KINNEY

(PLYWOOD)

HOUSE

The Kinney House, also known as the Plywood House, was built on the foundations of a residence that had burned to the ground the year before. The construction budget of $45,000 was established by the client’s fire-insurance settlement. Standard building methods were selected to minimize costs. Typical wood-frame construction and off-the-shelf building materials were used to produce an uncanny ghost of the former house, but with unsettling details. The structure is sheathed in gray-stained four-by-eight-foot plywood panels that are precut to receive stock casement windows. The serial assembly of the exterior surfaces coupled with the interior layout produced unexpected misalignments, blind windows, and scale jumps.