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Hum110 wake tech week 14 b housing2
- 1. Estates, Farmhouses, Shacks and Tenements
- 2. Housing-The American Way Note: Thanks to the Sears Holdings Historical Archives for Permission to Share this Image
- 4. The Birth of “Modern” Architecture Copyright Don Ward 2009
- 5. The Second Housing Crisis- 1946
Editor's Notes
- Mankind moves to the locale that offers the best prospects of survival. In the ancient world survival meant food; in the modern world, survival means employment. Knossos had great stores of grains, olives, beans and dried fish. We have also learned that the Brooklyn Bridge was built to house a labor force within commuting distance of Manhattan. The American push westward opened fertile farm lands to farmers and a food source to growing manufacturing economy. Above Rio de Janeiro live the poor in favelas that move from along the hills above Ipanema, Carioca and La Blonde as the rich change residences along the beachfront. Does that seem curious to you or logical?
- American manufacturing ascendancy was built on mass production. With plenty of land but a skilled labor bottleneck (too few carpenters to satisfy the booming demand) even houses were mass produced. Beginning in 1908, Sears and Roebuck began selling pre-fabricated houses.
- These developments first introduced in the 1880s led to the International Movement in architecture which began around the 1930's. More than any other single factor, a fire that began on Sunday October 8, 1871 and burned for three days established the canvas for the mushrooming of tall structures in a confined area. That fire destroyed much of the City of Chicago but left the lumber yards, the railroads and the Union Stockyard undamaged. It left a still prosperous city with a will to rebuild. In 1873 a seventeen year old college dropout from Massachusetts named Louis Sullivan arrived. By 1893 he along with his partner Adler had established a style of architecture that was the envy of Europe. It was uniquely American, evocative of natural forms, inviting to the newcomers who just left the farm and generally unappreciated by Americans with money to invest in making money. These men wanted buildings that were imperial. Steel smelting technologies made it possible for better, stronger steel girders to be developed. Multi-story buildings could safely be made taller. This was only possible because during the 1800s fire resistant materials had been developed. Internationalists identified three different principles: the expression of volume rather than size, balance rather than symmetry and the elimination of added decoration. The most common characteristics of International Style buildings are light, plane surfaces without ornamentation; open interior spaces; and a cantilever construction. Glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete, are the characteristic materials of construction Three factors led to the popularity of the International Style- a modern mindset that insisted on sweeping away the old -- and the eclectic. As in art and music, modern architecture became minimalist in nature. The crowding of cities put space at a premium. The development of new technologies in metallurgy but also in concrete and glass. Walter Gropius (1883-1969) combined the root of the German verb bauen (to build) with haus (house) in naming the art school he founded under the original title of the "Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar." The Bauhaus lasted from 1919-1933. Simple geometric forms Asymmetry Reinforced-concrete and steel construction with a nonstructural surface Cylindrical structures Smooth wall surfaces of glass,steel, or stucco Often, an entire blank wall Balconies Flat roofs without ledges Large areas of floor-to-ceiling glass or curtain walls of glass Metal windows in horizontal bands ( "American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia," Cyril M. Harris, ed.. Norton & Co., 1998) Excellent examples of International Style buildings are found in the work of Watertown native George Frederick Keck, who established his practice in Chicago in 1926. These include The Marshall Field Building in Chicago (H.H.Richardson) The Wainwright Building in St. Louis (Louis Sullivan) And the Seagram Building in New York (Ludwid Mies van der Rohe)
- In 1901, The Ladies Home Journal published a number of designs for “contemporary” homes. Among the designs was “A Home in a Prairie Town” by Frank Lloyd Wright. The design became an immediate sensation. The homes were designed to advertise to sell for $7,000. Wright advertised that a small home might cost only $6,000. In fact, his target clients were wealthy businessmen who usually spent far more than the publicized rate for a customized home. Although what Wright said and did were sometimes in conflict, he clearly believed that the house should take precedence over the occupant. An influential client once called Wright to tell him that the roof was leaking during a dinner party. Wright told him to move his chair (Lubow 60). The architect designer was best suited to build the optimum environment with little input from the client. This attitude made Wright the fictionalized subject of Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead. Organic architecture would tie together all the bits of modern life. In Wright’s words, “…the highest possible expression of the individual as a unit not inconsistent with a harmonious whole” (54). Prairie style homes were “Low- slung, earth hugging buildings with strong horizontal lines and open circulation through the public rooms, they were stripped clean of decoration and used machine-made components” (55). They featured “…bold geometric forms, [and] uninterrupted public spaces….” ( 54). Wright’s Prairie Houses were characterized by long horizontal lines that conformed to the flat landscape of the Midwest.. They usually had a large central chimney, and open spaces where rooms might be expecte. The exterior or the home blended into the interior just as the exterior blended into the surrounding landscape. Wright was interested in "the new reality that is space instead of matter.” He said the "reality of a building is not the container but the space within." Wright designed interiors and even furnishings in a way to complement the exterior design. He crafted stained glass, furniture, and carpets for particular houses and settings. Wright insisted that buildings shape the people who live inside. He called "the architect … a molder of men, whether or not he consciously assumes the responsibility” (“Prairie Style”). Wright set out to overturn all old standards in architecture. He talked about the tyranny ”the mobacracy” and insisted that “form and function are one” (Hart 16). Perhaps the best expression of Wright’s design is found in Brendan Gill’s biography: If the Prairie House had little to do with the actual prairie. It had a great deal to do with how Wright believed people should live, not only as members of a family but as citizens of a democracy…. He managed to convince many people that the wide eaved low roofs and massive chimneys, his open porches and garden walls … were outward and visible signs of the principles upon which the nation was founded. It was these principles that he saw his floor plan as reflecting: rooms opened into one another without the usual preemptory boundaries or walls and doors, and a family was united by sharing spaces as well as activities. (Brendan Gill in Many Masks, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987) Wright wanted to offer the benefits of the Prairie concept to the middle class. He then developed the Usonian concept. These homes were also customizable (to the financial peril of the buyer). The homes were positioned to capture the winter sun for passive heating and given long eaves for summer shade. Clerestory windows under the roofline, shielded from the street were part of a system of passive lighting. The homes were equipped with carports, because Wright believed the home should reflect a changing society. “ I don’t build a house without predicting the end of the present social order. Every building is a missionary” (Lubow 59). There was an arrogance in Wright’s work. Regarding his clients he said: “It is their duty to understand, to appreciate, and conform as far as possible to the idea of the house.” Asked what his first concern was Wright said “Well, to fulfill the client’s wishes.” The client butted in “I wanted a three- story building.’ “ You didn’t know what you wanted,” Wright responded (Lubow 59). (Hart, Spencer. Frank Lloyd Wright. North Dighton: World Publications Group, Inc. 2004. Lubow, Arthur. “The Triumph of Frank Lloyd Wright.” Smithsonian, June 2009 52-61. “ Prairie Style.” Wright on the Web 3 Jul 2009.)
- The Second World War focused the entire nation on winning the conflict. Men went off to war. Women went to industrial and managerial jobs. There was lots of money but little to spend the money on. The results were inflation and savings. As 16m GIs returned from Europe and the Pacific. There were millions of weddings, a baby boom and a resultant housing shortage. Public transportation but more importantly the family car extend the commuting possibilities-- but there is still no home to commute from. The Levitts knew how to build houses on a large scale. During the war, they built 750 units for the Army at Oakdale Farms outside Norfolk, VA. With the introduction of VA Mortgages, the Levitts were able to sell as many houses as they could build for $8000 each. Every Levittown house was the same in the important respects. They were all built on slabs poured around pre-fit hot water pipes. All walls were framed with 2x4s. Inside walls were sheetrock. Plywood exteriors and roofs were covered with shingles. By 1948, Levittown grew by thirty houses each day. Every effort was made to make these nearly identical houses to be different. This was done by orienting some houses toward the side of the lot (rather than facing the street) or turning the roof line down parallel to the front wall (rather than extending the eve away from the wall). (Sources- http://tigger.uic.edu/%7Epbhales/Levittown/building.html http://www.levittownhistoricalsociety.org/history.htm) Leaving the cities for the suburbs broke the ethnic compositions of neighborhoods. Second and third generation Italians, Poles and Germans stopped using the “old languages” to shop, to chat with neighbors and to a lesser extent to worship. By 1951, there were Levittowns in Hempstead, Long Island and outside Philadelphia. These along with national broadcast television and the shared experience of the Second World War helped to homogenize America.