A  building  not  suited  to  the  purposes  of  the  trade  predominant
in  one  of  these  localities  is  apt  to  prove  a  great  burden.  Resi-
dences and  office  buildings,  next  to  retail  dealers'  establishments,
are  more  susceptible  to  environmental  influences  than  whole-
sale, loft  and  factory  buildings,  although  certain  types  of  the
latter  group  will  be  radically  affected  by  the  movements  of
railway  terminals.  A  large  modern  and  well-equipped  office
building  in  lower  Manhattan  for  a  number  of  years  had  diffi-
culty in  meeting  the  interest  on  its  bonds  because  the  building
was  situated  out  of  the  office  building  area.  The  type  of
building  best  adapted  to  a  site  depends,  therefore,  on  the
character  of  the  neighboring  buildings,  the  character  of  the
industry  in  the  locality,  and  the  internal  movement  of  popu-
lation within  the  city.  The  rent  from  the  average  building
in  a  locality  will  usually  determine  for  a  builder  the  amount
he  is  warranted  in  putting  into  a  building  and  what  the
operating  cost  of  the  structure  will  be.
The  Effect  of  Structure  Values. — The  erection  of  high
buildings  does  not  always  increase  land  values.  This  was  true
of  lower  Wall  Street  and  Broadway,  New  York,  for  a  number
of  years.  The  stability  of  location,  in  the  long  run,  can  be
maintained  only  by  a  correct  ratio  between  land  and  buildings.
That  is,  the  value  of  the  land  should  be  somewhat  near  the
capitalization  of  the  net  rent  from  the  building.  "Warranted
exceptions  to  this  rule  are  found  in  a  few  such  districts  as  Lower


'R.  M.  Hurd  in  his  Principles  of  City  Land  Values  (pp.  97-121)  gives
a  number  of  cases  of  the  lack  of  the  adaptation  of  buildings  to  land.
'Franklin  Fishier,  Moody  Magz.,  vol.  xiv  (Dec.,  1912),  p.  427.
