Arizona Contractor & Community Winter 2015 V4 I4 | Seite 64

developer, possibly backed by
California investors, was attracted to the
city by relatively cheap land. Property was
acquired from a speculator, whose
purchases
leapfrogged
eastward,
intentionally ahead of annexation, to avoid
municipal regulation. The developer
would then borrow against the land to
obtain additional capital to build. They
partnered with a builder who, due to the
boom, had grown large enough to handle
planning, platting, design, construction,
and sales.

Webb and the original intention
was to build 3,000 homes, the largest
development between Dallas and Los
Angeles. Building, however, ceased at 750
homes. There are many
reasons
for
these
shortfalls, but the result is
that
Tucson’s
developments
are
relatively small, fitting the
scale of the modern city.

the supply chain and
logistics of modern
builders was similar to
strategies used by the
Army to move soldiers
and supplies overseas.

DON’T DREAM TOO BIG
Luckily, the big dreams of Tucson
developers didn’t all come true, falling well
short of excesses like Levittown, NY or Daly
City, CA. Overall, between 1945 and 1975,
640 subdivisions were platted, but only
244 were actually built to the majority of
their planned capacity. A notable example
of underbuilding is Pueblo Gardens. In
1948, Roy Drachman sold the land to Del

Images courtesy of author Carlos Lozano

DREAM BIG
To produce low-cost housing and take
advantage of economies of scale, more is
better, and fast is better. The principles
are timeless, but the technologies and
applications were recent. A postwar
pictorial in LIFE magazine dramatically
compared the supply chain and logistics of
modern builders to similar strategies used
by the Army to move soldiers and supplies
overseas.
Some economies of scale included
discounts for large purchases of building
materials, allowing suppliers to massproduce products, lowering prices even
more. A fast build-out allowed discounted
mass delivery of materials to the site and
employed a large, well organized work

force who perfected the same repetitive
tasks, similar to a Detroit auto assembly
line.
An assembly line was actually
achieved, in Tucson, by
Lusk, one of the most
prolific home builders of
the 1950s. They were
able to produce certain
components of a house
in an off-site factory, for
delivery
as
a
prefabricated unit, ready
for installation. These
mass
production
techniques kept home prices low,
attracting even more buyers. Many of
today’s familiar building techniques were
born or popularized in the postwar housing
boom.

Sixty four

THE LEGACY
When we look back at
the postwar Dream Home
from today’s standpoint, what do we see?
● Foremost, the Dream was not available
to all. Deeds commonly included
“whites only” Covenants, Conditions &
Restrictions (CC&R’s), and lending was
often discriminatory, finally ended by
the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
● The Dream was marred by fear of
nuclear war, evidenced by backyard
bomb shelters.
● For many, tract housing is synonymous
with sprawl and “cookie cutter”
monotony.
● Most recently, the suburban commuter
lifestyle has been criticized as
environmentally unsustainable.
Still, it’s undeniable that, at the time,
these developments fulfilled an affordable
need, and popularized innovative new
designs and technologies. They represent
an important time in Tucson and many
homes are worthy of preservation, both
individually and together as historic
districts.
Top: The Wilmot Vistas development offered
several versions of the Perfect Arizona home
Types (PAT).
Left: William Wilde-designed custom homes
built by the Algin Construction Company.
Winter 2015