How the Popularity of Building Materials Changes in California

By Jack Dionne'

There is a greater variety of building materials used in California than in any othcr part of this country--{r of the world-and its use and disuse changes with.almost kaleidoscopic swiftness, Nowhere else do the builders of homes-and of business structures as well-use anything like the variety, both as to materials, architecture, colorings, and character.

Nophere clse are thete one fourth as many men investing their time, their brains, and their in. genuity devising methods and ideas for making buildings more attractivg as thete are in California. It is an art and a business combined, the way they do it hcre. Architecture runs riot in California; colors are artistically blended and freely used; material makers place no limit on their efforts to give the building public somcthing new to delight the eye, plcase the mind, and appeal to the imagination; everyone connected with the industry is continually and forever experimc4ting with ncwer and more attractive things of a business character.

For THAT is California.

Changes come rapidly. A few years ago when the wild building boom was on in Southern California, men swung far afield in their efforts to construct attractive looking but cheap and shoddy buildings. The story of the chicken-wire stucco walls of California bungalows was nationally broadcasted. Two by three dimension was used in alarming volume for framing.

This wild building tide was followed by no alarming developments fo,r the one and only possible reason that the climate of Southern California was and is the only place on earth where such construction could pocsibly stand. Most of thoec cheap homes still stand, and still look and act O. K. In any other climate on earth they would have tumbled down inside of two years. But the Lack of extreme heat, extreme cold, or rapid changes of temperature, permits materials to stand in Southern California that would do nowhere else.

Today the pendulum has swung back, and the character of construction in Southern California has improved wonderfully. In the past few months I have seen homes under construction in Los Angeles with the heaviest and most expensive framing I have ever seen in homes an5rwhere on earth. I saw a home in the Wilshire district in Los Angeles sith the joists of the outside walls entirely of fine looking two by twelves. I have seen a number of others with two by teh joists. Thus does the pendulum swing back,

One great change in the past few years has been hard on the lumbermeq and that is the extreme popularity of stucco. They are using it everywhere in California now, for outside and inside walls, in an endless variety of forms, fashions, colors, etc. It has knocked ceiling and siding and brick and cement into a cocked hat.

The Redwood folks are wisely trying to wrn back some of the siding business now by the usc of wide and unusually'atractive "rustic," and the evidence is that the spring of t927 is showing an increase rn the use of this material in California. Redwoo'd, one of the best and most attractive of sidings, is fighting to win back some of its prestige in its home territory. It is evident that plain and old fashioned siding of wood, is gone. The demand for attractiveness has sealed its fate. So attractive wooden walls must ent€r the arena.

Shingle roofs rernain popular in Californira, although too many thin and cheap shingles are bcing sold. You can find the poorest and cheapest of shingles on the roofs of some of the biggest and most expensive of homes, which, of course, is a buildrng error. The material dealer who sold them could have done something for the builder, for himself, and for the industry, by showing them better shingles for better roofs.

California homes continue to lead the world in attractiveness, varicty, modern conveniences, etc. And that leadership will become morc and more pronounced as time goes on because of the greater and bettcr efiort that is being constantly made to find and use new building ideas,