No site has yet been settled on for the new project. The authorities have said that it would be in the heart of "Chinatown." Land prices there run from $2.50 to $3.50 a square foot, and since, under the housing authority law no more than $1.50 a foot can be paid for a site, the difference will be made up by a city appropriation and by a local bond issue.
The Chinese approve of the project, provided it conforms to the surroundings. Even to the second and thi: generation, they have strong convictions about inherited ideas of form and line. As for the multistoried type of apartment house they are willing to accept necessity at its face value.
A striking feature of this plan is the prayer curtain effect extending along the top floor of the facade. According to the architects Messrs. Mark Daniels and Henry T. Howard, the authetic Buddhist monasteries and temples are draped with huge fabric curtains somewhat after the manner of altar draperies in other countries. In the "Chinatown" structures this effect would be achieved by means of a band of dark-coloured concrete.
Whatever the final plan, modern construction will be used, the steel-frame type common in multstoried buildings. According to Mr. Daniels, this will complete an architectural cycle, for he finds that the same general type of construction was used by Chinese builders more than 2,000 years ago.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.