An illustrated history of the cradle of American industrialization

Covering agriculture, resources, energy, communication, transportation, manufacturing and waste, this volume explores all the major ecosystems of the modern industrial world, revealing what the structures are and why they're there and uncovering beauty in unexpected places. Photos.

**This title was originally published in 2001. The version published in 2011 is a PB reprint of the original HB** Manufactured Sites focuses on the legacy of industrial production and pollutants on the contemporary landscape and their influence on new scientific research, innovative site technologies and progressive site design. It presents innovative environmental, engineering and design approaches along with ongoing research and built projects of international significance. Contributions range from innovative scientific engineering research from industry and federal agencies to contemporary international and regional professional reclamation and redevelopment projects such as the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia and the A.G. Thyssen steelworks and blast furnace planning in Germany's Ruhr region.

However, most of these spatial changes were contested. The chapters of this dissertation focus on the transformation of different spaces throughout the region and the struggles over the shape and meaning of the built environment as it modernized. In this way, I show how the process of reinvesting space with new meanings had social implications for a variety of groups residing in the area. Struggles sometimes stemmed from conflicts of identity, or social power, but even more often related to the sense that industrial developments usurped older, established ways of life.

The only compact yet comprehensive survey of environmental and cultural forces that have shaped the visual character and geographical diversity of the settled American landscape. The book examines the large-scale historical influences that have molded the varied human adaptation of the continent’s physical topography to its needs over more than 500 years. It presents a synoptic view of myriad historical processes working together or in conflict, and illustrates them through their survival in or disappearance from the everyday landscapes of today.

Pittsburgh’s explosive industrial and population growth between the mid-nineteenth century and the Great Depression required constant attention to city-building. Private, profit-oriented firms, often with government involvement, provided necessary transportation, energy resources, and suitable industrial and residential sites. Meeting these requirements in the region’s challenging hilly topographical and riverine environment resulted in the dramatic reshaping of the natural landscape. At the same time, the Pittsburgh region’s free market, private enterprise emphasis created socio-economic imbalances and badly polluted the air, water, and land. Industrial stagnation, temporarily interrupted by wars, and then followed deindustrialization inspired the formation of powerful public-private partnerships to address the region’s mounting infrastructural, economic, and social problems. The sixteen essays in Making Industrial Pittsburgh Modern examine important aspects of the modernizing efforts to make Pittsburgh and Southwestern Pennsylvania a successful metropolitan region. The city-building experiences continue to influence the region’s economic transformation, spatial structure, and life experience.