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October 04, 2007

Block-Heads Unite

People ask us why we "went up" with the house, building on a second story when we could have just added a room onto the back. There are lots of different reasons... and one of them was because we didn't want to lose the yard.

Our lot is a strange triangle with the acute angle in the back. We quickly realized after moving in that most of the yard is in the front whether we saved the backyard or not. And the front yard lines a busy street. If we were going to enjoy soccer scrimmages and frisbee tosses, we were going to have to build a barrier between the people who regularly ignore the speed limit and us.

Hence, the hunt for the perfect fence material.

David and I had long admired the Modern Phoenix homes.

We so admire the creative and often elegant use of concrete screen blocks to privatize or decorate the home and landscaping. But we also appreciated the iconic nature of the screen block. The varying types of screen blocks used throughout the 50's and 60's symbolized a new age of mass production that could manipulate materials decoratively and affordably in ways not previously possible.

Unfortunately, decorative concrete screen block is as difficult to find as a retro front door. We searched and searched, finally asking Amy's Ice Cream to tell us where they had procured the blocks for their concrete wall at the Burnet Road location. They pointed us to Featherlite, a concrete company with a location just north of Austin in Round Rock.

My first phone call to Featherlite was a bust. They told me flat out that they didn't make these blocks anymore--Amy's had special ordered them from El Paso. So, I began to try to hunt down another distributor.

We caught a blurb in the summer issue of Atomic Ranch. The Editor mentioned that many people were looking for similar decorative concrete bricks and she welcomed all readers to submit their info. We surfed our way to Orco, a California company, that still manufactures a variety of vintage concrete blocks... but they don't ship outside of California. The freight would be staggering, warned the sales rep. We told Atomic Ranch about Orco, but they already had the scoop.

I tried Lowe's; one of their commercial sales reps was very kind but couldn't find anyone to help. We called every landscaping company in the county, but again no luck.

I called Featherlite again. This time I spoke in more detail with a sales guy, asking him if he could check if there were any leftover blocks from the Amy's job. Lo and behold, he said they had a few left onsite and we could come take a look and grab what was left.

David and I made a trip up to their McNeil lot on Friday. They didn't bring us the Amy's block... they brought us the mother of all atomic-age designs. And we instantly bought 68 of them to fill in the gaps in the cedar fence David had been working on all summer.


You should have seen the look on their faces when we started plotzing over the blocks. They thought we were out of our minds. We told them about Atomic Ranch magazine and how lots of people were looking for these blocks and we had been searching forever and would even consider buying all 934 of the blocks left in their inventory. The sales rep handed me his card and told us to spread the Featherlite gospel far and wide. They have to make 500 at a time, he explained, and there simply hadn't been enough demand to keep them in stock.

So, house renovators, mid-century advocates, and modern houselovers, we ask thee to go forth and prosper with the new knowledge you have of concrete screen blocks. Don't let iconic architecture die with the end of the 20th century. Demand retro and contemporary designs to be fabricated regularly and abundantly. Block-heads unite!

Posted by Christiane at October 4, 2007 04:06 PM

Comments

Oh my gosh! Those are too cool! They have Quasar written all over them. How totally space-age. Congrats on your awesome find and thanks for spreading the word. I have seen some of the coolest screens and privacy blocks from yesteryear. It's nice to know that they can be found.

Posted by: Patricia W. at October 4, 2007 06:37 PM

Squee! :0)

Posted by: stuffed at October 4, 2007 07:25 PM

As fellow "block heads," I don't know what impresses me more: That you found these blocks or that you used the word "plotzing" in your post.

In my opinion, both need to be applauded.

We, too, have lusted after mid-century concrete blocks. Not having found a resource for them, we've even toyed with the idea of making our own. (That would be Phase 5 of our remodel. We are currently in Phase 1.)

Anyhoo, thanks for the post, the resources, and the encouragement.

May the Mod Concrete Block Gods smile as brightly on us all!

Jacqui

Posted by: Jacqui at October 10, 2007 11:00 AM

Thanks for the research on these blocks. I've been searching for a few years and even have a picture of the style I want on my cell phone to show people what I'm talking about.

Posted by: Tracy at January 5, 2008 10:58 PM

Wish I could find some of these wonderful blocks. I live in West Virginia, and no one seems to have anything like them. Sigh. Somebody, please start making these again!

Posted by: Barb at February 3, 2008 02:30 PM

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