
Skyscraper
Dan Cruickshank(Author)
Head of Zeus (Publisher)
Published on 14. June 2018
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-78669-118-7 (ISBN)
Description
Chicago's beautiful Reliance Building, sixteen storeys tall, was designed in 1890 by John Root and completed in 1895 by Charles B. Atwood. In its construction - metal frame, large areas of plate glass, fire-proof brick and terracotta cladding - it pioneers all the key elements of twentieth-century high-rise architecture, and many of the tenets of Modernism.
Cruickshank reflects on the extraordinary architectural, artistic and engineering world of the 1890s and its great figures such as Daniel H. Burnham, Louis Sullivan and William Le Baron Jenney. He looks forward to the Reliance building's immediate progeny, such as the 1902 Flatiron Building in New York and to the hubristic high-rise architecture of the twenty-first century.
This is also the story of Gilded Age Chicago, which was burned to the ground in 1871. The city - corrupt, violent and fabulously wealthy - was ready to try anything, even revolutionary forms of architecture.
Cruickshank reflects on the extraordinary architectural, artistic and engineering world of the 1890s and its great figures such as Daniel H. Burnham, Louis Sullivan and William Le Baron Jenney. He looks forward to the Reliance building's immediate progeny, such as the 1902 Flatiron Building in New York and to the hubristic high-rise architecture of the twenty-first century.
This is also the story of Gilded Age Chicago, which was burned to the ground in 1871. The city - corrupt, violent and fabulously wealthy - was ready to try anything, even revolutionary forms of architecture.
Reviews / Votes
Historian and TV presenter Dan Cruickshank ascends the heights of architectural development with this history of the skyscraper * History Revealed * Mr Cruickshank does a valuable service in making the nearly invisible visible once again * Economist *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Illustrations
40 colour images
Dimensions
Height: 204 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
620 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78669-118-7 (9781786691187)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Person
Dan Cruickshank is a distinguished historian of art and architecture. He has also written and presented many BBC series on the built environment.