Curator

  • Art Institute Chicago
  • Harvard art museum
  • My Exhibition
A work made of graphite and conté crayon on board.

Standard Houses, Perspective

Date unknown

Bertrand Goldberg American, 1913–1997

United States

In 1939 Bertrand Goldberg founded Standard Houses Corporation to develop and produce a line of houses built with high-tech, prefabricated plywood panels. Instead of the stark modern lines of his other home designs of the period, however, the Standard Homes were modeled after traditional Cape Cod or Colonial styles with gabled roofs, shutters, and optional fireplaces. Goldberg’s stylistic shift for this project attests to his grasp of American popular taste—often trending toward nostalgia and pastoralism—at a moment of housing crises in major cities and suburban expansion, trends that only accelerated after World War II.

Graphite and Conté crayon on board

Architecture and Design

perspectives