Skyscraper
By day the skyscraper looms in the smoke and sun and has a soul.
Prairie and valley, streets of the city, pour people into it and them
Mingle amongst its twenty floors ...
It is the men and women, boys and girls so beloved in and out all day
That gives the building a soul of dreams and thoughts and memories ...
- Carl Sandburg & # 39; s Chicago Poems (p. 325)
So, for me, Joseph Korom & # 39;; Sheer serendipity brought me into the formal facilities planning and management activities I many for many years, it merged with an instinctual love of the architectural form. s The American Skyscraper, will so much more - a "coffee - table" book to be picked up and read again and again.
It is a complete text on the history of America & # 39; s creation and use of Skyscrapers with in-depth information and over 300 images highlighting buildings across the United States. It is over 60 pages for the bibliography, index , footnotes, and tabular presentations of celebrated skyscrapers! The author notes, "Between its covers are the stories of 287 American skyscrapers which are or still are, located in seventy-one cities and towns ..." (p. 21) Reflections of exterior details or interior shots, as well as architects & # 39; personal pictures, create a significant historical contribution for the libraries of both students and professionals in the fields of architectural and engineering, as well as all those, like myself, are awed with the majesty and beauty of structures.
Architect Joseph Korom earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he also served as mentor. He is an accomplished artist whose paintings are shown in many private collections and is a freelance writer, architectural critic, and photographer. He Joseph Korom, who has also authored Look Up Milwaukee (1979) and Milwaukee Architecture A Guide to Notable Buildings (1979) and Architectural Historians, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. (1995).
"Very tall buildings, those now known as" skyscrapers, "was invented here-in America .... Humans built tall for many reasons: to do so was communally satisfying, personally fulfilling and despite most of it was a celebratory act- for to pierce the sky with a manmade object while still tethered to the ground is simply irresistible ... "(pps . 14-15) Korom thus introduces his impressive text with a brief historical perspective of the brave men who began to build high and chronicles "this country & # 39; s unique contribution to architecture ..." (p. 16).
Presenting Chicago & # 39; s Sear Tower as his first picture, he is not ultimate expression of skyscraper technology and is the embodiment of vertical manifest destiny. The author includes interesting factual information such as when he notes, "When the sun sets, pedestrians at the Sears Tower & # 39; s base, plays with to shade. of one floor per second.
Exploring Woodburn Hall all the way I explored the buildings on the West Virginia University campus, working to better manage the utilization of those facilities and then plan what was needed to meet future needs, it was always the older buildings that I found more intriguing. Created by classrooms, offices, and teaching laboratories that were was not the clock tower, or walking through Chitwood and Martin Halls, prior being their gutted and renovated, I thrilled at the basic beauty needed for our school of Journalism and many departments within our College of Arts and Sciences.
That, as I read through A Celebration of Height, it was not surprised that I started studying the buildings with the older styles that the "courageous beginnings" starting in 1850 (p. 22). Zachary Taylor was president "during "planning and appreciation of the accused Jayne Building in Philadelphia." Knowing that "Old Rough and Ready" was in charge helps place the place of the birth of the American skyscraper in historical context. "(p. 23)
The following buildings included in the Celebration are just a few of those enjoyed by this former Facilities professional / reviewer! I am sure others will have these more modern.
Built 1872, by the "first merchant prince of Chicago, Potter Palmer, at the cost of $ 200,000. (Pps. 49-50)
Madison Square Garden Tower, 16 floors, 304 feet, New York. (P. 158)
· Women 's Temple, Chicago, 1892, home of the Woman' s Christian Temperance Union. (P. 166)
· Columbus Memorial Building, topped by a giant bronze status of Christopher Columbus, built in 1893. "In an utterly wanton act, this delightful skyscraper was destroyed in 1959." (P. 179)
Trinity Church, New York City. Its steeple once ranked it the tallest structure on Manhattan Island. (P. 190)
· The Carson Pirie Scott Store & # 39; s main entrance is marked by a most robust example of foliage This twisting mélange was executed in iron then painted a forest green. This building, completed in 1904, was immediately propelled into the annals of architectural immortality The Chicago Loop was now home to a large department store, rising twelve stories, 168 feet. The building featured some of the most compelling ornamentation anywhere. (Pp. 231-232)
"If ever there was a skyscraper that evoked romance, historicism, capitalism, ___ ___ 0 ___ ___ 0 ___ ___ 0 ___ ___ 0 and the optimism of the early twentieth century the City Investing Building was it. delightful profile on New York 's skyline. (p. 271)
· Bromo-Seltzer Tower, Baltimore, 1911, 15 floors, 280 feet tall, with a facsimile of the original Bromo-Seltzer bottle atop its tower! (Pp. 294-295)
(P. 25). Also in New York, the mid-19 th century marked the age of cast iron architecture and is still concentrated in the "Cast Iron District, as a living museum, near the Greenwich Village." (P. 28)
"Man, it's to be the first commercial building to employ a passenger elevator." It was capable of lifting one-half ton at the rate of forty feed per minute and it was the first of its kind anywhere "Any facilities professional will not be surprised to hear that Elisha Graves Otis who ever found the Otis Elevator Company installed it. (pp. 28 -29)
I have enjoyed the smaller details Korom added for interest, such as "Probably for the first time unrelated men and women worked side-by-side for eight or more hours in the same one or two rooms .. (p. 137) and the various interior shots of those men and women dressed Truly, The American Skyscraper 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height is a book That is highly recommended to all those interested in America & # 39; s history!
By his buildings great in influence and power ...
His philosophy where, in "Form Follows function"
Sullivan has earned his place as one of the greatest
Architectural forces in America ...
- Memorial Mark to Louis Henri Sullivan (p. 195)
The American Skyscraper 1850-1940:
A Celebration of Height
By Joseph J. Korom, Jr.
Branden Books 2008
540 Pages
ISBN: 13: 978-0-8283-2188-4
