The National Building Museum is at 401 F Street NW; phone: (202) 272-2448; Internet: http://www.nbm.org. Directions: take the Metro's (subway's) Red Line to Judiciary Square; use the North (F St.) exit. Winter hours are: Mon.-Sat. 10-4, Sun. 12-4; in summer, the museum is open until 5. The Museum itself is a marvel of pre-air conditioning design, built with a huge open central space to promote air circulation. The building originally housed the Pension Bureau and has hosted fourteen Inaugural Balls, beginning with Grover Cleveland's in 1885. |
The air conditioner's widespread adoption spelled the demise of front porches, wide eaves and high ceilings. And it fueled the explosive postwar growth of Sunbelt cities like Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.
With the 20th century drawing to a close, a critically acclaimed exhibition in Washington, D.C., took visitors on a journey through the history of a technology that helped to define this century.
The exhibition, Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America, was on view at the National Building Museum through January 2, 2000. It featured photo murals, artifacts, television commercials and advertisements, air-conditioning equipment, and interactive displays to tell the history of air conditioning.
All these artifacts combined to tell a simple yet sweeping story: That air conditioning launched new forms of architecture and altered the ways Americans live, work, and play.
From suburban tract houses to glass skyscapers, indoor entertainment centers, high-tech manufacturers' clean rooms, and pressurized modules for space exploration, many of the nation's modern structures and products would not exist without the invention of "man-made weather."
Air conditioning also changed our relationship with nature itself by creating indoor artificial climates, shifting seasonal patterns of work and play, and making America's geographical differences environmentally insignificant. The engine of air conditioning largely fueled the explosive postwar growth of Sunbelt cities like Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Miami.
The early years
As early as 1888, manufacturers of products susceptible to heat and humidity-tobacco, pasta, textiles, chocolate, and color printing-commissioned pioneering experiments in mechanical cooling.
Before air conditioning, cotton threads broke, cigarette machines jammed, bread grew mold, film attracted dust, pasta lost its shape, and chocolate turned gray when temperatures and humidity fluctuated. By filtering air and stabilizing temperature and humidity, mechanical systems improved the environment for products as well as workers.
As the technology of air conditioning developed, so did the invention of more sophisticated products that required increasingly precise temperature, humidity, and filtration controls. Consumer products such as computer chips and CDs must be manufactured in "clean rooms," which provide dust-free environments. By facilitating developments in high-tech manufacturing, science, medicine, and consumer products, air conditioning ushered in the Age of Information.
At the office
Beginning with the New York Stock Exchange in 1901, office buildings served as important laboratories for air conditioning advances. After World War II, mechanical cooling allowed the development of the modern glass-walled skyscraper-the symbol of freedom from traditional construction systems as well as heating and cooling methods. Glass-walled skyscrapers such as the United Nations (1952) linked modern architecture with the new technology.
The general public began to encounter "man-made weather" in movie theaters. The Folies Bergere Theater in New York City installed the first air-conditioning system in a theater in 1911, followed by the New Empire Theater, Montgomery, Alabama and the Central Park Theater, Chicago, Illinois in 1917.
In the 1920s and 30s, pioneering experiments with mechanical cooling turned public attendance at movies, plays, and concerts into a summertime ritual. Air conditioning itself became an attraction, as people flocked to movie theaters to experience the new way to stay cool.
And at home
Not until after World War II did air conditioning enter the home of the average American.
Engineered air was marketed to the public as an essential component of modern living. Manufacturers claimed that it promoted better sleeping and eating, healthier air quality, cleaner interiors free from pollen and dust, and the enjoyment of nature through glass window walls without the discomforts of summer heat and humidity.
With its steadily decreasing costs, air conditioning was touted as a technology "for the millions, not just for millionaires." The refrigerator provided the model for early residential air conditioners. As domestic interest grew in the late 1920s, refrigerator manufacturers were among the first to develop air conditioners due to their technical expertise with small-scale refrigeration units, automatic controls and mass-production.
During the Depression power companies, manufacturers, and retailers advocated self-contained home units as industrial use waned. Residential units evolved from bulky cabinets in living areas with basement condensing units into small-scale central systems with ductwork or the popular, economical window air conditioners.
Domestic air conditioning meant that traditional architectural features--wide eaves, deep porches, thick walls, high ceilings, attics, and cross ventilation--were no longer needed to promote natural cooling. Also irrelevant was siting or landscaping a house that maximized summer shade and breezes, since mechanical equipment was able to maintain perfect indoor conditions independent of design.
Builders found they could pay for the costs of central cooling systems by deleting elements made unnecessary by the new technology. As air conditioning replaced traditional features, the design of the modern house became fully integrated with--and dependent on--air conditioning. It allowed postwar architects and builders to achieve a new "ranch house" aesthetic of glass picture windows, sliding doors, and rectangular forms.
The exhibit
The exhibition is organized by guest curator Donald Albrecht and Chrysanthe B. Broikos, associate curator at the National Building Museum. Natalie Shivers wrote and edited the exhibition script. The exhibition's historical consultants are Gail Cooper, author of Air-Conditioning America: Engineers and the Controlled Environment, 1900-1960 (Johns Hopkins University Press) and Bernard Nagengast, co-author of Heat and Cold: Mastering the Great Indoors (published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc., 1994).
Stay Cool! Air Conditioning America is made possible by the support of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and by the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI).
The National Building Museum is a private nonprofit institution that examines and interprets American achievements in building through exhibitions, education programs, and publications. Located at 401 F Street, NW, at the entrance to the Judiciary Square Metro station on the Red Line. Museum hours: Monday through Saturday 10 am to 4 pm and Sunday 12 to 4 pm. Summer Hours: (June 1 through August 31) open daily until 5 pm. Admission is free. Caf� and gift shop. Public inquiries: (202) 272-2448 or www.nbm.org
