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BLUEPRINTS, Vol. X, No. 3, Summer 1992
B L U E P R I N T S
N A T I O N A L
B U I L D I N G M U S E U M
A
MOMENT IN BUILDING
|
The winning black and white entries in the third
A Moment in Building
contest are featured in this issue.
|
Forrest Wilson
Roman architects brought water to Roman cities, built bridges, buildings,
and fortifications. They were highly competent engineers. But, they were
not satisfied with their spectacular achievements in the mechanical arts.
They demanded more of their technical skills. Not only must their building
projects be structurally sound and serve the purpose for which they were
intended but in addition they must have harmonious proportions pleasing
to the eye. Roman building, in the view of Roman architects must be aesthetic
as well as practical.
|
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Feature Article
1
Museum
News
2
Alaska
Highway
6
Book
Reviews
7
Mystery
Building
7
A
Moment in Building
8
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The ten books on architecture written by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio two
millennia ago were a series of "how to" instructions for Roman architects
to make both beautiful and practical buildings.
Vitruvius, a Roman military architect and engineer, left us a detailed
description of Roman building science, rules of proportion, and the education,
duties, and responsibilities of the Roman builder. These practical instructions
for building and beauty influenced the art of building for two thousand
years. The architectural historian Talbot Hamlin wrote (1940) that Vitruvius
expressed ideals remarkably close to those of modern architects. Vitruvius
claimed architecture was composed of the triple essence: strength, utility,
and aesthetic effect. Sir Henry Wotton (1568 - 1639) quaintly changed this
to, "commodity, firmness and delight."
The writings of Vitruvius inspired medieval builders, Bramante, Michelangelo,
Palladio, Vignola, and architects of our time, including Le Corbusier.
The great engineer Luigi Nervi in his Harvard lectures of 1961 and 1962
(1) continued to affirm the guiding principles of commodity, firmness,
and delight which he called "building correctly."
Today (1992) Vitruvian values appear to be irrelevant.
However, the art of building continues to be defined as William Prescott
described it in 1847. It is "the surest test of the civilization of a people,
at least, as sure as any afforded by the mechanical arts" he wrote.(2)
By the "mechanical arts" Prescott meant the science, skill, materials,
and methods of building. These have altered the time-tested ideals of "firmness,
commodity and delight" beyond recognition in the past two decades. Yet
the definition of architecture as Prescott claimed
|
1885
- Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz began his architectural practice with a commission
to design the firts telephone building in New York City. The Metropolitan
Telephone Building was completed in 1887 and later demolished in order
to build a larger building. (Architect - Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC)
Courtesy
Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC
|
remains, "the surest test of the civilization of a people" although we
might wish it did not.
1905
- The New York Times Building, one of New York City's first skyscrapers,
was officially opened on January 1. It was the tallest building in New
York City at the time, 419 feet from street level to top of flagpole and
57 feet below grade. The basement mechanical press room space was constructed
at the same time as that of a subway line passing obliquely through the
building's basement. (Architect - Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC)
Courtesy
Haines Lundberg Whaehler. NYC
|
The
mechanical arts
The history of the mechanical arts in this century is best described
in the parable of the Bedouin and the camel. The camel, as you will recall,
begged permission to warm its nose inside the tent. The Bedouin consented.
The camel then begged leave to include its head, its neck, its hump. When
the camel is entirely inside the tent, the Bedouin is out.
The camel is the good Sir Henry Wollon's "utility" which is now expressed
by the building's metabolic, communication, and control systems. These
entered building unobtrusively a century ago with electricity and the vented
plumbing trap. Today "Firmness, commodity and delight," have become "flexibility,
bottom line, and interactive object."
Electric
motors
In 1887 fifteen American manufacturers had produced over ten thousand
electric motors of fifteen horsepower and under. By 1914, 30 percent of
American industry was electrified and six years later it had grown to 70
percent. Between 1919 and 1927 over 40 percent of the steam engines in
the United States were scrapped.
Electric motors dramatically increased industrial production. They also
caused a revolution in industrial construction. "Mill construction" designed
around a single source of water or steam power had dominated industrial
architecture from the beginning of the industrial revolution, beginning
in the middle ages.
Electric motors meant each machine could have its own power source
|
from wires easily distributed throughout the building. Industrial buildings
need no longer be designed around a single prime mover in the basement
that transmitted power vertically to floors stacked above which received
it with systems of belts and gears.
Overnight industrial buildings were changed to the single story horizontal
structures we know today that are designed to accommodate the path of production
from raw material to finished artifact.
Air
conditioning
The city of Houston would not function today without air conditioning.
Computers cannot operate at high temperatures. Drugs, synthetic fibers,
precision instruments, surgery, and modern office work are all dependent
on air conditioning as well. Yet, today's air conditioning is a very recent
division of building science.
The first paper mill was air conditioned in 1906, followed by a pharmaceutical
plant in Detroit in 1907 and a celluloid-film plant in New Jersey in 1908.
Building air conditioning as we now use it was not introduced until the
early 1950s.
Building owners were unwilling to trade ductwork for rentable space.
The coil system that reduced duct sizes was introduced in the 1930s. Air
shafts were eliminated and deep interior space became rentable. The 1931
Howe and Lescaze Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building was among the
earliest to incorporate the new principles. However, the Empire State Building
completed in the same year was not air conditioned. It had double-hung
windows.
Of the 22 million homes wired for electricity in 1938 less than a quarter
of one percent had a single air-conditioned room.
The great change took place from 1948 to 1953. Simple self- contained
air-conditioning units were manufactured as plug-in appliances. Their introduction
was paralleled by a sophisticated advertising campaign directed to homemakers.
They swept the market. Sales in 1953 reached $250 million (roughly
two and a half billion in 1992 dollars). Summertime awnings were discarded,
and their place taken by the rumps of window air conditioners that leaked
condensate on the pedestrians below.
A National Association of Home Builders study claimed families in air-conditioned
homes slept 10 percent longer, enjoyed their food more, did three times
as much entertaining, spent one-third less time cleaning house, their babies
suffered less heat rash, and their husbands brought more work home from
the office. Husband, wife, and baby were less likely to kick their dogs
than families in nonair-conditioned homes.
By 1962 when Nervi was lecturing at Harvard, 6.5 million houses, six
|
1926
- When completed, the Barclay-Vesey Building was the largest telephone
building in the world. It received international recognition and remains
today a prominent feature of New York City's skyline. The building received
the Architectural League of New York's Medal of Honor, was selected as
the frontispiece in Le Corbusier's
Towards a New Architecture
, and
termed the "first truly modem building designed in New York," by Lewis
Mumford. (Architect - Homes Lundberg Whaehler, NYC)
Courtesy
Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC
|
out of ten hotel rooms, and half of all office buildings were air-conditioned.
Central air conditioning was a building standard.
By 1980 Houston was described as the most air-conditioned place on earth
(95 percent of the homes had some form of air conditioning). It was said
to contribute to the city's high murder rate because people in air-conditioned
environments are isolated from the outside, out-of-touch, and become hostile.
In 1983 two thirds of all new homes and 83 percent of all new cars built
in the U.S. were equipped with air conditioning. In the first nine months
of that year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Americans spent $9.5 billion on air conditioning offices and factories.
Energy
crisis
The "energy crisis" of the 1970s changed building configuration, window
walls, automation systems, lighting, HYAC equipment, and the allocation
of natural resources.
Light for working humans was halved from 100-foot candles to 50. There
had been no spectacular improvement in visual acuity. The Illuminating
Engineering Society (IES) simply decided workers could do with less.
Increased power and speed of electronic and communication equipment
generated great quantities of heat inside sealed buildings. The major thermal
problem was changed from heating buildings to cooling them, even in severe
winters.
Before the energy crisis, lighting was often controlled by a master
switch on each floor. Utility companies recommended leaving the lights
on all day. Today sensors detect movement in the room and turn the lights
on only when occupied. Building cleaners no longer work at night but during
the day to save electricity.
Air ventilation consumes the largest amount of energy in sealed buildings,
and to conserve energy ventilation is now minimized. The result: the appearance
of a new rash of exotic respiratory diseases labeled "sealed building syndrome."
Communication
|
1939
- The theme of the 1939 New York World's Fair was "The World of Tomorrow."
of the seven exhi6ition buildings HLW designed for the fair, The Petroleum
Industries Pavilion was hailed as among the "most avant-garde designs."
(Architect - Homes Lundberg Whaehler, NYC)
Courtesy
Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC, Photo Ira Wright Martin
|
AT&T was incorporated in 1885 and a century later dismantled. It
was the largest company on earth with assets of $150 billion, exceeding
the combined assets of General Motors, Ford, General Electric, IBM, Xerox,
and Coca-Cola.
In 1900 the average daily local telephone calls made was 7,600,000.
When split up, AT&T's assets included approximately 182,000,000 telephones
and over a billion miles of wire. They employed nearly a million people
and met an annual payroll of nearly $30 billion with earnings of over $15
million a day.
The result of the AT&T break up was a tremendous stimulation of
the communications market. Buildings that had furnished the Vitruvian utility
of 182,000,000 telephones connected by a billion miles of wire in 1984
are today being adapted to a further deluge of new electronic wizardry.
Wotton's commodity is now "smart."
1990
The information and communication mechanical arts make more stringent
demands on the buildings external and internal systems than the architectural
and structural systems that fashion firmness and delight.
Microwave and satellite receivers demand substantial hardware and are
precisely located on the roof. Building siting is determined by roof height,
line of signal generation, and access to air rights imposed by the Federal
Aviation Administration rather than views and sun angle as Vitruvius recommended.
Receiver connections are coordinated with basement communication room locations
and demand communications rooms for power rack, cable management, uninterrupted
power supply battery backup systems, and multiplexers to strengthen incoming
signals. These spaces are heated, air conditioned and humidity controlled,
illuminated, protected from fire and water damage, accessible, and connected
to vertical shafts and computers.
1980
- By 1980 Haines Lundberg Whaehler had designed over
40-miIIion
square feet of research space. The Wilbur G. Malcom
Toxicology
Laboratory for medical research is a state-of-the-art building.
It
conforms to restrictive regulatory requirements and is
designed
with interstitial floors devoted entirely to servicing the
technology
of the research of the laboratories. Service spaces and
laboratories
are designed for continuous and independent alteration.
(Architect
- Haines Lundberg Whaehler, NYC)
Courtesy
Haines Lundberg Whaehler. NYC, Photo Peter Aaron/ESTO
Cable network configuration is critical. The buildings' vertical shaft
space and horizontal plenums set the limits of hardware and software. The
types of cable, wiring networks, and bending radii dimensions position
structural and architectural elements.
Mainframe computers are serviced by individual systems that guarantee
uninterrupted power. Weight of equipment is significant, structural support
and vibration control are demanded.
The quantities of air conditioning may be five to ten times that demanded
by typical human occupancy. A unique controlled environment is created
more like that of a submarine or space capsule than associated with at
traditional building.
Costs
A study by English architect Francis Duffy revealed that ancillary areas
required 10 percent of office building floor areas in 1970, 25 percent
in 1980, and 40 to 50 percent by the end of the 1980s. Spaces designed
for "human needs" are encroached by electronic equipment. Firmness, commodity,
and delight are in short supply.
Cycles of building change are reflected in building costs. The shell
of an office building consisting of structure, roof, and perimeter walls
is designed to endure for fifty years. Services, elevators, air-conditioning
plants, and main ducts for power, electronic data, and telecommunications
may last twenty years and will be replaced three times during the life
of a building.
Scenery, interior fittings, partitions, furniture, lighting, the more
adaptable parts of air conditioning, finishes and decorations last five
or six years and will be changed twenty or more times during the building's
life.
Twenty-five years ago, Duffy claims, 70 percent of building cost was
spent on the shell, 20 percent on services, 10 percent on scenery. Today
it is 40 percent on shell, 40 percent on services, and 20 percent on scenery.
The scenery that costs half of the shell eventually accounts for five times
its cost.
Architecture as commonly conceived, taught in schools, and described
in professional publications has diminished in importance as services and
scenery absorb more and more of the budget.
Dirty
power
Increasingly sensitive electronic equipment demands a higher quality
of power supply than utility companies normally supply. By 1987 at least
three companies offered "premium grade" power for specialized equipment
and services.
Failures (blackouts), interruptions (outages), voltage sags and surges,
harmonic distortion, frequency variations, voltage spikes, transient overvoltages,
and radio frequency interference occur when power lines act as antenna,
for radio frequency signals pollute the power supply.
Computer crashes and scrambled data are life and death issues for hospital
monitoring instruments Microprocessors are used increasingly in electronic
cash registers, point-of-sale terminals, and test instruments. Industrial
market microprocessors are incorporated into everything from home entertainment
centers to kitchen appliances. Dirty power is a scourge from the trading
center to the kitchen toaster.
Brokerage houses with millions of dollars of transactions passing through
their networks take few chances. They pay for better quality systems than
hospitals or the Federal
|
1989
- The Union Pacific Harriman Dispatch Center is a remodeled 1891 brick
freight and "head" house converted to a computer and dispatch center. It
holds the nation's most technically sophisticated electronic rail dispatch
center and controls 700 trains running on 23,000 miles of track. The center,
constructed and in operation in eight months, was described as a "...high-tech
bunker. ..epitomizing the brave new electronic future of railroads..,."
(Architects - Leo A. Daly of Omaha, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., and
Vahr, Vermeer & Hacker Architects, Lincoln, Nebraska)
Courtesy
A. Daly, Architects
|
Reserve. The cost of firmness, commodity, and delight, the building and
the site it is on are of less monetary value than the information passing
through the wires. In the first few hours of the brief stock market crash
of October 1987, more money was lost than the entire GNP of France.
Commodity, firmness,
and delight for the mechanical arts of 1992
Today's office building is an information processing center. Designers
find communications and information flow determine design solutions as
surely as the electric motor determined the design of modern factory buildings.
No building is exempt. Homes, schools, stores, museums, amusement parks,
and factories are transformed by the electronic mechanical arts.
What do industrial designers design in a postindustrial age? The use
function of industrial objects is associated with their form. The shape
of the chair is dictated by the human sitting apparatus. Doors are scaled
to human proportions. Steps are a series of horizontal planes to raise
or lower human elevation by moving human feet up or down a series of horizontal
platforms. Designed form describes its utility ("commodity)."
Miniaturized electronic technology blends invisibly into forms and shapes
that tell us nothing of their operation. The size and form of a calculator
watch is determined by the fingers that operate it. Artifacts are designed
as control displays. The credit card sized piece of plastic can be a calculator
operated by a solar cell, a door key, or credit card.
Designers have been trained to design tangible objects. This is what
design teachers know how to teach and design students trained to learn.
Humanoids, humanists, and history professors have been hooked on functioning
artifacts beginning with sharp stones for 2 million years. What happens
to human factors and ergonomics? Do designers design "smart" chairs for
"wise arses?"
Electronic media are the common language of computers in office communication,
telecommunications, home entertainment, and weapons systems. Smart machines
their technology. The first obvious step is to demystify the digitized
world.
Interactive articulate objects can not be measured by physical beauty.
Functions are flexible and difficult to categorize. A personal computer
performs vital and frivolous functions without distinction. It audits books,
designs bridges, and plays computer games with equal facility.
Traditional objects interact passively as the user chooses. The new
generation of objects can modify their behavior on the basis of external
variables. They are not passive. They interact with the user or environment.
Nothing is expected from a passive object. An interactive object is
expected to "act." Intelligent and communicative objects are in search
of shape and form, for miniaturization means freedom from shape.
The way the "smart" object is regarded and its form are not subject
to traditional judgment. For designers whose principal role has always
been that of giving quality to shapes in space, interactive means exploring
new ground. Here cultural references, Ezio Manzini suggests (3), can be
sought in the theatre, movies, and music in activities whose quality is
due to a sequence of events. Traditionally design has been creating shape
in space (firmness, commodity, and delight). Design must now impart qualities
no longer derived from three dimensional spatial arrangements. Relationships
vary in time.
Time is another dimension. Chicago in the industrial age was 450 miles
from Washington D.C. Today in the postindustrial age it is 50 minutes distance.
Describe the scenery.
(1)
Nervi, Pier Luigi, AESTHETICS AND TECHNOLOGY IN BUILDING (Harvard University
Press, Cambridge, Mass 1965), Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1961-1962.
(2)
Prescott, William Hickling, THE CONQUEST OF PERU, Bk. I, ch. 8.
(3)
Monzini, Ezio, INTERACTIVITY Technological Culture, OTTAGONO Quarterly
review of architecture, interior design, furniture, and industrial design,
March 23, 1988.
Forrest Wilson is
a contributing writer for the museum.
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