| Labor relations played a crucial role in shaping the architecture and landscape of American industrial plants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While earlier studies of industrial architecture have concentrated on the technical aspects of factory design and how new methods of plant arrangement facilitated mass production, this dissertation examines the industrial works as a social landscape and thus focuses on how the ordinary working life of employees and the often contested relationship between workers and managers influenced factory design. Although this study uses the McCormick Works in Chicago and the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York as case studies, it also refers to the design and use of dozens of other factories built in the United States between 1880 and 1930.;This dissertation discusses how the goal of management to create a more productive and obedient workforce played a part in nearly all architectural and planning decisions, from the geographic location of plants to the layout of individual rooms. For example, in an effort to reduce the power of construction unions, manufacturers in the early twentieth century increasingly used prefabricated buildings and systematized construction methods that deskilled and rationalized the plant building process. In addition, manufacturers constructed recreational facilities at the plant and in the surrounding city in an attempt to control employee behavior after the end of the working day. This dissertation also explores how workers used space to protest the actions of management, including organization of sit-down strikes, labor marches at the plant, and, on occasion, attacks on factory buildings. Finally, this study examines how industrial corporations portrayed the factory in advertising, in public relations, and on factory tours. These images of industrial production and the activities of workers not only played a role in increasing the sales of consumer goods, they also helped Americans come to terms with the rise and influence of industrial corporations in the United States. |
