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St. Louis’ two-legged tower: Tallest U.S. Monument

By Charles Remsberg
Illustrated by Ray Pioch

A SOARING arch 630 feet high, and of equal span, will soon be the tallest monument in the U.S. Its gleaming skin will be made of 886 tons of stainless steel, biggest single order on record. Trains with ingenious drum-shaped cars will run up and down inside it. Called the Gateway Arch, it forms the spectacular centerpiece of St. Louis’ new $30 million Jefferson National Ex- pansion Memorial Park. It symbolizes the city’s role as the gateway to the West after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
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KAISER’S “CHASSIS” HOMES

They’re assembled from factory-built units, but they don’t look alike

What Henry J. Kaiser is already doing to meet the housing shortage in the Los Angeles area he regards as a sample of what he will be doing shortly near Detroit, Portland (Oregon), and other of our cities. Teamed up with Fritz B. Burns, veteran Los Angeles land developer, Kaiser is completing 1,700 homes near the California city, and before the year is over he expects to put up 10,000 more, there and elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »

Germany Is Going Modernistic in Designing Unique Eating Places

GERMANY, one of the homes of modernism, is setting a rapid pace for architects and designers everywhere, this odd, mushroom shaped building being but one example of their efforts to attain the novel and unique in architecture.

This building, which houses a restaurant overlooking the Rhine River, is three stories high. Administrative offices, checking rooms, washrooms and the kitchens occupy the two lower floors. The upper floor contains private dining rooms, bar room and public dining balcony that hangs out over the river.

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Flowing Space That’s Sprayed on Burlap

This grotto-like edifice near Minneapolis is a monument to modern-day spray-can culture. It is a house—made of sprayed-on polyurethane foam—with 10 rooms and 4,000 unsquare feet of floor space. Its builder-owner, James Littlejohn of Maple Plain, Minn., got the idea for it when he and his wife Letabeth went to ask Minneapolis Architect Winslow Wedin to modernize their kitchen. “While we were waiting, we noticed some weird pictures of what looked like a small plastic summerhouse,” says Letabeth. “We were curious, asked about it and forgot the kitchen. Read the rest of this entry »

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Smashing Down Skyscrapers for Progress

by BENNETT LINCOLN

Every day, wreckers in New York and other big cities crash down millions of dollars worth of skyscrapers which are still sound in construction and capable of many years of service. Why this seeming waste? Factors which pronounce death sentences on buildings are set forth in this article.
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The liberated house

— no hookups — it rolls anywhere and lives off the sun and earth An ingenious structure integrates many energy-conserving technologies

By EVERETT H. ORTNER

PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR AND KRISTEN PETERSON Was this the American home of the future—this cross between a submarine and a World War II Quonset hut, this metal half-sausage afloat on a sea of mud?

Probably not. My hosts, its designer-builders, Ted Bakewell III and Michael E. Jantzen, had other objectives in mind for their Autonomous Dwelling Vehicle—even though it may well unite more house-of-the-future conservation concepts, technologies, and materials that have ever been brought together in one structure. Their goal was to build a trailerable structure that would:
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Pyramid Apartment House

EVERY tenant has an outside apart ment in a pyramid-shaped house de signed by Edwin A. Koch, New York architect. Some time ago, Koch planned a bank of apartments for a steeply sloping hillside. Then the bold idea occurred to him of joining four of the dwellings, back to back in a pattern like a cross, with the result shown above. Read the rest of this entry »

Church Cut In Half To Make Way For New Street

ONE of the most unusual engineering feats in recent years was the moving of a 4,000,000-pound Detroit church steeple to make way for a wider street. The 180-foot stone tower was moved by seven men while hundreds of breathless spectators looked on. Working under the direction of Carl F. Henrichsen and Carl A. Johnson, veteran building movers, the men first cut out a 27-foot section of the church so that the front could be moved back the same amount. Read the rest of this entry »

Contractors Build Freak Test House

TO DETERMINE the feasibility and artistic effect of various materials for a group of new college buildings, a test building using many different materials was erected at Principia College, Elsah, Ill From the results gleaned from the novel experiment, the combination and types of material to be used in the construction of the main buildings was determined.

The small test building was constructed of stone, brick, cast concrete, and timber in brick and concrete. One side of the roof was made of concrete covered with slate, while the opposite side was plain concrete.

Bedroom on Stilts 10 Degrees Cooler Than on the Ground
WHEN A. Winters, a Californian, needed a cooler sleeping place he built a bedroom on top of a forty-foot steel tower, up in the air where the breezes are blowing. The room is large enough for a bed, two chairs and a small table. Read the rest of this entry »

Canvas House Costing But $1000 to Be Home of Future

CANVAS is now being considered by architects as an attractive and economical building material for the small homes of the future. Canvas can now be treated with preservative paints to make it waterproof and fireproof.

A summer home which can be built anywhere for less than $1000 uses canvas almost exclusively as a surfacing material. Read the rest of this entry »

Octagonal Hangar Houses Planes Without Waste Space

WHENEVER a new aviation field or airdrome is planned there always arises the problem as to the type of hangar which should be erected. If the aviation field is planned for a small town or for a limited number of planes the problem is simple but when a modern airdrome with unlimited aerial traffic is contemplated, conditions are different. Read the rest of this entry »