Jump to content

Cemesto: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
save to preserve work on total rewrite overnight
m small changes to wording and citation
Line 6: Line 6:
Cemesto panels consisted of an inner board of [[Celotex insulating lumber]] coated first in a proprietary sealant then in a layer of mixes [[Asbestos]] and [[Cement]]<ref name="DOCOMOMO">Jack Breihan, [http://www.docomomo-us.org/files/DOCONewsSummer08.pdf Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721191917/http://www.docomomo-us.org/files/DOCONewsSummer08.pdf|date=2011-07-21}}, ''DOCONews'', Summer 2008, page 7, DOCOMOMO US (the U.S. working party for DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement)</ref>. The base panels are manufactured from [[Bagasse]], a fibrous biproduct of sugarcane, using a felting process<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cotney |first=Trent |title=History of Celotex |url=https://www.westernroofing.net/2022/07/25/history-of-celotex/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Western Roofing Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>. It was manufactured in the form of boards and panels that were {{convert|4|ft|m}} wide, about {{convert|1.5|in|cm}} thick,<ref name="TIME" /> and {{convert|4|ft|m}} to {{convert|12|ft|m}} long<ref name="AroundAZ">[http://www.doney.net/aroundaz/celebrity/wright_franklloyd.htm Frank Lloyd Wright], Around AZ website, accessed October 24, 2008</ref>. These boards did not need to be painted and were delivered by the manufacturer pre cut to the desired size<ref>JUNG, H. (2008). Evolution of “Experimental House”: Mass Production of the House and SOM During the Second World War. ''Seeking The City'', 596-601.</ref>.
Cemesto panels consisted of an inner board of [[Celotex insulating lumber]] coated first in a proprietary sealant then in a layer of mixes [[Asbestos]] and [[Cement]]<ref name="DOCOMOMO">Jack Breihan, [http://www.docomomo-us.org/files/DOCONewsSummer08.pdf Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721191917/http://www.docomomo-us.org/files/DOCONewsSummer08.pdf|date=2011-07-21}}, ''DOCONews'', Summer 2008, page 7, DOCOMOMO US (the U.S. working party for DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement)</ref>. The base panels are manufactured from [[Bagasse]], a fibrous biproduct of sugarcane, using a felting process<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cotney |first=Trent |title=History of Celotex |url=https://www.westernroofing.net/2022/07/25/history-of-celotex/ |access-date=2023-06-16 |website=Western Roofing Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>. It was manufactured in the form of boards and panels that were {{convert|4|ft|m}} wide, about {{convert|1.5|in|cm}} thick,<ref name="TIME" /> and {{convert|4|ft|m}} to {{convert|12|ft|m}} long<ref name="AroundAZ">[http://www.doney.net/aroundaz/celebrity/wright_franklloyd.htm Frank Lloyd Wright], Around AZ website, accessed October 24, 2008</ref>. These boards did not need to be painted and were delivered by the manufacturer pre cut to the desired size<ref>JUNG, H. (2008). Evolution of “Experimental House”: Mass Production of the House and SOM During the Second World War. ''Seeking The City'', 596-601.</ref>.


Cemesto was used primarily for interior and exterior walls. Cemestos buildings were constructed by sliding the panels into wooden frames.
In general, Cemesto was used primarily for interior and exterior walls. [[Prefabricated home|Prefabricated homes]] were constructed by sliding the panels into wooden frames<ref name="NRHPsuburban" />.


== History ==
== History ==

Revision as of 15:50, 16 June 2023

A house built with cemestos panels in the Oak Ridge, Tennessee Defense Community, 1949.

Cemesto is a sturdy, light-weight, waterproof and fire-resistant composite building material made from a core of sugar cane fiber insulating board, called Celotex, surfaced on both sides with Asbestos cement. It was originally developed by the Celotex Corporation and first introduced to the market in 1937.

Pre-fabricated homes incorporating cemesto panels under construction in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during World War II. White cemesto panels can be seen in place on several of the homes.

Cemesto was a pivotal material in the development of World War II era defense housing, which provided homes for workers mobilized to meet wartime production needs[1].

Use and Characteristics

Cemesto panels consisted of an inner board of Celotex insulating lumber coated first in a proprietary sealant then in a layer of mixes Asbestos and Cement[2]. The base panels are manufactured from Bagasse, a fibrous biproduct of sugarcane, using a felting process[3]. It was manufactured in the form of boards and panels that were 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick,[4] and 4 feet (1.2 m) to 12 feet (3.7 m) long[5]. These boards did not need to be painted and were delivered by the manufacturer pre cut to the desired size[6].

In general, Cemesto was used primarily for interior and exterior walls. Prefabricated homes were constructed by sliding the panels into wooden frames[7].

History

Cemesto was introduced by the Celotex Corporation in 1937[8].

Connection to Nuclear Weapon Development

It was manufactured in the form of boards and panels that were 4 feet (1.2 m) wide, about 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) thick,[4] and 4 feet (1.2 m) to 12 feet (3.7 m) long.[5]

The John B. Pierce Foundation and Celotex collaborated to develop a prefabrication system for building low-cost housing using cemesto panels, in which single cemesto panels were slid horizontally into light wooden frames to create walls.[2][7] A prototype cemesto house was displayed at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City.[9] The Pierce system was first used in 1941 for building employee housing at the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company near Baltimore, Maryland.[7][10] For this development, named Aero Acres, the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed gable-roofed Cape Cod houses with dimensions of 24 feet (7.3 m) by 28 feet (8.5 m), featuring large commercial-style windows in their principal rooms. In 1941 a total of 600 homes were built at Aero Acres using this design.[2]

During World War II, when other building materials were in short supply, cemesto was used extensively in the United States.[5][7] Cemesto was used to build temporary office buildings in Washington, D.C.[11] Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill adapted the Pierce system and used cemesto panels for the designs of some 2,500 pre-fabricated homes, known by the nickname "cemestos," erected in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to house Manhattan Project workers and their families.[12] In 1942 the U.S. Farm Security Administration built 400 cemesto homes in Maryland at a site alongside Aero Acres.[2]

During the 1940s, the manufacturer of cemesto touted it as a material that would in the future make it possible to mass-produce housing at a low cost.[4] One use of the material during the post-war era was in the late 1940s in Circle Pines, Minnesota, where cemesto panels were used in building the first homes in what was envisioned to be a cooperative housing community for people of color.[13] The use of cemesto in Circle Pines came to be regarded as substandard construction, as the builders failed to adequately seal the joints between cemesto panels.[13]

Several prominent architects embraced cemesto as a modern material and used it in their designs. For the Bousquet-Wightman House in Houston, Texas, built in 1941, architect Donald Barthelme used cemesto panels for exterior sheathing.[14] In 1949 Edward Durell Stone called for cemesto panels in the design of a home to be built in Armonk, New York.[15] That same year, Charles Eames designed his Eames House, Case Study House #8, to use brightly painted and unfinished Cemesto panels in a prefabricated steel frame. [16] Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Raymond Carlson House in Phoenix, Arizona, built in 1950, to use a structural system of wood posts and cemesto boards.[5][17] In the Arthur Pieper House in Paradise Valley, Arizona, built in 1952 from concrete block, Wright used cemesto for the ceilings.[18]

In addition to houses and office buildings, cemesto was used to build gasoline stations and factories.[8]

References

  1. ^ Marks, Elyse Marguerite (2012). The World War II Defense Housing Community of Aero Acres: Case Study for the Future Preservation of Historic Planned Suburban Communities (Thesis). Columbia University. doi:10.7916/d82j6k0g.
  2. ^ a b c d Jack Breihan, Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine, DOCONews, Summer 2008, page 7, DOCOMOMO US (the U.S. working party for DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement)
  3. ^ Cotney, Trent. "History of Celotex". Western Roofing Magazine. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  4. ^ a b c The Cemesto Future, Time magazine, May 31, 1943
  5. ^ a b c d Frank Lloyd Wright, Around AZ website, accessed October 24, 2008
  6. ^ JUNG, H. (2008). Evolution of “Experimental House”: Mass Production of the House and SOM During the Second World War. Seeking The City, 596-601.
  7. ^ a b c d House and Yard: The Design of the Suburban Home, in Historic Residential Suburbs: Guidelines for Evaluation and Documentation for the National Register of Historic Places, by David L. Ames and Linda Flint McClelland, 2002
  8. ^ a b Material Name: Celotex, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, CAMEO website, accessed January 5, 2014
  9. ^ Robert Hugh Kargon and Arthur P. Molella, Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the Twentieth Century, MIT Press, 2008, ISBN 0-262-11320-1, ISBN 978-0-262-11320-5 pages 76–77
  10. ^ The General Panel Corporation; Dream and Reality: America in War and Peace, pages 279-284 Archived November 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved from Lustron Preservation website, April 15, 2011.
  11. ^ Antoinette Josephine Lee, Architects to the Nation: The Rise and Decline of the Supervising Architect's Office, 2000, Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-512822-2, ISBN 978-0-19-512822-2, page 283
  12. ^ National Register of Historic Places Registration Form for Oak Ridge Historic District Archived 2010-08-29 at the Wayback Machine, July 18, 1991
  13. ^ a b Christy DeSmith, A People’s History of Circle Pines, The Rake, November 2006
  14. ^ HOUSTON MOD AND THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE HOST THE BARTHELME EXHIBITION, Houston Mod website, accessed October 24, 2008
  15. ^ Index to Edward Durell Stone Papers, University of Arkansas Libraries, accessed October 24, 2008
  16. ^ Case Study House For 1949 Arts & Architecture magazine, Dec 1949
  17. ^ William Allin Storrer, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, A Complete Catalog, 2002, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-77622-0, ISBN 978-0-226-77622-4, pages 329–330
  18. ^ William Allin Storrer, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, A Complete Catalog, 2002, The University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-77622-0, ISBN 978-0-226-77622-4, pages 352–353
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Cemesto&oldid=1160456292"