Inspiration

[nachoman]

I think it is a stretch to have such a building before about 1960. My neighborhood is early 1950s, and the shopping center up the street is mid-late 1950s. The shopping center is stucco-covered cinder block, which seemed to be the preferred construction method where I live until the 1970s. I'm not saying there weren't large buildings made out of cast concrete walls prior to then, but I think they were uncommon. One thing in your photo that I know would not have been common in the early 1950s is that rooftop air conditioning unit. Even here in Arizona, A/C would have been rare in the early 1950s. My 1950 house was built without it, but the house across the street, built in the late 1950s had central a/c. Shopping centers and movie theaters were the first to see A/C around here, and I would doubt many warehouses would have been built with it prior to 1950 unless they handled perishable items. And, if they had A/C, I strongly doubt it would have been rooftop units. Instead, they would have big noisy chillers next to the main building.