Here's Whqt q Womon Sees Wrong with lndusrry

The lumber industry must gear its thinking to the expansionist, upsurging spirit of the American people in order to increase its markets, Miss Elizabeth Gordon, editor of House Beautiful, told the board of directors of the National Lumber Manufacturers Association at a recent annual meeting in Washington, D. C.

The industry cannot be "another sleeping giant" if it is to hold and expand its markets in the future, she warned.

Miss Gordon took issue with the Stanford Research Institute's prediction on the future size of houses, urged the industry to think in terms of expanding requirements and suggested the industry work on six points "where you are weak" in producing housing materials. The Stanford report ' predicted that the size of the average dwelling unit will remain fairly stable from now through 1975 at about 1,000 square feet.

"The Stanford report has its place but the part I can,t buy is about future house types," Miss Gordon said. ,,I am willing to go on record with you, officially, that this prediction will prove to be very wrong in ten years. I want to go on record further, and say that this tendency of American business to assume that there is a universal trend toward 'grading deyln'-feq,,ard 'minimups'-is the ' most dangerous in American history. It has never had any part in American enterprise, factually or psychologically.,,

Miss Gordon cited a l0-year "upsurge in spiritual, cultural and physical progress," and pointed out in contrast, that housing patterns "have been kept from developing any normal curves."

"Government has rigged the aids and controls so completely that normal demand is an unknown quantity," sl-te said. "The minimum house has been made, artificially, the hero of this period. The people, whose daily life is blossoming, are not going to lvant to live in tiny, boxy houses. They will own more possessions, u,hich have to be stored, but most important, they will want more beauty. And you can't wring beauty out of a box, no matter what decorations you paste or hang on its walls. People are hungering for a way of life that has nothing to do rvith dishwashers, garbage grinders and gadgets."

The magazine editor challenged the assumption of the SRI report on future house types on grounds that "extrapolating about the future from the figures of only one industry in a 30-year period is not sound-especially .rr,'hen two-thirds of that period was filled with a depression or a war, and especially when events in home buildings n'ere so strongly channeled by the government along some lines as opposed to others.

"The expanding American market means an expanding American house unless business thinking is clamped into a straight-jacket of pessimism. The minimum house could become the maximum house if it is promoted generally and exclusively, if it is assumed to be the house of the future. Abundant, not minimum living, is the American philosophy that should be the touchstone to all your policy planning about the future."

Wood, both as building material and finisl-ring material, is in the main line of development of emerging American modern architecture, Miss Gordon said. It is in a very favorable position and has everything to gain by siding with the American style, as against the international style, Miss Gordon declared.

"The American style house uses the wood structure itself to endow the building with pattern and design," she said. "The wood house can achieve this kind of' integral design better than the steel framed house or the concrete house.'r

Miss Gordon outlined six needs for the industry:

Restyling of moldings, joint svstems and rvindow and door frames.

Achieving big windou' openings without heavy rvood mullions and muntins or steel supporting members.

Better details for interior storage walls.

Showing people how to use wood for secondary building around their property: sun shades for l,est n alls, wind breaks, fences, garden houses, etc.

Development of structural lumber of sufficiently good finish to give good appearance when exposed, rn'ith special study to structural systems designed for interior exposure. Encouragement of fresh uses of wood materials, rather than remaining tradition-bound.

Gonstruction Costs Still Rising in Western Stotes

Building construction costs in the Z2 states r,vest of the Mississippi river reporting late in October have increased an average of 2/o for the past 12 months, according to The Dorv Service Real Estate Valuation Calculator. issued bv the F. W. Dodge Corporation.

An analysis o{ the Fall 1956 Cor-rstruction Cost Survey by Myron L. Matthen's indicates that the rise in construction costs is twice as great in the states east of the Mississippi river, 4/o Ior the same period.

District #6 reports an annual increase of 4%, based upon returns from 10 cost-sampling cities in the states of New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, California, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

The 6-month increase, N{arch to August '56, for the r,l.estern states is l/o. Costs in these areas are 137/o above prewar 1941, giving the 1941 building dollar a current purchasing power of 42 cents. This means that it takes $2.37 to buy as much construction as $1.00 bought l5 vears ago.

The composite average for the cost-sampling areas in the west is 72/o under the level of costs in Nerv York, thus giving the Nerv York building dollar a purchasing power in the Western area of about $1.14.

For the 48 states, building costs have risen an average of 140/o since Pearl Harbor, giving the national building dollar a current purchasing power of 42 c.ents. In the Mississippi river and west central states (District #5) it takes $2.31 to do r.vhat $1.00 did inL941, ancl in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast states (District #6) it takes $2.44.

.These and other findings, some of rvhich are referrecl to here. have been reached in connection with the Fall 1956 Construction Cost Survey, used in support of The Dorv Service Real Estate Valuation Calculator, issued by F. W. Dodge Corporation. The study concerns itself rvith the local changes in the prices paid by builders for the yardstick iten.rs includecl in the Calculator 'building nraterials and hourly wage rates market baskets. Among these items are common rerl brick, u,all plaster, construction grades of framing lumber, cement and metal ; plus 9 skilled labor trades and common labor.

According to the results secured by a processing of the data supplied by local field contributions to the Survey. of rvhom several hundred are periodically invited to participate across the country, the overall conclusion is that the prime components of tvhat make the price tag for buildings, namely, building materials and labor, are corrtinuirrg to push on uprvard, adding slowly to the cost to build for all kinds of building construction. According to field correspondents there seems to be no reason to expect a stoppage in the persistent upward trend.

The building materials situation for District #6, the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast states, shou.5 that the increase in building material prices is not sharp rvith the notable exception of Spokane, \\rashington, l'hich shows

Together with the members of our stofi, we wish fo exlend our sincere Holidoy Greetings lo our mony friends, customers ond suppliers. A very Merry Christmos lo you oll<nd moy 1957 Be Hoppy ond Prosperous, Too