“ I ’m just fill out a new home that is a mechanically skillful masterpiece , ” writes Popular Mechanics editor Thomas Stimson in a 1955 article proudly titledI opt a Steel - Frame House . “ The menage has a steel skeleton like an business office building . To a large extent it was put together with a welding blowtorch alternatively of hammer and nails . ”
Stimson ’s steel - frame business firm — listed byCrosby Doe Associatestoday for a usurious $ 1.8 million — was ultra for its age . In a long exposition on the home , he describes wonders like an intercommunication system system , built - in hampers , vinyl floor , and a front door with a swivel peephole — along with the monolithic , embedded fluorescent lights that cover the home ’s fairly low roof .
In reality , the most remarkable thing about the house was its prefab blade structure , which allowed workers to assemble it on - site in a matter of weeks . Despite unrequited questions about its structural integrity during earthquakes , prefab steel offered a resolution to the metropolis ’s major post - War living accommodations shortage . agree to Stimson , the construction process itself was so strange , gawker would constantly intercept by to ask about it :
There ’s only one affair about a theatre like this that ’s an factual handicap : It is so new in coming into court , peculiarly when the steel frame is stand by itself , that people passing by just ca n’t help stopping in to ask doubt . clip is money and that runs up the costs .
Stimson was part of a Californian prefab tradition that began with the Case Study Homes in the 1950s and hold out into the 1970s , with developers like Joseph Eichler , who built over 11,000 homes in the Bay Area alone . The bequest of prefab purpose articulated itself in strange ways throughout Northern California — for lesson , Steve Jobs grow up in an Eichler home , and oftencited itwhen talking about safe pattern . [ Crosby Doe AssociatesviaCurbed ]
ArchitectureCaliforniaDesign
Daily Newsletter
Get the dependable tech , science , and culture news in your inbox daily .
News from the time to come , cede to your present tense .
You May Also Like
