1945 - Architecture, Real Estate

Architecture, Real Estate

The Dymaxion House designed by Buckminster Fuller in 1928 goes into production in the Beech aircraft factory at Wichita, Kansas, to meet pent-up demand for housing. Acclaimed as the house of the future, it has about 1,000 square feet of floor space, with a foyer, living-dining room, galley kitchen, bath, and two bedrooms inside a circular shell 36 feet in diameter that is composed of curved aluminum panels supported by stainless steel tubes and steel rings braced by cables. A rooftop ventilator-exhaust brings in fresh air, which can be heated in winter by a furnace, but Fuller believes his aerodynamic design will reduce heat loss. A wraparound strip of Plexiglas widens to give the living room a picture window, and sliding wall panels provide a cooling effect. The whole thing rests on a deck two feet above the ground and is hung from the central mast; it comes in 3,000 parts, and Fuller's plan is to ship the parts in a steel cylinder to any site, where 10 workmen can put the house together in 2 days with the help of a crane at a total cost of $6,500—about the price of a Cadillac. But while 37,000 people write to Fuller Houses Inc. to inquire about buying Dymaxions, the two prototype houses begin falling apart, most Americans want more conventional homes, Fuller will quit the project in the spring of next year rather than compromise the integrity of his design, and he will go on to design the geodesic dome that will be the basis of more than 300,000 shelters worldwide.

Conrad Hilton opens the Conrad Hilton Hotel at Chicago, buying control of (and renaming) the Stevens Hotel built in 1927 and occupied by the army during the war (see 1919). Hilton also takes over Chicago's 20-year-old Palmer House with backing from local building-supply magnate Henry Crown, 49 (see San Juan Hilton, 1947).