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Figure 5. Following World War II, architects and engineers took Figure 6. The Bailey Magnet School in Jackson, Mississippi, was
advantage of improvements in concrete production, quality control, designed as the Jackson Junior High School by the firm of N. W.
and advances in precast concrete to design structures such as the Police Overstreet & Town in 1936. The streamlined building exemplifies the
Headquarters building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, constructed in applicability of concrete to creating a modern architectural aesthetic.
1961. Photo: Courtesy of the Philadelphia Police Department. Photo: Bill Burris, Burris/Wagnon Architects, P.A.
Highway as an example. Concrete "seedling miles"
were constructed in remote areas to emphasize the
superiority of concrete over unimproved dirt. The
Association believed that as people learned about
concrete, they would press the government to construct
good roads throughout their states. Americans'
enthusiasm for good roads led to the involvement
of the federal government in road-building and the
creation of numbered U.S. routes in the 1920s (Fig. 3).
During the early twentieth century, Ernest Ransome
in Beverly, Massachusetts, Albert Kahn in Detroit, and
Richard E. Schmidt in Chicago, promoted concrete
Figure 7. Detailed bas reliefs as well as sculptures, such as this lion at
for use in "Factory Style" utilitarian buildings with
the Bailey Magnet School, could be used as ornamentation on concrete
an exposed concrete frame infilled with expanses
buildings. Sculptural concrete elements were typically cast in molds.
of glass. Thomas Edison's cast-in-place reinforced
concrete homes in Union Township, New Jersey
(1908), proclaimed a similarly functional emphasis Throughout the twentieth century, a wide range of
in residential construction. From the 1920s onward, architectural and engineering structures were built using
concrete began to be used with spectacular design concrete as a practical and cost-effective choice-and
results: examples include John J. Earley's Meridian concrete also became valued for its aesthetic qualities.
Hill Park in Washington, D.C.; Louis Bourgeois' Cast in place and precast concrete were readily adapted
exuberant, graceful Baha'i Temple in Wilmette, Illinois to the Streamlined Moderne style, as exemplified by the
(1920-1953), for which Earley fabricated the concrete Bailey Magnet School in Jackson, Mississippi, designed
(Fig. 4); and Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater as the Jackson Junior High School by N.W. Overstreet
near Bear Run, Pennsylvania (1934). Continuing & Town in 1936 (Figs. 6 and 7). The school is one of
improvements in quality control and development many concrete buildings designed and constructed
of innovative fabrication processes, such as the under the auspices of the Public Works Administration.
Shockbeton method for precast concrete, provided Recreational structures and landscape features also
increasing opportunities for architects and engineers. utilized the structural range and unique character of
Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York City exposed concrete to advantage, as seen in Chicago'S
(1959); Geddes Brecher Qualls & Cunningham'S Police Lincoln Park Chess Pavilion, designed by Morris
Headquarters building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Webster in 1956 (Fig. 8), and the Ira C. Keller Fountain
(1961); and Eero Saarinen's soaring terminal building at in Portland Oregon, designed by Lawrence Halprin in
Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., 1969 (Fig. 9). Concrete was also popular for building
and the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport in New interiors, with ornamental features and exposed
York (1962), exemplify the masterful use of concrete structural elements recognized as part of the design
achieved in the modern era (Fig. 5). aesthetic (See Figs. 10 and 11 in sidebar).
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