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Architecture
Popular Mechanics
Issue: Oct, 1923
Posted in: Architecture
Posted: 08/09/2012
2 Comments
UGLY NORDHOFF BECOMES BEAUTIFUL OJAI (Oct, 1923)

Charlie, here is the same scene from the bottom of the page at Google Maps.

UGLY NORDHOFF BECOMES BEAUTIFUL OJAI

By C. MORAN

THE transformation of a shack-and-shanty town into a place of architectural delight, virtually overnight, is the accomplishment of the citizens of Ojai, Calif. Cement turned the trick.

The town—formerly called Nordhoff— was a typical frontier settlement. Ramshackle buildings lined the main street. Treacherous mud-holes filled the road. Then, as if touched by a magic wand, the town was changed into a thing of beauty.

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Popular Mechanics
Issue: Oct, 1924
Posted in: Architecture, Automotive
Posted: 08/08/2012
3 Comments
Outdoor Community Elevator / Three-Wheeled Auto (Oct, 1924)

The Hollywood High Tower elevator is still there and still in use.

To that let me add this aerial view from Google Maps.

Outdoor Community Elevator Serves Dwellers on Lofty Hillside

Rising like the tower of a Spanish mission from a hillside in Hollywood, Calif., is a unique community elevator which residents have built to solve the problem of getting to their homes. The tower, surmounted by an artistic cupola, rises from a practically level street to a height of about 100 feet. About one-third of it is located in a concrete shaft within the hill. The elevator itself is reached through a fifty-foot tunnel cut in the solid rock, is electrically operated and controlled with a push button by the user.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: May, 1929
Posted in: Architecture, Just Weird
Posted: 07/23/2012
2 Comments
Houses Built on Stilts are Novel Lake Dwellings (May, 1929)

Houses Built on Stilts are Novel Lake Dwellings

ONE OF the most remarkable summer camps in the country is the colony which has been established at Milnensburg, Louisiana, in the shallow waters of Lake Ponchartrain. The photo above shows how dozens of houses have been built on piles above the water. Narrow walks starting at the mainland lead to the various cottages, which are spread out over the water to form a queer lake city. Residents in these cottages assert that the cool breezes from the heart of the lake make this form of construction worth while. The photograph was taken from an airplane.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Sep, 1947
Posted in: Architecture
Tags:
Posted: 07/13/2012
No Comments
House of Steel (Sep, 1947)

House of Steel

Want to live in a metal house? The one pictured here has frame, roof and wall sheets all of processed steel. Blanket type insulation and a system of natural ventilation help keep it cool in summer and warm and cosy in winter. Interior walls are of fire-proofed plasterboard.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: Mar, 1930
Posted in: Architecture
Tags: ,
Posted: 06/20/2012
4 Comments
Brick Lion Guards City Hall (Mar, 1930)

While it does have that whole Minecraft/8-bit look about it, that is a pretty terrible rendition of a lion.

Brick Lion Guards City Hall

AN INTERESTING illustration of what can be done with common, ordinary brick is demonstrated by the modernistic lion that guards the door to the City Hall in Ruestringer, Germany. Several thousands of brick were required to make this figure which is an integral part of the structure. The irregular spacings provided the greatest difficulty but were overcome by a miniature scale model. This is but one example of the many uses to which brick are being put.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: May, 1931
Posted in: Architecture
Posted: 06/05/2012
1 Comment
German Architects Develop Unique, Low-Cost Buildings (May, 1931)

German Architects Develop Unique, Low-Cost Buildings

ECONOMIC conditions in Germany since the war have compelled German architects to develop a type of architecture that is distinctly different from any types appearing before in any country. Eliminating all frills and unnecessary ornamentation, builders are erecting business buildings, apartment houses, warehouses, etc., that have practicality as their chief feature.

The architects have compromised on structures which have a simple charm all of their own. This new type of architecture is exemplified in the building shown in the photo at the right.

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Mechanix Illustrated
Issue: Sep, 1947
Posted in: Architecture, Transportation
Tags:
Posted: 05/22/2012
No Comments
Super Terminal for Trucks (Sep, 1947)

I grew up right near this building and it really is quite massive. It is now one of UPS’s main hubs in Manhattan.

Super Terminal for Trucks

Colossal union truck terminals like this will help reduce the paralyzing congestion of city streets.

By William Winter

IF ANYTHING bothers the people of the New York metropolitan area as much as the significance of the A-bomb, it is their diabolical traffic problem. Having tried bridges, vehicular tunnels, and express highways, the Port of New York Authority is now doing something spectacular about the 2,500 intercity buses and 5,000 trucks that daily jam the city streets.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: May, 1929
Posted in: Architecture, Music
Tags: , ,
Posted: 05/11/2012
2 Comments
BUILDING IS MODELED AS BIRTHDAY CAKE (May, 1929)

I remember this building from when I lived in Minneapolis. It was built by Wilber Foshay, a utility magnate who was later convicted for running a pyramid scheme. Check out the Wikipedia entry for an interesting story about its dedication celebration. Apparently Foshay hired John Philip Sousa compose a march for the occasion but it was only played that one time because his check to Sousa bounced. It wasn’t until some investors in Minnesota paid his bill that it was heard again.

It seems like every time I read about Sousa it has something to with copyright or music piracy.

BUILDING IS MODELED AS BIRTHDAY CAKE

SUGAR and flour were used in building up the birthday cake model of the Foshay building pictured in the photo at the right. The Foshay tower, built in the city of Minneapolis, was recently described in the pages of Modern Mechanics. The birthday cake held the center of the table at a dinner given in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the W. B. Foshay building in that city.

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Modern Mechanix
Issue: May, 1929
Posted in: Architecture
Tags: ,
Posted: 05/07/2012
2 Comments
NOVEL SLEEPING PORCH (May, 1929)

NOVEL SLEEPING PORCH

MANY families would like to have a sleeping porch on their home if the cost of remodeling wasn’t so expensive. A German architect recently designed a method of attaching a sleeping porch without the usual wall removing activities.

This design calls for two brackets which are attached to the wall below a window, . which operation does not call for any mutilation of the wall. The porch can then be built upon these brackets. The architect drew up the plans so that the porch could be assembled upon the ground and hoisted into position. The window must then be enlarged to make a door way. This is the only part of the construction that calls for remodeling. Since the window is already nearly large enough, this fact does not entail much labor.

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Popular Science
Issue: Apr, 1933
Posted in: Architecture
Tags:
Posted: 02/27/2012
3 Comments
STEEL CANOPY GUARDS STONE AGE BUILDING (Apr, 1933)

STEEL CANOPY GUARDS STONE AGE BUILDING

Government engineers have just erected the odd steel umbrella pictured above to shelter from the elements a twelfth-century pueblo watch-tower in Arizona. Archeologists consider the mud-walled structure the most important of its kind. The Stone Age builders bored two holes in the walls, so aligned that beams of the rising sun traversed both only on March seventh and October seventh— thus warning of changes in season.

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