Tenement Design Evolves
New York’s local regulations for each tenement to have a window led to creative solutions by landlords to meet the words of the law. Figures 4 and 5 in this image show early tenement arrangement, with small units stacked side by side, with few of the them having window access, only the front unit and the back apartments would have this luxury.
The central ones had no natural light or air flow. In the early years of mandating windows in every unit, the windows would be installed wherever it might be cheapest (meaning interior walls and hallways into the units). But as tenement design advanced (Figure 6 and 7), the units were arranged so there were four multiple-room units arranged around an air shaft. Each unit had at least one room facing either the street or facing the backyard, with at least one or two windows per unit.
