Sara WermielMassachusetts Institute of Technology | MIT · Program in Science, Technology & Society
Sara Wermiel
Doctor of Philosophy
About
21
Publications
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Citations
Introduction
Sara E. Wermiel is an independent scholar specializing in construction history, and a historic preservation consultant and teacher. Her research focuses on topics in 19th-century American technology, industrialization, and urbanization. She has published her work on the history of structural fire protection in buildings, new construction materials and assemblies in the 19th century, building typologies (lighthouses), and industries. Dr. Wermiel teaches preservation planning at Boston University.
Skills and Expertise
Publications
Publications (21)
Citation:
Sara E. Wermiel, “Emergence of heavy contracting in the United States in the nineteenth century.” In Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories. vol. 2, London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2018: 1365-1373 ++++
ABSTRACT: The emergence of “heavy” contracting – meaning the construction of public works and civil engineering projects – in the Uni...
Book review: Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers. By Jason M. Barr . New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xvii, 437. $49.95, hardcover. - Volume 77 Issue 2 - Sara E. Wermiel
Safety First: Technology, Labor, and Business in the Building of American Work Safety, 1870–1939. By AldrichMark · Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. xx + 415 pp. Illustrations, figures, tables, notes, appendices, and index. $49.95. ISBN 0-8018-5405-9. - Volume 71 Issue 3 - Sara E. Wermiel
This paper traces the early history of steel columns in US buildings including the development of steel sections and examples of buildings in which they were used. A common misconception is addressed: that the frames of early skeleton-frame buildings in the USA were made entirely of steel. In fact, some of the first skeleton frames contained no ste...
Around 1892, John A. Roebling's Sons Co. introduced one of the first concrete fireproof floor systems to be used in the United States. The floor was designed to span between I-beams in steel-frame buildings. Made with stiffened wire-cloth manufactured by a Roebling's Sons Co. subsidiary, it was marketed as a lighter, cheaper alternative to terra co...
The exhibit, "Adolf Cluss, Architect: From Germany to America: Shaping a Capital City Worthy of a Republic," portrays the life and work of the German-American architect, Adolf Cluss (1825–1905). Cluss designed many important buildings in Washington, D.C. from the 1860s to the 1890s; they were functionally state-of-the-art and stylistically pictures...
Technology and Culture 46.4 (2005) 842-843
Given the title of this book, historians of technology might expect it to teach them about ironworkers and ironmaking—how ironworkers learned their skills, what their lives were like. John Bezís-Selfa does provide some insight into such matters, but his main focus is on the relations between ironworkers an...
Technology and Culture 46.3 (2005) 674-675
The history of city planning in the United States is a topic that would seem to fall within the area of study dealing with urban infrastructure and technology. After all, the purpose of a city plan, according to Jon Peterson, is to help the public exercise "general multipurpose control of the city's future...
Book review: "Gaining Ground: A History of Landmaking in Boston" by Nancy S. Seasholes
Review by: Sara Wermiel
Technology and Culture, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Oct., 2004), pp. 844-846
Public Markets and Civic Culture in Nineteenth-Century America. By Helen Tangires. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003. Pp. xx, 265. $45.00 - - Volume 64 Issue 1 - SARA E. WERMIEL
The article traces the history of the fire escape - in its classic form, a system of iron balconies and ladders on the outside of a building, which is used for emergency exit - in the United States. It shows how this device was called into being by state and city laws in the latter half of the nineteenth century and how, when its drawbacks as a mea...
Technology and Culture 43.3 (2002) 610-612
The rapid acceptance of reinforced concrete as a construction material between 1890 and 1914 is one of the most striking developments in the history of building technology. What makes this pioneering era so interesting is that concrete structures spread worldwide and yet, as S. B. Hamilton notes, the mate...
An introduction to the use of materials for architects and engineers, this work provides a guide to the physical construction of buildings from the 1840s to the 1990s. It describes the development of masonry, wood and steel construction up to modern curtain walls and concrete slabs, as well as cast iron and patented floor construction. Sufficient d...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1996. Includes bibliographical references (p. 376-381). by Sara Eve Wermiel. Ph.D.
