Malka Simon

Between 1860 and 1939, Brooklyn grew into a major center of industry within the Port of New York. Its rich network of warehouses and factories form a series of intricate streetscapes dictated by the necessities of production. This dissertation uses these buildings as a case study to analyze the impact of industry on the urban landscape as well as its place in the architectural canon. American factories served as models to European architects in formulating modern architectural theory, but their true contexts were not always fully understood. Brooklyn's stratified industrial landscape reveals a stylistic progression of industrial architecture, presenting a unique opportunity to analyze the American industrial vernacular and discuss its complex relationship to European High Modernism.