This quote is from Lawrence Veiller, an influential progressive reformer in the US, in 1913. Anyone wanna guess what the dwelling unit threshold for shifting from the Residential Code to the more expensive Building Code is today, in 2025?
![Quote from Veiller: "[D]o everything possible in our laws to encourage the construction of private dwellings and even two- family dwellings, because the two-family house is the next least objectionable type, and penalize so far as we can in our statute, the multiple dwelling of any kind... If we require multiple dwellings to be fireproof, and thus increase the cost of construction; if we require stairs to be fireproofed, even where there are only three families; if we require fire escapes and a host of other things, all dealing with fire protection, we are on safe grounds, because that can be justified as a legitimate exercise of the police power... In our laws let most of the fire provisions relate solely to multiple dwellings, and allow our private houses and two-family houses to be built with no fire protection whatever (NHA Proceedings 1913, 212)."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:mcarhragq2bw4wzlu3tdbubf/bafkreifuevrucumm4am4sja6p4p4vymzung23ln4ld77ooartrhgxferiu@jpeg)
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