Avion Village Mutual Ownership Corporation

Avion Village Mutual Ownership Corporation

Architecture

The outstanding thing about the houses designed and built at AVION VILLAGE is the fact that all of the windows in the bedrooms and sitting rooms are sliding windows. By this meant that there are two vertical sashes which ride on a brass rail, and this means that half of the window space can be opened to the breezes that blow in Texas in spring and summer, and that there is always a cross draft available in every room of these houses. The kitchen and bathroom windows are casement windows, and of course screens were placed on all windows. The most expensive part of maintaining these houses, aside from paint, has been the settling of these houses and the binding of these sashes. When the large number of windows in the 203 units is considered, this cost has been a negligible cost through the years. Another feature of these houses which was carried over into the Dallas Park project, was the construction of the houses on concrete slab foundation. A six inch curtain wall was put down about twelve inches in the ground and was filled with a course chat. A five inch reinforced slab, finished on top, was poured on top of the chat. The utility pipes, consisting of water and gas, were laid before the slab foundations were built. The walls of the houses were sectionalized and are doubly reinforced by the 2x4 studding, both upright and crosswise. These sections were built in the mill and were put in place with a crane, making for rapid erection of the houses themselves.

In this connection, the issue of Life magazine of May 1941, carries a picture account of the erection of the first of these houses at AVION VILLAGE. The construction crew was divided into two parts and there was a race to see which would be the first to erect a house and have it ready for occupancy. The winning crew erected their house and had it ready for occupancy in 58 minutes. Of course, this means the slab foundation was in place, and all of the walls and the roof had been sectionalized and was ready with cranes to put the walls and roof in place. The Life magazine shows a picture of the house being erected in 58 minutes, together of course, with the usual cheesecake of a young woman in the bathtub (wearing a bathing suit, of course) and Col. Westbrook, broadly smiling, looking in the bathroom window. It is understood that this picture has been considerably enlarged and framed, and is now hanging on the living room wall of Col. Westbrook’s Washington home.
The Avion Village project was designed to be a master metered project. In this climate natural gas is available at all times and at a very low rate and all houses were piped for natural gas, but no furnaces or stoves were furnished. The water was piped into the slabs and connections made, and all utilities connected up including electric service, on a master meter basis.

The particular feature that should be called to the attention of the reader at Avion, and came out of the head of David Williams, was the adaptation of the Japanese interior to the small homes that composed projects like Avion. Having an absolute minimum of space with which to work, Dave conceived the idea of turning two rooms into one, or one into two, by means of sliding panels. These panels are made of plywood and run on brass rails , and permit the enlargement of the living room by rolling back the panels. The occupants of these houses admire them very much, and the fact that they were so carefully thought out and designed has made for a happy occupancy throughout the history of these projects. The Avion houses are eagerly sought after, and regardless of the price they cost, they will be occupied long after other housing is vacated by reason of no takers. Not an inch of space is wasted in theses houses , the average floor space is 700 sq.ft., and yet with the economy of space that was imposed by reason of the small total available, the houses do not seem stuffy or crowded, but they are homey and very livable.

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About our association

Historical

In a land of individualism and among people who express their mutual admiration
for each other, and do their mutual deeds as good neighbors and not as co-owners
of property, there are two remarkable developements of housing projects that since
their inception have been successful and withstood the vicissitudes of time and trouble and of changing governments and regulations and directives, and have finally been consummated by an actual purchase of the property on a mutual ownership basis.
The oldest of these projects is the one known as AVION VILLAGE and is located
about one half mile west of the old North American aircraft plant and was built
for the purpose of housing workers at that plant.
While the North American aircraft plant was being built, the Federal Works Agency was charged with the duty of providing housing to the incoming workers who would be employed at the plant. In that agency wasa division known as the
Mutual Ownership division.
This division was headed up by Col. Lawernce Westbrook, a nativeTexan, but who had distinguished himself not only in his native state,in the managemnet and direction of many economic and social programs, the most notable of which was the Cotton Cooperative.

In order of their building, the architectural setup of the AVION VILLAGE project will first be considered. Here is the case of an outstanding architectural setup and houses designed at the lowest possible cost to obtain the greatest possible values and utilities by architects who had complete understanding of the needs and necessities of the people who would live in these houses, and of the climate in which the houses are located. The AVION VILLAGE architecture is what is known as “modified California”. By this is meant that the roofs are flat and that there is sufficient overhang to remove the direct rays of the sun in the summertime from the interior of the houses, and the houses are so placed that the last and most beneficial rays of the winter sun is directed into the houses to help with the heating problem, and to make the houses more habitable.

The architects ran about fourteen pilot houses, having the same general design, in an effort to ascertain the best possible type of house best suited to this particular location. This project began in March 1941 and was under construction and was formally opened for occupancy on August 16, 1941.This gave the architects an opportunity to determine many things about the habitability of the particular houses they were building on this project. There was sufficient cool weather in the early spring to obtain enough data on which to work, and the construction continued through the hot summer months which gave an excellent opportunity to carry out experiments necessary without and added expense.
From these pilot houses it was found that a flat decked roof with the overhang heretofore described having a wood deck, a thirty pound tarpaper on top of that deck, and then a two and one half inch Celotex insulation covered by a thirty pound paper and asphalt and gravel poured on top, would be the most likely roof to succeed in this particular climate. The wisdom of this decision at the time has been amply demonstrated through the nearly eight years of operation of this project, by reason of the fact that the roofs of the 203 units constructed at Avion Village have cost a negligible sum to maintain.

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