Roll over image to zoom in Click on image to zoom

Skyscraper

Name: Skyscraper
Brand: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
SKU: 9780812241846
Price: 116.0 AUD
Availability: InStock

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESSISBN: 9780812241846

The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century

Price:

$116.00

Stock:

Temporarily out of stock. Order now & we'll deliver when available

Quantity:

By Benjamin Flowers
Imprint: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
Release Date: January 10, 2010
Format: HARDBACK
Dimensions: 254 x 178 mm
Weight:
Pages: 240

Share this product

Button Actions

Please copy the ISBN for submitting review copy form

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. "

Benjamin Flowers teaches architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Introduction: Narratives of the Built Environment: Architecture, Ideology, and Skyscrapers PART I. THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING: THE SETBACK SKYSCRAPER, THE GREAT DEPRESSION, AND AMERICAN MODERNISM 1 Building, Money, and Power 2 Setback Skyscrapers and American Architectural Development 3 Capital Nightmares 4 The Politics of American Architecture in the 1930s PART II. THE SEAGRAM BUILDING: THE ASCENSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL STYLE AND A SOMBER MONUMENT TO CORPORATE AUTHORITY 5 Architecture Culture into the 1950s 6 Clients and Architect 7 Gangland's Grip on Business 8 Modern Architecture and Corporate America in the 1950s PART III. THE WORLD TRADE CENTER: URBAN RENEWAL, GLOBAL CAPITALISM, AND REGENERATION THROUGH VIOLENCE 9 Regeneration Through Violence 10 The Rhetoric and Reality of Urban Renewal 11 Cathedrals of Commerce: Minoru Yamasaki, Skyscraper Design, and the Rise of Postmodernism Conclusion: Into the Future Epilogue Notes Index Acknowledgments

"In this both sweeping and specific book, Benjamin Flowers describes the Empire State Building, the Seagram Building, and the World Trade Center towers, explaining why developers undertook them and how personal ambitions influenced their designs. . . .Flowers sheds intriguing light on three important skyscrapers here. In the process, he humanizes these endeavors, while situating them in a historical context, raising issues for further discussion, and providing a useful model for studies of other buildings."" (Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians) "Flowers offers a book with value on many levels. . . . [Skyscraper] presents a strong justification for, and demonstration of, a difficult but powerful way of examining buildings. . . . Highly recommended." (Choice)

Skyscraper

Request Academic Copy

Description

You may also like

Recently viewed