Rongo Univesity Library

"The Anchorage Museum of History and Art in association with the Anchorage Museum Association and the Alaska Design Forum."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The hut that shaped a nation / Julie Decker and Chris Chiei -- How the hut came to be / Chris Chiei -- Quonsets, Alaska, and World War II / Steven Haycox -- War, design, and weapons of mass construction / Brian Carter -- After the war : Quonset huts and their integration into daily American life / Tom Vanderbilt -- The huts that wouldn't go away : Alaska adopts the hut / Chris Chiei -- Quonsets today : concluding thoughts / Julie Decker and Chris Chiei.

An unexpected architectural phenomenon-something like a halved tin can turned on its side-swept across the American landscape after World War II: the Quonset hut. Originally designed during the war for use as makeshift housing for soldiers and their families around the world, the seemingly ubiquitous Quonset hut housed a rapidly expanding nation in the 1940s and 1950s both at work and at play. From recording studios-a Quonset was responsible for the birth of the "Nashville sound"-to the 1948 congressional campaign headquarters of Gerald Ford, to an endless variety of incarnations including bars, movie theaters, classrooms, supermarkets, restaurants, and houses of worship, the Quonset hut was the shape of a nation in need of affordable, easy-to-build shelter. Quonset Hut: Metal Living for a Modern Age is a fascinating look at a surprising architectural sensation and offers a refreshing, revealing, and untold story of a true American icon.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2013. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.