Skip Navigation to main content U.S. Department of Energy U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Bringing you a prosperous future where energy is clean, abundant, reliable, and affordable EERE Home
Building Technologies Program
Energy and Buildings in the 20th Century 

 

Search Help    More Search Options 

EERE Information Center
Energy and Buildings home link
Looking Back main link
Milestone Buildings main link
1900 to 1910 timeline
1910 to 1919
1920 to 1929
1930 to 1939
1940 to 1949
1950 to 1959
1960 to 1969
1970 to 1979
1980 to 1989
1990 to 1999
A to Z listing
Site Credits
Site Map
Milestone Buildings of the 20th Century

1950-1959

1952
United Nations Building
New York, NY

The UN brought together 10 international architects to plan this "workshop for peace". The Board of Design met 45 times in 1947 to review 40 different designs before the final plan was selected. The building's most famous feature, the floor-to-ceiling glass curtain walls,

 1952 United Nations Building, New York, NY

unfortunately had a serious design flaw. The unshaded glass on the south side gets too hot when it's sunny and leaks when it rains.

Technologies, Innovations, and Quality of Life
1951   Color television introduced in U.S.
1952   Drywall invented (paper faced gypsum plaster sheets)
1953   Photovoltaics-solar conversion directly into electricity - invented by Bell Labs
1953   The gene chemical DNA is discovered
1958   First U.S. satellite to orbit the Earth


Printable Version