1950's Mid Century Modern House Floor Plan Cape Cod Colonial American Houses Inc

Description: Robert W. McLaughlin, Jr. (1900-1989) . McLaughlinwas educated at Princeton ('21; M.F.A., architecture, '26) and for manyyears was the partner of Arthur C. Holden. McLaughlin formed AmericanHouses, Inc. in 1932 after designing a prototype industrial-workerhouse for Donald Markle, a coal-mine owner from Hazelton, Pennsylvania.Although Markle did not order additional units, the house became thebasis for American Houses' prefabricated Moto Home. American House wassoon acquired by Houses, Inc., a General Electric subsidiary, whichprovided substantial financing for the venture. McLaughlin and hisfirm were unusually successful in promoting the Moto Home inprofessional architecture journals, popular home magazines, and thegeneral press. Some of this attention was gained through stunts, suchas a cellophane-wrapped home on the floor of Wanamaker's departmentstore in New York, the promise of a specially-built truck to deliverthe home, and the inclusion of books on the shelves and a two-daysupply of food in the built-in refrigerator. At the same time, theidea of more affordable housing genuinely appealed to the heart of thecountry, then in the grip of the Great Depression. More than half ofall American families at the time were renters; the thousands of thosewho were suffering eviction from their tenements were undoubtedly inthe mind of Sarah Delano Roosevelt, the president's mother, when, atthe opening of an exhibition, she proclaimed the Moto Home "science'sanswer to the housing problem." Moto Homes were intended to attractmiddle-income buyers looking for a house in the range of $3,000 to$7,500.The Moto Home was a radical departure from traditional house-building.At the time, steel frames were used only in industrial and commercialbuildings, even though steel offered significant cost savings over woodbecause of its great strength. The manufactured modules that werebolted to the steel frame were also an innovation, especially as theyprovided finished surfaces for both exterior and interior. The use ofa single type of window that occupied the whole width of a panel wasalso an insight, since by using them singly, at corners, and alongwalls in groups, three different window configurations could result, asevident in the Ames house. In addition to the wall panels, the MotoHome included prefabricated open steel trusses for roof and floorsupports, steel staircases, and standard shelving units. In a furthereffort to hold down costs, the Moto Home used standard plywood doorsand plain narrow-board door surrounds. The floor material, similar tothat known by the trade-name Masonite, today has connotations ofcheapness, but in the 1930s it was undoubtedly still seen as unusualand innovative. Although many of the rooms were small by modernstandards, the houses included generous closet space, especiallybetween bedrooms that shared a wall. The Moto Home also had theadvantage of being almost completely built of fire-proof materials.Finally, in theory at least, the modular panels could be re-used in newlocations to accommodate additions and other remodeling.The Moto-Unit at the heart of the house was also largely prefabricated.Combining a furnace, hot water heater, refrigerator, air-conditioner,plumbing, and electricity in a central core, the Moto-Unit was thenattached to pre-built bathroom and kitchen assemblies that includedtheir own recessed lighting. Some Moto Homes even had built-in radiosand cigarette lighters. Although the original furnace, kitchencabinets, and kitchen and bathroom fixtures of the Winslow Ames Househave been replaced, the core is still clearly evident and functioningas originally intended.Except for the asbestos wall panels, the Moto Home's ideas were sharedby other concept houses of the period. Buckminster Fuller's DymaxionHouse (1929, though none were built until after World War II) pioneeredthe concept of the house as a machine, with a central mechanical core.General Houses, Inc., based in Chicago, marketed an International stylehouse with a steel skeleton and steel modular wall panels that wassimilar in appearance to the Moto Home. Other affordable-housingproposals of the period, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses,used central service cores, flat roofs, and concrete slabs or footings(rather than cellars) to further reduce costs.The Moto Home never delivered on its promise to provide less expensivehousing. The Winslow Ames House cost $7,500, not including land, whichwas considerably more than most other comparably sized houses of theperiod; the other Moto Homes featured in the architectural periodicalsof the time also were more expensive than traditionally built homes, tothe point where they were probably out of reach for most of the middleclass. Because the manufacture of the panels never approached massproduction, only modest savings were achieved in materials, and the useof a welded steel frame made erection very expensive. Also, theaustere industrial appearance of the Moto Home, devoid of any exteriorornament or warm interior finishes, probably limited the house's appealto only the most aesthetically advanced tastes. Most of the MotoHome's intended market probably regarded it as singularly unattractive.Concept houses such as the Moto Home played an important role inAmerican architecture by furthering the ideal of the affordable house.Although apparently a failure, prefabrication continued to evolve,producing at one end of the spectrum the totally prefabricated house,represented by the millions of mobile homes sold after World War II, aswell as the introduction of many more modular and pre-made items intoordinary home construction, such as 4 x 8' sheets of plywood and wallboard, roof trusses, and bathtub/shower units. Robert McLaughlin andhis associates must have learned a great deal from the Moto Home, sinceAmerican Houses went on to produce a highly successful line ofpartially prefabricated wood-frame houses, this time in the "Cape CodColonial" style. The firm's first order following its decision todiscontinue the Moto Home was for 136 Capes, more than all the MotoHomes built to date. McLaughlin retired from the firm in 1947 andlater taught architecture at Princeton.

Price: 99.99 USD

Location: Utica, New York

End Time: 2024-12-14T14:54:37.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.5 USD