Architecture of Normal: The Colonization of the American Landscape

CONTENTS Foreword 12 I-25 15 Indian Plaza 20 Humans 47 Horses 88 Trains 141 Cars 184 Airplanes 305 Rockets 368 Cibola 395 --Acknowledgments

452

Bio 455 Index 457

9000 BCE

The Lithic stage, or Paleo-Indian period, is the earliest classification term referring to the first stage of human habitation in the Americas.

8000 BCE

The last glacial period ends, causing sea levels to rise and flood the Beringia land bridge, closing the primary migration route from Siberia.

7000 BCE

Ancestral Puebloans inhabit the Colorado Plateau.

These hunter-gatherers live in rock shelters and in open brush.

3001 BCE

Stonehenge is built in England.

1500 BCE

Maize begins to be cultivated on the Colorado Plateau. Shelter in this region consists of caves and covered pits lined with stone.

1400 BCE

First books of Hebrew Old Testament are thought to have been written.

800 BCE

Humans begin riding horseback in Central Asia.

130 BCE

Han Dynasty opens trade with the West with the establishment of the Silk Road.

50 BCE

The primary dwellings of this era are round or circular pit-houses built on open land around a fire and partially below the ground surface.

20 BCE

Roman military engineer and architect Vitruvius publishes his treatise on architecture, De Architectura.

6 BCE

Jesus Christ is born.

1436

Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press.

1592

Ferdinand Magellan launches Spanish expedition that results in the first circumnavigation of the Earth.

1600

60 million bison roam North America.

1602

Dutch East India Company is founded.

1607

Jamestown Colony is founded in Virginia.

1608

The earliest known telescope appears in the Netherlands, and eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey attempts to obtain a patent.

1609

Galileo makes his first observations of stars with a telescope.

1614

Pocahontas reportedly marries John Rolfe.

1615

The New Netherland Company is granted a three-year monopoly in North American trade.

1620

The Mayflower sails and pilgrims settle at Plymouth.

1620

The earliest human-powered submarine is invented.

1621

The first Thanksgiving takes place at Plymouth Colony.

PREVIOUS Route 66, Albuquerque, 1969 Photo by Ernst Haas Haas Estate / Master Collection / Getty Images

ABOVE Albuquerque Municipal Airport, Native American dancers perform, 1950 Photographer unknown Courtesy of Albuquerque Museum, gift of John Airy PA1982.180.25

RIGHT Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company’s steam locomotive, New Mexico, 1880 Photographer unknown Courtesy of kansasmemory.org, Kansas State Historical Society

1912

New Mexico is admitted to the U.S. as the 47th state.

34

1928

Albuquerque’s first airport opens.

HORSES

“Horses are the most necessary things in the new country because they frighten the enemy most, and, after God, to them belongs the victory.”

– PEDRO DE CASTAÑEDA –

Although it is thought that horses evolved in North America millions of years ago, they had long ago become extinct on the continent due to unknown circumstances. The Spanish conquistadors reintroduced horses to the West. These mustangs provided the speed and endurance to conquer all those who encountered the Europeans.

The Ancestral Puebloans are said to have thought that the collective being of the conquistador atop a stallion was a godly figure and perhaps immortal. They were equally frightened and intrigued by the towering creatures with penetrating eyes.

OPPOSITE Navajo riders in Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, 1904 Photo by Edward S. Curtis Courtesy of Library of Congress

The horse and its relationship with man would come to later inextricably define the lifestyle of the West, and it is on the backs of these impressive, stoic creatures that early America was built.

For the next three centuries after Coronado invaded, horsepower would be the primary engine of economic and geographic growth for all Americans, foreign and Native. These animals would ultimately provide the strength to interlink the United States from coast to coast, sow the seeds of mother nature across her fertile ground and selflessly spill their own blood in battle at the reins of man.

4000 BCE

Horses are thought to be first domesticated in Ukraine.

88

365

Invention of one of the earliest saddles by the Sarmatians.

104

1710

Average size of settler’s home is 450 square feet.

1719

The first recorded Comanche raid into New Mexico for Spanish horses takes place.

1755

U.S. Postal Service is established.

1769

The majority of Plains Indians have horses.

1779

Governor Juan Bautiste de Anza of New Mexico, with 500 Spanish and 200 Utes and Apaches, captures a Comanche village. Comanche horses are divided among the allies.

1780

First smallpox outbreak in the West.

1789

Indian Commerce Clause of the Constitution is added: “The Congress shall have Power . . . to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes.”

1795

The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, establishing the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the United States.

1800

Second U.S. census records population as 5,308,483.

1800

Reported horse population of California is 24,000.

TRAINS

“A railroad is like a lie—you have to keep building to it to make it stand. A railroad is a ravenous destroyer of towns, unless those towns are put at the end of it and a sea beyond, so that you can’t go further and find another terminus. And it is shaky trusting them, even then, for there is no telling what may be done with trestle-work.”

– MARK TWAIN –

PREVIOUS Bird’s-eye view of Main Street from Temple Block in Los Angeles, 1886 Photo by T.E. Stanton Courtesy of Library of Congress

PREVIOUS Sioux and Arapaho Indian delegations, ca. 1877 Photo by Mathew B. Brady Brady-Handy photograph collection Courtesy of Library of Congress

OPPOSITE End of track, on Humboldt Plains, Nevada, 1865 Photo by Alfred A. Hart Courtesy of Library of Congress

Beginning in the 1830s, railroad construction using British steam engine technology boomed in the eastern United States. Mostly short runs between towns began to revolutionize transportation and the movement of freight in America. Travel via stage coach was cramped and extremely uncomfortable as ruts and bumps were ever-present on the under-developed roads. Trains promised smooth, efficient transport with lots of extra room to move around.

Rail would expedite transport and communication, but it would also divide many, geographically and psychologically. The relationship between 17th-century Native American trade and 19th-century commerce and development was inextricable; initially, many proposed rail routes and stops were determined based on the established location of Natives’ trading posts. Through centuries of evolutionary wayfinding, these routes had often already found the fastest and easiest pathway from point A to point B. Most of the land for the railroads had already been taken by the U.S. Government from the Native Americans, but the tracks would divide and ultimately destroy critical Native hunting grounds.

1765

James Watt invents the steam engine.

141

1814

George Stephenson builds the first practical steam locomotive.

Bison were also systematically hunted by professionals for their hides and bones. For the Native Americans, the sight of the food they had relied on for sustenance for centuries being annihilated for sport and wealth was the ultimate insult. The slaughter reached its peak around 1873. One railroad is said to have shipped nearly 3 million pounds of bison bones on its rails. Tongues were traded at 25 cents and went for $1.25 each. Most of the animal was left to rot. A railway engineer reported that year that it was possible to walk 100 miles along the Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way in the Southern Plains by leaping from one carcass to another. By 1884, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates, only 325 bison were left in America. The Native Americans ultimately were unable to survive on their sacred hunting grounds and forced to further assimilate into American society.

ABOVE Hunting the Buffaloe, 1834 Painting by Peter Rindisbacher Courtesy of Library of Congress

The perception of the West as America’s frontier changed with the advancement of the rail network: the U.S. Census Bureau declared in 1890 that the frontier advance had ended—America would now be perceived as a unified whole. The idea of an extrapolating, linear frontier—always existing just beyond where one currently stood— had ended. Trains were the engine behind this cohesiveness and the

1880

Chinese, Scandinavian and Irish immigrants lay 73,000 miles of railroad tracks in America.

155

1880

U.S. population exceeds 50 million.

nascent geographical unification of the country. Social distances were shrinking, and railroads commodified land in a way that it hadn’t been before.

While the Horse Era had first cultivated the concept of national chain businesses and trade networks with the likes of the Pony Express, Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express, the train ushered in fleets of interstate commerce. These new chain businesses flew their proverbial flags along train routes and became known to passersby as well as those who settled in each locale.

ABOVE American Progress (Westward the Course of Destiny), 1872 Original painting by John Gast Chromolithograph by George A. Crofutt Courtesy of Library of Congress

OPPOSITE Millions of Acres, 1872 Created by Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Co. Courtesy of Library of Congress

The train companies themselves developed railway towns. In many ways, the railroad business was more about selling the real estate and developing the townsites than anything else. Companies were given the land for the railway by the federal government and controlled where the trains stopped and, for the most part, how the surrounding land was allocated and developed. Where the trains stopped inevitably led to explosive economic activity. Winners and losers of the coveted stop were mostly determined at the direction of singular rail executives, such as a Union Pacific engineer named Grenville

1890

U.S. railroad employment is 749,000.

156

1890

U.S. Census Bureau declares the “end of the frontier line,” meaning there is no longer a discernible frontier line in the West, nor any large tracts of land yet unbroken by settlement.

CARS

“Almost like a plough breaking the plains, the automobile transformed cities . . . ‘making it virtually unrecognizable from the unpaved version of the previous century.’”

– MARTIN V. MELOSI –

In the mid-1890s, the chief engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit began tinkering with horseless carriages. By 1896, he had cohesively strapped an engine to a small carriage atop four bicycle wheels that could propel a man down the street at a maximum speed of 20 mph. A tiller would cause the contraption to veer left or right. This invention was known as the Quadricycle and would be the precursor to a series of advancements that would make its creator, Henry Ford, the wealthiest man in the world, and fundamentally alter the fabric of America.

PREVIOUS Toward Los Angeles, 1937 Photo by Dorothea Lange Courtesy of Library of Congress

OPPOSITE Street scene in East Las Vegas, 1972 Photo by Charles O’Rear for the EPA Courtesy of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

By the early 1900s, a handful of companies, including Ford, Oldsmobile and Cadillac, were selling gasoline-propelled carriages in two- and four-seat capacities. These “pleasure mobiles” were produced in small batches and generally were the toys of the wealthy.

In 1908, Henry Ford would introduce a model that would completely alter the trajectory of the industry—the Model T. Later, in his autobiography, Ford would say of his mission for the Model T: I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the

1859 184

Oil is discovered at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, marking the beginning of petroleum as a major industry in the U.S.

1860

In the U.S., the horse-drawn car on rails widely replaces the horse-drawn “omnibus,” but the rides are expensive.

ABOVE Lincoln Highway, Eight-mile Flat, Nevada, 1923 Photographer unknown Courtesy of University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center)

RIGHT Lincoln Highway emblem embedded in the Hopley Monument, Central Ohio, 2016 Photo by Carol M. Highsmith Courtesy of Library of Congress

1904 199

The U.S. passes France as the main car manufacturer in the world, with the Midwest contributing 42% of U.S. cars.

1905

Ford makes 25 cars a day.

diners and speed of Route 66 elicited an energy that found its way into the burgeoning entertainment being generated in California.

ABOVE HOLLYWOODLAND (original real estate sign), 1923 Photographer unknown Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

OPPOSITE The Moving Picture Cowboy Tom Mix Doing Stunts. The Way He Told the Story, and What He Really Did, 1914 Color lithograph by Goes Litho. Co., Chicago Courtesy of Library of Congress

NEXT California movie making—cars along roadside, ca. 1914 Photo by Albert M. Price Courtesy of Library of Congress

Hollywood, which had begun to establish itself as the epicenter of global entertainment at the beginning of the 20th century, would bookend Route 66 at the Pacific Ocean. For decades, the most popular genre produced in Hollywood was the Western, which told stories of the Old American West. Common plots included cowboys battling Indians, outlaw gangs, cavalry-fighting Indians or construction of the railroad and telegraph lines on the wild frontier.

With the advent of the car and the popularization of Route 66, cars came to replace the horse as the trusted friend of man and the silent co-star in many of the films being made in Hollywood. Gangster films, heist movies, and later films that revolved around car chases would replace the Western genre. Many of these films included the lore of Route 66. The American West has been largely defined to this day by the stories told by Hollywood in cinemas throughout the world during the early 20th century, despite their wholesale re-write of reality.

1908

Model T production begins.

204

1908

First-year Model T production is 10,660 cars.

The city has not been able to keep up with the Model-T ‘flivver’ and now we are just going to have to take time out to catch up with the technological revolutions which have taken place. The catching up process is possible and necessary, under our present social and economic system.

ABOVE Neon sign for fast-food restaurant, Hollywood, California, 1942 Photo by Russell Lee Courtesy of Library of Congress

The ownership of an automobile was inextricably linked to the American Dream as much as was owning a home. It was a roving personal symbol of status and success. Not everyone could come to see your home, but you could take your Cadillac everywhere you went. The explosion of the suburbs created long boulevards that could cultivate driver-centric architecture and advertising. Signs and buildings screaming for the attention of those cruising along invaded American cities and towns. By the 1940s and 1950s there was a plethora of buildings you could drive right into: homes, multistory parking garages, movie theaters, car washes, diners, banks.

Increasingly, the architecture broadcast the business use. Each business, combined with its garish signage, had to communicate what it offered and stand out from competitors as quickly as a car could swish by. Once success was established, it was frequently the

1939 243

GM presents Futurama, a large-scale ride and exhibit of a possible model of the world 20 years into the future that includes an interstate road system.

1940

Sears ceases kit home production.

ABOVE Las Vegas, 1952 Photo by Edward N. Edstrom Courtesy of Gary B. Edstrom

NEXT Main street in the oil boom town of Hobbs, New Mexico, 1940 Photo by Russell Lee Courtesy of Library of Congress

NEXT Filling station is the only building of modern design in the Spanish-American village of Penasco, New Mexico, 1940 Photo by Russell Lee Courtesy of Library of Congress

1941

29,624,269 automobiles are registered in the U.S. 245

1947

The first Levittown is built.

AIRPLANES

“Man must rise above the Earth—to the top of the atmosphere and beyond—for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives.”

– SOCRATES –

Humans have been fascinated by birds in flight gliding through canyons and diving to the Earth’s surface in pursuit of prey for thousands of years. These feathered creatures served as blueprints for how we would ultimately conquer the skies. As far back as the life of Leonardo da Vinci, documentation exists outlining the basic concepts of how man would elevate into the clouds based on the study of birds. Primitive flight was achieved with limited success with bird-like skeletal suits from high perches. More successfully in the 18th century, flight was achieved with gaseous or hot-air balloons in Europe. By 1785, a French inventor, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, had flown over the English Channel in a hydrogen balloon, but sustained flight with heavier-than-air mechanics remained elusive until the 20th century.

OPPOSITE Otto Lilienthal gliding experiment, 1895 Photographer unknown Courtesy of Library of Congress

In 1903, two adventurous and inquisitive brothers, who had further studied the movement of birds in the air, became the first to reach sustained flight in a fixed-wing aircraft. The well documented historic event in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, would establish Orville and Wilbur Wright as the fathers of the airplane and be the catalyst for the rapid evolution of travel, communication, warfare and trade.

1458

Leonardo da Vinci draws concept for the human flying machine.

305

1793

First balloon flight in America.

283

311

212

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212

A striking dissonance exists between the overwhelming American landscape and the underwhelming architecture of its strip malls, fast food chains, motels and tract housing. In an undertaking that is part travelogue, art book and architectural survey, Architecture of Normal charts the patterns created by reigning modes of transportation and examines how people came to accept the bland, branded boxes lining America’s streets and freeways as architecture. Beginning with a portrait of ambulatory Native American societies and the introduction of horses by the Spaniards, Kaven discusses the built environment shaped by trains, cars, planes and rockets, and looks toward a future architecture defined by autonomous cars and air taxis. This highly visual narrative includes extensive historical photography and Daniel Kaven’s own art.

www.birkhauser.com

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