Architects From The United States

"The first principle of good barn design is flexibility of space."

"It is no mystery that clay cook pots perform as they do or that clay ovens are considered healthy devices for us to use. In prehistoric times, baking ovens were built of clay and sand. Later these stoves were placed inside shelters where they could deliver some of their accumulated heat to the household..."

"The most economical way of obtaining good results is to apply the great, fundamental principles of art; and depend on them for beauty, rather than upon the use of either applied ornament or more expensive materials... much better results are likely to accrue from truth than falsehood, and from architectural [rather] than archaeological methods."

"These houses are intended to have stone walls. ...The fact that a stone house is better in many ways than a wooden one, and also more economical in the long run has, for the most part, been overlooked... The conditions are... ripe for a change from wood to stone or other incombustible material, but it will doubtless come about slowly."

"A mixture of damp peat moss and loamy soil spread around the roots is far better than fertilizer in any form. Do not saturate the hole in which a tree is to be planted with water."

"Grafting is, in effect, the healing of two common wounds. Commercial nurseries charge high prices for grafted stock, and the public bears the cost..."

"When the necessity for shelter is great and the means for obtaining it scant, flimsy and makeshift methods of building find ready acceptance; and once introduced are hard to eradicate. Such habits, formed here in early times, still influence construction; as abundantly proved by our inordinate fire loss..."

"It is hard to change long-established building habits; such habits sometimes endure for ages in certain localities with little or no change. It is, however, easy for new communities to acquire bad building habits."

"In medieval Europe, monks grew vegetables, herbs, flowers, berries, and fruit trees together for mutual benefit. You should plan plant populations relative to the root level each species occupies in the soil relative to the feeding capacity of each species."

"It is clearly apparent that in building the best results should accrue in proportion as every element in the structure is fitted both to the function it has to perform and the materials of which it is made. It follows from this that disguise and complication are hindrances, both to good construction and good design, and as complication and disguise are expensive and wasteful, that the interests of good art and true economy run on parallel lines."

"In the human form, as nature tries to make it, every feature is useful and every feature is beautiful. Each member is perfectly adapted to the function it has to perform; nothing is superfluous, yet the whole and every part is supremely decorative."

"The most perfectly constructed object in nature, and also the most beautiful object in nature, is the human form as it approaches perfection. This, then, is the criterion of construction as it is of design. The study of its beauties is the veritable key to art..."

"The object of this work is to improve the design and construction of small houses while reducing their cost."

"Heavy, clayey soils hold more water with less nutrient-leaching. The structural aggregates of heavy soils retain nutrients but allow water to drain around them. Light soils are extremely sensitive to excess water."

"New York ought to have such an avenue like the Champs Elysées of Paris, Unter den Linden of Berlin, or the Ring Strasse of Vienna, but more ample than any of them; for here, of all places, owing to the shape of the island, there is the most need of such a thing."

"From time to time a square has been opened here, a park there, a street cut through in one place or widened in another, but these improvements have been entirely local in their effect, and have failed to change the general appearance of the city. Even the greatest of all these changes, the laying out of Central Park, was unfortunate, to say the least, for it serves to aggravate one of the worst features of the original plan, viz., the failure to provide a central artery of communication worthy of the coming city."

"While it is not hard to suggest improvements on common methods of design and construction, it is very hard to introduce them."

"Unless he is prepared to try his new theories and processes on himself, as has been done here, there is little likelihood that he will ever see them applied, for he will find that, of all people, builders are most set in their ways and hardest to move from their accustomed ruts."

"An adequately designed spillway is critical to pond management. The purpose of the spillway is to carry surplus water from the pond, away from the face of the dam. It may consist of a mechanical control, such as an exit pipe installed in the base of the dam where it will empty below the dam site."

"Low walls are much less expensive to build than high ones... it is possible to use forms without the usual waste of lumber... when waste is avoided, forms greatly reduce the cost of stonework... much can be saved in the construction of foundations by methods described..."

"Pit Greenhouses... greenhouse plants... need additional sources of carbon dioxide."

"Beauty is largely dependent on fitness, and fitting methods are usually the most convenient and economical; therein, indeed, to a great extent, lies their very fitness."

"In course sand it may be better to drive a well. Driven wells are usually 2 inches in diameter and less than 30 feet deep. If driving conditions are good, you can drive a 4-inch casing as deep as 50 feet. A driving tool consists of a drive point connected to the lower end of sections or pipe."

"The design of a house around a massive, central fireplace has, somehow, always felt right to this writer-builder."

"2d. Saving space: (a) By the utilization of the large volume of space contained in the slopes of roofs... (b) by the reduction of floor thickness... (c) by the utilization of space (as on shipboard) for lockers, cupboards, closets, etc... (d) by the use of thin partitions... and (e) by elimination of corridors... so that the least possible area may be required for communication."

"3d. Saving of materials: (a) By greatly reducing the average height of walls... and reduction of floor thicknesses... (b) by reducing the size and cost of foundations... (c) by the elimination of the cellar... (d) by the omission of much of the ground-floor beams and wooden underflooring... (e) by the elimination of all wooden studs and lath from partitions... (f) by the elimination of practically all trim, casing, base-boards, and their moldings... (g) by the omission of framing and casing of dormers... (h) by the omission of most of the plastering... (i) by the use of splayed jambs which also improves light... (j) by the use of a special type of casement window... (k) by the omission of applied ornament, reliance for beauty depending on other means... (l) by greater economy in making and using forms... (m) by the omission of stone sills... (n) by the omission of raised verandah floors, steps, balustrades, etc... (o) in the shortening of all stairs, pipes, ducts, drains, and wires... (p) in the avoidance of waste by designing for the use of standard lengths and sizes of material without cutting, as for beams, glass, etc., which the module system of planning makes easy... (q) in the avoidance of things requiring paint, and the use of wax for the finish of interior woodwork... (r) in the reduction of the size of sleepers for flooring... (s) in the more economical use of concrete... (t) in the saving of about one-half the piping in the installation of plumbing drainage... (u) in the elimination of butts and screws for the hanging of windows and doors; and (v) by the omission of fly-screens, the netting being directly applied to the window-frames."

"As far back as 1624... Louis Savot invented the first heat-circulating fireplace. His unit was installed in the Louvre, Paris, and became the prototype for Ben Franklin's 1742 Pennsylvania stove. The 1624 French fireplace achieved 30 to 45 percent more efficiency than do most American tract home fireplaces of today! Savot surrounded the grate of his creation with a metal chamber, which had warm air outlets above the fire opening. He also supplied the fire with air from under the floor. Thus, room drafts were reduced and combustion efficiency was further improved. Few people are aware that practically all of the technical features of Franklin's Pennsylvania stove were copied from earlier inventors."

"5th. Savings by the use of more economical devices, materials, and methods: (a) in the matter of roof-covering... (b) in heating and plumbing drainage... (c) in hardware... (d) in use of tiling... (e) in the use of cement... (f) in the matter of damp-proofing... (g) in the method of flashing... (h) in the preparation of floors for tiling... (i)in the construction of bearing partitions... (j) in the arrangement of screens and shades... (k) in the avoidance of excavation and grading by adapting the building to the conformation of the land... (l) in the more economical use of land by the European method of placing the buildings at the side of the road... (m) in furring... and (n) in the standardization of methods by which the work of construction becomes simply a matter of routine in which each mechanic can perform his part without special direction."

"In cold climates it will cost only half as much to heat a well insulated building as it will cost to heat a poorly insulated one. ... the annual fuel saving will amortize in two years the addition cost expense of the insulation!"

"When the true principles of design are forgotten; when, in art, the bizarre and novel is the aim rather than the beautiful; when complication and mystery take the place of what should be as simple and clear as the atmosphere, design runs amuck, and becomes so helplessly involved in difficulties that such manifestations as cubism, impressionism, futurism, and art nouveau shoe their ugly heads and pose as art."

"A trailer can virtually double the loading capacity of a sturdy truck—another good reason for beefing up the power train."

"Convected air heating requires 70° air temperatures, whereas 65° are required using a radiative means of heating. The result is a 30% savings in fuel consumption."

"Greek art was extremely simple and direct; both in design and construction the Greek mind abhorred complicaton."

"The Greeks designed by a modulus of fixed measure, and that modulus, for the Doric order, was the distance between centers of the triglyphs. ...The triglyphs stand in the frieze, at the corners of the building and at regular intervals at all sides of it; between then are panels, called metopæ, which are always square. The distance between the triglyphs, therefore, determines the height of the frieze. The height of the frieze determines that of the architrave, which is the same. The distance between the triglyphs also determines the spacing of the columns, for except at the corners of the building the center of each column coincides with that of every second triglyph. Upon the spacing of the triglyphs, therefore, depend absolutely the proportions of plan and order. That spacing constitutes a fixed modulus for the entire design which never varies in its application and is, in fact, the harmonic scale of the monument."

"Every house needs a warming spot where persons coming in from the outside chill can, if for no other reason, warm hands and hearts."

"It was only within comparatively recent times that several refinements in Greek architecture... such as the slight entasis of the columns, the greater size of the corner columns, and the convex curve of the stylobate were discovered."

"The most noteworthy development of the open fireplace took place in 1796, when Englishman Count Rumford published his comprehensive essay, "Chimney Fireplaces." ...the inclined fireback ...increased fireplace efficiency by providing an area of greater radiation. For the purpose of breaking up the current of smoke in the event of chimney down draft, the back smoke shelf of Rumford's improved fireplace ended abruptly—a practice strictly adhered to by fireplace masons to this day."

"Certain combinations of dimensions produce harmonious results, but since the time of the ancient Greeks no system of design, consistently base on that knowledge, has been formulated."

"A wind of only 15 mph may increase the heat loss from a window surface by 47 percent or from a concrete wall by 34 percent. Therefore, heating plans have a critical relationship with windbreaks and with wind baffles."

"Glass... is not required for the collection of solar heat. The National Physical Laboratory of Israel... has perfected a highly polished metal surface coated with a molecular-thin black layer of special paint, which absorbs more than 90 percent sunlight. The polished metal radiates very little of the heat it receives. ...A south-facing wall fitted out with these plates would really "drink in" solar heat, windows, or no windows."

"We here have... an architectural discovery which may prove of inestimable value to future art. ...Like fire, it is a good servant but a bad master. The danger is that it may lead to a cramped and mechanical design. One may easily become a slave to the module, and do things because of it which his taste or reason would not otherwise commend. ...How can the danger be avoided and the benefits secured?"

"A Greek architect of the great epoch would no more have thought of omitting the mark of the harmonic scale of proportion, on which the design was based, than would the composer of music think of omitting the harmonic scale of his composition."

"As much as 70 percent of the sun's heat rays can be reflected from one's house by the installation of a white or light-colored roof."

"The Parthenon stands as a reproach to the rest of the world. May not this be because the rest of the world has forgotten, or never knew, the principles which made the Parthenon possible and of which harmony of proportion... was one?"

"About one-fifth of all the heat that enters the average house comes through windows. ...external shading is by far the most efficient method for controlling interior heat build-up. The air-wash between the shading screen and the window is also very effective. The screen should have a light-colored finish... Insulation boards placed next to the window pane at night, will help prevent heat losses through glazed openings. Overhangs and horizontal sunshades placed above south-facing windows serve effectively as heat reducers."

"One of the most ancient and inexpensive ways of obtaining shelter, was to utilize the space under sloping roof rafters. Indian wigwams have no other kind. Where civilization is slightly more advanced, low stone walls are built upon which the feet of the rafters rest."

"If no attempt is made to control excessive heat loss through glass... a solar house may require as much as 20 percent more fuel than an orthodox house during December and January... Wendell Thomas recognized and solved this problem... by burying the house in the ground, except for the south and east window areas. ...at night... windows are covered with from inside by insulation boards and drapes..."

"Ceiling insulation is... preferable to roof-top insulation."

"Bedroom insulation is unnecessary and restrictive of optimum summer sleeping comfort."

"A perfectly flat roof permits up to 50 percent more heat gain that a pitched roof... This illustrates the failure of the flat-roof construction to get natural, hot air flow out from under the eaves."