Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project

06/05/2018. [Washington] USA 03.05.2018 > 03.03.2019
metalocus, VANESA DEL OLMO

The exhibition explores the vast, highly classified effort to produce the atomic bomb, with an emphasis on the three new “secret cities” that were built to accommodate the tens of thousands of people who worked on the project. Through original documents, photos, artifacts, maps, and models, the exhibition examines Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford/Richland, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico and how their design, planning, and construction proved vital to the success of the Manhattan Project. Secret Cities is open through March 3, 2019.

Map of the United States, showing key Manhattan Project sites. The Manhattan Project led to the construction of three entirely new cities from scratch: Oak Ridge, TN; Hanford/Richland, WA; and Los Alamos, NM. Related work took place at numerous other sites across the country and even in Canada. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Map of the United States, showing key Manhattan Project sites. The Manhattan Project led to the construction of three entirely new cities from scratch: Oak Ridge, TN; Hanford/Richland, WA; and Los Alamos, NM. Related work took place at numerous other sites across the country and even in Canada. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Aerial view of the K-25 plant, Oak Ridge, ca. 1945. The K-25 plant was built for the enrichment of uranium through gaseous diffusion, in which gaseous U-235 was separated from U-238 through an incredibly fine mesh. When completed, K-25 was the largest building in the world under one roof. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Part 1 of the letter from Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1939. This letter, drafted by Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard and signed by the more famous Albert Einstein, alerted President Roosevelt to recent experiments in nuclear physics that raised the possibility of new weapons of previously unimaginable power. The letter inspired Roosevelt to create an Advisory Committee on Uranium, which laid the groundwork for the Manhattan Project. Courtesy of the FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Part 2 of the letter from Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1939. This letter, drafted by Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard and signed by the more famous Albert Einstein, alerted President Roosevelt to recent experiments in nuclear physics that raised the possibility of new weapons of previously unimaginable power. The letter inspired Roosevelt to create an Advisory Committee on Uranium, which laid the groundwork for the Manhattan Project. Courtesy of the FDR Presidential Library & Museum

Control Room at the K-25 plant, Oak Ridge, 1945. Sophisticated equipment was used to monitor and control the potentially hazardous industrial processes at the K-25 plant and other Manhattan Project facilities. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Shift change at the Y-12 plant, Oak Ridge, 1945. Many of the workers in the three Secret Cities of the Manhattan Project were young women. The group seen here is leaving the Y-12 plant, where uranium was enriched through electromagnetic separation. The sign in the right background says “Make C.E.W. count.” C.E.W. was the abbreviation for the Clinton Engineer Works, the official name of the Oak Ridge industrial site during the war, derived from the nearby town of Clinton, TN. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Oak Ridge Public Library

Billboard in Oak Ridge, 1943. Signs such as this one reminded Manhattan Project participants to keep their work confidential. Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy and the Oak Ridge Public Library

Trailer with decorative trellis, Oak Ridge, 1944. Residents of the Manhattan Project sites worked hard to make their dwellings as attractive and pleasant as possible, even when those dwellings were crude, government-issued trailers. Note the identifying numbers stamped and written on the side of the trailer. Photo by Edward Westcott. National Archives and Records Administration

“Flat Top” house, Oak Ridge, 1944. During World War II, the U.S. military erected thousands of prefabricated or semi-prefabricated houses across the country. One of the most common houses in Oak Ridge was the B-1 model, commonly known as the Flat Top. Each of these houses was built in a factory and transported by truck in two or three pieces to the site, where it was assembled atop a foundation. The architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) oversaw the planning of the city and the design and construction of most buildings within it. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

African American women hanging laundry in a hutment area, Oak Ridge, 1945. Despite their often forward-looking design and planning, the three Secret Cities of the Manhattan Project treated racial segregation as a given. In Oak Ridge, many African American workers lived in plywood “hutments.” The contrast between these crude, ill-heated huts and the comfortable housing built for most white workers was stark. Photo by Edward Westcott. National Archives and Records Administration

The “Rhythm Engineers” on stage, Oak Ridge, 1945. The Secret Cities were secure military compounds during World War II—passage into or out of each city was tightly controlled. Residents often had to create their own entertainment. The band pictured here was composed of skilled Oak Ridge workers seeking an outlet for their musical talents. Photo by Edward Westcott. National Archives and Records Administration

Aerial view of Hanford Construction Camp, ca. 1945. The camp for construction workers at Hanford ultimately housed upwards of 50,000 people, making it the fourth largest “city” in the state of Washington. Item courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy, Hanford Collection

Mess Hall, Hanford Construction Camp, ca. 1943-45. The mess halls at Hanford served thousands of workers at once, with rapid turnover. National Archives and Records Administration

Sears, Roebuck and Co. store, Hanford, ca. 1943-45. Los establecimientos minoristas de Hanford durante la guerra, incluida esta sucursal de la famosa cadena Sears, Roebuck, ocuparon edificios muy modestos. Item cortesía de US Department of Energy, Hanford Collection

Sears, Roebuck and Co. store, Hanford, ca. 1943-45. Retail establishments at Hanford during the war, including this branch of the famed Sears, Roebuck chain, typically occupied very modest buildings. Item courtesy of the US Department of Energy, Hanford Collection

B Reactor, Hanford, ca. 1944-45. The B Reactor at Hanford was the world’s first large-scale nuclear reactor. It produced plutonium for the device tested at the Trinity site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, and for the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The B Reactor was permanently shut down in 1968, and is now being converted into a museum. Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration

Road to Los Alamos, ca. 1943-45. The sites selected for the three Secret Cities all took advantage of natural barriers to enhance security and secrecy. Los Alamos, for instance, was sited at the top of an isolated plateau. The steep, curving road leading to the city was a nerve-wracking experience for drivers. Courtesy of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives

Los Alamos Main Gate, ca. 1943. Anyone approaching Los Alamos during the war had to pass through at least two checkpoints. Courtesy of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Archives

Graduation ceremony at the Los Alamos Ranch School, ca. 1930s. At Los Alamos, the federal government appropriated property belonging to the Los Alamos Ranch School, a private boarding school for wealthy boys. The school campus included a number of distinctive log buildings, which were adapted for military use during the war. Seen here is Fuller Lodge, which served Manhattan Project workers as a dining hall and assembly space. Courtesy of the Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives

Los Alamos Ranch School, Master Cottage #2, undated. The Los Alamos Ranch School included a small number of faculty cottages that were converted into housing for key scientists during the war. This string of houses came to be called Bathtub Row, as they were the only dwellings in the city to enjoy that amenity. Shown here is the house where Manhattan Project lead scientist Robert Oppenheimer lived. Courtesy of the Los Alamos Historical Society Photo Archives

Postwar housing by SOM, Oak Ridge, 1948. After the war, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill continued to design buildings for Oak Ridge under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission, which directly administered all three Secret Cities in the immediate postwar period. During this time, SOM exploring increasingly cutting-edge design for housing, schools, and other buildings in Oak Ridge. Photo SOM © Torkel Korling, courtesy Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) prototype, 2015. Today, all three Secret Cities remain important centers of scientific research and development, much of it unrelated to nuclear weapons or even nuclear energy. Shown here is an experimental, 3D-printed structure with integrated solar energy apparatus. The structure was the result of a joint initiative by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, coincidentally the same firm that designed Oak Ridge some 75 years ago. Courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Dept. of Energy. Photographed by Jason Richards.

"Secret Cities: The Architecture and Planning of the Manhattan Project" exhibition is exhibited in National Building Museum. The development of the atomic bomb—the result of a military initiative known as the Manhattan Project —is one of the most consequential milestones in the history of science. The project laid the foundation not only for the Cold War, which raised the specter of global annihilation, but also nuclear power, as well as radiological medical applications that have saved countless lives.

The Manhattan Project owed its success not only to brilliant scientific work, but also to significant achievements in architecture, engineering, planning, and construction. The effort to produce the world’s first nuclear weapon would ultimately involve hundreds of thousands of people and require large-scale, highly secure facilities. In order to accommodate this vast enterprise, the U.S. government built three new cities from scratch: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Hanford/Richland, Washington; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The speed and scale of construction of these cities were in many ways unprecedented. Influenced by the planned community movement and heavenly reliant on prefabricated construction, these cities were in many ways proving grounds for merging ideas about design and planning. Begun in late 1942, they collectively housed a total of more than 125,000 people by the end of the wr in August 1945. Yet these cities appeared on no maps, and their existence was a remarkably well-maintained secret until the bombing of Hiroshima.

Secret Cities will inevitably touch on difficult topics such as the use of nuclear weapons in combat, but the focus is on the communities that the government built to support the Manhattan Project. It examines the cities as case studies in modern urban planning and building technology, while revealing the distinct way of life that emerged at each site. the exhibition also explores the architectural and planning legacy and engineering firms, as exemplified by Skidmore, Owings & Merrilll (SOM), which oversaw the design of Oak Ridge. The exhibition also explores the postwar development of the three cities, which remain important centers of scientific research today.

Description of project by The National Building Museum

In the fall of 1942, less than a year after the United States was drawn into World War II by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers quietly began acquiring vast tracts of land in remote areas of three states. The few residents of these areas were summarily evicted and their houses demolished. Soon, thousands of young workers arrived from far and wide, initially occupying tents and other makeshift shelters within the newly designated military reservations.

Shielded from public view by natural barriers and security fences, the workers quickly erected hundreds of buildings, ranging from prefabricated houses to industrial structures of unprecedented scale. As they did so, thousands more residents arrived in a near-continuous stream. By the end of the war, a total of more than 125,000 people lived in the three cities that had been built from scratch on these sites. Yet these cities appeared on no maps, and the federal government did not acknowledge their existence. Unfathomable quantities of supplies were delivered, but very little seemed to come out, adding to the air of mystery surrounding these “Secret Cities”.

That mystery unraveled on August 6, 1945, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, and President Harry S. Truman publicly revealed the purpose of the sites now known as Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford/Richland, Washington. In roughly two and a half years, the Manhattan Project—so named because it was managed by the Army Corps’s Manhattan Engineer District in New York—had produced a weapon of previously inconceivable destructive force. While the ethics and strategic necessity of the decision to use such a weapon in combat are still fiercely debated, there is no question that this initiative was one of the most significant milestones in the history of scientific research and development.

The Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the extraordinary achievements in architecture, engineering, and planning that yielded three entirely new cities in a remarkably short time. Built in the early years of the modern movement, these cities reflected cutting-edge ideas about town planning, mass housing, civil and mechanical engineering, and modular construction. They became important proving grounds for the large-scale suburban development that would dramatically alter the physical and cultural landscape of the nation in the post-war era.

Secret Cities examines the innovative design and construction of Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos, tracing their precedents in the Bauhaus and other early modern schools of architectural thought. It looks at daily life within the cities and how it was shaped by their physical form, illuminating the social stratification and segregation that were still evident in these cities despite the high-minded principles underlying their design.

The exhibition addresses each city’s development since the conclusion of the Manhattan Project, and their continuing importance as centers of research and technology, now largely devoted to non-military purposes.