‘Vertical Urban Factory’

Architectural historian Nina Rappaport assembles a history of American manufacturing for Vertical Urban Factory at the Skyscraper Museum in New York. In the early 20th century, architects and engineers used vertical buildings to aid in processing. And then Le Corbusier and Gropius applied the industrial “factory aesthetic” to other building types. Rappaport emphasizes the buildings that became the archetypal urban factories and presents new examples including Volkswagen’s 2001 plant in Dresden, Germany (shown). Filmmaker Eric Breitbart’s documentary complements photographs, designs, and other exhibition materials that anticipate the factory’s future, should industry return to the cities it built—Detroit, Pittsburgh, and New York. Through July 10. • skyscraper.org