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- Outdated "organic" designs (enthusiasm has waned)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)
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.)
