Evening star., 1938-08-13
FACTORIES COSTS
HELD LOWER NOW
New Designs and Materials
Bring Figure Down,
Kahn Reports.

and materials, factories can be built
much cheaper today than in 1929.
according to Albert Kahn, Americas s
No. industrial architect.
costs have been reduced by new
principles of design. new materials
and new construction techniques,"
Mr. Kahn explains for the Architec-
tural Forum magazine which today
devotes its August issue to the develop
ment of industrial architecture as ex-
emplifled by his work for General
Motors. Ford, Chrysler, Republic
Steel. and other large manufacturers
Because industrialists have had to
reduce capital expenditures to a min
imum during the last 10 years, no
other field of building has faced such
urgent demands for economy or seen
such rapid chronological changes
resulting in radical interior changes
and new form of architecture for
exteriors.
The materialistic demands of man.
ufacturers have resulted in a series
Of some of the finest modern buildings.
esthetically as we'll as otherwise" the
Architectural Forum points out
Exteriors Are Simple.
Recommendation previously used to
obtain architectural effects has been
entirely eliminated" Kahn explains.
Exterior elevations are now kept as
simple as possible, architectural effects
being obtained merely by mass. pro-
portion. and grouping Of the structure
as a whole.
This need for economy also has
resulted in a modification of the in
terror design Of industrial buildings.
The design of structural framework
has been greatly simplified, resulting
tn savings as high as 20 per cent in
the use of steel work
"Other changes include the more
extensive use of steel sash with glass,
instead Of brick, in exterior wall areas,
increasing the amount of daylight
obtainable. Further notifications of
lighting facilities, both for natural
and artificial light, produce not only
higher intensities, but also a more
uniform distribution of light which
IN turn increases the efficiency Of
workers"
The Architectural Forum explains
that Mr.. Kahn's work was selected
to illustrate the revolution which has
occurred in industrial architecture be-
cause he has designed some $SO0,000.-
900 worth of building, and his FIRMS
epan of existence covers precisely
those four decades in which the fac
tory changed from a cumbersome mill
to perfectly functioning organism
in STEEL concrete and glass"
Old Type Of Building.
Until 1903 Mr.. Kahn had never
designed q factory, and manufac-
t1lrers we're content with the old type
mill building. AS Mr.. Kahn himself
relates in the Architectural Forum
When began the real architects
would design only museums, cathe-
erals, capitols, monuments. The Office
10y was considered good enough to
co factory buildings"
Mr.. Kahn was "a with % years of
experience behind him. seven years
cf which was in his own Office. when
Re received his first commission to
design . factory for the infant Pack
srd Motor Car Co.. but the design
te produced did not follow the mill
construction then current.
Kahn used reinforced concrete
frame and steel sash, the latter a.
novel importation from England" the
Architectural Forum explains. 1T is
hard today to realize what courage
It took to design in concrete. Hand
books we're not available, and formu-
las were virtually non-existent.
THE Packard job was the first
reinforced concrete factory in Amer
tea, and for the first time an indus
trialist got a plant in which fenes-
tration was reasonably adequate and
production departments were co-ordi-
mated with an eye to efficiency.
Albert Kahn perhaps more than
any other single individual has helped
create a new industrial architecture"
the Architectural Forum adds in
pointing out that the success Of this
new type of factory with the auto
motive manufacturers had an in
evitable effect on other industries,
which quickly adopted 1t and the
numerous subsequent changes which
have taken place in industrial archi-
lecture.
a