My architect partner, who learned his trade
in New York and Providence, has an amused
tolerance for wood-framed buildings.
Recently, as we walked through an addition
we had designed for an office building—
a steel-framed structure with a bar joist, pan
and concrete roof—the drywall subs were
beginning to tape out the sheetrock. We
wandered along silently until he turned to
me and said, "Looks almost like a real
building!"
In the major cities, steel stud and joist framing
is the standard method of construction
on buildings of masonry and steel. Wood
framing is rare—and generally regarded as
something done by amateurs.
Only out in the suburbs or up here in the
North is wood-frame construction
common—and then