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Marketing Modernism: Aluminum Cladding and the American Commercial Landscape

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Marketing Modernism: Aluminum Cladding and the American Commercial Landscape © 2017 Tait Johnson MARKETING MODERNISM: ALUMINUM CLADDING AND THE AMERICAN COMMERCIAL LANDSCAPE BY TAIT JOHNSON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Peter Mortensen, Chair Associate Professor Kenny Cupers, University of Basel, Director of Research Professor Dianne Harris, University of Utah Associate Professor David O’Brien Associate Professor Terri Weissman ABSTRACT In the postwar United States, aluminum became more widely used than any other metal in building construction except for steel. It was first produced in the early nineteenth century, finding architectural uses in the latter part of the century. By the 1960s, it was broadly employed to clad buildings in the form of frames, panels and screens. Because it was a new and extensively useful material, producers believed that its identity must be controlled. Focusing on the marketing mechanisms of Alcoa, Reynolds and Kawneer in the decades surrounding World War II, this dissertation examines the way in which commercial aluminum cladding was marketed as both instrumental in modernization and an image of modernity. Producers claimed that aluminum possessed properties which they believed underpinned the agency of aluminum to enact specific advantages for buyers. Properties that were identified by promoters, such as its relative lightness, ductility and particular visual characteristics were marketed within the context of capitalism as the ability of aluminum to reduce building cost, increase profit and reflect beauty. In turn, these advantages were promoted as enacting prosperity for the buyer and the commercial districts in which aluminum cladding was deployed. The promoted advantages of aluminum cladding and its underlying abilities were carried as messages in visual and textual productions. Furthermore, aluminum-clad buildings themselves were employed by promoters as “silent salesmen,” advertising aluminum to potential buyers, and as “machines for selling,” able to attract customers and make merchants profitable. Reflecting upon the assertions of promoters that aluminum held the ability to modernize the commercial landscape, I argue that for aluminum cladding promoters, modernism – the reactions to modernity in visual, textual and architectural productions – was a marketing project. ii The reproduction of aluminum-clad buildings in promotional material constituted a modernism to sell for the merchant, the corporation and the aluminum producer. iii To Heidi iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this dissertation allows a moment to offer my gratitude to those who have advised and accompanied me on this journey. My first debt of gratitude goes to my advisors Kenny Cupers, Director of Research, Dianne Harris, Peter Mortensen, Chair of Dissertation Committee, David O’Brien, and Terri Weissman. They have provided crucial guidance and mentorship, supporting this research from the earliest moments to the last. My close colleagues at the University of Illinois were an important network of friendship — AnnaMarie Bliss, Cesar Cruz, Ali Momen Heravi, Thulasi Ram Khamma, Keith Miller, Nubras Samayeen, and Jenn Thomas. Thank you for the late-night discussions, evaluation of ideas, accompaniment on study trips and discussion gatherings in formal and informal settings. I am grateful for the institutional support provided by the University of Illinois Graduate College Conference Travel Awards, the Pamela H. Simpson Presenter’s Fellowship from the Vernacular Architecture Forum, the Alan K. and Leonarda F. Laing Memorial Fellowship and the Ernest Stouffer Fellowship at the University of Illinois. These awards and sources of support allowed me to expand horizons of scholarship into archives central to this study and gain critical feedback on premises and conclusions. Additionally, support staff of the Illinois School of Architecture graduate office, Molly Helgesen and Chris Wilcock, kept the administrative side of producing this study an ease of mind for which I am thankful. The historical research of this dissertation has involved countless hours in the reading rooms and study spaces of archives. So many unknown individuals behind the scenes go unacknowledged, but their support is immeasurably valuable. Among those who were most visible, I offer my thanks to Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural & Fine Arts v Library; Nicole Richard, Drawings and Archives Assistant at the Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library; Mary Jones, Chief Librarian, Detre Library & Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center; Dick Price, Volunteer Researcher at the Detre Library & Archives, and Carol Bainbridge, Director, Niles History Center: Fort St. Joseph Museum. Similarly, librarians have offered their expertise and experience, yielding friendships and collegiality granting greater ease in historical research. With the Ricker Architecture & Art Library, I thank Melanie Emerson, Head; Christopher Quinn, Associate Professor / Assistant; and Dorfredia Williams, Assistant. With the Niles District Library, I thank Kaye Janet, Information Services Librarian. Lisa Croteau, Director of Marketing and Administration for Niles Main Street was kind with insights and knowledge about the town not formally recorded but valuable for pointing out the leads and traces. I offer thanks to John Martine, who graciously opened his architecture firm Strada for an extensive tour, revealing how he worked to renovate this floor of the historic Alcoa Building. The moral support of family was steady and unwavering. I thank my mother, father and brother for constant, unconditional support. My final debt of gratitude goes to my wife Heidi for everything. It could not have been done without you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………….…1 CHAPTER 1: OUT OF THE GROUND AND ONTO THE WORLD STAGE……….…36 CHAPTER 2: REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS SHAPE THE MARKET………….…55 CHAPTER 3: LOGICS OF RESEARCH AND DESIGN…………………………….…115 CHAPTER 4: MARKETING PROPERTIES AS ADVANTAGES………………….….162 CHAPTER 5: MODERNISM AS A MARKETING PROJECT………………………...196 EPILOGUE………………………………………………………………………………269 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………...…279 vii INTRODUCTION Sell them their dreams, sell them what they longed for and hoped for and almost despair to having. Sell them this hope, and you won't have to worry about selling them goods. - Hellen Landen Cass In 1967 the small town of Paola, Kansas, enacted a radical architectural transformation. Every façade facing the town square, on all four sides, was covered in either blue, green, yellow or red aluminum cladding. In response, project leaders declared that the town had finally modernized. The newspaper declared, “Facelift Propels Town Into Space Age”1 as though this was the attainment of a long-predicted arrival of “the future.” Approximately one hundred years earlier, Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Moon, predicting the use of aluminum – at the time a shiny, adaptable new material – would be someday used for space travel. Many other writers, manufacturers and architects saw in aluminum a vessel to bring about a bright and prosperous future, a virtual aluminum time machine. Aluminum was understood by aluminum producers and cladding manufacturers to hold specific properties, in turn marketed as advantages, through which promoters believed aluminum possessed the agency to enact prosperity. With a specific focus on commercial aluminum cladding, this dissertation examines (1) The ways in which aluminum was believed by promoters to possess properties leading to its enactment as an agent of modernization, that is, what aluminum was believed to be able to do; (2) The ways in which aluminum cladding was promoted as an image of modernity. I denote these two concerns as a focus on instrumentality 1 Forrest Hintz, “Facelift Propels Town into Space Age,” Wichita Eagle, June 15, 1968, 8a. 1 and image. Producers believed that aluminum cladding was instrumental because of their intentional engagement with the claimed abilities of aluminum to modernize the commercial landscape – not only by recladding existing buildings with aluminum, but also by cladding new buildings. The image of aluminum cladding was carried in visual productions such as photographs and renderings, textual productions in print, descriptions, and by aluminum-clad buildings themselves. Promoters intended for aluminum cladding to convey an image of modernity, arguing that the image and instrumentality of aluminum could enact prosperity. What follows is an analysis of how this dissertation contributes to the state of the field surrounding aluminum cladding, the commercial landscape, and modern architecture. It will summarize the questions and answers that have been asked by previous scholars and show how I build upon existing scholarship by extending new questions and providing new answers. This analysis is underpinned by the central question of this dissertation, which investigates the ways in which commercial aluminum cladding played a role in defining modern architecture. As such, the principal areas of scholarship informing this dissertation examine, at a wider scope, the contextual histories of modern architecture as it developed along with the accretions of consumerism that rose in the twentieth century. Within this wider, historical context, I also focus upon scholarship that studies the institutions and
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