Unicel Prefab Freight Cars

Few architects can boast having designed a railroad car. Unicel marks the start of Goldberg's self-described "boxcar period," during which he executed designs for actual boxcars and also for projects inspired by boxcars.

Because of a steel shortage following WWII, the challenge was to design a rail car that had the strength of steel but actually used very little of it. Goldberg had used prefabricated plywood panels on a number of other projects, such as his Standard Houses and mobile OSS projects, but the material had never been used to build a railroad car. Goldberg created a monolithic tube-like structure of stressed skin-plywood, dubbed "Unicel" for unit-cellular, made by placing layers of strong plywood grain against grain and laminating them with special plastics under heat. Because the car was constructed as a single unit it was quite strong.

Introduction of the Unicel Prefab Freight Car was done with much fanfare with unveilings at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago and at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. The display booth for the Unicel, also designed by Goldberg, featured a photomontage of the boxcar in use. The highlight of the display however, was a full-size cross section through the boxcar that viewers could walk into. He would later use this idea to promote the apartments in Marina City.

Initially, the innovative boxcar was well received by the American Railroad Association, which approved an order for 500 cars. According to Goldberg, the order was later rejected by the ARA Executive Committee under pressure from the steel industry. As a result Unicel never entered mass production. However, Goldberg adapted the idea for the Unishelter Houses.

QUOTE: "There was a terrible shortage of steel at that time, right after the war, and the Pressed Steel Car Company asked me if I could design a version of our prefabricated plywood panels."
- Oral History