Man Of Steel

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OWNER: Samuel Tenenbaum, vice-president of Chatham Steel Corp., a family-owned steel distribution and processing company operating in the Southeast

SITE: Three acres on the Saluda River, outside Columbia, S.C.

UNUSUAL FEATURES: Steel frame with exposed steel structural details; passive-solar construction featuring a glass-enclosed concrete wall that absorbs heat

ARCHITECTS: Alan Buchsbaum and Stephen Tilly

COST: More than $200,000

In this era of LTV and USX, many steel-company executives would just as soon the rest of the world forget what business they are in. Not Samuel Tenenbaum. The 44-year-old vice-president of Chatham Steel Corp. doesn't just make steel his business -- he makes it his house, too.

Twenty tons of it, to be precise. Not only is the building's frame made of structural-steel beams and joists; inside, the wide-open spaces are punctuated with exposed steel beams, catwalks, railings, and grates. Even the piping and ductwork is steel. And all of it was made right here in the U.S.A.

This is a house that makes a statement about an America that is again efficient and industrious, much as it was in 1915 when Tenenbaum's grandfather, the first Samuel Tenenbaum, set up the ironscrap business from which Chatham Steel descends. "What I wanted was a strong, functional house," says Tenenbaum. "But I didn't want it to be sterile. I wanted it to be warm." Inside, that warmth comes from rich wood floors, splashes of bright paint, and a winter garden dominated by luxurious bougainvillea, ferns, and rubber trees; outside, a pine and hardwood forest provides the privacy that walls of glass do not.

In a neighborhood where the prevailing architectural vocabulary tends toward white clapboard, Tenenbaum's modern design raised more than a few eyebrows initially. Even some of the contractors were skeptical about the unconventional design. "At first the plumber told me, 'I don't think this house is going to work," he recalls. One big problem: finding a way to attach the roof's two-by-sixes to the steel roof joists. In the end, each piece of wood had to be hand-bloted to the metal, at an expense Tenenbaum doesn't like to recall. "It was a mistake in planning," he admits.

Although he was a bachelor when he built his dream house four years ago, the recently married Tenenbaum now plans to add a children's wing and raise a family. "I've already thought we'll have a bridge from one part of the house to the next," he says.

A steel bridge?

"Of course."