The October 1964 edition of the Mississippi Architect features an industrial building in Corinth, designed by John L. Turner. It’s a handsome Modernist building with a great 1960s covered walk, but I’ll be honest, even if I’ve seen this building, I’ve probably driven right by it. I can’t locate it on my usually trusty Bing map, so if anyone out there knows where it is/was, please let us know.

I’ve also never heard of I.T.T. Kellog, but thankfully, wikipedia comes to our rescue with a summary of the company’s complex history:

ITT Corporation is a global diversified manufacturing company based in the United States. ITT participates in global markets including water and fluids management, defense and security, and motion and flow control. Forbes.com named ITT Corporation to its list of “America’s Best Managed Companies” for 2008 and awarded the company the top spot in the conglomerates category.

ITT’s water business is the world’s largest supplier of pumps and systems to transport, treat and control water, and other fluids. The company’s defense electronics and services business is one of the ten largest US defense contractors providing defense and security systems, advanced technologies and operational services for military and civilian customers. ITT’s motion and flow control business manufactures specialty components for aerospace, transportation and industrial markets.

The company was founded in 1920 as International Telephone & Telegraph. During the 1960s and 1970s, under the leadership of its CEO Harold Geneen the company rose to prominence as the archetypal conglomerate, deriving its growth from hundreds of acquisitions in diversified industries. ITT divested its telecommunications assets in 1986, and in 1995 spun off its non-manufacturing divisions, later to be purchased by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.

Six points to the reader who identifies the most corporate techno-babble phrases in the wikipedia entry above and the Mississippi Architect article below.

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Communications Plant

I.T.T. KELLOGG
Plant and Office Building
Corinth, Miss.

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JOHN L. TURNER & ASSOCIATES
Architects-Engineers
Jackson, Miss.

THE International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation’s Kellogg communications division plant at Corinth has master planned to build at once facilities for the production requirements of the communications systems and developmental work needed for anticipated production needs for ten years. Special flow diagrams were developed. Orderly future expansion on the plot is to rear of the building. Simple dignified design was to be a coroprate image-type of structure.

Air conditioning was necessary for the comfort of production workers, and special humidity control was needed in the coil winding processing and transmitter, receiving and network areas. Due to the diversity of processes necessary in the building approximately 85 percent of the building is air conditioned. Areas, such as molding area, carbon and heat treat, painting, plating, as well as shipping and receiving, are ventilated with air volume movement complete approximately every six minutes.

General offices for this division, including production and quality control, industrial engineering, product engineering, and purchasing and accounting were criteria requirements with a 30 percent expansion desired in this area. This expansion already has taken place. Exhibition of products was required in the reception lobby.

Due to changes in production and addition of new product lines, plans have been developed for an additional 60,000 square feet. Special mechanical and electrical needs for equipment were analyzed in conjunction with
equipment plauned, which had been developed by the company, and careful studies were made correlating conveyors, air conditioning, compressed air, water, sprinklers, gas, et cetera. Special epoxy floors were developed for the plating areas.

PLANT AND OFFICE BUILDING – I.T.T. KELLOGG
Office Area ____________________17,100 Sq. Ft.
Main Plant ____________________ 66,010 Sq. Ft.
Boiler Room and AC Penthouse _____2,582 Sq. Ft.
Loading Docks at one-half _________ 1,374 Sq. Ft.
Walkway Covered at one-half _______ 1,017 Sq. Ft.
Total ________________________  88,442 Sq. Ft.

Contract Costs                                   Sq. Ft. Costs

General Construction                                      $443,872.25                                             $5.02
Mechanical Construction                                    40,157.54                                                  .45
Heating, Air Conditioning, venti’lation             168,450.00                                                  1.91
Electrical Construction                                      110,888.76                                                1.25
Sprinkler System                                                 34,401.52                                                 .39
Chain Link Fencing                                               5,612.76                                                 .06

$803,382.83
Average Cost Per Square Foot $9.08

Water Tank, 100,000 gallon                            $24,500.00                                                  .28

(1 ,851,105 Cu. Ft. at approximately 43 cents per cubic foot )

1. Concrete foundation and floors
2. Structural steel frame
3. Brick and block cavity walls
4. Concrete block and ribbed aluminum siding in high bay areas
5. Continuous steel sash in Production Area; aluminum double hung windows in Office Area
6. Steel roof deck–1/2-inch rigid insulation–built-up roof
7. Air change every 6 minutes in non-air conditioned areas by means of roof fans- Office Areas air conditioned; 70% of Production Areas air conditioned
8. Power supply 4 W, 3-phase, 60-cycle AC. Secondary switch gear. 277 / 480 volt electric power distribution and lighting
9. Production areas completely sprinklered
10. Office area walls- concrete block painted special offices paneled
11. Bituminous paving with concrete curb and concrete sidewalks.

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This article is reprinted from the October 1964 issue of the Mississippi Architect, with permission from the Mississippi Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. View the full October 1964 issue of Mississippi Architect in a digitized format, or for other articles in this ongoing series, including the pdf version of each full issue, click on the MSArcht tab at the top of this page.

Categories: Architectural Research, Corinth, Industrial, Modernism, Recent Past