stipulated sum. . , ' " Financially we are able to guarantee any contract into which we enter, legally we subscribe to the terms of an agreement in the simplest, most understandable language; as a business proposition we bend every effort to giving satisfaction. As an evidence of the faith we keep, there is the ' almost unprecedented extension of business which is enabling us to extend operations not only throughout the State of Nebraska, but into many of the adjoining states. Finally we feel that we may truthfully assert that it will pay prospect ive building clients to get in touch with our organization before contract ing for any work of whatever character, for we are prepared not only to render building service of the highest character, but we are also equipped to render financial assistance in the shape of a first mortgage loan to such of our clients as desire it. Rankers Realty Investment Company (Assets Over $1,500,000) Architects Building Contractors 0fflce SSfi s;JS B,d'- i A 1