In October 1990 the California College of Arts and Crafts displayed
a "STARTER HOUSE" designed by the San Francisco architect Donald
Macdonald. The starter home, inspired by the 1906 "earthquake cottages", was 14
feet by 17 feet. With it's high ceiling it was compact, but seemed larger. This house
demonstrated how with conventional and readily available materials a home could be built
for $15,000. Shaper Lighting is proud to have contributed to that exhibition by
producing most of the lighting fixtures.
The STARTER HOUSE fixtures in this catalog were inspired by
that exhibition. They are an effort to offer good design and high quality materials in
specification grade lighting fixtures at economical prices. These clean and
simple fixture designs will meet the needs of many applications ranging from housing to
light commercial and institutional. For applications having more stringent requirements or
where fixtures with more detail are desired, refer to the other sections of our catalog.
MATERIALS / FINISHES
The standard and lowest cost finish is "Natural Aluminum". This finish is hand
satined and left unlacquered. For interior applications this finish will oxidize slowly
over time. For exterior applications painted finishes over aluminum are standard. For
interior use, unless noted otherwise, painted finishes are applied over aluminum base
metal. Refer to catalog section G for a more complete discussion of materials and
finishes. Plated finishes are only available by special order.
LAMPING
Several ceiling mounted fixtures are offered for incandescent A–lamps and for energy
efficient quartz halogen par downlights. All fixtures are offered with compact fluorescent
lamps, including many with high output triple twin tube lamps. Electronic ballasts are
standard for most fixtures or are optionally offered.
