ABSTRACT
War I. Markets thirsty for American steel, concrete,
timber, plasterboard and other desirable building
materials provided incentives for entrepreneurs to
try their hand at foreign trade. Other lures stemmed
from easier banking transactions, domestic material
surpluses, more well-developed shipping and, as
will be shown below, assistance from professional
associations or federations. But as most Americans
who responded to these enticing incentives found
out, exporting architecture from the U.S. as a set of
constituent building parts or technologies was only
the fi rst step in trying to graft either novel methods
of construction or new building forms onto dynamic,
indigenous building practices. Building abroad
implied not simply transplanting a seed, but also
genetically modifying a series of culture-specifi c
construction operations.
