Standard Houses, Perspective

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.