BOXES:The most prevalent category of US Army magazines before 1928 were above- ground, rectangular warehouses, with gabled or flat roofs, constructed of stone or brick to reduce the risk of fire. Hollow masonry tile was the preferred material, but wood- frame magazines were also built, insulated with corrugated asbestos insulation. Temporary Magazine Number 8, located in the northeast quadrant of Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot, was a typical 150 x 200’ clay tile magazine, overloaded with leftover WWI ordnance. On 10 July 1926 it was struck by lightning at 5:15 pm. At 5:20 pm, it exploded, leaving a crater where the magazine had stood and detonating nearby Magazine Number 9 and Shell House Number 22. The direct effect of these blasts caused the annihilation of all structures within half a mile and damaged buildings up to one and a half miles away. (see previous page) In response to this explosion a board of inquiry was formed which recommended new forms of ordnance storage. BARREL VAULTS: The Igloo magazine was a low, barrel-arch structure constructed of rein- forced concrete and covered with earth. The barrel-arch directs the force of an explosion up instead of out, while the berming of the earth dampens an explosion, reducing the pos- sibility of sympathetic detonation. Its other advantages are thermal insulation, camouflage from earth berms and drastic reduction in distance requirements between magazines.The antecedents of the igloo include the barrel-vaulted German munitionshaus as well as earth- bermed concrete casemate magazines constructed by the US Navy during WWI. Construction of Igloos began at Yorktown Naval depot,Virginia in 1928. They were 40’ x 10’ high with a capacity of 140,000 pounds of explosives. They were laid out in clusters of seven with 500’ between magazines and 1900’ between clusters.This arrangement can be seen at Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot (right), the 20th century paradigm for safe ammunition and explosives storage. BEEHIVES: In preparation for WWII, the Protective Mobilization Program provided for the manufacture of matériel sufficient to supply 1.2 million ground troops. The Army instigated an extensive network of depots that received, stored and issued general military supplies.The Igloo was preferred by the Joint Army-Navy Ammunition Storage board however construction costs became a concern. Modifications to the igloo resulted in Triple-Barrel Vaults and the Corbetta Beehive which altered the form of the igloo. The Beehive has an at-grade floor, an elliptical, dome-shaped, earth-covered magazine with a 6’ steel door. By 1943, over 2000 had been built. The advantage of the Corbetta Beehive was that it equalled the standard magazine in structural strength but required only half the steel, a third of the copper and two-thirds the concrete.
YURTS:With the development of the atomic bomb during WWII and the escalation of the Cold War in the 1950s, the Stradley Magazine was designed for the storage of special weapons.The size and weight of munitions increased, primarily as a result of developments in rocketry such as guided missiles. The new type, called a Yurt, became standard for all Army depots, providing the spatial efficiency of a box with the blast protection of a barrel- vault. It was designed with 8x9’ blast-proof steel doors and was easily accessible to modern forklifts.
Adam Bobbette is an artist and designer based in Toronto. He is on the editorial board of Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy and teaches at the University of Toronto. Alexis Bhagat is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn. He is the co-editor and co- curator of An Atlas of Radical Cartography .
28 On Site review 22: WAR
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