SKYSCRAPER

Rating:
Summary: History of the skyscraper
Review: The famous architectural critic has written the history of the skyscraper in the US, from its origins in the late 1800s to about 1980. Naturally, New York City and Chicago comprise the vast majority of the examples, but Goldberger frequently includes other US cities as well. The emphasis is on the aesthetics of exteriors, not interiors. There are many b&w photos, averaging roughly one per page, plus 14 color illustrations. There are no floor plans.

The nine chapters are as follows (the descriptions are my wording, not the actual chapter titles): (1) Early NYC buildings (such as Singer Building, Times Tower), (2) Chicago skyscrapers up to 1905, (3) Flatiron and Woolworth Buildings, (4) buildings from 1917-1931, (5) The Chanin, Chrysler, and Empire State Buildings, (6) the 1930s, (7) modernism in the 1950s, (8) late modernism, especially projects emphasizing open plazas (such as the World Trade Center), (9) postmodernist projects that were on the drawing board as the book was being written (such as Battery Park City).