For my metaform, I would like to create an architectural environment. The environment will be a space that a viewer can enter and experience physically, mentally, and emotionally. The metaform will be constructed in a space with a rich history, and the specific physical aspects of the constructed space will be inspired by facts uncovered while researching the space's history. The space that I have chosen for my metaform is the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors of NYU's Brown building. This space was the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the worst industrial disasters in the USA's history. My research, documented below, has inspired me to design an intervention with the space that will serve as an installation to evoke certain aspects of the site's history. Specific details of my design will follow.
From
Wikipedia:
- March 25, 1911
- Largest industrial disaster in NYC history
- Caused the death of 148 garment workers who either died from the fire or jumped to their deaths.
- Worst workplace disaster in New York City until September 11, 2001.
- Led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards
- Helped spur growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for safer and better working conditions for sweatshop workers
- Fire began on the eighth floor, possibly sparked by a match, cigarette, faulty electrical wiring, or by sewing machine engines. No one knows whether it was accidental or intentional.
- The ninth floor had only two doors leading out. One stairwell was filled with smoke and flames. The other door had been locked.
- The iron fire escape twisted and collapsed under the weight of people trying to escape. The elevator also stopped working, partly because the panicked workers tried to save themselves by jumping down the shaft to land on the roof of the elevator.
- 62 of the women died because they broke windows and jumped to the pavement nine floors below. The falling bodies made it difficult for the fire department to reach the building.
- The fire department arrived quickly but could not stop the flames because there were no ladders that could reach above the 6th floor.
- The building survived and was refurbished. Frederick Brown bought the building donated it to New York University in 1929, where it is known as the Brown Building of Science. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was named a National Historical Landmark in 1991, and was listed as a New York City Landmark in 2003.
The factory has been reconstructed into an NYU chemistry building. Two plaques in the front of the building commemorate the women who lost their lives in the fire.
Information from YouTube videos:- Largest blouse making factory in NYC at the time, it employed 500 women, mostly Jewish, between 12 and 23 years old.
- The fire broke out after closing time, so the victims were those who stayed late to earn extra pay. Sometimes workers stayed from 8am to 11pm, and came to work 7 days a week.
- Exits doors were locked to prevent stealing
- Thousands of people outside watched helplessly.
- Some exits were blocks by sewing machines, others were locked.
- People were getting boxed into a small space and pounding on the walls.
- People who were standing outside can remember the sound of bodies hitting stone from 7 - 9 stories above.
- There was a smoking red river of blood running down the streets.
- All workers were wearing the same white uniforms, so they looked like angels falling.
- Some women who jumped were impaled on a fence.
Contacts:-
NYU Facilities & Construction ManagementEmail to ask for permission to use on 9th floor which is under construction (see photo at left)
-
NYU Center for Genomics and Systems BiologyCurrently Occupying 7th and 8th floors of Brown Building
Other Resources:-
Landmarks Preservation Commission Report-
Cornell University Web Exhibit about the fire
