Box 5, Folder 7, Document 26

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Box 5, Folder 7, Document 26

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i Derr aw wy 2 af 1

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
ATLANTA. GEORGIA 30332

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT April 17, 1968

Mr. Cecil Alexander
Chairman

Housing Resources Committee
City Hall

Atlanta, Georgia

Dear Mr. Alexander:

I am writing in response to your request for an evaluation of the
presentation made to the Construction and Design Subcommittee of the
Housing Resources Committee by Mr. McNamara on Tuesday, March 26. You
will recall that this was a presentation of a new concept for the fabri-
cation of residential units.

This concept involved pmring on site, by use of vacuum forms, con-
crete elements of a standardized nature which would become elements of
multi-family residential buildings. The standardized elements could be
varied from job to job and from unit to unit in such a way as to make them
adaptable to the needs of various sites and architectural plans.

It is my opinion, as Chaimnan of the Construction and Design Subcom-
mittee, and that of those with whom I have talked who were present at this
slide presentation, that the concept is a good one but that it is at this
point in time only a concept and not a proven plan. It is my opinion that
Mr. McNamara should find a developer who is willing to develop this idea on
an actual building project involving a number of multi-family units. If
such a developer can be found, this may well be an excellent concept to
utilize in the molel city program as it does represent one innovation in
the field of attempting to provide low income housing. The model city
program should be considered bacause of a necessity for requiring a reason-
able sized tract of land in order to build enough units to analyze the
validity of Mr. McNamara's proposed technique. It is, after all, an experi-
mental project and one which is yet to be proven in the field.

There are many possible applications of pre-fabricated elements within
these units which should be explored, but which may be restricted at this
time by various codes. If max-..um saving is to be attained in this kind of
project, the use of prefabricated fixtures and materials must be allowed
subject to carefully drawn requirements.
Mr. Cecil Alexander
page 2.

a

_ In summary, it is our belief that this is a good concept but that it
is only a concept at this time and that it does require actual’ construction
of a number of units in order to properly evaluate the technique on any
objective basis.

Sincerely yours,

Edwin D. Harrison
President

EDH:hs

cc: Colonel Malcolm Jones a
Mr. Moreland Smith
Mr. Bob Winn

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