Constructing Containment: Thompson-Starrett, the Çeşme Beach Houses, and the Geopolitics of American Engineering in Cold War Turkey

Abstract

For the first half of the twentieth century, Thompson-Starrett and Co., a New York-based American engineering, construction, and contracting firm, dominated the building scene. In operation between 1899 and 1968, it was a leader in skyscraper construction and large-scale projects, and literally built the New York skyline. It designed and constructed the tallest skyscraper of the era, the Woolworth Building, as well as other iconic Manhattan structures such as the Equitable Building, the American Stock Exchange, the New York Municipal Building, and the Claridge, Algonquin, Roosevelt, St. Regis, and Waldorf-Astoria Hotels. A formidable pioneering force in structural engineering a hundred years ago, Thompson-Starrett is, by and large, forgotten today, especially its post-World War II ventures in Turkey, such as the Sarıyar Dam and the Çeşme Beach Houses, a luxury beachfront cooperative located in Ilıca, Izmir. However, what would prompt the engineering firm responsible for the Woolworth Building to take on the road and utility construction and project management of a Turkish summer resort? The answer lies in Cold War geopolitics and booming private enterprise, both of which, in the 1950s, converged in Turkey, relied on American engineering, and involved a complex process of Americanization.

KEYWORDS:

• Thompson-Starrett
• United States
• Turkey
• Cold War
• geopolitics
• Americanization

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Turkish Information Office, “New Beach Resort on Aegean Sea,” 2–3.

2 Florman, Good Guys, 35, 48.

3 Florman, Good Guys, 35–36; Horowitz and Sparks, The Towers of New York; Fenske, The Skyscraper and the City, 168–172; Fenske, “The Beaux-Arts Architect,” 32–34.

4 Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 138–139; Florman, Good Guys, 46.

5 Quoted in Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 159.

6 “Hilton’s Newest Hotel,” 122.

7 Güngör, “Modernization in Turkey in the 1950s,” 97, 100–101.

8 Pakin, “American Studies in Turkey,” 515.

9 Zeitlin and Herrigel, Americanization and its Limits; Kuisel, The French Way; Endy, Cold War Holidays.

10 Adalet, Hotels and Highways; Erken, America and the Making of Modern Turkey; Aksel, “The Engineering Generation.”

11 There is a small, but growing, literature on Soviet engineers as agents of Sovietization during the Cold War. A comparison of these actors with American engineers who engaged in Americanization is a subject worthy of further research, but beyond the scope of this study. See Ichikawa, Soviet Science and Engineering; Oreskes and Krige, Science and Technology; Apor et al., The Sovietization of Eastern Europe; Stanek, Architecture in Global Socialism.

12 Endy, Cold War Holidays, 1–12.

13 Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 2, 20.

14 NATO, “History.”

15 Thornburg, “The Middle East and the American Engineer,” 332–333.

16 Roark et al., The American Promise, 714.

17 Roark et al., The American Promise, 743–744.

18 Er et al., “US Involvement,” 25.

19 Er et al., “US Involvement,” 19–20; Roark et al., The American Promise, 718; Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 9.

20 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 6.

21 Grathwol and Moorhus, Bricks, Sand, and Marble; Grathwol and Moorhus, Building for Peace.

22 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 9; Kaçel, “Information or Culture.”

23 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 180.

24 Truman, “Remarks.”

25 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 4.

26 Göle, “Secularism and Islamism in Turkey”; Göle, Mühendisler ve İdeoloji [Engineers and Ideology]; Batuman, “Organic Intellectuals.”

27 Bozdoğan, Modernism and Nation Building; Öncü, “Political Identity”; Şanlı, “Rationality, Modernism.”

28 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 6.

29 Adas, Dominance by Design, 228–280; Lundestad, The United States and Western Europe Since 1945. Also see Ekbladh, The Great American Mission.

30 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 58, 198–199; Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 95, 104; Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 139; Özer, “The Effects of the Marshall Plan Aids”; Schipper, “Changing the Face of Europe”; Seely et al., “‘Push’ and ‘Pull’ Factors”; Purkis, “İstanbul’da İnşaat Odaklı” [Relentless Escalation], 93.

31 Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 2. Countless US government brochures advertising foreign partnerships and investment opportunities exist from the 1950s. Two that specifically focus on Turkey and the construction sector are US Department of Commerce, Foreign Commerce Weekly, 5–6, 17–18, and US Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Investment in Turkey.

32 Sneddon, Concrete Revolution, 58–59, 148.

33 Friedmann and Kalmanoff, Joint International Business Ventures, 488.

34 Architectural Forum, 57; Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 138–139; Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 95.

35 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Construction, 68, 92–93, 98.

36 Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 161; Bozdoğan and Akçan, Turkey, 115–116; Wharton, “Economy, Architecture and Politics,” 291–293; Gürel, “Modernization,” 209; Gürel, “Introduction,” 3; Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 119–121.

37 Akçan, “Americanization and Anxiety,” 41.

38 Tekin and Akpınar, “Cultural Contact,” 451.

39 Tozoğlu, “Grand Hotels,” 80–81; Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 120–121.

40 Hangen, “The Tourists’ Turkey,” XX29.

41 Freeman, Government Utilization of Private Agencies, 29; “Thompson-Starrett Heads Building,” 35.

42 Tozoğlu, “A Chapter,” 11.

43 Tozoğlu, “A Chapter,” 10–11.

44 Florman, Good Guys, 46.

45 “Report from the Near East,” 2; “Thompson-Starrett Heads Building,” 35.

46 Aksel, “The Engineering Generation,” 248; Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 139; Tozoğlu, “A Chapter,” 12.

47 “Thompson-Starrett Heads Building,” 35; Hochtief, “History, 1945–1966.”

48 Florman, Good Guys, 46.

49 Atakan and Erdoğan, “Çeşme Yarımadası’nda” [A Critical Overview of the Impact], 98; İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal]. The first planned residential community (cooperative) in Turkey was Bahçelievler in Ankara, which was realized in the mid- to late-1930s.

50 Er et al., “US Involvement,” 25; Gökatalay, “Erken Soğuk Savaş Döneminde” [The Effects of the Turkish-American Rapprochement], 213; “Buraları Görmeden Ölme” [Places to Visit].

51 Endy, Cold War Holidays, 1–12.

52 Güner, “İzmir’de Modern Konut” [Modern Housing Architecture], 127.

53 Gönlügür, “Exhibiting American Domestic Modernity,” 97–98.

54 Ibid., 98, 103–105. Interestingly, the firm’s founder, Peter Muller-Munk, was an advisor to the US government’s International Cooperation Administration (ICA). Established in 1955 to oversee foreign aid programs, the ICA assigned Peter Muller-Munk Associates to Turkey in an effort to “improve” (i.e. Americanize) industrial design in the country, which Muller-Munk visited a number of times in the 1950s. Peter Muller-Munk Associates would also work with Thompson-Starrett on the 1964 New York World’s Fair, illustrating the interconnectedness of these actors during the Cold War. Er et al., “US Involvement,” 22–26.

55 Gönlügür, “Exhibiting American Domestic Modernity,” 105.

56 Ibid., 85.

57 Tunc, “Eating in Survival Town,” 184–185.

58 Özkut, “Uluslararası Stilin” [Traces of the International Style]; “Çeşmede Yapılacak Plaj Evleri” [Beach Houses to be Built], 3. The Emlak Kredi Bankasi [Real Estate Credit Bank] was a state-sponsored agency that funded housing developments in major cities such as Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir. Other examples include “apartment blocks on Atatürk Bulvarı (1957) and the Fourth Levent Development (1956–60) in Istanbul, and the Emlak Kredi Bank Apartments in Ankara (1957–64) and Izmir (1956–59).” See Gürel, “Domestic Arrangements,” 125, fn. 8.

59 Gürel, “Modernization,” 208.

60 Ibid., 219; Gürel, “Introduction,” 2; Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 116–117, 122–123.

61 Gürel, “Modernization,” 209; Gürel, “Introduction,” 2.

62 “Çeşme Plaj Evlerinin Temeli Atıldı” [Groundbreaking Ceremony], 3.

63 Adalet, Hotels and Highways, 168; Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 27–28, 42–43.

64 Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 43.

65 Ibid; Culum, “Çeşme’de Turizmin Gelişimi” [Development of Tourism]; Kıraç, “Röportajlar” [Interviews].

66 Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 44.

67 “İlân” [Advertisement], 8.

68 “Çeşmede Yapılacak Plaj Evleri” [Beach Houses to be Built], 3.

69 “Buraları Görmeden Ölme” [Places to Visit].

70 Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 44.

71 “Ilıca Plaj Evlerinin Sahiplerinin İsim” [List Showing the Names]; “Buraları Görmeden Ölme” [Places to Visit]; İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal]; Arel, “Şantiye, Rantiye” [Construction Site Revenue]; Tuvi, “Özellikle İzmir’in Yakıcı” [Çeşme: A Cure].

72 “Ilıca Plaj Evlerinin Sahiplerinin İsim” [List Showing the Names]; Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 42–43; İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal].

73 Sayar, “İzmir’de Amerikan Modernizminden İzler” [Traces of American Modernism]; “Çeşmede Yapılacak Plaj Evleri” [Beach Houses to be Built], 3.

74 Izmir is located in the most severe earthquake zone in Turkey and has experienced several devastating earthquakes in the past (1688, 1739, 1778 and 1883) that killed thousands of people and destroyed massive amounts of property. Since the region is known for its severe seismic activities, the design of the Çeşme Beach Houses was legally required to be earthquake resistant. At the time when the homes were designed, the 1949 Turkish Earthquake Code (Yersarsıntısı Bölgeleri Yapı Yönetmeliği), which was heavily influenced by the first edition of the American Uniform Building Code (1927), was in effect. According to the 1949 Turkish Code, the most severe earthquake-resistant design rules were in Zone 1, where Ilıca is located. The code also required the homes to be inspected by engineers appointed by the Ministry of Public Works and the Izmir City Directorate of Public Works. See Yersarsıntısı Bölgeleri Yapı Yönetmeliği [Turkish Earthquake Code] and Ambraseys and Finkel, The Seismicity of Turkey.

75 Özkut, “Uluslararası Stilin” [Traces of the International Style]; Kilinc-Unlu, “A Study of Historic Towns,” 40–41; “Buraları Görmeden Ölme” [Places to Visit]; İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal]; Arel, “Şantiye, Rantiye” [Construction Site Revenue]; Binat and Şık, Turizm ve Rekreasyon Yapıları [Tourism and Recreation Buildings], 75; Kadibeşegil, “Rüzgârın Alaçatılı Notaları” [Alaçatı Notes].

76 Gönlügür, “Exhibiting American Domestic Modernity,” 85–112; Gönlügür, “American Architecture”; Gürel, “Defining and Living Out the Interior”; Akçan, “Civilizing Housewives,” 185–207.

77 Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 123.

78 “Çeşmede Yapılacak Plaj Evleri” [Beach Houses to be Built], 3; Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 42.

79 “Çeşme Plaj Evleri Yarın Sahiplerini Bulacak” [The Çeşme Beach Houses], 2; Eskimeyen İzmir Fotoğrafları [Timeless Izmir Photographs], “Çeşme Ilıca Şantiye Evleri, 1956” [Çeşme Ilıca Şantiye Houses].

80 İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal]; Tuvi, “Özellikle İzmir’in Yakıcı” [Çeşme: A Cure].

81 Quoted in Birer, “Babasının Doğmuş Olduğu” [He Moved the Town]. Our translation.

82 Serbes and Çakmakçıoğlu, “Çeşme’de Turistik Otel Projesi” [Tourism Hotel Project], 156.

83 Özdemir, “Türk Turizm Tarihi İçinde Turban” [Turban in Turkish Tourism History], 28–29; İlhan, “Çeşme Günlüğü” [Çeşme Journal]; “Çeşme’ye Sheraton” [A Sheraton for Çeşme].

84 Tuvi, “Özellikle İzmir’in Yakıcı” [Çeşme: A Cure].

85 Letter from Fikri Gökçeer (Mayor of Çeşme) to Enver Saatçıgil (Governor of the Province of Izmir), 5 April 1963.

86 Harris, Troubled Alliance; Keskin-Kozat, “Reinterpreting Turkey’s Marshall Plan.”

87 Barjot, Catching Up with America; Hecht, Entangled Geographies.

88 “Çeşme’de Satılık Plaj Evi” [Beach House for Sale in Çeşme], 3. One aspect of the Çeşme Beach Houses that deserves additional research, but is beyond the scope of this study, is an ethnographic examination of its residents. While we have provided demographic and socioeconomic information in order to contextualize the summer resort and Thompson-Starrett’s role in its construction, interviews with residents, especially those who have lived there for generations, could provide an enormous amount of insight into the social and historical role of the community. How first-generation owners – or even residents from other moments in the development’s history – understood their summer homes culturally and politically could further expose the role that American engineers and Americanization played in Cold War Turkey.

89 Ekbladh, The Great American Mission; de Grazia, Irresistible Empire; Lundestad, The United States and Western Europe Since 1945; Kuisel, The French Way.

90 Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 133–135.

91 Özkut, “Uluslararası Stilin” [Traces of the International Style]; Özcan, “Ünlü ODTÜ’lü Mimar” [Famous METU Architect].

92 Gürel, “Seashore Readings,” 48–49.

93 Binat and Şık, Turizm ve Rekreasyon Yapıları [Tourism and Recreation Buildings], 75; İzmir Kalkınma Ajansı, Yarımada Sürdürülebilir Kalkınma Stratejisi [Peninsular Sustainable Development Strategy], 51.

94 Bozdoğan, “Democracy, Development,” 135; Kıraç, “Röportajlar” [Interviews].

95 TC Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı, “İzmir İli-Çeşme İlçesi-Şifne Durmuş Mevkii” [Izmir Province-Çeşme District-Şifne Durmuş Location], 28.

96 Özkut, “Uluslararası Stilin” [Traces of the International Style]; Özcan, “Ünlü ODTÜ’lü Mimar” [Famous METU Architect].

97 “Çeşme Ilıca Şantiye Evleri’ne Plan Müjdesi” [Good News for the Çeşme Ilıca Construction Site].

98 For later examples of construction-oriented American private enterprise in Turkey, see US Bureau of International Commerce, International Commerce, 32–38.