Customer Reviews

Rise of the New York Skyscraper: 1865-1913

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As the title indicates, this book covers New York 'skyscrapers' (loosely-defined) from 1865 to 1913. The book begins with 5-story masonry buildings of the late 1800s and culminates with such landmarks as the Woolworth and Singer Buildings. The authors highlight the technical angle, and explain the developments that occurred in steel framing, foundations, and elevators, although the exterior aesthetics of these buildings also receive attention. Some space is allocated to hotels and apartment buildings; however, most of the book is devoted to office buildings. Best of all are the magnificent period photographs of early high-rises, about a hundred in all. Also, there are twenty floor plans.

I am a very apassionated researcher about the development of the great American and Latin American cities. I have found this book very useful for my researchs, with a very great amount of information and a very serious investigation on the issue . The main critic I have found is that the same thing could have been done in a more narrative and amusing way, to keep the reader interested in the reading.The story of New York has been dinamic and full of force, and nothing of that has been reflected on this book. Outside of that, I have really learned a lot about the issue, and it has really been very useful for my own investigations about the issue. I am an architect with a Master on Urban Economics in Buenos Aires, and all this literature is really important for my researchs.

As a practicing Structural Engineer in California, I was involved in a project that required rapid determination of structural systems of buildings in and around New York City based on viewing photographs. This book, along with "Historical Building Construction" by Friedman, provided a fairly complete description of structural systems used over the years in the New York area. I would imagine that the audience for both books would tend to be primarily architects, engineers, or other construction professionals but both books have useful bits of information that might be interesting to even the layperson that just enjoys buildings.

Doug Silver, S.E.
Los Angeles, CA

This book really has to be considered a failure, for although it is full of great old photographs, just reading a single paragraph is like listening to Ben Stein in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". Typical of a dry academic treatise. Still, there are so few books out there on the subject... it is worthwhile.