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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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