Contractors: Twaits, Morrison & Knudson Co., L.A., CA & Boise, ID (380 units) Smith, Hoffman & Wright Co., Portland, OR (660 units) ~~~~ Twaits, Morrison & Knudsen built 100 "A" houses and 190 "B" houses at a contract price of $2,272,273.08. Ford J. Twaits Company consisting of limited partners of Ford J. Twaits, Edna M. Twaits and Jane E. Twaits with offices in Los Angles, CA, and Morrison & Knudsen a corporation of Boise, ID. Ford J. Twaits Company and Morrison & Knudsen Company are both listed in Dunn and Bradstreet. 308 "A" houses and 330 "B" houses were built by Smith, Hoffman & Wright Co. It is believed that this company was formed only for the construction of houses and buildings on the Hanford Project. It is believed that Mr. F. M. Cocrene, Project Manager for the Hoffman Construction Co. that has several contracts on the Project at the present time, was a masonary and concrete superintendent under the Smith, Hoffman & Wright Contract in 1944. The Smith, Hoffman & Wright contract dated August 4, 1943 was for an estimated contract price of $7,559,995.20 and consisted of the building of houses, warehouse building, dormitories, theatre building, fire pump house and dewage treatment plant. Additional work was added to this contract until the total contract price amounted to $17,096,861.36. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Narrative from the General Building Plans [November, 1943] The "B" house [is a duplex]... Each family unit is identical, the house, like the "A" house, being symmetrical about a central axis. Thus again each house is similar in every respect except that the left hand unit is always the reverse in plan of the right hand unit. The advantages of light and ventilation discussed in connection with the "A" house are true of this unit also. The two bedrooms are kept on the exterior angles of the house so that each will have two exposures and diagonal ventilation. The living room is kept to the party wall but as the dining room is of the alcove type, fully open on one wall to the living room, there is adequate cross ventilation from side to side of these two rooms. The bathroom and kitchen are grouped together in the rear center of each unit with the stairway to the basement intervening. Thus there is a grade entrance or outside door at grade level in each unit. This well tested, standard arrangement permits direct access from the basement to the outdoors, from the outdoors to the first floor via the kitchen via the grade landing. With this plan, service trips from outdoors to the basement do not interfere with or 'dirty up" porch or railings. The stair landing serves in a measure as a rear hall or intermediate space between yard and kitchen, another factor in keeping the kitchen tidy. The wall and door on the kitchen level, which are familiar to this scheme, are omitted; for safety, however, a door or gate has been introduced between the landing and the basement. This plan, it was felt, would avoid the awkwardness of an extra door in the already small kitchen. If the service rooms are compact in this layout, the closet and storage space can only be considered generous under any standards. Besides the basement area, there are, on the first floor, five ample closets using every available inch of what would otherwise be lost space. There are two closets in the living room, both large. One is bulk headed over the basement stairs, the other is adjacent to the front door. Each bedroom has ample wardrobe type closets. In the bedroom hall there is a linen closet and a closet suitable for storing cleaning equipment. Privacy in the bedroom hall, with circulation from each bedroom to the bath, is achieved at a minimum cost of floor area and without unnecessary doors. The living room, while smaller than its counterpart in the "A" house, is ample and of good proportions. When in the house, one feels a sense of space and openness, except in the kitchen. By ordinary standards this room is definitely minimum for this size of house. The refrigerator, however, will supplement the storage facilities, which consist of about 10' 9" of upper cupboards of two and three shelves and about 7' 3" of lower cabinets including those under the sink. There are four drawers, and two bins on rollers in this space. The flush rim sinks and set in linoleum covered tops with linoleum backs are standard throughout the project. The stove sets free against the dining room wall. The trim and finish are uniform with all units. Casein painted dry wall construction has a painted soft wood trim. The floors are natural fir. Outside, the houses are finished mainly in soft colored pre dipped heavy cedar shakes with some variants in design using vertical siding either in the gables or as sort of exterior wainscot, because of the decidedly horizontal lines, this unit seems to hug the ground better than the two story unit and is decidedly pleasing in appearance.