From Earth to Tower: The Materialist Philosophy of Twentieth-Century Aluminum Producers

The history of aluminum production in the United States is a reflection upon tangible materials, shifting power plays for ecological resources in the context of rapidly-expanding consumerism, and the focus of this paper, the perceived revolutionary properties of aluminum. Aluminum producers believed that the material possessed an extraordinary ability to solve spatial problems, represent beauty, and ultimately bring prosperity. Within this context, producers and manufacturers competing in the architectural products market left an indelible mark on the built environment with a wide range of components. Cladding, however, is the most visible mark. This paper follows the process of aluminum cladding production from Bauxite mine to the installation of aluminum panels on two high rise towers in the mid-twentieth century: the Alcoa Tower, Pittsburgh, 1953, and Republic National Bank, Dallas, 1954. Increased scrutiny of this process reveals an underlying philosophy of materialism similar to contemporary philosophies of “New Materialisms” which advocate the abilities of materials outside of the human domain. The producers’ materialist beliefs helped substantiate their drive to extract raw materials at great expense and with much exhaustion of natural resources, which continues today. The process of twentieth-century aluminum production involved damming the world’s largest rivers for power, claiming resources on domestic and colonial lands, and the employment of human capital. Boosted significantly by war production, in which producers manufactured aluminum aircraft parts, gun turrets and munitions, the postwar result was often a clean, lightweight and shiny aluminum panel, contrasting sharply with the gritty production process of mining, processing and manufacturing. Yet, this contrast is precisely a manifestation of the producers’ materialist philosophy, which maintained the properties of aluminum, liberated from the earth, could help bring about a prosperous future. Such a future was a leading marketing message of producers, promoted in so-called “homes of the future” and cities of aluminum, but also made in promises that aluminum could bring about prosperity. A tall, gleaming corporate tower of aluminum symbolized the producers’ claims about the agency of aluminum. Examining the archives of Alcoa and Reynolds – the two largest domestic aluminum producers of the twentieth century, this paper explains how producers’ beliefs about material agency underpinned the vast expansion of aluminum into the building products market. Aluminum spread widely from the mid-twentieth century onward, growing in use today on a global scale. Furthermore, this paper invites a deeper look at the ways in which the beliefs about the inherent abilities of materials motivated other material producers in their contribution to architectural modernism.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.109.49

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ISBN
978-1-944214-37-1