The Washington times., 1934-11-10
PANELS { A 8 7
IN CONCRETE
ARE USED

The gaily colored walls Of a
striking bungalow in the course
of erection on the Colesville Pike,
north of the entrance to the In
dian Spring Country Club, pro-
claims the success Of the latest
American experiment in concrete
housing.
The building of this house had
been kept secret until it was
announced this week by John j..
Farley, it's inventor, at the pre-
view of the Farley mosaic cell
ings in the new Department OF
Justice. The walls of the bunga-
low are composed of precast ar
chitectural concrete panels made
of the same materials and by the
same process as the gorgeous col
ored mosaic ceilings of the De-
partment of Justice.
Panels in Concrete
In both cases the panels were
cast in concrete and the surface
cement removed to reveal the
colored aggregates. The only diff
ference was that in the case of
the Department of Justice slabs
this process revealed vivid pat
tern of colors, while the bunga.
low panels showed a plain sur.
face of red jasperite quartz sur
mounted by a 10-inch frieze Of
brighter colorS.
The experimental house is the
result of Is years of intensive re-
search in concrete by Mr.. Farley,
who holds the Turner Gold Medal
of the American Concrete Insti
tute for making concrete an
architectural medium"
The panels for the bungalow
we're produced in Mr.. Earley's
Washington studio, which also
produced the Department of Jus.
tice ceilings. The panels of the
house have an average size Of
6X10 feet and are made of two
inches of reinforced concrete.
Doors and window easements
were cast into the slabs at Mr..
Earley's washington studio. The
panels were mounted in place on
the foundation of the building
and anchored by novel engi-
neering process against light con-
crete uprights poured behind
each joint after the panels were
assembled. The result was a low
cost wall at a price comparable
to that of frame construction.
Garage Is Similar
The same kind of panels, but
without decoration, and the same
construction were employed in
building a garage adjoining the
experimental house. This results
IN such economies of wall con-
struction that Mr.. Farley thinks
he has solved the problem of per-
manent, fire-proof and weather.
proof walls for subsistence home.
SteadS made with the same mate
rial which furnished the costly
mosaic ceilings of the new De-
partment of Justice. One i'm
portant advantage of these panels
NOOAA AA4 Vic OCJd4 GA41CA4G VI y uSU1CE
and small houses, lies in the fact
that they can be kept clean and
fresh by an occasional bath with
a hose. Mr.. Farley described the
manufacture of these panels at
the preview Of the Department of
Justice ceilings, saying:
ITO make these ceilings, plaster
forms were first made with minute
ridges about an eighth of an inch
high to mark the lines between
the various colors that appeared
on the artists design. For each
of these colors there was carefully
prepared mixture of properly
colored stone and sand, with white
cement and water. Each of these
colorS was therefore represented,
on the palette of our craftsmen,
by plastic concrete that was
easily put into place on the lower
surface of the mold behind the
tiny barrier which kept it sepa-
rate from the adjoining colors.
Over all this we put the reinforc.
ing wires and the form was then
filled to a depth of two inches
with concrete made of crushed
quartz and quartz sand.