The Black Skyscraper

The Black Skyscraper
Author: Adrienne Brown
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2017-11-15
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1421423839

A highly interdisciplinary work, The Black Skyscraper reclaims the influence of race on modern architectural design as well as the less-well-understood effects these designs had on the experience and perception of race.


Skyscraper Rivals

Skyscraper Rivals
Author: Daniel Abramson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2001
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:

The economics of skyscraper construction and the real-estate market of Wall Street are explained; also included are illuminating details and anecdotes surrounding each building's history. An essay by Carol Willis, director of New York's Skyscraper Museum, provides an introduction."--BOOK JACKET.


Skyscraper Facades of the Gilded Age

Skyscraper Facades of the Gilded Age
Author: Joseph J. Korom, Jr.
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2013-03-08
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0786470720

This book is about the design of the facade of 51 of America's most extravagant early skyscrapers. Included are the biographies of noted architects and the aristocrats who financed America's first skyscrapers. This book discusses the influences of European aesthetic values in America--and scandals, rogues and class distinctions. Interpretations by contemporary critics are sprinkled throughout the text. Woven throughout the book are inquiries about the validity of Greek and Roman mythologies and their relationships to "modern" America and its spirit of invention and progress. Foreign traditions were challenged by some architects but then accepted by most. Why was it necessary for the long-dead hero of a faraway civilization to be included on the facade of a newly invented American skyscraper? This book tells why.


Skyscraper

Skyscraper
Author: Benjamin Flowers
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2012-02-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812202600

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Nowhere in the world is there a greater concentration of significant skyscrapers than in New York City. And though this iconographic American building style has roots in Chicago, New York is where it has grown into such a powerful reflection of American commerce and culture. In Skyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century, Benjamin Flowers explores the role of culture and ideology in shaping the construction of skyscrapers and the way wealth and power have operated to reshape the urban landscape. Flowers narrates this modern tale by closely examining the creation and reception of three significant sites: the Empire State Building, the Seagram Building, and the World Trade Center. He demonstrates how architects and their clients employed a diverse range of modernist styles to engage with and influence broader cultural themes in American society: immigration, the Cold War, and the rise of American global capitalism. Skyscraper explores the various wider meanings associated with this architectural form as well as contemporary reactions to it across the critical spectrum. Employing a broad array of archival sources, such as corporate records, architects' papers, newspaper ads, and political cartoons, Flowers examines the personal, political, cultural, and economic agendas that motivate architects and their clients to build ever higher. He depicts the American saga of commerce, wealth, and power in the twentieth century through their most visible symbol, the skyscraper.


Skyscraper Style

Skyscraper Style
Author: Cervin Robinson
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 1975
Genre: Architecture
ISBN:


Building the Skyline

Building the Skyline
Author: Jason M. Barr
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 457
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199344388

The Manhattan skyline is one of the great wonders of the modern world. But how and why did it form? Much has been written about the city's architecture and its general history, but little work has explored the economic forces that created the skyline. In Building the Skyline, Jason Barr chronicles the economic history of the Manhattan skyline. In the process, he debunks some widely held misconceptions about the city's history. Starting with Manhattan's natural and geological history, Barr moves on to how these formations influenced early land use and the development of neighborhoods, including the dense tenement neighborhoods of Five Points and the Lower East Side, and how these early decisions eventually impacted the location of skyscrapers built during the Skyscraper Revolution at the end of the 19th century. Barr then explores the economic history of skyscrapers and the skyline, investigating the reasons for their heights, frequencies, locations, and shapes. He discusses why skyscrapers emerged downtown and why they appeared three miles to the north in midtown-but not in between the two areas. Contrary to popular belief, this was not due to the depths of Manhattan's bedrock, nor the presence of Grand Central Station. Rather, midtown's emergence was a response to the economic and demographic forces that were taking place north of 14th Street after the Civil War. Building the Skyline also presents the first rigorous investigation of the causes of the building boom during the Roaring Twenties. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the boom was largely a rational response to the economic growth of the nation and city. The last chapter investigates the value of Manhattan Island and the relationship between skyscrapers and land prices. Finally, an Epilogue offers policy recommendations for a resilient and robust future skyline.


Skyscraper for the XXI Century

Skyscraper for the XXI Century
Author: Carlo Aiello
Publisher: eVolo Press
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2008-01-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0981665802

This book presents the best 60 projects of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Skyscraper Competition. An investigation by architects, students, and designers on the future of the skyscraper. What is the skyscraper in the beginning of the XXI Century? What is the historical and social context of these mega-structures? What is their response towards the urban fabric? Is the modern skyscraper a city in and of itself? Is the human scale lost? Talented architects have entered these competitions to explore, re-think, and speculate on this fascinating architectural genre. Each project includes a full description by the author as well as several illustrations and drawings. In addition, reknown architects were invited to present their thoughts on this fascinating architectural genre.


Skyscraper Gothic

Skyscraper Gothic
Author: Kevin D. Murphy estate
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-07-06
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0813939739

Of all building types, the skyscraper strikes observers as the most modern, in terms not only of height but also of boldness, scale, ingenuity, and daring. As a phenomenon born in late nineteenth-century America, it quickly became emblematic of New York, Chicago, and other major cities. Previous studies of these structures have tended to foreground examples of more evincing modernist approaches, while those with styles reminiscent of the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe were initially disparaged as being antimodernist or were simply unacknowledged. Skyscraper Gothic brings together a group of renowned scholars to address the medievalist skyscraper—from flying buttresses to dizzying spires; from the Chicago Tribune Tower to the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. Drawing on archival evidence and period texts to uncover the ways in which patrons and architects came to understand the Gothic as a historic style, the authors explore what the appearance of Gothic forms on radically new buildings meant urbanistically, architecturally, and socially, not only for those who were involved in the actual conceptualization and execution of the projects but also for the critics and the general public who saw the buildings take shape. Contributors: Lisa Reilly on the Gothic skyscraper ● Kevin Murphy on the Trinity and U.S. Realty Buildings ● Gail Fenske on the Woolworth Building ● Joanna Merwood-Salisbury on the Chicago School ● Katherine M. Solomonson on the Tribune Tower ● Carrie Albee on Atlanta City Hall ● Anke Koeth on the Cathedral of Learning ● Christine G. O'Malley on the American Radiator Building


The American Skyscraper, 1850-1940

The American Skyscraper, 1850-1940
Author: Joseph J. Korom
Publisher: Branden Books
Total Pages: 552
Release: 2008
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780828321884

The skyscraper is an American invention that has captured the public's imagination for over a century. The tall building is wholly manmade and borne in the minds of those with both slide rules and computers. This is the story of the skyscraper's rise and the recognition of those individuals who contributed to its development. This volume is unique; its approach, information, and images are fresh and telling. The text examines America's first tall buildings -- the result of twelve years of in-depth research by an accomplished and published architect and architectural historian. Over 300 compelling photographs, charts, and notes make this the ultimate tool of reference for this subject. Biographies woven throughout with period norms, politics and lifestyles help to place featured skyscrapers in context. Quite simply, there is no book like this. The text, carefully and insightfully written, is clear, concise, and easily digestible, the text being the product of well-documented original research written in an informative tone. The American Skyscraper 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height is a richly documented journey of a fascinating topic, and it promises to be a superb addition to libraries, schools of architecture, students of architecture, and lovers of art.