Bill Albertini

“Manhattan Monopoles”, 2014

American Post-War residential housing is constructed primarily of wood using a simple and easily assembled system of “framing” using structural timbers and cladding the structural frame with various manufactured sheet products such as plywood, plasterboard and decorative exterior siding panels designed to mimic traditional building materials. This approach to building is surprisingly consistent across the country although styles such as Ranch, Colonial or Cape Cod predominate in different areas.

The free-standing billboard is the ultimate distillation of Post-War American residential architecture, comprised of two distinct components, the support structure and the supported advertising panel or facade. The billboard and the Post-War American house are both mutable and impermanent. The billboard and the facade of the Post-War American house both advertise.