I checked out this thread...
http://www.trains.com/trccs/forums/1135940/ShowPost.aspx
and it made me wonder... do industrial buildings always get bigger and more bland? Nothing wrong with the model just wondering about real life.
My chosen period is the 80s... where would that come in the "big is bland stakes"? Would there be a balance between lifeless sheet cladding boxes and industrial buildings with character? When did the change come about/begin/dominate?
Thinking about this... one of the places I work has some pretty big "boxes" that I would have thought were recent but an arial shot of the site shows them in place by at least the early 70s (judging by the road vehicles parked).
Then again, in a lot of pics I see windows blocked up with brick or concrete blocks. Sometimes what was once clearly a large window just has a small glazed slot at the top or even just glass "bricks". I imagine that this is about security and not having the windows smashed... but when did this start or become more common?
When did structures due for demoltition start getting the doors and windows blocked up instead of (at the most) just boarded up? --- One of my layout plans used what had been a rail loading dock with bricked up doors as a semi-relief back wall to suggest reduced rail traffic and era. In fact, I intended to go one step further and have the demolition crew starting work on one end of the structure.
Does anyone else model demolition?
Hmm? Maybe that's another thread?
TIA
30 or 40 years from now, people will think the buildings being put up today have "character" when compared with "new" structures. I don't recall thinking that new buildings had character when I was a kid, not the way the buildings that were already old then did.
In the US, the era of mass-produced tract housing begain with the "Levittown" concept in the 1950's. This was the industry's response to the sudden demand for new homes in the suburbs after World War II, when returning soldiers took advantage of the educational opportunities and other benefits offered by the G.I. Bill for veterans, fueling a long period of growth and prosperity. The trouble was, all the houses looked the same, block after block after block. (Remember the 50's tune "Silhouettes," about a guy who saw the shadow of his girlfriend kissing another guy against the windowshade, and then discovered he was at the right house, but on the wrong block? Yeah, it was like that. I had my first layout in one of those houses.)
Industrial and commercial buildings followed suit. The 60's and 70's saw the beginnings of look-alike strip malls and shopping centers. Meanwhile, older buildings were upgraded and added to, and greenery finally grew in around them, giving them that elusive "character" that the new ones lacked.
Just like people get character with age, so do buildings, I guess...
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Not sure on time frames, but just some more thoughts.
Many older companies simply add new building/additions to existing structures. You could have traditional ornate brick, with less ornate brick add on, followed by economical metal.
I'm not so sure all the buildings need to be "bland". There are many small details that add character, even to box structures. storage bins, roof details, electrical conduits, and all sorts of piping depending on the inductry.
Finally a thought on bricking up windows. Security may have been one aspect, as well as preventing vandalism. Another aspect is that lighting and ventilation got much better in the 70's and 80's with long life florescents and halogens along with higher efficiency heating/cooling units. In most older buildings, windows served two purposes, lettingth light in and air circulation. Hardly needed now days with the advancement in those tow areas.
Rick
IIRC, the corrugated metal buildings appeared in the late 1940s, and really took hold in the 50s. The blocked up windows became commonplace about the same time.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
I dont know about bland.
But consider this. No holes in the walls or roof means extra protection against product loss through theft AND control of all peoples through one or two doors that can be monitored.
I recall having to drive a half mile all the way to the end of that long, long warehouse to get to the only door availible for entry on that side. All the other doors are for fire exits only. The situation is worse in big box retail type companies that seek to actively control losses.
Some places like meat plants NEED to be bland. There is some serious work going on in these places and you need to protect the local area from fumes, gore, aromas etc...
Hate to say this, but the epitome of bland commercial-industrial structures in the United States hit right at the period you've chosen to model. It seems that everything built at that time was either steel corrugated siding, or concrete (poured or block) simple rectangular shapes with all the character of a newly-baked brick. Starting the early '90s, some degree of aesthetic value began to creep in (cornices, more interesting ground plans, multi-color accent elements...) and brand-new construction is rather pleasing in appearance - but still utilitarian.
Maturing landscape also adds character, which is often spectacularly lacking from '70s/'80s buildings but is now required in new construction by many local building codes.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
if you model out in the country away from where there would be ordinances and building codes,you can use colorful dilapidated trailers, pieces of billboards, and other things to make sheds for minor industries. in many cases the overarching peeling graphic content of these elements is more interesting than plain dilapidated wood structures of the past
DTT:
Blocked-up windows don't mean the building is going to be demolished. They mean some cheapskate didn't want to pay the heating bills. :)
Even steel buildings aren't necessarily bland. Take a look at Canton Drop Forge. This is a busy factory made mostly of steel buildings (albeit older ones) and it's anything BUT bland:
http://216.183.126.109:443/mfgq_live/uploads/profiles/facility16_118182.jpg
Remember that a lot of busy modern factories are not in modern buildings, or not entirely.
A lot of the blandness depends on the industry. Plastic-molding plants tend to fit the "clutterless, antiseptic, modern industry in a windowless box" stereotype. Steel fabrication shops and iron foundries often don't.
My suggestion is that you drive around and look at as many industries as possible to get ideas.
jecorbett wrote:An industrial building that will not serve retail customers has no need to be the least bit ornate. It simple needs to perform the function for which it was built. There is no point to adding architectural features for cosmetic reasons. Plain is practical for factories and processing plants. Why bother making them fancy. The people who have these built have no reason to create interesting structures for us to model.
j:
Sure they do. Neighborhood relations, company pride, the desire to not work in a pile o' crap. Those might not seem so important, but they matter more than you might realize.
You can often get a pretty good idea of how a company is run by looking at their plant. A big, extremely plain building is often a sign of a company that plans to stay only a short while, then move on when the boom in their field is over. A poorly maintained plant (not necessarily a dirty or weathered plant, but one which is obviously neglected) is often a bad sign.
I think anybody here would be proud to own this factory:
http://www.mcinnesrolledrings.com/mcinnes.asp
These people have some nice plants, too:
http://www.plastekgroup.com/
Unfortunately, the two photos up there don't show much but the office area and a wall, but the point is that, yes, management often does want their plant to look good.
Now, as for plainness, I have to admit that both of these have a lot of it, but there's a lot more detail than one might realize. The thing to do is to go and look at real plants to get ideas. Electrical equipment, lights, signs, landscaping, rat bait stations, trash cans, roads, drainage ditches, and litter and weeds along the chainlink fence could do a lot to take away that antiseptic look we often see. How many of us put picnic tables and wastebaskets by the shop doors? I almost never see one, and yet nearly every factory has one for those lunch breaks on nice days. Plainness does not have to equal blandness.
The nice thing about these plain buildings, besides the backdrop-flat thing already mentioned, is that their lack of windows makes them hard to mentally "scale". They can be compressed an awful lot without looking wrong. It's like the situation we get with a treeless hill vs. a grassy hill with a few scattered trees.
The old mill buildings of 19th century New England provide a bit of a lesson in this. These were built along rivers or manmade channels, typically, to make use of water power for turning the machinery. Railroads were key elements of the transportation system back then, as the cotton came from the South, and the cloth produced was shipped all over the world.
The mill complexes were huge, and frequently included not only the factory buildings themselves, but also living accomodations for the workers nearby. Today, we look on these old structures as architecturally and historically interesting, but, in their day, they were probably looked on as bland and ugly multi-story brick blockhouses. Progress and jobs, yes, but at what price?
Now, many of these old buildings are seeing a new life. They are being re-programmed as condos and offices and, thanks to their riverside locations, they are in prime real-estate territory. In an age of glass and metal city buildings, these old brick blockhouses have an appeal that no one could have forseen.
One of the things that add to the blandness of many industrial buildings was the advent of pre-engineered buildings starting in the 60s. Butler and a number of other companies starting selling buildings in standard exterior sizes built from structural steel and covered in courrogated, colored steel paneling. Most of them came in blue, green and buff colors with aluminum or white roofs. The advantage was factory prefabricated structural shapes to build the load bearing parts of the building, and standardized doors and windows. The customer can choose the type, size, and location of doors and windows, and some add-on items like entry annexes. This type of design and construction greatly reduces the cost of the building as compared to one individually designed, but they all look much the same.
The Pikestuff line of buildings represents this type of building. Check out Walthers listings to see what I mean; how often do you see a building that looks like these???
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Structure&scale=H&manu=pikestuff&item=&keywords=&instock=Q&split=90&Submit=Search
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch