One last look at the George Blumenthal house on Park Avenue, midway in time between the previous two photos. The sidewalk bridge is complete, we’ve got a lot of brick stacked up on the sidewalk, and the street facades are complete at the first floor. It’s clear in this photo that house only has a partial steel frame, and that the masonry is bearing load.
The reason to look at this photo is the presence of those two very large transfer girders at the third-floor level. They’re there because there was a big room at the second floor (or first and second floors) and smaller rooms above. This is the kind of structural detail that’s common in commercial buildings – picture office space above an open lobby – but not usually seen in residences. When I said that the house was built like a small commercial building, this is the kind of thing I meant.
