My Hunt for Quonsets

PHOTO HALLWAY

SEPTEMBER 27, 2007 - MAY 4, 2008

 
You never know where they’ll turn up. Industrial parks are fertile grounds as are small farm towns, but you can find them in back yards, urban neighborhoods, and commercial zones. In early 2000 Ken Lomax began to photograph Quonset huts and their related World War II era arch style buildings. The images are primarily from the Portland area but also include some structures from the Willamette Valley and around the Northern Oregon Coast.

When the war began, the United States Navy required a simple, demountable structure for housing and storage purposes at advanced bases overseas. The ingenious nail-clutching T-shaped structural arch allowed the steel skin to be applied and removed quickly with nothing but hammers.

The final production model standard hut measured 20-by-48 feet, weighed a light 3.5 tons, and could be assembled by a crew of eight men in a single day. Larger models, called “elephants” were 40-by-100 feet, and were used for storage warehouses, workshops, hangers, and other purposes, sometimes joined together side by side and end to end.

The mass produced World War II building has taken on a variety of roles -- just as the GI’s had when they returned to post-war life. Quonset-type designs evolved into oil stained garages, rusting farm sheds, trim little offices, sleek architectural firms and intimate movie houses. Some maintain their utilitarian, no-frills form and others are decorated by the whims of their owners. Often, they have charming, individual quirks: sometimes a fancy paint job; multiple sets of wind chimes hanging on a warehouse; jungles of encroaching blackberry vines. In short, they have character.

We hope you will come in and see this very entertaining collection of beautiful photographs.