Turning the corner

It doesn’t occur in the McAlmon apartment, but many of Schindler’s Plaster Skin buildings have two-sided cantilevers, cantilevers that wrap around a corner. Some examples are

Figure 1 Oliver House  1933-1934
front corner above street level garage 1

Figure 2 Buck House 1934
overall front, house on left and apartment on right

Figure 3 Buck House
detail of front at Dining

Figure 4 McAlmon House 1935
front entry of the house (not the apartment) 2

As always, Schindler puts the drama up front. These two sided cantilevers are at, or on the way to, the front door.

Applied to our sample building, a double cantilever looks like Figures 5 & 6.

Continue reading No Visible Means of Support, part 4 of 4 →

The Schindler system applied

To see how this Plaster Skin framing system 1 was applied, I have made a 3D framing model (Figures 2-5) of our sample building, the McAlmon apartment (Figure 1).

This is my best reconstruction using the scans of the McAlmon construction drawings 2, drawings for other Schindler houses of the period, photographs and my experience with wood framing.

Some things to note

Continue reading No Visible Means of Support, part 3 of 4 →

Changing the typical to achieve the unique

To get the flow of space/ceiling/roof that Schindler achieved, we need to get rid of the header. To do that, we must change the roof framing so it doesn’t need the support of the header (beam) over the door. And to do that, Schindler turned the rafters 90 degrees, so they span from wall to wall.

The turned rafters in the cantilevered section would be floating in air. To support them, beams (in red) are added (Figure 1). The beams extend out (cantilever) beyond the wall below to support the rafters in the cantilevered section. Posts (purple) are added at the corners to help support the weight of the cantilevered beams.

Continue reading No Visible Means of Support, part 2 of 4 →