View a Place

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date: 25-May-2010

I, John Arend , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Architecture in Architecture (Master of) It is entitled: Preserving Progress: An Adaptive Reuse of the Moraine Assembly Plant

Student Signature: John Arend

This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Nnamdi Elleh, PhD Nnamdi Elleh, PhD

Rebecca Williamson, PhD Rebecca Williamson, PhD

5/26/2010 714 Preserving Progress: An Adaptive Resue of the Moraine Asembly Plant

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Architecture

in the School of Architecture and Interior Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning

by John Arend B.S. Architecture University of Cincinnati May 2010

Committee: First Chair: Nnamdi Elleh, Ph.D. Second Chair: Rebecca Williamson, Ph.D. Abstract

This thesis explores how adaptive reuse can be applied to the development of an abandoned industrial site in Moraine, Ohio. General Motors (GM) recently closed its Moraine Assembly plant south of Dayton, Ohio on Decem- ber 23, 2008. The plant’s plot covers 300-acres and, at one time, employed 5,000 workers. Its loss leaves the city, a suburb of Dayton, without one of its major job sources and a large abandoned industrial site.

In 1917, a structure intended to house the manufacturing operations of DELCO (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company) was built in Moraine, OH. Upon completion, the building was purchased by the Dayton Wright Airplane Company. In 1926, the building was converted into a manufacturing plant for General Motors’ Frigidaire division. The plant was expanded in 1950, and remained in use by Frigidaire until 1979 when General Motors sold the division. The plant was then renovated and retooled to become a truck and SUV manufacturing plant for General motors in 1981. The plant became one of the most productive truck and SUV plants for General Motors, but declining sales forced the company to shut down the plant in 2008.

iii Can the history of change and evolution inherent on the Moraine As- sembly site inform us, today, how to approach its future? Elements existing on the site can be reused to create a city center, including business incubators, for the community. These reused elements act as a visual reminder to the community’s history, while also serving to support its present and future.

Table of Content

Abstract iii

Table of Contents vi

List of Illustrations vii

Chapter 1 – Introduction 1

Chapter 2 – Moraine Assembly History 7

Chapter 3 – Adaptive Reuse and Preservation 18

Chapter 4 – Precedents 32

Chapter 5 – Thesis Project 44

5.1 Goals and Issues 44

5.2 The Site 46

5.3 Program 50

5.4 Site Treatment 54

5.5 Building 59

Chapter 6 – Conclusion 64

Works Cited 68

Works Consulted 71

vi List of Illustrations

Chapter 2 Pg. 7 Image 2.1: Moraine Assembly Archives

Pg. 8 Image 2.2: Dayton Journal, May 23, 1937

Pg. 9 Image 2.3: General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, GM Frigidaire at War : A Record of Continuing Achievement by the Men and Women of Frigidaire Division, General Motors Corporation (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1944), 20.

Pg. 10 Image 2.4: Dayton Journal-Herald, December 20, 1958

Pg. 11 Image 2.5: General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera!s Eye (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1944), 44.

Image 2.6: Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera!s Eye, 25.

Pg. 12 Image 2.7: Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera!s Eye, 22.

Pg. 13 Image 2.8 Sara M. Beringer, History of Dayton's Industries (Dayton, Ohio: N.P., 1955), 60.

Pg. 16 Image 2.9: Moraine Assembly Archives vii

Chapter 4 Pg. 32 Image 4.1: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Image 4.2: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Pg. 33 Image 4.3: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Image 4.4: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Pg. 34 Image 4.5: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Image 4.6: http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm

Pg. 35 Image 4.7: Author

Image 4.8: Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture Inbetween (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999), 41.

Pg. 36 Image 4.9: Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture Inbetween,153.

Image 4.10: Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture Inbetween, 8.

Pg. 37 Image 4.11: Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture Inbetween,135.

Pg. 38 Image 4.12: http://www.kaufmann.archbuero.com/

Image 4.13: http://www.kaufmann.archbuero.com/

viii Pg. 39 Image 4.14: http://www.kaufmann.archbuero.com/

Pg. 40 Image 4.15: Author

Pg. 41 Image 4.16: Eric Owen Moss : Buildings and Projects (New York: Rizzoli, 1991), 125.

Pg. 42 Image 4.17: Eric Owen Moss : Buildings and Projects, 133.

Pg. 43 Image 4.18: Eric Owen Moss : Buildings and Projects, 159.

Chapter 5 Pg. 44 Image 5.1: Author

Pg. 46 Image 5.2: Author

Pg. 47 Image 5.3: Author

Pg. 48 Image 5.4: Author

Image 5.5: Author

Pg. 49 Image 5.6: Author

Image 5.7: Author

Image 5.8: Author

ix Image 5.9: Author

Pg. 50 Image 5.10: Author

Pg. 51 Image 5.11: Author

Pg. 52 Image 5.12: Author

Pg. 53 Image 5.13: Author

Pg. 59 Image 5.14: Author

Pg. 60 Image 5.15: Author

Image 5.16: Author

Pg. 61 Image 5.17: Author

Image 5.18: Author

Pg. 62 Image 5.19: Author

Image 5.20: Author

Pg. 63 Image 5.21: Author

x Chapter 1 - Introduction

Growing up in Paulding, Ohio had a profound impact on the way I view a place. With the exception of a few patches of woods and small villages, the area is almost completely made up of a patchwork of fields within a square mile grid of roads. I took the endless rows of corn, soybeans, and wheat for granted as I grew up, considering it part of nature. Eventually, I realized that even in the least populated part of Ohio, nature had been converted into industry.

Paulding, and much of the area around it, was once a part of the Great Black Swamp. The region was the last part of Ohio to be settled but, after being drained, it was the most fertile farmland in the area. The road system introduced was more complex than just a method of transportation. It also provided a consistent grid of drainage to help keep the land dry and also helped divide it into exact parcels. The true nature of the place had been replaced with the equivalent of an agricultural factory.

The system of fields, roads, and ditches were no less of a man-made industry than the steel buildings and conveyors of manufacturing lines. The

1 roads and rows of crops were organized to expedite planting and harvesting a product. The fact that the product was a plant only masked the reality that the landscape was less about nature and more about industry.

My first experience living in Dayton, OH was during my first co-op for the University of Cincinnati. The city had grown through the innovation of many industries including the National Cash Register Company (NCR), Gen- eral Motors, and Frigidaire. However, during my time there, the city was only a shadow of what it once was. Many of the industries had moved much of their business outside of the city and there were debates about what should be done with the structures remaining vacant throughout the city. Some felt the buildings should be preserved to remember the role they played in the city’s growth, while others felt they should be taken down so something new could take their place.

Since then, most of the major industries in the Dayton area have completely moved out. The University of Dayton who plans to use it as a research center purchased the NCR complex. The City of Dayton passed a bill that

2 would fund the redevelopment of their warehouse district, which includes buildings previously used by General Motors and Frigidaire, into a technology district. Frigidaire, once a division of General Motors, used not only buildings in the former warehouse district of Dayton, but also three in Moraine, a suburb just south of downtown Dayton. Frigidaire operated in Dayton out of these buildings for 50 years before the division was sold and the buildings retooled for use by General Motors’ truck group. During the 27 years after, General Motors demolished two of the buildings on the Moraine site and discontinued use of the buildings in the warehouse district. The lone remaining plant in Moraine continued operation until December 23, 2008 when GM closed it due to failing SUV sales. The plant sits vacant today as a reminder to the city of Moraine of the economic anchor it once was.

This thesis explores how adaptive reuse can be used to redevelop the abandoned Moraine plant while retaining the spirit of progress inherent in the site’s history. Chapter two will chronicle the history of the site from the first plant built in Moraine by Dayton Wright Airplane Company in 1917 to the site’s abandonment in 2008. This chapter will not only focus on the history of 3 new construction and expansions, but also on the affects those companies had on the community around them.

Chapter three will discuss the role of preservation in architecture and how it can be applied to this project. It will cover popular topics of preservation; including reuse, restoration, reconstruction, and conservation. It will also explore the importance of industrial sites in the history of American cities in order to establish an argument in favor of the thesis. The goals of the thesis will be compared to the merits of each preservation strategy to explain how they can help inform future decisions on the site.

Chapter four will cover precedent examples used to advance the thesis. These precedents will inform many of the decisions made when design- ing the reuse of the Moraine Assembly plant and its site. They will provide examples of how others have approached problems similar to those faced in the thesis project including site treatment, adaptive reuse strategies, industrial redevelopment, and community planning.

4 Chapter five will investigate the thesis project. The parameters of the site, program, and goals of the thesis will be defined. The strategies used for transforming the thesis research into the site’s treatment and building’s design will be introduced. Finally, the success and failures of the thesis project will be analyzed.

I would like to thank the many friends, family, colleagues, and pro- fessionals who have helped make this thesis possible. First and foremost, I would like to thank my close colleague, Kingkini Roy, for her support and guidance. Although our views often differ on how to approach the topics of preservation, I could not have accomplished my goals without her thought- provoking debates and encouragement.

I would also like to thank my professor, Dr. Nnamdi Elleh. His many years of experience and supportive approach to teaching were essential to the success of my work.

5 In addition, I would like to thank my colleague, Audrey De Fillipis for her support. Her honest critiques were extremely helpful throughout the research and design processes.

I would also like to thank the staffs of the local history section of the Dayton Metro Library and Dayton History, the Montgomery County historical society. Their records proved invaluable in researching the history of the Moraine Assembly site.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Director of Development for Moraine, Ohio and Bill Groves, the Site Manager of the Moraine Assembly Plant. With- out their generous assistance, I would not have been able to personally tour the vacant plant as it stands today, find construction drawings, or have insight from existing redevelopment studies.

6 Chapter 2 - Moraine Assembly History

The Moraine Assembly plant sits on a 300-acre site in Moraine, Ohio. The first building on the site was built for the Dayton Wright Airplane Compa- ny in 1917. William C. Durant was owner of Dayton Wright as well as Dayton Engineering Laboratories (DELCO) and Guardian Refrigerator Company, holding them all under the United Motors Company name. By 1923, Durant sold the United Motors Company to General Motors. GM changed the name

1 of Guardian to Frigidaire and merged the division with the DELCO Company. Image 2.1 - Dayton Wright Airplane Co. DELCO and Frigidaire were housed in a complex of factories in downtown Dayton’s warehouse district and the former Dayton Wright Airplane building. By 1926, General Motors had separated Frigidaire from DELCO and devoted the Moraine plant solely to Frigidaire. In addition, the plant was expanded from 32 to 68 acres and stretched almost a half mile long.2

After GM’s new Frigidaire Division took over the Moraine plant, the company started to grow. Improvements to the design of refrigeration prod-

1 Sara M. Beringer, History of Dayton’s Industries (Dayton, Ohio: N.P., 1955), 60. 2 F. H. Peters, “History of Frigidaire, 18 June 1948,” Dayton History Archives Center, Dayton, OH 7 ucts along with the ability to lower their prices, promised a larger group of buyers would be interested in purchasing the new technology.3 By 1937 the company was so successful, it began to create plans for expanding the

Moraine plant in order to meet sales demand.4 Even during the depression, Image 2.2 - Frigidiare’s First Moraine Expansion Frigidaire sales showed a steady increase.5 The first expansion plan in 1937 revealed the company’s intention to build a brick-clad steel office building parallel to, but across the street from, the existing plant in Moraine. The small building would house personnel offices, a kitchen, engineering laboratories, and other departments necessary to support the manufacturing process taking place inside the existing plant. A new tunnel from the employee parking lot, under Springboro Pike, and into the plant was also to be added to the existing plant in addition to a partial second story addition to the same plant. The second story addition was to be completely air-conditioned and house a cafeteria as well as a performance stage equipped with a public address 3 Ibid. 4 “Reveal Program of Enlargement at Moraine City: Plans Contemplate Construction of New Building and Improvement of Present Structure.” Dayton Journal, May 23, 1937 5 F. H. Peters, “History of Frigidaire, 18 June 1948,” Dayton History Ar- chives Center, Dayton, OH 8 system. Dayton architectural firm, Schenck and Williams, oversaw the design and construction of these expansions.6

During World War II, Frigidaire made agreements with the United States government to manufacture equipment for the war. Each plant in Dayton and Moraine produced different products for the war ranging from airplane equipment to machine guns. The original plant in Moraine, known as plant 2, was the largest refrigerator production factory in the world and was completely converted to producing Hamilton Standard Propellers for the B-24 and B-17 planes flown during the war. The war also brought expansion to the Moraine complex. In July of 1941, Frigidaire began construction of what Image 2.3 - Frigidiare’s Wartime Conversion to Propeller Production would be known as Plant 4, a new large plant of a similar size and scale to plant 2. The new plant would be used to create complex propeller assemblies for warplanes. Frigidaire’s products grew in favor with the federal government because they consistently were delivered on time or prior to the dates stipu-

6 “Reveal Program of Enlargement at Moraine City: Plans Contemplate Construction of New Building and Improvement of Present Structure.” Dayton Journal, May 23, 1937 9 lated in their contracts. 7

The expansions of the Moraine plant were most likely due to amount of available land in comparison to the urban environment surrounding the Dayton’s warehouse district. This was a common trend of the time and can be traced back to Albert Kahn’s work at Ford’s River Rouge plant in 1918. The Image 2.4 - Example of single-story single story plant took up a larger footprint than multi-story plants, but elimi- steel-frame factory under construction in Moraine, OH. nated many of the problems associated with them. For example, as manufacturing processes evolved, much of the equipment grew heavier and more powerful and shook the frames of multi-story buildings.8 Also, due to the vast amount land needed to build a single story factory, it was necessary to build outside of the city. This allowed for more space for easy expansion in the future. Lastly, single story factories could be quickly assembled with prefabri- cated steel frames.9 7 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, GM Frigidaire at War : A Record of Continuing Achievement by the Men and Women of Frigid- aire Division, General Motors Corporation (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1944), 20. 8 Gillian Darley, Factory (London: Reaktion, 2003), 118. 9 Robert B. Gordon and Patrick M. Malone, The Texture of Industry : An Archaeological View of the Industrialization of North America (New York: 10 In addition to the expansion of their Moraine facilities and the addition new war-time products, Frigidaire was expanding into the community as well. Not only were houses and commercial structures being built around the Moraine complex, but Frigidaire was also providing incentives for members of the community to work for them. As can be seen in the Frigidaire at War and Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera’s Eye publications produced by Frigidaire and General Motors, the company provided a wide variety of services beyond a job and paycheck to their employees. Dur- ing the war, the company started organizing war bond drives, first aid classes, blood drives, and ride sharing groups for its employees to help them both in their daily lives and in their efforts to help the military.10 A health and counsel- ing system was set up for employees as well. Each plant contained its own medical department to treat injuries and illnesses on site. A health insurance plan was also offered to all employees for issues arising outside working

Image 2.5 - (Above) Frigidaire Schooling Oxford University Press, 1994), 335. Image 2.6 - (Below) Frigidare Health 10 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, GM Frigidaire at War Services : A Record of Continuing Achievement by the Men and Women of Frigidaire Division, General Motors Corporation, 40. 11 hours.11 A 1961 publication from Frigidaire’s public relations department, The Frigidaire Story, even describes the plants as cities of there own, “Frigidaire is a great industrial city in itself… It is a city with its own fire department, police force, medical facilities, railroad, truck line, communications system and restaurants.”12

Outside the plants, the company even concerned itself with the recreational side of its employees lives; organizing various recreational activities and leagues including bowling, card parties, basketball, and more. It even purchased and built a park north of Dayton for its employees to enjoy. Female employees were offered home economics and home nursing courses to help them prepare for life back in their households after the war. Frigidaire even extended its reach into the community’s education system. It not only created work-study programs for local high school students at Parker High School, but also created coop positions with University of Cincinnati and General Motors 11 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera’s Eye (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Image 2.7 - Frigidaire offered recreation Division, 1944), 25. options outside the factory. 12 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division. Dept. of Public Rela- tions, The Frigidaire Story (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1961), 14. 12 Institute students.13 Frigidaire could theoretically influence community members in almost every aspect of their lives. After the war, many of these programs continued.

In 1951, the last of the three major plants was constructed, again designed by Schenck and Williams of Dayton.14 The new factory was built to keep up with the expanding Frigidaire product base. General Manager at Frigidaire’s Moraine division, Mason Robert’s was quoted in a June 2, 1950 Image 2.8 - The Moraine Assembly plant grew considerably while opperating under edition of the Dayton News, “Since 1926, when we (expanded) our first Mo- Frigidaire. raine City plant, our business has expanded tremendously until, today, we are building more refrigerators than ever before and in addition we have added electric ranges, home laundry equipment, food freezers, electric water heat- ers, ice cream cabinets, frozen food merchandisers, refrigeration compres- sors, and other products at Moraine City.”15 When first built, the building was 13 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera’s Eye (Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1944), 46. 14 Schenck and Williams. Plant Expansion: Plant No. 3 Frigidaire Divi- sion Structural Drawings (Dayton, Ohio: Schenck and Williams, 1951). 15 “Work Begun on $12,000,000 Frigidaire Building Project.” Dayton News, June 21, 1950 13 placed parallel, but further north, to the original plant 2 across Springboro Pike. It was 1600 feet in length and 600 feet wide, with an attached two-story brick office structure to the east.

During the 30 years from 1950 to 1980, Frigidaire’s Moraine site went through several small additions; including minor plant expansions, warehouse consolidations, water recycling towers, and a wastewater treatment plant. Frigidaire continued to make improvements to their products and introduce new features to the field, but because they were forced to follow the same manufacturing and marketing strategies as their parent company, General Motors, and had many contract disputes with their labor unions, they were forced to sell their products at higher prices than other appliance manufactur- ers. Eventually, the buildings and equipment used to manufacture Frigidaire products were outdated and General Motors would make the decision to sell the division rather than invest the time and money into retooling their facilities. General Motors officially announced the sale of Frigidaire to White Con- solidated of Cleveland, Ohio on January 31, 1979. General Motors would still

14 retain, but shut down, the facilities of all their Frigidaire related plants.16

In 1981, General Motors reopened the former Frigidaire plants in Moraine, retooled to manufacture the company’s new S-series trucks. Plant 3, the factory built by Frigidaire in 1950, became the Moraine Assembly plant where the new trucks were assembled. Plant two, the original Frigidaire plant in Moraine, was converted into an engine plant.

The S-series trucks were small domestic trucks designed to compete with foreign made trucks of a similar size.17 The models were able to compete well early on, offering a competitive price and more options than their com- petition. GM recognized the quality of work and products being achieved in the Moraine plant as it awarded the plant the company’s first annual quality citation in 1983.18

16 Howard R. Houser, The Frigidaire Years (Centerville, Ohio : Howard R. Houser, 1996), 19. 17 Judith Schultz, “GM S Truck Combines Fine Quality and Low Price,” Dayton Daily News, August 25, 1982. 18 Judith Schultz, “The Truck Starts Here,” Dayton Daily News, June 2, 1984, The Magazine Edition. 15 General Motors made many changes to the Moraine site between 1980 and 2008. Virtually all buildings west of Springboro Pike were eventually demolished except for a Waste Water Treatment plant and compressor building that once serviced the Moraine Assembly building. In 1993, a paint shop was added to the Assembly plant across Stroop Road. It is connected across the street through two enclosed bridges housing conveyors. The Assembly Image 2.9 - Aerial view of Moraine plant itself also went through many changes. Several additions were added, Assembly while opperated by General Motors increasing the footprint of the building considerably to the north and east and partially enveloping the brick office structure within the manufacturing area. Also, the plant’s windows were removed and replaced with a completely sheet-metal skin, eliminating almost all natural light in the building.

The S-series continued to succeed until its competitors began offering similar products and options. In 1989, GM ceased production of the S-series truck in its Moraine Assembly plant and introduced its new Sports Utility Ve- hicles. The Chevrolet Blazer and GMC Jimmy were manufactured until 2000.

16 The GMC Envoy became the main product of the plant until its closure, while the Buick Rainer was also manufactured there between 2003 and 2007. The last truck to be manufactured in the facility was a white GMC Envoy complet- ed on December 23, 2008. The same day the plant was closed.19

19 Thomas Gnau and John Nolan, “GM to Close Moraine, Three Other Assembly Plants,” Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com/b/ content/oh/story/business/2008/06/03/ddn060308gmweb.html (accessed February 11, 2010). 17 Chapter 3 - Adaptive Reuse and Preservation

The Moraine Assembly plant has been a major presence in the community for over 90 years. Erasing that presence completely in the wake of future development would be denying an import link to the city’s history. How- ever, preserving the building and its site without change would deny the city’s present state and further hinder its progress. This chapter will examine how adaptive reuse can present a solution that not only respects the site’s past, but also acknowledges its present state and plans for its future.

Adaptive reuse of architecture is a type of preservation. However, it is far from an orthodox view of preservation. Reconstruction, restoration, and conservation, the three schools of thought emerging from the early preservation field, each offer different benefits for different groups of people. Argu- ments can be made for the usefulness of each approach, but the choice of which matches a particular project best falls on the intentions of those in- volved closest with the project.

18 The approach of reconstruction is to completely reconstruct a building or community that has been lost. Whether it was destroyed by neglect, war, natural disaster, or in some cases progress, the project will be rebuilt because of what it offers to society. A classic example of this is Colonial Williamsburg. The massive project “would demolish or move more than 700 buildings from the district, reconstruct some 350, and restore 88, many of the latter being small outbuildings.”20 Williamsburg became a mixture of reconstruction and restoration, but the majority of work done was in reconstruction. This allowed Williamsburg Restoration Inc. to mold the village into the image of their liking. Their agenda to create a vision of how colonial villages operated was better served reconstructing the buildings of their choice despite the fact that some restored buildings, such as the Powder Horn, offered more of a look into the slave trade era prior to the civil war.

20 Max Page and Randall Mason, Giving Preservation a History : His- tories of Historic Preservation in the United States (New York: Routledge, 2004), 121-122. 19 The restoration approach is much like a middle ground between reconstruction and conservation. It does not go so far as to recreate a project that has been completely destroyed; instead it is an effort to restore projects before they are completely lost. An example of this is the Paul Revere house in Boston’s North End. The house, over time, had been converted into “a bank, storefront, and tenement for Italian immigrants.”21 Appleton’s Sons of the Revolution, the group responsible for the house’s restoration, felt that the building must be saved as it was one of the last remaining examples of the city’s rich revolutionary war history in the North End. However, in restoring the building, they “reinvented (it) as a postmedieval construct—something per- haps that Revere himself would not have recognized.”22

The effort to reinvent Revere and his house’s image was an attempt to increase a sense of patriotism in citizens by molding their hero into someone they could respect from humble beginnings. To increase this effect, everything in the restored house was artificially aged so as to create the appearance of authenticity. This dishonesty was justified in this case because the intentions 21 Ibid, 115. 22 Ibid, 115-116. 20 of restoring the house would have been compromised otherwise.

The last approach to preservation from the early years of the profes- sion was conservation. This approach is the opposite school of thought from reconstruction. The idea centers on keeping what is left of an important place without erasing any of the history that still remains. Examples of this are the first national monuments. The American Antiquities Act of 1906 gave the president of the United States the power to declare any federally owned site as a national monument. Some of these included Devils Tower in Wyoming, the Petrified Forest in Arizona, and Montezuma Castle National Monument in Arizona. Many of these sites, chosen by Theodore Roosevelt, were either geologically important or former Native American sites. The intention in making them national monuments was not to bring them back to a certain state of the past, but protect them from further detriment by tourists, looters, or devel- opers. Trying to restore or reconstruct aspects of these sites would not only be impossible in some scenarios, but create a false reality and could increase the likelihood that the true information be lost to future generations.

21 Each of these theories has varying levels of honesty in their final out- comes. However, they each value preservation for the intention of future generations’ knowledge of the past, whether that knowledge is a fabrication of a preservation group’s agenda, or an attempt to chronicle the reality of a site’s past. The inherent problem with each of these preservation methods is the failure to acknowledge the present or future. Author Kevin Lynch, in his book What Time is This Place?, argues, “a desirable image is one that cel- ebrates and enlarges the present while making connections with the past and future.”23 Adaptive reuse is tool that can help bridge the gap between these early preservation techniques and the ability for a place to function today and in the future.

Typically, adaptive reuse is an attempt to restore and preserve the historic aesthetic of a building while adapting it to a use different than it was originally intended. Many projects in historic districts have gone so far as to demolish everything but the façade of a building and use it as the skin of a new building in its place. Keeping some aspect of the old building while allow- 23 Kevin Lynch, What Time is this Place?, 1 paperback ed. (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1976; 1972), 1. 22 ing it to serve today’s functions helps achieve a connection to the site’s past without denying its growth and contribution to the community today. In Fran- ces Downing’s book, Remembrance and the Design of Place, she speaks of Marcel Proust’s view of the past. “Proust believed that the past was captured within sensations that material objects might provoke at any time, and he believed that essence of past experience is transferred to the present through memory:”24 The materials left from an old use within an adaptive reuse project helps trigger those memories of the past. They recall the experiences of those who had interacted with the building before it was transformed. For those who had not experienced a building prior to its adapted reuse, the remains of its prior incarnation provide view into the depth of history inherent in the site and create a visual and mental image of the passage of time. “A mental image is a virtual object; its sensate character is its entire being. Likewise, a memorable experience stands apart from everyday experience, and its appearance constitutes its pure quality. What emerges from memorable experience is the

24 Frances Downing, Remembrance and the Design of Place, 1st ed., Vol. 6 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000), 17. 23 symbol of sentience, of life in all its conflicts and meanings.”25

Kevin Lynch argues, “To preserve effectively, we must know for what the past is being retained and for whom. The management of change and the active use of remains for present and future purpose are preferable to an inflexible reverence for sacrosanct past. The past must be chosen and changed, made in the present. Choosing a past helps us to construct the future.”26 In the case of the Moraine Assembly plant, an adaptive reuse project would preserve the past to continue a history of a progress and innovation in the Dayton region. It would serve to not only as a nostalgic connection to the lives past of those who lived and worked in Moraine during the time the plant was open, but as a reminder to future generations of the foundation the city of Moraine was built on.

Randolph Langenbach explores the problems similar cities to Moraine have faced when the industry they grew from left in the U.S. Department of

Housing and Urban Development publication, A Future From the Past: The

25 Ibid, 11. 26 Lynch, What Time is this Place?, 64. 24 Case for Conservation and Reuse of Old Buildings in Industrial Communi- ties. He comments on initial reactions most cities have to reach out to existing major industries to try to lure them into relocating to their community. The problem he notes with this is the relocating industry has little stake in the community and often offers only low-paying jobs and little security of staying in the community for an extended period of time. Langebach suggests the best strategy for these communities is to identify any special resources they have and use them in an effort to re-grow.27 One of those resources could be local businesses to encourage and nurture to grow locally. These businesses would have a greater chance of committing to the community as they grow and offer more opportunity for positions of advancement for local workers as the business grows.28 Another resource is existing abandoned industrial space. Rather than demolishing these spaces, communities should use them to encourage small growing businesses to exploit their large, inexpensive,

27 Randolph Langenbach and others, A Future from the Past : The Case for Conservation and Reuse of Old Buildings in Industrial Communities (Washington: Dept. of Housing and Urban Development : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1978), 11. 28 Ibid, 14. 25 open floor space.29 In the end, the best strategy could be to not only attract existing major industries for immediate relief, but also encourage local businesses to grow for long-term support of the community.

This makes a good case for why Moraine Assembly plant is an excel- lent candidate for adaptive reuse. The site and remaining buildings offer an expansive meaningful site for the city to anchor itself to. Lynch comments on choosing industrial sites for preservation.

“Our perceptions guide what we choose to preserve. Old bridges are bold and elegant; they leap up against the force of gravity. Whatever their hidden human costs may have been, they were useful to, and used by, everyone. Old factories, on the other hand, sit heavily on the ground. They were places of noise, stress, and hard labor. They visibly remind us of what it cost this country to achieve its wealth and who paid. Little won-

der that few protest the loss of an old factory building.”30

29 Ibid, 14. 30 Lynch, What Time is this Place?, 49. 26 At first glance, Lynch’s comments seem to make a case against preserving factories. However, is it poor practice to remind ourselves what it cost this country to achieve its wealth? That memory could be a strong foundation to build from. It could not only help rebuild the hole left when General Motors abandoned the Moraine Assembly plant, but also encourage future generations to sustain the wealth and achievement Moraine can obtain.

How could Moraine Assembly be adaptively reused? There is little that could be inserted to fully take advantage of the building and site as it sits today. The longer the building sits vacant, the more it deteriorates and becomes detrimental for the community. Lynch suggests, “Where old structures cannot support present functions without impairing those functions, and unless they are of exceptional didactic or esthetic value, they can be cleared away, although their fragments may be used to enhance new buildings.”31 The Moraine Assembly plant may fit this description quite well. Therefore, the best strategy may not be to find a program that fits the building, but rather break the building down into smaller components that fit other programs.

31 Ibid, 57. 27 In the book, Corporate Wasteland: The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization, Steven High and David W. Lewis comment on the demolition of industrial sites around which communities had been built. They observed in many cases, the community would turn out in large numbers to watch the demolition of the buildings they had based their lives around. The demolitions served as a sense of closure for them to move on to a new chapter in their lives.32 In a similar fashion, partial demolition of the Moraine As- sembly plant could offer Moraine residents a sense of closure to the General Motors presence in the community, while leaving part of the building intact would provide a starting point for the city to begin forming their new identity. Lynch describes this process, “Where (the motive) is the enhancement of present value and a sense of the flow of time, I should encourage temporal collage, creative demolition and addition”33

32 Steven C. High and David W. Lewis, Corporate Wasteland : The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization (Ithaca: IRL Press, 2007), 27- 28. 33 Lynch, What Time is this Place?, 63-64. 28 One strategy for breaking down the building into smaller components would be to strip it down to its structural skeleton and use it as the basis for smaller buildings within it. The structural skeleton could not only provide and existing structure for the smaller buildings to build from, but also an ordered grid to inform the organization of these new buildings. This falls in line with Lynch’s strategy for preservation, “The esthetic aim is to heighten contrast and complexity, to make visible the process of change. The achievement of the aim requires creative and skillful demolition, just as much as skillful new design.”

This new group of buildings within the structure could be organized to be the city’s new center, something the city of Moraine lacks. The new programs placed within these buildings need not be industrial in nature, as the building had served in the past. According to Lynch,

“We need not be so concerned about perfect conformity to past

form but ought rather to seek to use remains to enhance the complexity and significance of the present scene. The contrast

29 of old and new, the accumulated concentration of the most significant elements of the various periods gone by, even if they are only fragmentary reminders of them, will in time produce a landscape whose depth no one period can equal, although such time-deep areas may be achieved only in some parts of the city.” 34

The city’s municipal offices, as well as services such as police and fire departments, could be relocated to some of these buildings to help reinforce the idea of a new city center. In the future, the structure would be seen as an industrial ruin integrated into the fabric of the city’s center. Its grid could also inform the design o the landscape and redevelopment of the land surrounding the factory today. Once again, this falls in line with Lynch’s strategies toward preservation,

34 Ibid, 57. 30 “Clever restoration obscures the essential quality of imperma- nent remains. A pleasantly ruinous environment demands some in efficiency, a relaxed acceptance of time, the esthetic ability to take dramatic advantage of destruction. A landscape acquires emotional depth as it accumulates these scars.”35

35 Ibid, 44. 31 Chapter 4 - Precedents

The Brewery

Former Pabst Brewery – Milwaukee, WI

Redevelopment Currently in Progress

Joseph J. Zilber – Developer

Background:

The Brewery is a historic redevelopment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The site was home to the Pabst Brewery from 1844 to 1996. Now, it is being redeveloped as a mixed-use community with uses including hotels, houses, restaurants, and offices. The site is being marketed for its location near interstate highway-43, downtown Milwaukee, and Lake Michigan. It is being ad- vertised for its versatility; “Plans to develop are limited only by your imagina- tion, and will be given thoughtful consideration in any purchase agreement.”36 Image 4.1 - (Above) Aerial view of Pabst Brewery Image 4.2 - (Below) Masterplan for site 36 Brewery Project LLC, “The Brewery: A Joseph J. Zilber Historic Rede- redevelopment velopment,” Brewery Project LLC, http://www.thebrewerymke.com/index.htm (accessed March 12, 2010). 32 Design:

The site consisted of several buildings dedicated to the brewing industry including warehouses and brew-houses. Due to its size, the site has been divided into lots and each building offered separately with the intentions of attracting a variety of uses including hotels, houses, restaurants, and offices.37 The historic preservation aspect of the project is limited to the restoration of the buildings’ exteriors while the interiors are redesigned to fit each new use. The site also has two vacant lots available for new construction.

Image 4.3 - (Above) Brewery building prior to restoration Image 4.4 - (Below) Rendering of building 37 Ibid. after restoration 33 Thesis Implications:

Similar to the Pabst Brewery site, the Moraine Assembly site is too large to support many uses other than large industry. Although the Pabst site was already divided into separate buildings, the decision to give each of those buildings its own program helps utilize the capacity of the full site and change the site from an industrial complex into a community. This enforces the idea to break down the massive footprint of the Moraine assembly plant in order to incorporate a variety of programs in order to establish the site as the new Moraine city center.

Image 4.5 - (Above) Brewery interior prior to renovation Image 4.6 - (Below) Rendering of brewery interior after renovation 34 National Studio for Contemorary Arts - Le Fresnoy

Lille, France

1991-1998

Bernard Tschumi Architects

Background:

Le Fresnoy is located in a small industrial suburb of Lille. The site was developed in the 1900s with entertainment-based buildings. By the early 1970s, the buildings were closed due to the decline of the area. Until 1987, the buildings sat vacant and deteriorated. Then, the National Studio for Con- temporary Arts found them and planned to reuse them for their school of film and visual arts. Bernard Tschumi was chosen to design the new site because his plan included a new roof structure covering the existing buildings on the site, unifying them while protecting them from the elements.38

Image 4.7 - (Above) Diagram of interaction between roof and existing buildings 38 Bernard Tschumi and Joseph Abram, Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architec- Image 4.8 - (Below) Model of Le Fresnoy ture Inbetween (New York: Monacelli Press, 1999), 11-15. 35 Design:

Due to the deterioration of the existing buildings on the site, the cost of repair to salvage them was high. Because of this, Tschumi designed a new roof structure to cover the entire site and protect the buildings from further deterioration. This roof also acted to unify the buildings as one complex and carried the new mechanical and electrical elements to each. The roof also created a new “in between” space between the existing buildings and new roof.39 In this space, Tschumi inserted stairs, ramps, and suspended walk- ways for users to experience the site as they circulate through it. While the existing buildings were renovated for their new uses, they still retain much of their original character and read as separate from but integrated with the new roof structure. 40

Image 4.9 - (Above) HVAC ducts supported in “in between” enter existing structure Image 4.10 - (Below) Photograph of Le 39 Kenneth Powell, Architecture Reborn : The Conversion and Recon- Fresnoy before deterioration struction of Old Buildings (London: Laurence King, 1999), 135. 40 Tschumi and Abram, Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture Inbetween, 40. 36 Design Implications:

Le Fresnoy is an interesting study in regards to this thesis. While Le Fresnoy uses new construction to protect and unify the existing buildings on its site, this thesis suggests the use of an existing building to unify the new construction of a town center. While the strategies are different, Tschumi’s design can inform the treatment of new and old elements in this thesis’ design. Tschumi purposefully keeps the roof structure, mechanical, and electrical systems separate from the existing buildings in order to make a clear distinc- Image 4.11 - Photograph of “in-between” tion between old and new. Then, he allows users to occupy that separation in order to fully experience the changes made on the site.

37 Ludesch Community Center

Vorarlberg, Austria

2005

Hermann Kaufmann ZT GmbH

Background:

The Ludesch Community Center was designed to give the town of Ludesch in Austria a city center. Since the community’s public buildings were scattered throughout the town of 3000 residents, they offered little to nurture a central place to gather. The Community Center incorporated several social programs into one design; including a village square, café, multi-purpose hall, playgroup, shop, library, post office, childcare, offices, and local government offices. Situated at the end of the village’s main street, the Community Center is designed to receive the residents of Ludesch. 41 Image 4.12 - (Above) Site plan Image 4.13 - (Below) Photograph of 41 Marie-Helene Contal and Jana Revedin, Sustainable Design: Towards Ludesch Community Center a New Ethic in Architecture and Town Planning (Boston: Birkhauser, 2009), 64. 38 Design:

The Community Center is actually three buildings organized to act as one. These buildings are organized on the rectangular site; lining three sides and creating an enclosed town square open to the end of Ludesch’s main street. The square is covered with a translucent photovoltaic roof supported by a steel structure.42 Short alleys branch off the square between the 3 buildings. These alleys are also covered by glass, creating well-lit exterior face with an interior feel. Each building fits within a grid on the site informing their placement and detailing; including the placement of mullions. The skin of each building is primarily vertical wood boards and storefront glass. Some fenestrations are detailed so that the wooden slats of the surrounding skin continue over the opening.

Image 4.14 - Photograph of Courtyard

42 “Community Center in Ludesch,” Detail June, 2007, 657. 39 Thesis Implications:

The Community Center’s goal to create a village square has obvious similarities to this thesis’ goal to create a center for the City of Moraine. How- ever, the scale of the Ludesch project is considerably smaller than the adaptive reuse plan of the Moraine Assembly plant. Yet, the design’s solutions for incorporating several programs into one project by dividing the project into three more manageable buildings can help inform the strategies of this thesis. The program of the business incubators in this thesis calls for a variety of shared, public, and private spaces similar to the various elements in the Community Center program. The grid created by the steel structure of the courtyard generates an order to the organization of the site similar to the grid Image 4.15 - Diagram showing how of the existing factory structure in Moraine can inform the organization of the building masses interact with grid ordering system thesis site. Lastly, the vertical wood and glass skin of the Community Center buildings enhances the verticality of the steel structure of the courtyard while introducing a new material to the design palate. This strategy could inform the way materials are used within the reuse of the Moraine Assembly plant.

40 3535 Hayden

Culver City, California

1994-1997

Eric Owen Moss

Design:

3535 Hayden concerns itself little with the history of the building it replaced except for the language of its structure. The existing structure was completely demolished except for one masonry wall and its wood bowstring- truss frame. Next, a four-story steel-frame was erected in and around the re- Image 4.16 - Streetfront view of maining structure. The building was then designed around the two structures, 3535 Hayden in Culver City. with both being expressed. It is obvious that the presence of the remnants of the original building is from prior to the new building’s construction. It’s careful integration into the new design enhances the spaces’ complexity. The elements of the original building take on a new meaning in the new design, but

41 are visual reminders of the site’s past.43 Speaking on a similar project, also in Culver City, Owens said, “the original building has some presence in the solution, but the degree of that presence is up to you. You can’t eradicate all of it, so you have to try to understand it. It’s like starting to work on a page that is not blank.”44

43 Paola Giaconia, Eric Owen Moss : The Uncertainty of Doing (Milan, Italy; New York, NY: Skira; Distributed in North America by Rizzoli Internation- Image 4.17 - Progression from building al Publications, 2006), 108. frame to final massing. 44 Powell, Architecture Reborn : The Conversion and Reconstruction of Old Buildings, 89. 42 Thesis Implications:

3535 Hayden is an example of how this thesis argues adaptive reuse can be rethought. In many cases, adaptive reuse focuses on minimizing the changes to an existing building while adapting it to a new use. Moss, however, dramatically changed the building existing at 3535 Hayden and integrated it into his new design, rather than integrating his design into it. The results change the original elements’ meaning on the site, but allow for their continued existence to inform the spaces of the new building and preserve their industrial language into today.

Image 4.18 - Example showing how existing structure interacts with interior of new 3535 Hayden Interiors.

43 Chapter 5 - Thesis Project

5.1 Project Goals and Issues

The city of Moraine has literally and figuratively grown itself around the Moraine Assembly plant since its construction in 1917. The plant has played many roles in the community’s growth; including providing jobs, social activities, education, and a sense of identity. When General Motors sold its Frigid- aire Division in 1979, the community was fortunate General Motors continued its presence on the site; converting the site to a truck and SUV assembly plant. Whether housing Frigidaire or General Motors, the plant was a central Image 5.1 - The plant is a major presence when entering Moraine by Kettering Blvd figure to the community. When GM closed the plant on December 23, 2008, Moraine not only lost a source of jobs, but also a source of identity and the center of its growth.

The growing number of vacant industrial buildings throughout the country makes it unlikely the City will be able to find a company willing to invest in the Moraine Assembly plant because of its size and location. This, along with the negative issues discussed in chapter 3, makes a strong case against trying to lure an existing company to relocate into the building as the

44 city’s only strategy. This thesis suggests that in addition to attracting an existing company for immediate relief, Moraine should also focus its efforts to encourage new businesses to grow within the community and recreate a center for the city.

In order to accomplish these goals, Moraine can draw inspiration from the Moraine Assembly site’s past. Since its beginning, the site has been a place of progress and change. Demolishing the remaining building would mean erasing a visual reminder of the source of the city’s growth. The city can reuse the remaining plant facilities on the site in order to create a center to the community that supports it today, nurtures its growth for the future, and remain a visual reminder of the values the city was built on.

45 5.2 Site

The site is located just east of Interstate highway 75, about five miles south of downtown Dayton, Ohio. Mostly flat and fairly level, the 300-acre site is bordered by a residential zone from its south to east edge, a commercial zone to the northeast, small industry to the north, a small residential zone to the northwest, an office park and warehouse to the west, and another small residential zone to the southwest.

The site has access to several thoroughfares. Springboro Pike cuts through the middle of the site on a north-south axis. Dryden Road follows the western edge of the site while Kettering Boulevard and Dixie Drive follow the southeast edge. West Stroop Road enters the site from the east and termi- nates at Springboro Pike. Running parallel to the west of Springboro Pike are numerous rail-lines.

The remaining Moraine Assembly building is located directly north of Image 5.2 - Site Plan West Stroop Road and runs directly parallel east of Springboro Pike. Most of the site between Dryden Road and Springboro Pike has been demolished. 46 Image 5.3 - Regional Plan

47 The only remaining structures are the plants water treatment facility and original compressor house. The concrete floor slab of the plant that once stood between Dryden Road and the rail-lines is the only remaining clue of its existence. The area east of the rail-lines and west of Springboro Pike has mostly been converted into a large parking lot. Springboro Pike, West Stroop Road, and Kettering Boulevard border a small triangular portion of the southeast edge of the site. It primarily consists of a parking lot but also contains a paint shop connected to the remaining Moraine Assembly Plant through two enclosed bridges crossing over West Stroop Road.

Image 5.4 - (Above) Plant Interior Image 5.5 - (Below) Plant Interior

48 Image 5.6 - (Left) Plant Administration Building in brick Image 5.7 - (Right) Conveyor bridges above Stroop Road

Image 5.8 - (Left) Plant viewed from Dryden Road Image 5.9 - (Right) Plant viewed from southbound Springboro Pike

49 5.3 Site Treatment

To plan for the future redevelopment of the Moraine Assembly site, the existing structural grid of the remaining building is extended to the extents of the site. This grid is used to inform future decisions on the site, such as zon- ing and detailing. The grid as an epitome of the industrial typology, and it’s influence on the site, is a metaphoric representation of the influence the factory has had in shaping the community around it.

After the structural grid is extended throughout the site, a larger grid is defined within it in order to make design decisions on a more manageable scale compared to the whole site. The gridlines of this larger grid are placed at every fourth row within the existing grid. The placement is derived from the location of docking bays within the Moraine Assembly plant on the site. Because the docking bays are used to place the large gridlines, planning and design decisions focus on placing circulation and transit within them.

Image 5.10 - Diagrams of grid treatments Proposed new roads are placed in a pattern on the site influenced by the larger grid and existing surrounding road patterns. These proposed roads 50 allow for easier accessibility throughout the site for smaller building uses. New roads running east and west on the site are designated for two-way traffic. Those running north and south, including a slightly relocated Springboro Pike, are divided into two one-way roads in order to promote greater pedes- trian traffic on the site.

The redevelopment of the site is proposed for completion in separate phases. The first phase focuses on the redesign of the existing Moraine As- sembly plant. The plant in its entirety as it exists now is too large to accommodate existing industries that may be interested in relocating to the site. This thesis suggests that the administrative building attached to the factory be restored and re-used for a similar office-related program. Also, the newest portions of the plant, the furthest north and east, should be redeveloped for an existing industry wanting to set up a division in this area. This is also suggested by a study provided by the city of Moraine’s development office.45

45 Angelou Economics, “City of Moraine: Site Selection Initial Assessment Image 5.11 - Diagram of proposed roads Moraine GM Assembly Plant,” Document Provided by City of Moraine, Project LEAP: The City of Moraine’s Leading Economic Advantages and Programs, August 2009. 51 The advantage of using the newest portion is that it requires the least amount of intervention to bring it up-to-date while also including the most truck-docks and rail-access for shipping. This strategy corresponds with the information presented in chapter 3 that suggests the city’s strategy for the site should include multiple programs.

The remaining portion of the Moraine Assembly plant is reused to create a new center for the city of Moraine. When active, the plant acted figuratively and somewhat literally as the city’s center. Therefore the city’s public buildings scattered throughout the community, are relocated to the plant’s administrative wing while the unused portion of the plant is divided into new retail, mixed-use, commercial, market, and business incubator facilities. Simultaneously, the rest of the site is cleared of any industrial remains, including the paint shop connected to the Moraine Assembly plant, and developed for urban agriculture.

In the second phase of redevelopment, the site surrounding the plant Image 5.12 - Phase 1 Site Plan is allowed to redensify with new public parks, residential, and commercial

52 buildings using the extended structural grid to inform design decisions. The rail-line dissecting the site is buffered from the new construction by keeping it lined with agricultural plots. These urban agricultural plots are also kept to support the market within the proposed town center.

Legend

Incubator

Government

Retail

Mixed Use

Residential

Relocated Industry

Image 5.13 - Phase 2 Site Plan

53 5.4 Program

In chapter 3, this thesis suggested that an important step in the future of Moraine is to encourage the growth of local businesses rather than rely on the relocation of an existing company to replace the jobs lost when General Motors left the Moraine Assembly plant. Therefore, this thesis project focuses on a business incubator design for the site. The Dayton area has a long history of innovation and entrepreneurship the business incubator attempts to recapture. The incubator is placed within the existing structure of the Moraine Assembly plant to make a visual connection to the industrial history the community has. Also, adjacent to the incubator is a proposed market to sell produce grown by the surrounding urban agriculture plots and a food incubator. The food incubator uses the benefits of the market and incubator facility to encourage local upstart catering businesses, cafes, and restaurants.

The incubator facility includes several different spaces intended to encourage a variety of business types within the community. These spaces can be separated into shared and private categories. The shared spaces are

54 spaces used by all businesses and visitors of the incubator facility and include parking, reception, restrooms, break rooms, conference rooms, and technology labs. The private spaces are spaces used only by individual business and their visitors within the incubator facility and include office, retail, and storage spaces.

55 Program Outline

1. Public Spaces

A. Parking

B. Reception

This space is the main entrance of the facility and direct visitors to their destination. It includes a reception desk managed by the facility manager, but shared by all businesses located in the facility. Clear lighting and way finding is necessary.

C. Rest Room

D. Break Room

This space is shared by the businesses within the incubator for their employees’ meals and breaks. It includes food storage and

preparation utilities as well as tables and chairs to eat at. Day- lighting is preferred.

56 E. Conference Room

This space is a shared meeting area. The facility manager maintains its schedule. It includes a flexible conference layout, projection utilities, teleconference and videoconference accessibility, and pin-up space for presentations. The lighting in this room is easily controlled.

F. Technology Lab

This space is dedicated to shared technology components of the facility; including network servers and printing stations. The facility manager maintains this space for use by the businesses within the facility.

II. Private Spaces

A. Office Spaces

These spaces vary in size according individual business needs. They have flexible floor plans so each business can maximize 57 use for its own needs. They can be securely locked from access of others in the facility to maintain some privacy between businesses.

B. Retail

The retail space requires a small open floor plan for small retail- ers to organize by their needs. It should include ample lighting and street-frontage to encourage foot traffic into the space. The space should also have secure access to a small office space and storage area.

C. Storage

This space is connected to the retail space and used to store excess products unable to be displayed in the retail area.

58 5.5 Building and Design

The design portion of this thesis focuses on the reuse of the Moraine Assembly plant. Earlier in this chapter, however, the decision was made to divide the building into smaller portions for use by smaller programs. After the most recent addition to the Moraine Assembly plant is renovated for reuse by a relocated industry, the remaining portion of the factory is stripped down to its steel frame and the former administration building attached to the plant is renovated for use by the police, fire, and city departments of Moraine.The proposed new roads described earlier in this chapter are built and run be- neath the remaining skeleton of the plant. The skeleton remains as a visual reminder of the factory and as an element to tie together the city center that will replace it. The masterplan for the plant’s footprint includes mixed-use, retail, parking, farmers market, green space, and business incubator facilities in addition to the relocated existing industry and city government facilities that use the remaining factory structure as an industrial ruin to add complexity to Image 5.14 - Masterplan to extents of 46 their design and trigger involuntary memories of the sites past. existing Structure 46 Tim Edensor, Industrial Ruins : Spaces, Aesthetics, and Materiality (Oxford U.K. ; New York: Berg, 2005), 142. 59 As the primary focus of this design, the business incubator plays an important role in the future of Moraine. Because of the site’s history of supporting the city and driving its growth, it seems appropriate that a portion of the plant be reused to support the growth of future businesses and industries in the city. The business incubator model provides small private office facilities and shared support spaces (i.e.- conference rooms, printing services, network space, etc.) for young companies to establish themselves until they are stable enough for larger or more private conditions. As these companies are allowed to grow, they can create more job advancement opportunities for local residents.

The design of the business incubator begins with the roof structure. The existing steel skeleton is utilized to support the incubators roof. The material of the incubator’s roof structure is primarily wood beams attached to the existing steel frame in order to make a clear separation between new and old in the design. The remainder of the business incubator consists of three Image 5.15 - (Above) Roof Structure Detail elements, an entry, circulation, and programmatic elements. Each of these Image 5.16 - (Below) Roof Perspective elements is treated differently, but do not rely on the existing structure of the 60 site for support. This symbolizes the intentions of the thesis to use the historic elements on the site (the roof supported by the existing structure,) while also allowing for new growth on the site (the self-supported incubator elements.)

Programmatically, the incubator is split into two wings separated by the entrance. One wing, lining northbound Springboro Pike, is devoted to individual offices and retail spaces for each business. The second wing is devoted to shared-spaces supporting the businesses of the incubator. The entry element between the two wings contains the reception area to direct users through the building.

The circulation element serves several functions in the design. Inside, its primary use is to provide a path for users to access the programmatic spaces of the building, as well as a path the building’s utilities follow to serve each space. Outside, it acts as a large gutter to collect rainwater from the separate roofs supported by existing structure. The circulation element, therefore, is completely separated from the existing structure of the Moraine As- Image 5.17 - (Above) Building Diagram sembly plant. Because of this, it is treated as a hollow volume independently Image 5.18 - (Below) Programmatic Space

61 lacing through the facility ignoring the order established by the site’s existing steel skeleton.

Precast-concrete walls, and the separately supported roofs mentioned earlier, define the programmatic elements. These walls are intended only to define the programmatic spaces and not support the roof; therefore, clerestory windows hang from the roof and past the front of the walls below to visually show the non-structural relation between wall and roof, though, the relation of clerestory to wall below varies throughout the design. Where windows and exterior doors are desired, the clerestory element can extend down further to accommodate the openings.

Rather than functioning as an independent volume like the circulation element, the planes of the roof and wall structures define these spaces.As well, because the roofs are dependent on the order of the existing structural skeleton, the programmatic spaces below derive their form from the same order. This juxtaposition to the independent circulation element creates an Image 5.19 - (Above) Incubator Perspective Image 5.20 - (Below) Section interesting visual form influenced both by history and progress.

62 Image 5.21 - Incubator Plan 63 Chapter 6 - Conclusion

The City of Moraine and the Moraine Assembly site have been inextri- cably linked throughout the site’s ninety-three years of history. It is abundantly clear from the interrelation of the two, as discussed in chapter 2, that the plant was in fact the focal point around which the city grew. Therefore the significance of the memory associated with the site for the city of Moraine cannot be overemphasized. However, the need for change is equally compelling given that any discussion of future growth and prosperity for Moraine cannot be without considering a new approach. The fact that GM abandoned this site after almost a century of occupancy is a signifier of the transformation that the entire nation’s economy is going through. Large industrial patronage is giving away to smaller corporate service industries. In the wake of such transformation, Moraine can no longer look to its industrial past alone, but needs to seek newer directions to restore and revitalize itself. It can therefore be safely said that the site and the revitalization strategies that will be applied to it, will reflect the future prospects of Moraine as a city.

Once the largest employer of the city, the plant was responsible for a considerable segment of the city’s economy. The slow and steady decline in pro- 64 duction and employment afforded by the plant was taxing for the city anyway. However, when it shut down completely, it still created significant deficits in employment and consequently in the overall economy. In addition the abandoned site is undergoing considerable degeneration due to lack of use. The physical wear and tear apart, the decay and dereliction is a constant strain on the morale of the people of Moraine who come in regular contact with it due to its proximity to several major throughways. An immediate reversal of this decay is essential for Moraine to redeem its morale and economic stability.

A new use for the site is therefore imperative for Moraine. The rela- tionship of the city and the site is complex. The long association of the plant with the city makes it impossible to treat this site like a clean slate. Doing so, would be denying the identity of the city. Memories and past associa- tions need to be respected, and yet there is a need to eliminate the obsolete and make room for change and more promising ventures. This thesis has addressed these contradictory demands through design and programmatic interventions.

65 The plant’s grid was extended throughout the site to inform and order design decisions for the redensifcation of open spaces left behind when GM had torn down some of its structures. The grid is also extended into the landscaping where it is reflected in the spacing of the trees in the open areas. Parts of the plant were stripped of its skin to reveal the skeletal structure defined by the steel columns and trusses. The building was spatially divided for use by multiple programs. The structural grid as well as the steel frames served to unify these programs as the new city center as well as commemo- rate the its precursor. The thesis design further exemplifies this strategy by creating a new building that partially relies on the existing structure. In fact, parts of the new structure are deliberately and visibly kept independent of the existing structure to respect the past while acknowledging the new direction the site is taking.

Programmatically, the thesis reinstates the site as a city center by relocating several city government departments that are currently located spo- radically throughout the city. Retail use is introduced to the site to activate it as a destination for local residents. Mixed use is suggested to bring retail and 66 residential in closer proximity to each other, thus ensuring a ready market for any retail investment as well as improving real estate value of the area. Open areas for future development are assigned for urban agriculture to supply to the proposed market on site. The agricultural rows resonate the structural grid of the site integrating it with the design. The Dayton area’s long history of innovation and entrepreneurship is set to be revitalized with the inclusion of a business incubator facility.

67 Works Cited

Beringer, Sara M. History of Dayton’s Industries. Dayton, Ohio: N.P., 1955.

Contal, Marie-Helene and Revedin, Jana, Sustainable Design: Towards a New Ethic in Architecture and Town Planning, Boston: Birkhauser, 2009.

Darley, Gillian. Factory. Objekt Series. London: Reaktion, 2003.

Downing, Frances. Remembrance and the Design of Place. Sara and John Lindsey Series in the Arts and Humanities. 1st ed. Vol. 6. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.

Edensor, Tim. Industrial Ruins : Spaces, Aesthetics, and Materiality. Oxford U.K. ; New York: Berg, 2005.

General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division. GM Frigidaire at War : A Record of Continuing Achievement by the Men and Women of Frigidaire Division, General Motors Corporation. Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1944.

68 General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division, Life at Frigidaire: Employee Information Through the Camera’s Eye, Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Divi- sion, 1944.

General Motors Corporation. Frigidaire Division. Dept. of Public Relations, The Frigidaire Story, Dayton, Ohio: Frigidaire Division, 1961.

Giaconia, Paola. Eric Owen Moss : The Uncertainty of Doing. Milan, Italy; New York, NY: Skira; Distributed in North America by Rizzoli International Publications, 2006.

Gordon, Robert B. and Patrick M. Malone. The Texture of Industry : An Ar- chaeological View of the Industrialization of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

High, Steven C. and David W. Lewis. Corporate Wasteland : The Landscape and Memory of Deindustrialization. Ithaca: IRL Press, 2007.

Houser, Howard R, The Frigidaire Years, Centerville, Ohio : Howard R. Hous- er, 1996.

69 Langenbach, Randolph, Gene Bunnell, United States. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and Massachusetts. Dept. of Community Affairs. A Future from the Past : The Case for Conservation and Reuse of Old Buildings in Industrial Communities. Hud-Cpd ; 271. Washington: Dept. of Housing and Urban Development : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1978.

Lynch, Kevin. What Time is this Place?. 1 paperback ed. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1976; 1972.

Page, Max and Randall Mason. Giving Preservation a History : Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Powell, Kenneth. Architecture Reborn : The Conversion and Reconstruction of Old Buildings. London: Laurence King, 1999.

Tschumi, Bernard and Joseph Abram. Tschumi Le Fresnoy : Architecture In- between. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999.

70 Works Consulted

Burchell, Robert W., David Listokin, and Rutgers University. Center for Ur- ban Policy Research. The Adaptive Reuse Handbook : Procedures to Inventory, Control, Manage, and Reemploy Surplus Municipal Proper- ties. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University, Center for Urban Policy Research, 1981.

Diamonstein, Barbaralee. Buildings Reborn : New Uses, Old Places. 1st ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

Kidney, Walter C. and Society for Industrial Archeology. Working Places : The Adaptive use of Industrial Buildings:. 1st ed. Pittsburgh: Ober Park Asso- ciates, 1976.

Kirkwood, Niall. Manufactured Sites : Rethinking the Post-Industrial Land- scape. London ; New York: Spon Press, 2001.

Moss, Eric Owen. Eric Owen Moss : Buildings and Projects. New York: Riz- zoli, 1991.

Quantrill, Malcolm. The Environmental Memory : Man and Architecture in the Landscape of Ideas. New York: Schocken Books, 1987.

71 Stratton, Michael. Industrial Buildings : Conservation and Regeneration. Lon- don ; New York: E & FN Spon, 2000.

United States. Small Business Administration. Office of Business Develop- ment. Small Business Incubators : A Handbook on Startup and Manage- ment. Starting and Managing Series. Vol. 103. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Business Development, 1986.

Wheeler, Michael and Nigel Whiteley. The Lamp of Memory : Ruskin, Tradi- tion and Architecture. Manchester, UK ; New York; New York, NY, USA: Manchester University Press; Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

Wright, John Kirtland, David Lowenthal, Martyn J. Bowden, and Mary Alice Lamberty. Geographies of the Mind : Essays in Historical Geosophy in Honor of John Kirtland Wright. Special Publication - American Geographi- cal Society ; no. 40. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976; 1975.