, 1921-05-14
SOMETHING NEW
FOR BUILDERS.
Original Ideas as Presented by
Keene Sumner In the Amer
lean Magazine
BY KEENE SUMNER
Qn American MagazineJ

These designs are In four general
Houps: Colonial. English. Southern,
. Western. In each section there
are Erpups which have the same .bastC
phn.s' that Is to say. they have the
szze outside dimensions. or ground
plan Yet no two OF these houses
are nix The style OF entrance, the
and windows, the roofs and coruiccs
and porches-au are different So
ara the interior arrangements
Il was Richard Henry Dana Jr. Of
thu New York firm or Murphy and
Dana, who descibed this development
a. the most important of the past
50 years, especially in the building OF
maderzte-prieed houses.
Tho feature of It that most appeal
20 me-" he said lis that 1t will make
II possible for anyone to have an at
traetive home. Every house must
have doors. windows. stairs. and so on.
But most OF the stock designs which
were put into houses were atrocious
1t costs no more to make an object
that IL well designed than to make one
that 10 poorly designed. 1t may even
cost iesn for beautiful things are often
On simpler lines than ugly ones. A con-
diton under which people are forced
10 pay n premium. merely Il get
beauty instead of ugliness. is wrong.
with this now cooperation between
the manufacturers and the highest
grade of architects. the great general
public VIII have n quality OF service
Il never has enjoyed IN this country
Even though q man goes to an
architect and has special plans drawn
fer his house. he will find that he.
too. may profit by the new stock pat
terms. With genuinely good designs
available. the architect can save
money for his client by using these
standardized patterns for many de-
tAfs- ] hav used some of the new
rtcck' windows and doors In houses
whfch ! have planned recently. A few
ysazs ago. I couldn't have good stock
designs of these items made. Now,
o1s can select artistic entrances. DOR
n,sr windows. bay windows. interior
des<z. cornices. holdings and SO on;l
and the cost is materially less than
81 these things had to be made ac-
cording to individual specifications.
In these house plans, onomi In
space have been worked out which
only an experienced architect would
BE- capable Of devising. For dining
rooms there are really beautiful corner
cupboards, sideboards, buffets, and
hanging china closets-ail built in as
integral parts OF the house For the
bedroom. there are arrangements of
drszstng tables. closets. and tray cases.
bU1t In so as to take the least possible
spsce from the room itself There
are kitchen dresscrs and work tables,
ironing boards which shut up on al
hinge into a niche in the wall. broom
closets In what ordinarily would be
pimply lost space.
u.A,r -A -. 49,
m charge of working out the Curtis
plans, has formulated some very def.
tmte ideas as a result of his expert.
eoos
Thu first thing you must consider"
~ y lis the size of your house.
Not such much the dimensions of the
house itself. or of the different rooms.
but the number of rooms you must
hsxe Generally speaking. the decision
viii rest on the number of bedrooms.
And the size of you family. even
more than the size of your income.
VIII determine that point
Then you must add sthe essential
~itvinsrooms. For instance. it is GER
tain that you must have a kitchen?
A few years age people thought 1t
was as necessary to have a diningroom
10 eat in as it was to have a bedroom
TO sleep in. Just at present there
Us an inclination tt DO away with the
~diningroom in email houses. Those
who are in favor of eliminating it
claim that 1t is used at most. only
about two hours a day; and that the
reet OF the time the family gets no
benefit from all that space.
The new idea is to put it all into
Z hig. generous livingroom, at one end
OF which the dining table can be set
We make what we call a breakfast
~aicoyo. which can be added to the
ivinsronm and used for all meals n
the family is a small one.
Personally. l think this movement
to abolish the dining room is more or
less of a fad Meal time is perhaps
the only time when all the members
OF b family get together. IL the liv-
tngroom. or even part of 1t, is used
for this purpose. there will be an in.
eltnaticn TO hurry the meal. That isn't
good thing. in my opinion. And IL
I am right, the diningroom will regain
It's old standing as an essential part
" the home However, in a small
house the other arrangements has ad.
tantages.
The s~leepingporch. which has been
fn high favor, is losing some of its
popularity. People are now planning
their bedrooms SO that they have cross
ventilation. This gives much the same
result as an outside sleepingporch, and
also provides a room that can be used
during the day.
Another important thing to decid,
Is how many bathrooms you will have
A New York architect told me MOI
long ago that we Americans are MAJ
on the subject of bathrooms.
ePAonla want to nla- L.a -,
rooms first ne said. and then built
their house around the bathtubs. 4
man will tell me that he doesn't car,
what else 1 give him. but he mus
have four bathroomsi I point out I,
him that. with his family. he won
need that many. He apparently ha,
no idea that it takes an hour to clea,
a bathroom properly. I tell him tina
he want four bathrooms, at a thou
sand dollars apiece. and to hire some
BODY 70 spend four hours a day clear