Experimental Logistics: Extra-architectural projects at SOM, 1933-1986 ARCHNES by MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF rECHNOLOWuY Ann Lok Lui FEB 25 2015 Bachelor of Architecture Cornell University, 2011 LIBRARIES Submitted to the Department of Architecture in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Architecture Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 2015 2015 Ann Lok Lui. All Rights Reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature redacted Signature of Author: Department of Architecture January 15, 2015 Signature redacted Certified by: Arindfrutt? Associate Professor of the History of Architecture Thesis Supervisor Signature redacted Accepted by: Terry Knight, Profe r of DesigL4iod Computation Chair of the Department ommittee on Graduate Students Committee Arindam Dutta Associate Professor of the History of Architecture Supervisor Ana Miljacki Associate Professor of Architecture Reader Experimental Logistics: Extra-architectural projects at SOM, 1933-1986 by Ann Lok Lui Submitted to the Department of Architecture on January 15, 2015 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Architecture Studies ABSTRACT In 1950, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited for the first time the work of an architectural of- fice instead than a single designer. The exhibition's poster child was Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), billed in MoMA's press release as a firm driven by both the "discipline of modern archi- tecture" and "the discipline of American organizational methods." MoMA's pivot to showcase collaborative practices rather than individual designers represented the broader emergence of large architectural offices in the postwar period. This thesis investigates the work of SOM, char- acterized by Frank Lloyd Wright with perhaps unbeknownst precision as a 'plan factory.' It does so by introducing the idea of the 'extra-architectural' artifact: the residual traces of the proce- dures and protocols undergirding the office's built projects, as of yet overlooked by the chroni- clers of the firm. These artifacts are used as evidence to show how SOM's in-house design of managerial logistics resulted in a subsequent architecture of logistics. This thesis begins first in 1933, with the exhibition of products and urban-scale infrastructure at the Century of Progress; second, with a wartime advertising practice in print and prototype, and subsequent federally funded defense housing contracts; and third, with early "crude" efforts to calculate an 'optimized' architecture-by-spreadsheet in the '60s and '70s in partnership with IBM. This study of SOM's extra-architectural projects ultimately reveals a similarity to the experimentation of the architec- tural avant-garde and provokes a rethinking of Manfredo Tafuri's theoretical metropolis. Emerg- ing intrinsically from the conduct of a large organization, SOM's experimental logistics suggest a different way to understand the self-propagation of the corporate office, a model for architectural practice growing at an exponential rate in the contemporary field. Thesis Supervisor: Arindam Dutta Title: Associate Professor of the History of Architecture Acknowledgements I would like to first thank Arindam Dutta, my advisor, for his unwavering support that began when I first entered the program, continued through my time off, and warmly welcomed me back. Thank you for al- ways challenging my ideas and inspiring me in the creative practice of history. Further, I'm deeply grateful to Ana Miljacki, my reader, for her warmth, above-and-beyond support of me and this project, and firm- but-gentle steering of this thesis. Any errors or confusion in this text are wholly my own. I am need to thank Caroline Jones, for her faith in me as I reckoned with HTC my first semester; Kristel Smentek, whose rigorous Methods class first inspired this project; Lauren Jacobi, for her excellent comments at both my reviews; and to Mark Jarzombek who taught me a love of history and theory through a single, world-changing class on footnotes. Thank you also to Gediminas Urbonas, for inspiration, support, and teaching me to challenge the hand that feeds. Also, I would like to thank Ana and Michael Kubo for giving me the opportunity to participate in OfficeUS, which inspired in me a love of office minutiae and under whose wing (and bibliography) this text had a chance to grow. I'm also indebted to other scholars, including Nicholas Adams and Jay Wicker- sham, whose work I drew from and were kind enough to answer my questions. At MIT, Kate and Anne helped untiringly, fielding my odd questions and requests for office supplies with kindness. Significantly: I want to express my sincere gratitude to the office of SOM, my former employer, which perhaps unwittingly provoked in me a curiosity and admiration beyond my job description. Thank you to Brian Lee for supporting my research by allowing me access to the office's archives. I'm also grate- ful to Eric Keune, who first suggested a writing project on the office. Thank you for your mention of un- der-examined housing projects and for reading an early draft of Chapter 2-I hope you do not regret asking me to look more closely. I should also express my gratitude to the members of the Computer Group who generously spoke with me for this project: Lavette Teague, David Sides, and Neil Katz. Also to Karen Widi, who suffered my many requests on extremely wide-ranging topics. A sincere thank you to the friends without whom none of this would have been possible these past two years: Irina, Nisa, Nathan, Larisa, and Ben. I'm grateful to my parents for their support, including my dad's own love of history-of which he told me the long arc is, slowly but surely, up. And far from last, to Craig Reschke, who shares my love of this story and so much more. Ann Lui January 15, 2015 "Nothing is so easy to see as the imagination of a genius and nothing is as hard to see as the imagination of a company." - Philip Johnson, for Mobil Oil advertisement "Most architects do not dream, they are simply businessmen." - David Riesman Table of Contents List of Illustrations 8 Introduction: The Second Discipline: Revisiting SOM's "American organizational methods" 11 Chapter 1: Spectacles of Process: Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition, 1933-1934 20 Chapter 2: Print and Prototypes: SOM advertising practice and contracts on the home front, 1940-1945 37 I. Experiments in Print: Journal advertisements and SOM's paper architecture 40 II. SOM's Design of defense housing in print: Architectural Forum and "Flexible Space" 46 III. Full-Scale Prototypes: "Experimental Houses" and partnership with the Pierce Foundation 52 IV. Bomber Cities: Middle River, MD, Ypsilanti, MI and Oak Ridge, TN 57 Chapter 3: Data Dreams: The Computer Group and architecture by spreadsheet, 1967-1984 69 I. A Willing and Capable Partner: SOM and the Computer 74 II. "Building is a 3D Spreadsheet": Applications of the Computer Group 84 III. Computational Logistics: Prosthetic aids for architectural optimization 90 Post Script: Architecture Extra-Normal: Rethinking Tafuri and the Bureaucratic Avant-garde 92 Bibliography 96 List of Illustrations Fig. 1.1 Otis Elevator Exhibit postcard, 1933-1934 - Otis Elevator Company, The Wolfsonian Florida International University Fig. 1.2 Map of the Century of Progress fair grounds, 1934 - Century of Progress International Exposition Chicago and Kaufmann & Fabry Co. (Official Photographers), "Official Guide Book of the World's Fair of 1934," A Century of Progress International Exposition, 1934. Fig. 1.3 House diagrams from "Flexible Space," 1942 - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, "Flexible Space," The ArchitecturalForum, September 1942. Fig. 2.1 Celotex Company-SOM advertisement, 1943 - Celotex Company and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. "For Sale Tomorrow's Miracle Home," American Home, February 27, 1943. Fig. 2.2 GE-SOM advertisement, 1944 - General Electric and Nathaniel Alexander Owings, "General Electric Advertisement," ArchitecturalForum, June 1944. Fig. 2.3 Pittsburgh Plate Glass-SOM advertisement, 1945 - Pittsburgh Plate Glass and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, "There's a New Trend in Store Design: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill's Conception of a Grocery," ArchitecturalForum, March 1945. Fig. 2.4 Clip from SOM's Architectural Forum Defense House - "The Architectural Forum Defense House by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Architects," ArchitecturalForum, November 1940: 444-449. Fig. 2.5 SOM's "Flexible Space" - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, "Flexible Space," The ArchitecturalForum, September 1942. Fig. 2.6 Pierce Foundation-SOM Experimental House No. 2, 1940 - Robert L. Davison, "Research Develops a $2,600 House in Sixteen Years, Builds It in Ten Days," ArchitecturalForum 72 (May 1940): 365-69. Fig. 2.7 Pierce-Cemesto House, 1941 - "Houses for Defense: Private Enterprise Prefabricates 600 for Bomber Builder Glenn Martin," Architectural Forum 75 (November 1941): 321. Fig 2.8 Pierce-Cemesto House at Aero Acres, 1941 - "Houses for Defense: Private Enterprise Prefabricates 600 for Bomber Builder Glenn Martin," ArchitecturalForum 75 (November 1941): 321. 9 Fig. 3.1 O'Hare Plaza, 1970 - Ezra Stoller and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, "O'Hare Plaza exterior," c. 1970, image: 1971. Image and original data provided by Esto, from ArtStor. Fig. 3.2 One Shell Plaza, 1971 - Ezra Stoller and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, "One Shell Plaza exterior," 1966-1972, image: 1971. Image and original data provided by Esto, from ArtStor. Fig. 3.3 Screenshot from "9 Cities," 1984 - Peter Little, 9 Cities by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 1984. Scanned from the Original 16mm Film, 1984, http://vimeo.com/93315120. Fig. 3.4 SARAPI, by SOM Systems, 1972. - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, SOM Systems- SARAPI (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, 1972) 11 Introduction The Second Discipline: Revisiting SOM's "American organizational methods" In 1950, the Museum of Modern Art exhibited for the first time the work of an architectural office instead of a single designer.