Skyscraper
1st Edition
Published on 1. June 2018
304 pages
978-1-78669-117-0 (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.
More details
Series
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
40 colour illustrations
ISBN-13
978-1-78669-117-0 (9781786691170)
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.
Content
- Intro
- Welcome Page
- About Skyscraper
- Contents
- Frontispiece
- 1. Introduction
- 2. John Wellborn Root: Atlanta, Liverpool and New York
- ATLANTA
- LIVERPOOL
- NEW YORK
- 3. Chicago: 1871-1891
- MARRIAGES OF GREAT CONVENIENCE
- OSCAR WILDE IN NORTH AMERICA
- THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT
- RISE OF THE CHICAGO 'SKYSCRAPER'
- THE CHICAGO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
- THE ROOKERY
- SULLIVAN VERSUS BURNHAM
- THE MONADNOCK BUILDING
- 4. The 'White City'
- THE WORLD'S COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION
- 'AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM'
- THE EXPOSITION GETS UNDERWAY
- THE DEATH OF JOHN W. ROOT
- CHARLES B. ATWOOD ARRIVES
- WOMEN AND THE EXPOSITION
- A TOUR OF THE EXPOSITION
- THE 'WHITE CITY'S' INFLUENCE
- AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXCLUSION FROM THE EXPOSITION
- THE EXPOSITION AND FEMALE EMANCIPATION
- DEATH AND THE WHITE CITY
- THE END OF THE SHOW
- 5. The Reliance Building
- STRUCTURE
- FIRE PROTECTION AND TERRACOTTA
- GLASS AND THE 'CHICAGO WINDOW'
- THE STAIRCASE
- ENTRANCE LOBBY AND ELEVATORS
- HOW THE RELIANCE WAS OCCUPIED
- SPEED AND COST OF CONSTRUCTION
- 6. Legacy
- BUILDING CODES AND LEGISLATION AGAINST BUILDING HIGH
- THE 'SKYCOLUMN' AESTHETIC
- ENTER THE FLATIRON
- HIGH-RISE: FIRE AND POLITICS
- INSPIRATION FROM THE EAST
- LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE
- WALTER GROPIUS AND THE GLAZED CURTAIN WALL
- LE CORBUSIER
- MIES VAN DER ROHE AND THE HIGH-RISE CURTAIN WALL
- THE SEAGRAM BUILDING
- THE SPIRIT OF THE RELIANCE BUILDING RETURNS TO CHICAGO
- Endpapers
- Notes
- Index
- Acknowledgements
- About Dan Cruickshank
- The Landmark Library
- An Invitation from the Publisher
- Copyright
