Tall Building: Imagining the Skyscraper

by Scott E. Johnson

The skyscraper continues to inspire architects and visual artists of all types. More than a century of literature, art, film, and new media representations have built an image of the skyscraper inside the space of our collective imagination. A towering physical presence, the skyscraper has come to embody many of our unexamined notions and secret desires about wealth, ambition, and dominance. Paradoxically, as the skyscraper building type changed to address shifting socioeconomic conditions, its perception by mainstream culture has become simpler and more consumable. Featuring rarely seen images and lively text, Building Tall explores the phenomenon of the skyscraperfrom its legacy of supreme technical achievement to the meanings of its various artistic interpretations.

280 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 2008