Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-20
FEDERAL HOUSING
= INFLUENCE SEEN
Woman Architect Finds
Little Advance in BUILDING
Economy, However.

All present-day lower cost hous-
ing practice is being enormously
Influenced by the mere 30-odd thou
sand housing units" which represent
three years of Federal effort, accord
! ing to Elisabeth Colt, New York
architect and Langley scholar of the
American Institute of Architects.
Both living standards ali build
ing construction show NE effects
Of the Federal program, says Miss
Colt, who is making a two-year study
of methods of economical design and
construction of single-family dwellings
and apartment houses in America.
She also finds that "of the more
than four-score cost-saving prefabri-
cation systems heralded up to a year
or two ago, only a handful have
proved available in any degree for
application to low-coSt housing, and
I then only to very limited degree
\ IN the large-Scale housing field"
'Low-cost housing has followed but
to a slight extent the course of mid
die and higher class dwellings in
cities where a minimum of rehabili-
| tation and moderniZation, carried out
| with practical imagination, has proved
highly profitable to owners of numer-
Gus solidly-constructed houses built
two generations ago." Miss Colt con-
tinueS in progress report to the in
stitute.
Sees Chance for Immortality.
ornl, nh fnn IA
present-day financing and merchan-
( dising methods. current labor condi-
tions, and almost fantastic social
standards, achieves any considerable
economies in housing design or con-
struction deserves place in the first
rank of the immortals'
There is aScertainable much useful
information regarding the practical
bility and serviceability-or the re-
systems, Miss Colt holds. She is sift-
ing information useful to the archi-
tect as distinct from those con-
cerned with public versus private
housing finance, or with theories of
social service or of relief work, and
from those influenced by local. pub
licity, business, or other professional
interests"
At the end of her study Miss Colt
plans TO prepare a detailed report
containing statistics. graphs and doc
.umentation which will clarity the fol-
lowing points as concerns selected.
typical and comparable projects:
Gross and net size, construction
type, and costs; details Of building
construction such as foundation, wall.
floor and partition; type of utilities,
including water, heat, light. sewage
and other disposal of waste; special
facilities such as garages. laundries
@nd recreation; special design con-
siderations, embracing cross ventila-
ton, kitchen access, bedroom access,
number of each type of dwelling unit
in project, number OF units served
per stair or elevator, ETC.; serviceable-
ness of design and construction as evil
denced by maintenance and manage
ment costs; verif1cation of statements
of millennium promising systems,
many of which have their existence
chiefly on paper.
Distinguishes on Standards.
Without theorizing unduly on
housing detectives, distinguish be-
tween shelter and housing acceptable
to its users, and thus determine min
tmum Standards" Miss Colt explains.
How far these can be obtained with
out subsidy is question. I seek to
learn what advances in design and
technology are necessary to give ade-
quate housing at an acceptable price
to people which somehow manages
to pay for the things it considers
worth the price.
There is need to know how far re-
cent progress in these directions, as
partially illustrated in one project or
another, has tended toward bringing
down costs for minimum require
ments, at the same time making for
permanence of value by flexibility
for later modernization or other al
teration, thus postponing obsolescence
and deterioration, and making, in
burn, for liquidity of investment and
Tor mobility of the individual"
Miss Colt has visited more than go
housing developments, including both
nrban and rural large-scale projects,
pre-fabrication and semi-prefsbrica-
systems and rehabiliations.
More than 5000 girls demonstrated