Newspaper and Magazine Articles on Houses: A Bibliography

More paper being recycled.



The Sunday Houses of Central Texas.  (The New York Times, 2/9/1984)

The American House:  What we're building and buying in the eighties, by Philip Langdon.  (The Atlantic Monthly, September 1984)
Margin notes

• Exterior (reverting to more historical styles)
• Traditional architecture (effective in showing off new-found wealth)
• Status (size matters)
• Solar (people prefer it obvious)
• Outdated "organic" designs (enthusiasm has waned)
• Geodesic dome (see above)
• Mobile homes (1 in every 5 new homes in 1972; 15% in 1983)
• Modular homes (manufactured as a series of boxes)
• Increasing price; decreasing size (most families prices out of new-home market; average square footage shrank from 1650 in 1979 to 1580 in 1983)
• Failure of "basic" house (eliminating frills, such as a fireplace, led to lack of buyer interest)
• Small condo units (sleep in your living room on a roll-out bed)
• Small condos:  resale value
• California real estate boom (2800-square-foot, 4 bedroom Turtle Rock home priced at $72,000 in 1973; same type of houses reselling for $350,000 in Irvine in 1983)
• "Planned-unit" developments (large tracts built up at more than the usual suburban density)
• Successful design firms 
• Livable high-density design  (Mission Verde in Camarillo, CA)
• Abandoning old concepts (goodbye to 1950s concepts)
• Lowering housing costs (by increasing zoning density)
• Livable urban design (Golden Gateway Commons in S.F., for those who can afford it)
• Basic urban living for those who want it 
• Housing for single parents 
• Condos for "uninvolved" singles (dual master-bedroom suites)
• Energy concerns
• Solar technology
• Natural rhythms of time (suppressed by 20th century's reliance on mechanical heating, lighting, and cooling)
• Earth-sheltered homes (300 in 1979; 4,000-5,000 in 1983)
• No-furnace home (14-foot thick wall cavities)
• Energy efficiency (R-value jumps from 13 in 1973 to 24 in 1983)
• Security (creating the aura of security)
• Amenities:  convenience and comfort 
• The bathroom (the most glamorous room)
• Privacy (fewer partitions in houses since World War II, only bedroom and bathroom are left)
• New uses of space
• "Curb appeal" (it's a facade; the house is not meant to be examined close up)
• Changes in level (potential obstacle to elderly)
• Ceilings (variations to give distinctive character)
• Atlanta ("most vigorous home market"
• Log homes (250 companies producing 40,000 houses per year)
• Quality control:  modular homes (4% of U.S. house production)
• Customizing modular units
• Advances in home-building industrialization (bringing uniformity and predictability to house construction)
• Materials today and yesterday (getting most strength from least material)
• 1945-1955 (building components, e.g., plasterboard and prefabricated all panels, in primitive stages of development)
• Unhappy home buyers (10% end up this way)
• Architect (involvement for those willing to pay)

In Los Angeles, a bit of 1880's Fantasy.  (The New York Times, 12/6/1984)

The house that Chicago built:  In the '20s, a bungalow was really the cat's meow, by Paul Gapp, Architecture critic.  (Chicago Tribune, Date unverified)

Bungalow's Origins, Raj to California.  (The New York Times, date not verified)

The Many Charms of the Front Porch.  (The New York Times, date not verified)

The House of the Future Won't Be That Different.  (The New York Times, 1985)

Mail-Order Homes Sears Sold in 1909-37 Are Suddenly Chic.  Many Still Stand Occupied, Notably in Carlinville, Ill.; Pets of Preservationists.  (The Wall Street Journal, date not verified)

Life's dream in a kit -- mail-order houses.  (Chicago Tribune, date not verified)

The Three Home Stages in the Lives of Americans.  (The New York Times, 1985?)

• Apartment
• Single-family home
• Condominium

For Predesigned Homes, a Long and Thriving Business.  (The New York Times, 2/13/2013)

Emphasis in Housing Market Shifts Toward Costlier Trade-Up Homes.  (The Wall Street Journal, 3/9/1986)

Traditional Styles Still Best Sellers.  (The New York Times, date not verified)

• Tudor
• Colonial
• Victorian

Plans:  Ranch or Tudor?  (The New York Times, 3/13/1986)

Markets for New and Old Houses Are on the Rise, by Alan S. Oser.  (The New York Times, 1987)

A Good Place to Live, by Philip Langdon.  (The Atlantic Monthly, March 1988)
Seaside, Florida, is one of the places covered in another of Langdon's informative, lengthy articles.


n a Clash of Decades, A House Surrenders.  (The New York Times, 11/14/1996)
The "teardown syndrome" in Highland Park, Illinois.)