ABSTRACT
More than one hundred years before the advent of the internet and cyberspace, the infrastructure of new communication technologies, like the telegraph, fundamentally shaped the design and construction of buildings, streets, and cities. As skyscrapers soared above ground and streets were constructed below, an intricate and dedicated flow of spatial connections, both visible and invisible, transformed the economic geography of commerce, especially the trading of stocks and commodities. Ducts, conduits, and risers, hidden from view, linked spaces together and brought information to the trading floors of exchanges and stock tickers on the desks of traders. Based on rigorous archival and technical analysis, this essay traces the pathways of the “telegraphic interior” in the early twentieth century, transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries between architecture, interiors, urbanism, engineering, and planning.
