In a message dated 8/28/02 4:12:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> Dear Yukon Guy:  I just visited the building today (really cool, will report
> later).  Neat idea, but the 10 story stairway is indeed open, all the way
> to the top.
> The Perfect Flue!
>
> Sign me,  Who Remembers Our Discussion of Glacier Glass in 1998?
>
>
>

I think whoever it was was right about the n.w.h referring to a design
without light wells (which is to say, proviiding windows on the aides withour
a dumbbell tenement plan).  I can't see sophisticated NYers giving a damn
about well holes as sources of water, and can't imagine that open stairwells
were on anybody's radar screens as a fire danger back then.

When we inspected the bldg that collapsed in Harlem a ffew years back, it had
a weird-shaped plan which seems to me was rather E-shaped, but which also had
well-holes along the property lines.

Ralph