c~ ~ \ ' 1 • \1~ll A-1;y °',>~s '-I . \ C.. , ~ Acknowledgments This booklet and the exhibition it accompanies are the third in This exhibition and booklet and the accompanying lecture The Art Institute of Chicago's "Architecture in Context" series, series on architectural design and furnishings of the postwar which is intended to highlight less well documented aspects of house are jointly sponsored by The Art Institute of Chicago, the architects and architecture in the Chicago area. It is fitting that Architecture Society Fellows of the Art Institute, and the The Postwar American Dream exhibition be held on the 40th Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. We anniversary of the end of World War II and that the Art Institute wish to thank especially Carter H. Manny, Jr., Director of the once again support a show of drawings from the Chicago Tribune Graham Foundation, for his advice, encouragement, and con­ Chicagoland Prize Homes Competition as it did almost 40 years tinued support, both moral and financial, for our oral history ago in its own galleries. When first exhibited, the drawings at­ and exhibition programs. We also wish to express our gratitude tracted unprecedented crowds to the museum and were praised to Stanley Tigerman for his provocative essay; to D. Coder Taylor, by many local dignitaries , including Chauncey McCormick, who rescued discarded Chicagoland Prize Homes Competition President of the Art Institute, who stated, "This exhibit is one of drawings from destruction and donated them to the Art Institute ; the best designed and presented we have ever had. The architec­ to James W. Hammond, who helped locate and identify the prize­ tural renderings, the water colors, ... and informative material winning homes that were built; to Raymond W. Garbe for his have been greatly admired both by our staff experts and by the assistance; to Walter A. Netsch for sharing his recollections public" (Chica go Tribune, February 27, 1946). about his experiences in Yost's office; to Carl John Sterner for his The present exhibition is an outgrowth of the Art Institute's helpful comments; and to Catherine Ingraham of Bertrand Gold­ long-range oral history program, which was initiated in 1983 berg's office and Pablo Diaz, our conservator, for th eir coopera­ with a feasibility study funded by a grant from the Graham Foun­ tion. These Art Institute staff members deserve acknowledgment dation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. In conne ction with for their invaluable assis _tance: Robert V. Sharp, Associate Editor; this exhibition, oral histories of several architects who were es­ Luigi Mumford; and Kai Bergin. Lastly, we wish to acknowledge pecially active at this time in residential housing are in progress: our debt to Rita Caviglia for her work on Richard M. Bennett and L. Morgan Yost, D. Coder Taylor, and Richard M. Bennett. We are to scholars David P. Handlin, Dolores Hayden, and Gwendolyn grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Walter A. Netsch, who generously Wright, whose published works provided the essential facts and funded the oral history of L. Morgan Yost in recognition of Mr. insights into the subject of the American home that doubtless Netsch's first employment in Yost's architectural office; to the influenced the shape of this exhibition. College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, whose grant made possible D. Coder Taylor's oral history; and to Loebl John Zukowsky, Curator of Architecture, Schlossman & Hackl, who underwrote the oral history of their The Art Institut e of Chicago former partner Richard M. Bennett. We thank them for their participation in this documentation program. Our research Betty J. Blum, Project Coordinator, Chicago Architects brought forth drawings by architects L. Morgan Yost, Bertram A. Oral History Project, The Art Institute of Chicago Weber, and Raymond W. Garbe, each of whom generously do­ nated these works to the Art lnstitute's permanent collection. Program Exhibition October 18 and October 24, 1985, at 12:15 p.m . at The Art Institute September 26 - October 31, 1985, in the second-floor gallery of of Chicago in Morton Hall: Jane Clarke, assistant director of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, 4 Museum Education, Communications, will present lectures on West Burton Place , Chicago. "The Postwar American Dream." Lectures Note: Street addresses given in the ch.ecklist are private houses; September 26, 1985, at 8 p.m. at the Graham Foundation: David P. tourgoers are advised to respect the owners' privacy. Handlin, architect, author, and assistant professor, Harvard Uni­ versity, Graduate School of Design , Department of Architecture, Cover Illustration will discuss "The Machine Age Modern Architecture and the Cover, Small Homes Guide, 12th ed. (Spring 1944). American Suburban House." © 1985 by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the October 8, 1985, at 6 p.m. at the Graham Foundation: Victor Fine Arts and The Art Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Margolin, assistant professor of design history, University of Printed in the United States of America. Illinois, Chicago, will discuss "Postwar Trends in Design 1945-1985." Designed by Michael Glass Design , Inc., Chicago, Illinois. This lecture is cosponsored by the Architecture Society of the Typography by AnzoGraphics Computer Typographers, Chicago. Art Institute and the Graham Foundation. Printed by Northwestern Printing House, Chicago. The Postwar American Dream by Stanley Tigerman Fig. 1. "Mr. and Mrs. Park Forest," from Design for Better Living: The Park Forest Story (publicity brochure), 1948. One wonderfully deceptive word - home - created a more mas­ Small Homes Guide , a popular magazine issued twice a year by sive surge of patriotism welling in the breast of the impending the Nationa l Homebuilders Bureau. veteran of World War II than did any other force during the lean, Certainly, the promise of homecoming was utilized wherever mean years of the middle 1940s (see cover). An entire generation possible in publications like the Small Homes Guide. displaced abroad, these exiles at war were filled with the desire What do you want after the shooting is over and the boys come to return and were motivated to have done with heroism as they marching home? were told of an imminence marked by dwelling in peace. Given the previous decade-and-a-half of deprivation resulting from the The American hom e symbolizes all we fight for today - the Depression, W.W.II became an apocalyptic conclusion to a diffi­ Four Freedoms becom e real to every American family when cult epoch. Especially for a country that normally was more th ey visualize the four walls of their own home. accustomed to the optimism connected with youth - the promise Clearly, the promise of coming home was manifested in patriotic of a young nation destined for glory. The early and middle 1940s probes directed at raising cap ital for the war effort. became a time to plan for that fulfillment every bit as much as it 2 was a time to overcome fascism. Far before the conclusion of Your war bonds can buy your hom e of tomorrow. W.W.II, slogans appea red addressing the possibility of merging Ind eed, it became de rigeur to dissolve the differences between peace with dwelling. "Ten million men are comi ng back with the exi le of fighting abroad and the potential tranquility of the Victory in their hands and home in their hearts. Resolve now to homecoming. "The homes of America ... embody th e morale of build the home of your dreams." 1 This promissory note wasn't a our fighting forces."3 The very meaning of war - of winning th e slogan of the U. S. Treasury Department as an appeal for buying war - was rooted in the optimistic desire to overturn that con­ war bonds; it was simply a pitch from the publishers of the 1944 dition and to replace it with one of dwelling in peace. In what might one eventually dwell? Why, in "The Homecoming Home " (see fig. 1), naturally. But what might that homecoming home IIOllH0\11\GII OllE look like (see fig. 2), and, of course, what would it cost? " It is evident that America is not satisfied with the same old houses - that definite improvements are n eeded ."4 Quite possi­ bly, the cause of dissatisfaction with "the same old house " was its cost, for the same old house was the resplendent mansion of the prewar era that was everybody's aspiration . The awful reality, even in the middl e 1940s, was somehow to find a way to mak e this house affordable to a veteran returning to an entry-l evel position in the massive American work force. In the fall of 1943, "We want it to look like a home " was re­ ported by the Small Homes Guide to be th e operative phrase coming out of studies being conducted to ascertain the natur e of the postwar house. The magazine also told us that "symbolic of the home is the family firesid e" and that "homes should be sim­ I •: t pler and more functional " and even that "for ty percent would 1. ~·.:·::.:::ic!w.!':-di.':'~':~:.~ ::.;;:.r::1i.~:::7.; •;::,! ·j '-it,") I"' ff>• , .. ,.I<•- w••• •"-'Ml'"""'"' ' ,...- ta l<ol• h.ll o.i~--.,f definitely consider prefabricated construction." But it was also "1...i ..... ., .... ,.l""_"i"•"·"'•"""t--k,!.\•""'""' .. lb !tot fl•"' h p<otr'co»t - ~ •PM-"'• ,ttotet><l••ori•<1 r,I ii.. •-l "...atty .,_ .. ....... 1... ..i,. I! ;..,~ -· to, ,,w..--,....... ...,.._ "'·.i~ k>b!• •• clear that "people will not tolerate standardization of the home. f..tdffvpqol.,,tthe "•-"•"" '""''"""'toffiope,,1,.....,.,. ,no. w&oh,/Jo!f h,.., a_r· .....-~ ...I. · . '"" h v..J ,,,. ..,,,.,, oM -,..;.,...._ W'!ffi '*'•<Wl'lelo b91- diM«9 , • ..,.