This is a typical reinforced concrete factory of the type pioneered by architect Albert Kahn (1869-1942). Albert and his brother Julius who had developed a new system of reinforced concrete construction revolutionized the factory design at the beginning of the 20th century. Prior to that most industrial buildings had been based on the brick and timber New England style mill. Henry Ford was a major customer of Albert Kahn's architectural practice. Ford's Highland Park Model T plant, designed by Kahn, was the first auto plant in the world to produce 250,000 cars per year. Later during World War II, Kahn and his company which had grown to include 450 architects and engineers, built the massive tank and aircraft factories (some over 1/2 mile long) which turned Detroit into the Arsenal of Democracy. Today many of these buildings remain but have been adapted for other uses or have been abandonded.
My Lego model shows the basic design elements of a standard Albert Kahn design. The gray Lego represents the reinforced concrete. The small dark red plates represent the brick infill up to the window sill. The many-paned windows are built of 1x2 trans-clear brick placed edge on. The "ACME" name represents the many generic industrial businesses that occupied the smaller versions of these once ubiquitous factories. The building measures 60 x 32 studs and is three stories high. This design can be expanded at any time that more Lego bricks become available.
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About half the light bulbs in the ACME sign have burned out and have never been replaced.
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Albert Kahn designed factories that for the time were clean, well lit, and had large open internal spaces for optimum efficiency of production. This design was also fire-proof, a major advance over the New England style mill building which used massive timbers for its structure.
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A box car awaits loading of products to be shipped to long time customer W.E. Coyote.
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A view that shows the windows glinting in the "sunlight". The windows were the most expensive part of the building.
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