The American Skyscraper: Cultural Histories (review)

This volume edited by Roberta Moudry is a welcome anthology of recent scholarship on the history of the tall commercial building, primarily between 1880 and 1950 in New York and Chicago. The American Skyscraper has thirteen essays that present "the engagement of the skyscraper with the experience and meaning of city life" (p. 3). Moudry's excellent introduction emphasizes broad concerns, from the "skyscraper as urban theater" and muse to "how this building type shaped professional practices of developers, designers and policymakers; the workplaces and streetscapes of workers and management; the image of corporations and organizations . . ." (pp. 1, 3).

Part 1, "Makers and Users," includes Gail Fenske's analysis of the reconciliation of engineering and construction requirements of the 1913 Woolworth Building with the City Beautiful movement; Keith Revell's insightful discussion about public health concerns undergirding the 1916 zoning law in New York City; and an examination by Lisa M. Fine of how numerous white female clerical workers in skyscrapers altered behaviors and spatial organization. Part 2, "In the Image of the Client," has four essays: Lee Gray intriguingly details the skyscraper as a home for urban newspapers; Edward Wolner dramatizes the leadership of fraternal societies in building tall in Chicago; editor Moudry demonstrates how the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company conflated its corporate mission with its civic role; and Katherine Solomonson asserts that the publicity surrounding the 1922 Chicago Tribune Tower competition was critical to community formation. Part 3 focuses on "Urban Contexts": Max Page assesses urban demolitions and rebuildings in the service of capitalism, especially in the "restless renewals" along New York City's Fifth Avenue (p. 168); Sarah Watts uses the 1913 pageant by striking Paterson (New Jersey) silkworkers, held at New York's "genteel" Madison Square Garden, to suggest that urban public spaces briefly allowed workers to confront capitalism (p. 192); and Carol Herselle Krinsky lays out the history of Rockefeller Center and its impact on the city. Part 4 is concerned with perceptions of the skyscraper in popular culture. Antonello Frongia discusses early-twentieth-century photographic images of skyscrapers; Merrill Schleier offers an engaging discussion of Sophie Treadwell's 1928 play Machinal, in which the skyscraper has a leading role as stage set and metaphor; and David Nye's essay relates views of the skyline as well as panoramic vistas from towers to what he calls the "geometric sublime" (p. 267). Most of the authors here have published full-length studies of the subjects addressed in their essays, so this book provides a handy introduction to a broad literature.

I read this book primarily as one who would use it to teach undergraduates. From that vantage point, it has many strengths. The varied approaches demonstrate to students how "certain events such as the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and New York's 1916 zoning ordinance, places such as Fifth Avenue, and buildings such as Metropolitan Life . . ." can be interpreted in many ways, using a range of documents and questions (p. 4). Instructors could have students compare Moudry's and Solomonson's essays on the Metropolitan Life and the Chicago Tribune towers, respectively, to examine the similarities and differences between two corporate office buildings in two major metropolises. The Frongia, Schleier, and Nye essays also complement one another nicely.

While I appreciate that both early and recent skyscrapers were beyond the focus of the book, to make the volume really useful in the classroom, I would suggest two expansions (perhaps in a second edition): first, a summary of early skyscraper history that would at least mention pioneers Harvey Ellis and Leroy Buffington and give more than passing attention to Louis Sullivan, Dankmar Adler, and George Post; and second, provision of internet resources in the bibliography, such as the websites of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and the Skyscraper Museum. Despite these omissions, I look forward to a wide readership for this book so that discussions of the skyscraper may shift from boosterism to nuanced critiques.