The Fleet Home
As an early example pre-fabricated house, the Fleet Home embodies high design for the masses and is exactly the kind of site that should be discussed when “rethinking preservation”. The Fleet Home became South Pasadena California’s Cultural Heritage Landmark Number 51 for the following reasons: - Its association with “master” designers Henry Dreyfus and Edward Larrabee Barnes; as well as landscape designer Garrett Eckbo. - The innovative materials and technologies used to “pre-fabricate” the building. - The building’s association with post-war suburbanization in Los Angeles and the movement to provide mass-produced, reasonably-priced single-family housing following World War II. - The prototype house was photographed in the factory by Julius Shulman and was widely published, including a feature story in the September 1947 issue of Arts & Architecture. BACKGROUND In the late 1940s, famed industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, and various aircraft designers collaborated on the “Vultee”, a prototype prefabricated aluminum structure. Built in the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Company factory and transported to its current site at 325 Monterey Street in South Pasadena, the building is the only house known to be pre-assembled in an aircraft factory. The building’s walls and roof are composed entirely of lightweight, honeycombed cardboard and sheet aluminum composite panels. The panels were originally used in the construction of bulkheads for World War II bomber aircraft. Dreyfuss, a celebrity designer, is best known for his signature designs of the rotary-dial telephone for Bell Laboratories and the Honeywell circular wall thermostat. Dreyfus’s fascination with assembly-line production (from his design work for mass production in the 1930s) was critical to the development of the Vultee. The structure took full advantage of assembly line production, reducing the on-site building of components by using pre-assembled wall sections. Barnes was at the beginning of a notable architecture career when he collaborated with Dreyfus. The two men worked on the design of the house at Dreyfus’ studio in South Pasadena. Barnes contributed an innovative scheme to break up the repetition of houses, problematic in contemporary developments such as Levittown, with moveable L-shaped patio walls. The Vultee program was sold to Southern California Homes, Inc. The house is currently referred to as the Fleet Home, after Reginald Fleet, owner of Southern California Homes. To promote sales of the unusual home, Fleet actually lived in the house for a year with his family, offering it as a model of modern living. Unfortunately despite the favorable press, sales never got off the ground and only two prototypes were made. In 2006, the property was put up for sale. Dilapidated and texture-coated to the point that the panelized construction was no longer discernable, the Fleet house was offered as a tear-down on a parcel that could be re-developed into a significantly larger home. Fortunately, a local architectural historian and journalist recognized the structure’s significance. Working with the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee, the property was submitted to receive local landmarked status while in escrow. Despite the property owner’s objections, the Landmarks Subcommittee of the South Pasadena Cultural Heritage Commission recommended the Fleet Home for local landmark status, a recommendation agreed to by the whole Commission. The process was aided by open-minded buyers, who agreed to keep and rehabilitate the Fleet Home and integrate it into any future development on the property. On May 20, 2009, the Fleet Home was designated South Pasadena’s 51st Cultural Heritage Landmark. FINANCIAL NEED The Fleet Home and the surrounding landscape suffer from years of deferred maintenance. The building’s unique aluminum and cardboard panel construction present one-of-a-kind preservation challenges that require a special level of care including mocking-up and sampling conservation treatments. The project team intends to employ conservation treatments that are consistent with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Given the unique nature of the building some interpretation of the Standards maybe required (for example, there are no guidelines for how to treat composite aluminum and cardboard construction). Critical work items include: Landscape Rehabilitation - Removal of “volunteer” trees and shrubs that obscure the house and are damaging the eaves of the home; - Re-landscaping of the street front of the property to control erosion and improve the appearance of the property while maintaining a privacy screen from busy Monterey Road; - Repair to the precast concrete walkway paving. Roof Rehabilitation - Structural stabilization of the roof and eaves; - Reconstruction of southeast eve (damaged by vegetation); - Incorporation of insulation to establish a higher level of thermal comfort within the structure; - Installation of a new roofing system. Façade Restoration - Remove “Texcote” textured coating and re-paint to original color scheme; - Repair existing steel and wood frame windows, including replacement of broken glass; - Removal of existing, inappropriate screen doors and flush panel doors and installation of new glazed doors to match the original.
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