Prefabrications

Last summer much talk and thought about smart "prefabricated" houses was crystallized by formation of a new corporation called General Houses, Inc. Last week FORTUNE, reviewing dozens of projects for using factory methods to produce the "house of tomorrow," reported the actual erection of two:

General Houses. In Hubbard Woods, Ill. on the high bluff overlooking Lake Michigan is an oblong dwelling, severe and clean as a pursuit plane. Pullman Co. cooperated in the fabrication of its steel walls, Container Corp. in the development of its insulation. It is occupied by Ruth Page, able modernistic opera and concert ballerina. Dancer Page's husband is able Lawyer Thomas H. Fisher, son of Walter L. Fisher who served as President Taft's Secretary of the Interior. Dancer Page's brother-in-law is tall, yellow-haired Howard T. Fisher, architect, who with another lawyer-brother Arthur, conceived General Houses, Inc. After it opens its Chicago World's Fair exhibit June 1, General Houses expects to offer a five-room-&-bath dwelling, similar to the Ruth Page model, for less than $4,000. First dealer picked was in Oak Park, Ill.

Prefabricators urge that their houses will not only be cheaper but as much of an advance over old houses as automobiles are over horse-carts. And they need not be stylistically "moderne." Ivy will cling to their walls. Their insides can be decorated, if need be, in the taste of the late Alfred Lord Tennyson.

American Houses. In Hazleton, Pa. on the outskirts of the anthracite region, stands a neat rectangular little dwelling painted sky green and as simple as a candy box. Under its flat roof of rolled steel-&-aluminum are a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bath. The cellarless foundation is aero-cement; the frame, steel; the walls, asbestos composition. Six unskilled workmen assembled it in a month. Its total cost, with heat, light and plumbing installed: $3,500. It is a product of American Homes, Inc. of New York which now offers a "line" of four prefabricated models costing up to $7,200. Architect is lean, towering Robert W. McLaughlin Jr. of the New York firm of Holden, McLaughlin & Associates. Designer of swank country homes for the well-to-do, Architect McLaughlin has turned enthusiastically to prefabrication as a solution not only of the U. S. housing problem but of the U. S. architect's employment problem.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.