From the Archives (June 10, 1970): House Surgery(From an editorial)

In these days of house-famine, when Municipal Corporations everywhere are being called on to work out large housing schemes in the face of high prices for building materials and higher wages for labourers, the partial solution of the problem by what is termed as House Surgery deserves the earnest attention of all concerned. The process, discovered and effectively practised by a great New York architect, consists in the remodeling of old and obsolete houses to meet the modern demands of comfort, health and beauty without wastefully destroying them altogether as utterly useless or ugly. According to the general estimate of the architect who has handled such contracts, the cost in every case has been found to be decidedly less than building new houses, ranging from 40 to 60 per cent of the cost of a new structure. The task involves regular engineering skill and cannot be successfully carried out by ordinary carpenters or contractors. As a writer on the subject in the “Scientific American” says: — “House-Surgery is not a patchwork at all, but begins with a complete study of the house... to determine what possibilities there may be in the shell...”