IBM Manufacturing and Administrative Center, Rochester, Minnesota, 1956-58. Exterior.
Credit: Balthazar Korab collection, Library of Congress
Credit: Balthazar Korab collection, Library of Congress
Docomomo US/MN is excited to present new research completed by Mary Dahlman Smith about the Manufacturing and Administrative Center in Rochester, Minnesota, completed in 1958 by Eero Saarinen & Associates.
Docomomo US/MN commissioned this research in conjunction with the Docomomo US 2024 national advocacy theme of Corporate Modernism.
In the essay, architectural historian Mary Dahlman Smith explores the confluence of science and manufacturing – tracing all the way back to the glacial and geological history of the state – that formed a robust platform for the early computing industry to develop in Minnesota.
The IBM facility in Rochester was itself a technological marvel, and constructed during a prolific period of corporate campus design by Eero Saarinen's firm. The undulating two-tone porcelain-enameled aluminum panels on the exterior of the building gave a literal embodiment to "Big Blue" in Minnesota.
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