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Curtis Companies Inc., whose carpenters can turn out 3,000 doors and 6.000 window-frames a day.
General Electric Co. which will supply wiring and refrigeration.
American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., which will supply plumbing, heating, perhaps airconditioning.
For uniting the efforts of these companies, full credit goes to Howard Fisher of Hubbard Woods, Ill., the lanky, 26-year-old son of Walter Lowrie Fisher, one of Chicago's leading lawyers. Secretary of the Interior under President Taft. Howard Fisher is both a technician and theorist in architecture. Architects in many lands have read his paper on getting the maxi mum amount of sunlight into a house. He is considered an expert on designing squash courts. One day he noticed his brother's walls were leaking. When he found out that Chicago's Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium, both masonry structures, also had leak troubles, he decided steel would be a better building material than brick. He first took his idea of a General Motors in the housing field to steel-conscious Charles Allen Liddle, president of Pullman Car & Manufacturing Corp.
General Houses' homes will be, strictly speaking, made of steel. The frames will be of steel and so will the floors which will be of battle-deck construction. Insulation will make General Houses warm in winter, cool in summer. They will have flat, aluminum painted roofs, many windows. The exterior will be painted. By standardization of parts, numerous models and combinations of rooms can be offered. At present the company has approved various Fisher designs for five-room homes to cost around $3,500.
A home at this price can be sold at $30 a month, making it available to a man with a wage of $2,000 a year. Dealer organizations will be set up in large cities, ready to sell and erect a house in four days. Landscape gardening service will be available. Later perhaps furniture will be offered by General Houses. Because the houses will be of known value it is thought that they will be easily borrowed upon or "turned in" like used cars whenever the owner wishes. The matter of value is considered important by General Houses, which is aware that under present conditions a homeowner may usually obtain only 55% on a conservative first mortgage. The company plans to consolidate first and second mortgages, to lend 75% of the value of house & lot on reasonable terms, the financing to be handled by an affiliated company. General Houses expects to add later a line of still cheaper houses for large-scale projects, also a de luxe line which will be to it what Cadillac is to General Motors.
The idea of a "machine-made house" may not be accepted quickly. But Architect Fisher feels that when people see such homes are cheaper, more attractive, more comfortable to live in, prejudice will diminish. He points out that mass-production has increased rather than hurt the functional and esthetic beauty of automobiles. Large advertising campaigns will be put on and when competitors arrive, the structural features of various types of houses may be as widely-known and discussed as Floating Power and Free Wheeling.