Cold War civil defense mandates intruded into every building including basements

Evidence

The associations were topical: Six months after taking office, Governor Rockefeller came out with a statewide civil defense plan that among other things would make fallout shelters mandatory in all new buildings, including private homes, and require owners of existing buildings to provide fallout protection. Thus, a fallout shelter sign sprouted, most unconvincingly, in my apartment building’s basement “carriage room.” — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 1850

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The absurdly improvised fallout shelter in a basement ‘carriage room’ connects to the material-conditions frame of the Grafting & Growth infrastructure essay — improvised infrastructure that barely works.