Industrial Urbansim

Sean Morgan ARC 638 Term Paper Prof. Massey

Industrial Urbansim in early America

“American Industrialization has produced a landscape of specialized activity and mechanical integration, of growth and decline, and of abandoned and reused relics. Mineral Processing Plants, lumber mills, and factories are highly specialized production centers that can exist only if linked by transportation and communication systems with suppliers of raw material and markets for finished products.” (Meyer) Industrialization was rapidly implemented throughout the United States in the early 1800s – late 1900’s and its effects on urban growth were crucial in the formative years of many cities. The development of infrastructural systems, most importantly transportation, fueled the successive expansion of manufacturing along the east coast, as well as the west coast of the United States. Using Syracuse as a research basis, I will analyze drawings and readings, to examine the relationship between industrialization and urbanism.

“The integration of the United States economy across regions increased significantly between 1860 and 1920, based on an enormous extension and improvement of the railroad network and on the construction of a national telegraph system.” (Meyer) As early as 1834 industrial growth is visible along the Erie Canal corridor in Syracuse. Salt Sheds occupy the area directly south of Onondaga Lake and directly west of the downtown center. In its early years the Erie Canal spurred the growth of Syracuse’s downtown commercial / distribution core as well as the beginning of an industrial branch. The Salt Sheds lack the organizational logic of the downtown core. In 1834 manufacturing and industrialization was young in age and it is evident that it had yet to find an organizational logic within the urban fabric.

In a later map from 1943, the industrial sector had branched westward along the Erie Canal corridor. By 1943 industry has further integrated itself into the urban fabric. The Erie Canal had been abandoned and a system of rail lines was implemented along the same axis. In 1892 rail lines were full force, and the Erie Canal was still phasing out. After the canal was scrapped, the rail lines became more tailor-fitted to the factories. Some factories began to develop their own rail line branches connecting them directly to the main lines, making distribution much more effective. This also reveals that the canal was present for a long period of time before industry followed its path. It is possible that the factories realized what shortcomings the canal gave, and fixed them when transitioning to a rail line distribution system.

In 1892, the Near Westside was also a residential zone, transitioning into a more robust sector of the city. The typical residential block included 2 story single family housing units, with various commercial stores on the four corners.

The residential blocks were in very close proximity in 1892, but it seems that most of the industrial expansion illustrated in the 1943 took over much of the residential blocks closest to the “canal corridor”. It seems that in 1892 the Near Westside was almost exclusively a suburb of the central business district, however at some point, industry seemed to break away from the business sector and become its own branch off of the downtown core. As illustrated in the map from 1943, you can see a hierarchy of different performance zones radiating from the downtown core; business/commercial into Industry into residential, or industry into residential.

Heavy Industry Light Industry Business Residential (condensed) Residential Erie Canal Main Rail Lines

1892 Near Westside Transportation Industry Commercial Residential (2 stories) Erie Canal Main Rail Lines

In the early 1900’s Albert Kahn was very much involved in the industrialization of the United States, as well as other countries. His innovation in “assembly-line” architecture was a crucial stepping-stone in the manufacturing world. From the 1900’s – 1940’s it is noticeable in his work a shift to a different typology of factory. The original trend for factories was a smaller urban footprint and multiple stories to house different levels of production, however later into the 20th century he began to construct massive one-story warehouses. These warehouses neglected any sense of urban footprint and were removed from the city, but they were the perfect specimens for his assembly-line production. The Brown Lipe Chapin Company Building (1907), Highland Park (1909), Ford Motor Company River Rouge plant (1917), and the Chrysler Corporation Half-Ton Truck assembly plant (1938) are all example of Kahn’s vehicular production plants. These plants illustrate the shift of factories from an urban condition to a suburban condition. The Brown Lipe Chapin Company Building was located within the city of Syracuse and contained 5 stories, each with a different function.

(Ferry) Its location in the Near Westside allowed for factory workers to have living quarters within close proximity of the plant. Highland Park, although 2 years removed from Brown Lipe Chapin Building, was a large leap towards a suburban factory. Its long strip like footprint allowed for the successful implementation of the Ford assembly line production. Although Highland Park was long and narrow, it still compartmentalized itself into 4 floors for different production modes. (Ferry) The River Rouge Plant is an example of one of Kahn’s first one-story assemblies. It was built to facilitate the production of submarines, so it was a very massive one-story factory. River Rouge expanded on Highland Park’s strip like footprint, but was much longer. (Bucci) The Chrysler Corporation Truck Assembly Plant is the perfect example of a one-story warehouse factory. Its footprint was massive, but it was not as skinny as Kahn’s earlier assembly-line plants, enabling for multiple modes of production to occur on the same floor.

1911 Near Westside Transportation Industry Commercial Residential (2 stories) Erie Canal Main Rail Lines

1907

1909

1917

1938

Brown Lipe Chapin Company Syracuse, New York,

Highland Park Detroit, Michigan

Ford Motor Company, B Building, River Rouge Plant Dearborn, Michigan

Chrysler Corporation -Half Ton Truck Plant Assembly Building Warren, Michigan

+ 5 stories

+ 4 stories

+ 1 story

+ 1 story

+ N/A

+ 75’ x 860’

+ 300’ x 1,700’

+ 402’ x 1,260’

section

plan

The improved accessibility of railroads allowed for the industry to thrive outside of the city. Cheaper costs and more land began to dictate the industrial landscape of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. (Meyer) Other agencies, such as fire insurance companies began to encourage the suburban one-story factory as well, claiming that one-story factories are “slow burning” and less likely to be destroyed. (Meyer) “As manufacturing shifted to mass production in some industries, experimentation with continuous assembly lines began to demonstrate the advantages of one-story factories…these changes between 1890 and 1920 laid the basis for the shift to the one-story factory on large sites in the suburbs. These production changes were well established before the truck became efficient for industrial transport after 1910.

The truck therefore, accelerated an existing trend, and the car added to it by providing greater ease of commuting for the workers.” (Meyer)

“To switch to the one-story factory in the suburbs had had a dramatic, cumulative effect on the industrial landscape of cities.

The multistory factory has become obsolete; new firms and existing firms that expand have built one-story suburban factories along major highways and expressways. The corridors these roads create offer the preferred sites for modern factories just as railroad lines did in the 19th century. Although the old multistory buildings have remained in use for many decades, especially by the firms originally in them, demand for the buildings has declined. The long-term effect has been a gradual abandonment of multistory factories and warehouses, which had been built in the pre-1920 city. This abandonment reached such a critical level that it became one of the stimuli for the urban renewal programs initiated by planners during the early 1950s and 1960s. Many factories and warehouses located near the city center and in the inner railroad industrial zone have been torn down and replaced by parking, public housing, convention centers, and expressways, or the sites have been left vacant.” (Meyer) Initially it seemed that industrial growth in cities was controlled by factors such as transportation networks, but it is actually more likely that industry began to govern these networks, more so than they governed industrialization.

A suburban shift of manufacturing was rather a result of other factors such as cheaper land and larger footprints, and the railroad lines and roads soon followed. The process of industrialization was so rapid and lacked control, leaving many of these ‘rust belt’ cities with scars of the past such as empty buildings and depressed neighborhoods. It is in this transition that industrial urbanism occurs, negotiating the gap between existing and potential infrastructural systems, these scars either pose great detriment or great possibility to these cities.

Works Cited NY_Syracuse West_1898_USGS http://sanborn.umi.com.libezproxy2.syr.edu/ny/6296/dateid-000001. htm?CCSI=270n Bird Library Map Room – Call Number: G3804.S Bucci, Federico. Albert Kahn: Architect of Ford. New York: Princeton Architectural, 1993. Print.

Ferry, W. Hawkins. The Legacy of Albert Kahn. Wayne State University Press, 1989. Print.

Meyer, R. David , “The New Industrial Order,” in The Making of the American Landscape, ed. Michael P. Conzen (Routledge, 1994): 249-268. * all drawings produced by Sean Morgan *