The Skyscraper Museum is devoted to the study of high-rise building, past, present, and future. The Museum explores tall buildings as objects of design, products of technology, sites of construction, investments in real estate, and places of work and residence. This site will look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARCHIVE
The Skyscraper Museum sponsors and presents lectures, book talks, walking tours, workshops, and other public programming. For information on upcoming programs, click here.
| 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 |
June 22
David Freeland Book TalkAUTOMATS, TAXI DANCES, AND VAUDEVILLE: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure
(NYU Press 2009)
Click here to watch the video of this event.
New Yorkers who incessantly gripe about gentrification have become as grating as the near-constant noise of luxury condo construction—yes, even in this economy. But David Freeland’s affectionate, detail-packed tome about Manhattan’s forgotten pleasure centers—from dance halls to gambling dens—adds a lyrical song to the cacophony. Organized geographically and for the most part chronologically, the book explores eight neighborhoods—Chinatown, Chatham Square, the Bowery, the East Village, Union Square, the Tenderloin, Harlem and Times Square—via their entertainment centers, with the added hook that physical remnants of these historical hot spots still exist. - Time Out NY
David Freeland is the author of the books Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudville: Excavating Manhattan's Lost Places of Leisure (2009), and Ladies of Soul (2001). His work has appeared in New York Press, No Depression, American Songwriter, Relix, Living Blues, South Dakota Review, Blues Revue, Goldmine, and Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Popular Musicians. He lives in New York.
May 27
Donald Friedman Book TalkHISTORICAL BUILDING CONSTRUCTION: Design, Materials, and Technology
(W. W. Norton & Company 2010)
Click here to watch the video of this event
An updated edition of the classic text detailing the ins and outs of old building construction.
A comprehensive guide to the physical construction of buildings from the 1840s to the present, this study covers the history of concrete- , steel- , and skeleton-frame buildings, provides case histories that apply the information to a wide range of actual projects, and supplies technical data essential to professionals who work with historic structures.
Donald Friedman, a structural engineer, is the president of Old Structures Engineering and lives in New York City. He is also the author of The Investigation of Buildings; The Design of Renovations, with Nathaniel Oppenheimer; and Building the Empire State with Carol Willis
JUNE 8, 2010
JEFFREY COHEN: Views of a Lost Landscape of Business:
Wall Street in the Mid-19th Century
As seen in the rare 19th-century print genre, urban panoramas showed the transformation of Wall Street precisely and minutely recorded. Today they offer us the opportunity for time travel into the textures of the once-new city. Architectural historian Jeff Cohen of Bryn Mawr College led a virtual walk down these early corridors of commerce.
APRIL 27, 2010
Re: Modern Icons in the 21st Century
The United Nations Capital Master Plan was presented by the project's leadership and key consulting architects and engineers. Click here to read more about the event.
APRIL 22, 2010
Re: Green Giants
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, GREEN GIANTS explores the urban aspect of environmental awareness. The twenty-first century retrofits of the GIANTS, Empire State Building and Sears/Willis Tower, were presented by their project leaders on APRIL 22 at 6:30 PM at The Museum of Jewish Heritage. Click here to read more about the event.
2010 BOOK TALKS
MARCH 24, 2010
Donna Goodman
A HISTORY OF THE FUTURE
(The Monacelli Press 2008)
A History of the Future explores the impact of modern technology on design and planning, beginning with Renaissance concepts that laid the foundations for modern visionary work and concluding with emerging projects in sustainable design. It also includes relevant projects in related fields, such as film, photography, and industrial design. Profusely illustrated, A History of the Future is a visual survey of the heroic, utopian, and occasionally misguided visions of the twentieth century.
Donna Goodman has taught architecture and urban planning for more than twenty years at design schools including Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design at the New School, Rhode Island School of Design, and New York University. Her architectural practice focuses on sustainable design. The author lives in New York.
FEBRUARY 23, 2010
Andrew Dolkart
THE ROW HOUSE REBORN:
Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City, 1908-1929
(The Johns Hopkins University Press 2009)
In The Row House Reborn, Dolkart traces this aesthetic movement from its inception in 1908 with architect Frederick Sterner's complete redesign of his home near Gramercy Park to a wave of projects for the wealthy on the East Side to the faux artist's studios for young professionals in Greenwich Village. This significant development in the history of housing and neighborhoods in New York has never before been investigated. The Row House Reborn will interest architectural and urban historians, as well as general readers curious about New York City architecture and neighborhood development.
Andrew S. Dolkart is the James Marston Fitch Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has written extensively about the architecture and development of New York, including the award-winning Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development and the Guide to New York City Landmarks. He has curated numerous exhibitions and is well-known for his walking tours of New York City neighborhoods.
JANUARY 12
Judith Stonehill
NEW YORK'S UNIQUE & UNEXPECTED PLACES
(Universe Publishing 2009)
Judith Stonehill is the author of Greenwich Village: A Guide to American's Legendary Left Bank (Universe 2002) and Brooklyn: A Journey Through the City of Dreams (Universe 2004). She was the co-owner of New York Bound Bookshop and vice president of the South Street Seaport Museum.
2009 PROGRAMS
OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
SHANGHAI SKYLINE: A FIVE-PART LECTURE SERIES
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO ARCHIVE AND EXTENSIVE REPORTS!
In conjunction with its exhibition CHINA PROPHECY, The Skyscraper Museum presents a lecture series that explores in depth--and height--the sensational growth of Shanghai's skyline over the past three decades.
OCTOBER 13The Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place
"A thousand mile journey begins with a single step"
Starting an Asian Practice
 Tomorrow Square in Puxi courtesy Staffan Holgersson |
Moderator Robert Ivy Editor in Chief, Architectural Record Speakers Bruce S. Fowle Founder and Senior Partner, FXFOWLE Timur F. Galen Managing Director, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. James von Klemperer FAIA, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox John C. Portman III Vice Chairman, Portman Holdings, and CEO, John Portman & Associates David Scott Chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and Principal, Arup |
In the recession of the 1990s, and even before, savvy American and New York-based architects and engineers cultivated Asian commissions and established important client relationships that continue today. A panel of principals who pioneered their Asian practices recount the circumstances of their early commissions, illustrate recent projects, and reflect on the relevance for today.
OCTOBER 20
The Lila Acheson Wallace Auditorium, Asia Society
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street)
Gensler's Shanghai Tower
Design Development of China's Tallest Tower
Click here for Asia Society's coverage on this program!
 A Twenty-First Century Tower courtesy Gensler |
Speakers Jun Xia Regional Design Director, Gensler (Shanghai) Dennis Poon P.E. Managing Principal, Thornton Tomasetti Douglas Mass President and Principal-in-Charge, Cosentini Associates |
With the municipal government as a client partner, the
632-meter Shanghai Tower clearly asserts the city's ambitions
and commitment to high-rise urbanism. Gensler won a
competition for this super-tall program with a spiraling form
and double-skin facade that emphasizes sustainable values,
which will overtop the adjacent SWFC by more than 400 feet
and is planned for completion in 2014.
OCTOBER 27
The William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (at 24th Street): 14th Floor, Room 220
KPF in Shanghai
Skyline and Streetscape
 SWFC under construction courtesy Peter Lim |
Moderator: Clifford Pearson, Senior Editor, Architectural Record Speakers William Pedersen Design Partner, Kohn Pedersen Fox James von Klemperer FAIA, Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox |
Opened in August 2008, the 101-story SWFC currently crowns the Pudong skyline and ranks as the world's third tallest skyscraper. Other major projects in KPF's significant Shanghai portfolio will be illustrated in a survey by the firm's leading principals.
NOVEMBER 10
The William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (at 24th Street): 14th Floor, Room 220
SOM in Shanghai
Jin Mao and Beyond
 Diagram of Jin Mao showing section and plans courtesy SOM |
Speakers William F. Baker Structural and Civil Engineering Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Ross Wimer Design Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill |
The pagoda-like profile of the 88-story Jin Mao tower, completed in 1999, was meant to assert the arrival of China and Shanghai on the world stage of global business and architectural culture. The innovative structural core created one of the most dramatic skyscraper interiors to date. SOM structural engineer Bill Baker describes the design and construction of Jin Mao, and architect Ross Wimer, designer of SOM's most recent Shanghai high-rises, places the firm's work in a fifteen-year context.
NOVEMBER 24
The William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (at 24th Street): 14th Floor, Room 220
Preserving Shanghai
Modernizing Urban Identity
 Aerial of Xintiandi courtesy Studio Shanghai |
Moderator: Clifford Pearson, Deputy Editor, Architectural Record Speakers Benjamin Wood AIA, Principal, Studio Shanghai William G. Tung Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Rockefeller Group Development Corporation |
The wholesale demolition of Shanghai's traditional low-rise lane housing has slowed, if not ceased, and a debate has emerged over preservation versus adaptive reuse. The catalyst for the latter was the phenomenally successful Xintiandi, the design of Ben Wood and the enlightened Hong Kong developer Vincent Lo, which reconfigured several blocks of shikumen housing into an urbane complex of shops, restaurants, entertainment, and modern offices.
From Left to Right: Lane Housing before; Xintiandi after; Taipingqiao Lake and Xintiandi
courtesy Studio Shanghai
Rockbund Rendering
courtesy Rockefeller Group International
FEBRUARY 19
SUPER SLENDER MIDTOWN TOWERS
CLICK HERE FOR THE VIDEO ARCHIVE!
"Hong Kong slender" describes a type of pencil-thin tower common in Asia's Manhattan and recently
returned to New York real estate. In conjunction with its current exhibition,
"Vertical Cities: Hong Kong | New York",
The Skyscraper Museum examined the aesthetics, engineering, and economics of slenderness in a
program highlighting three tall, super-slim residential towers recently reared in Midtown:
Sky House, One Madison Park, and 785 Eighth Avenue. Team presentations by the architects,
structural engineers, and developers explored the complex equation of twenty-first century slenderness.
Featured projects and building team presenters include:
SKY HOUSE
Frank Lupo, Associate Principal, FXFOWLE Architects
Silvian Marcus, CEO, WSP Cantor Seinuk
Veronica Hackett, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, The Clarett Group
ONE MADISON PARK
John Cetra, Principal Architect, CetraRuddy
Silvian Marcus, CEO, WSP Cantor Seinuk
785 EIGHTH AVENUE
Ismael Leyva, President, Ismael Leyva Architects
Ysrael A. Seinuk, CEO, Ysrael Seinuk, PC
2009 BOOK TALKS
DECEMBER 8
David Owen
GREEN METROPOLIS:
Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability
(Riverhead Books 2009)
David Owen's GREEN METROPOLIS redefines what it means to be green, and offers vital insights into how to make our way to a more sustainable future: instead of depending on the acquisition of fancy new "green" gadgetry or the advent of new energy-related technologies, we should look to the lo-fi solutions already at work in dense cities around the globe.
David Owen has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1991. Before joining The New Yorker, he was a contributing editor at The Atlantic Monthly, and prior to that, a senior writer at Harper's and a frequent contributor to Esquire. He is also a contributing editor at Golf Digest and the author of several previous nonfiction books. He lives in northwest Connecticut with his wife, writer Ann Hodgman, and their two children.
DECEMBER 1
Randall Mason
THE ONCE AND FUTURE NEW YORK:
Historic Preservation and the Modern City
(University of Minnesota Press 2009)
Rich with archival research, The Once and Future New York focuses on three major projects—the restoration of City Hall Park, the ultimately failed attempt to save historic St. John’s Chapel, and the construction of the Bronx River Parkway. Challenging several myths about historic preservation, Mason asserts that preservationists were not simply antiquarians concerned only with architecturally significant buildings, but that many were social reformers interested in recovering the city’s collective history. He demonstrates that, rather than being fundamentally opposed to growth, historic preservation in this period was integral to modern urban development.
Randall Mason is associate professor in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania and coeditor of Giving Preservation a History: Histories of Historic Preservation in the United States.
NOVEMBER 23
Paul Goldberger
BUILDING UP AND TEARING DOWN: Reflections on the Age of Architecture (The Monacelli Press 2009) and
WHY ARCHITECTURE MATTERS
(Yale University Press 2009)
CLICK HERE FOR PAUL GOLDBERGER VIDEO AND PODCAST
Paul Goldberger Building Up and Tearing Down
(The Monacelli Press 2009)
Paul Goldberger
Why Architecture Matters
(Yale University Press 2009)
Paul Goldberger is the architecture critic for The New Yorker, where since 1997 he has written the magazine’s celebrated “Sky Line” column. He holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in Manhattan. He began his career at The New York Times, where in 1984, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism.
OCTOBER 1
Anthony Flint
WRESTLING WITH MOSES:
How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City
(Random House 2009)
Wrestling with Moses is the tale of a local battle with far-ranging significance. By confronting Moses and his vision, Jacobs forever changed the way Americans understood the city, and inspired citizens across the country to protest destructive projects in their own communities.
Anthony Flint is author of Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City, and director of public affairs for the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge. He has been a journalist for over 20 years, primarily at The Boston Globe, where he covered development, urban design, housing, and transportation. His first book, This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press. He has been a visiting scholar and Loeb Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and a policy adviser in Massachusetts state government, and is a Citistates Associate. He is a graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
SEPTEMBER 22
Ann Buttenwieser
GOVERNORS ISLAND:
The Jewel of New York Harbor
(Syracuse University Press 2009)
Records from Castle Williams reveal an evolving national penal system, while those from the hospital tell the story of worldwide contagion and local sanitation. Accounts of the lives of the island’s female residents offer insight into ethnic assimilation and the changing roles of women in the military, and a compendium of military and civilian recreational life on the island illuminates the changing meanings of open space and recreation over time. Ann L. Buttenwieser brings this rich legacy to life, creating a striking portrait of the island through never-before-published photographs, blueprints, architectural plans, and interviews with former residents.
Ann L. Buttenwieser is an urban planner and waterfront historian and the author of Manhattan Water-Bound: Manhattan’s Waterfront from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. She serves on The Skyscraper Museum Board of Directors.
AUGUST 4
Jane King Hession and Debra Pickrel
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT IN NEW YORK:
The Plaza Years, 1954-1959
(Gibbs Smith 2007)
Jane King Hession, a native of Nyack, New York, received her M.Arch. from the University of Minnesota. An architectural writer and historian with interests in Frank Lloyd Wright and mid-century modernism, she is the coauthor of Ralph Rapson: Sixty Years of Modern Design. Hession resides in Alexandria, Virginia.
Debra Pickrel is a New York journalist who has written on architecture and design for Architectural Record, House Beautiful, Metropolis, and Preservation. She is also the author of A Day in Turtle Bay, a walking tour of her Manhattan neighborhood with a foreword by Walter Cronkite. A former board member of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, Pickrel is a journalism graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received her M.A. in Historic Preservation from Goucher College. She is a native of Richmond, Virginia.
JULY 14
Loretta Lorance
BECOMING BUCKY FULLER
(The MIT press 2009)
Drawing on a close reading of Fuller's personal papers (in particular, the multivolume scrapbook, Chronofile), Lorance looks at Fuller's first independent project, the Dymaxion House, and finds that what really happened differs from the authorized version. According to Fuller himself and most secondary sources, after a series of personal crises in the 1920s—including the death of his young daughter, thoughts of suicide, and a "year of silence" during which he pondered his purpose in life—Fuller resolved to devote himself to the betterment of society by offering the public economical, efficient, and modern manufactured housing. But the private papers tell a different story; one of his initial motivations for designing the Dymaxion House was simply to make money from its manufacture. When that didn't work, Fuller began to emphasize its possibilities rather than its practicalities. By the mid-1930s, Lorance shows, Fuller the public figure had gone from being an entrepreneur with a product to being a visionary with an idea. He had become Bucky Fuller.
Loretta Lorance is an architectural historian. She teaches in the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
JUNE 23
Scott Johnson
TALL BUILDING:
Imagining the Skyscraper
(Balcony Press 2008)
Scott Johnson is a partner of the distinguished Los Angeles architecture firm, Johnson/Fain, and is the newly appointed Director of the USC Graduate Architectural Program. A leader in the architectural discourse & issues of urban design in and outside of Los Angeles, he has worked on a wide range of projects including the MGM Tower, MET Lofts, and the Solano County Government Center. Johnson is also the author of Figure/Ground: A Design Conversation and The Big Idea: Criticality and Practice in Contemporary Architecture. In this book, he offers his approach to design development and neighborhood needs, his firm's decision to office in Downtown Los Angeles, and an educator's vision of architecture as culture.
MAY 19
Joanna Merwood-Salisbury
CHICAGO 1890:
The Skyscraper and the Modern City
(University of Chicago Press 2009)
An ambitious reinterpretation of the works of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and John Wellborn Root, this volume uses their towering achievements as a lens through which to view late nineteenth-century urban history. Joanna Merwood-Salisbury sheds new light on many of Chicago's defining events-- including violent building trade strikes, the Haymarket bombing, the World's Columbian Exposition, and Burnham's Plan of Chicago--by situating the Masonic Temple, the Monadnock Building, and the Reliance Building at the center of the city's cultural and political crosscurrents.
While architects and property owners saw these pioneering structures as manifestations of a robust American identity, immigrant laborers and social reformers viewed them as symbols of capitalism's inequity. Illuminated by rich material from the period's popular press and professional journals, Merwood-Salisbury's chronicle of this contentious history reveals that the skyscraper's vaunted status was never as inevitable as today's skylines suggest.
Joanna Merwood-Salisbury is Director of Academic Affairs and an Assistant Professor in the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design.
MAY 5
Andrew Dolkart
BIOGRAPHY OF A TENEMENT HOUSE IN NEW YORK CITY:
An Architectural History of 97 Orchard Street
(University of Virginia Press 2006)
Andrew S. Dolkart is the James Marston Fitch Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. He has written extensively about the architecture and development of New York, including the award-winning Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development and the Guide to New York City Landmarks. He has curated numerous exhibitions and is well-known for his walking tours of New York City neighborhoods.
APRIL 29
Jean Parker Phifer
Photographs by Francis Dzikowski
PUBLIC ART NEW YORK
(W.W. Norton 2009)
Architect Jean Phifer specializes in planning, renovation and sustainable design projects for cultural institutions and has designed or restored over fifty distinguished buildings, public spaces, and landscapes, primarily in New York. She was president of the Art Commission of the City of New York, now the Public Design Commission, from 1998 to 2003. Ms. Phifer is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and teaches Environmental Design at New York University. She lives in Manhattan.
Francis Dzikowski is an architectural photographer based in New York City.
The evening's introduction will be given by Michele H. Bogart, author of Public Sculpture and the Civic Ideal in New York City, 1890-1930 (University of Chicago Press, 1989), which received the Smithsonian Institution/ Museum of American Art's Charles C. Eldredge Prize in 1991; and of The Politics of Urban Beauty: New York and Its Art Commission (University of Chicago Press, 2006). From 1998 through 2003 she served as a member of the Art Commission of the City of New York, the City's design review agency, and for four years was its Vice President. She is presently a member of the Art Commission's Conservation Advisory Group and of the Board of Directors of the Fine Arts Federation. Ms. Bogart is a Professor and the Graduate Program Director of the Art Department at Stony Brook University.
FEBRUARY 26
Michael Rockland
THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE: Poetry in Steel
(Rutgers University Press 2008)
JANUARY 20
Max Page
THE CITY'S END: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York's Destruction (Yale University Press 2008)
2008 Book Talks
DECEMBER 16
Gail Fenske
THE SKYSCRAPER AND THE CITY: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York (University of Chicago Press)
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO ARCHIVE!
Images: The Skyscraper Museum CollectionIn the first history of this great urban landmark, The Skyscraper and the City:
The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York (University of Chicago Press),
author Gail Fenske illuminates how the Woolworth Building is a compelling lens
through which to view the distinctive city culture of Progressive Era New York.
2008 PROGRAMS
VERTICAL DENSITY | SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS October Symposium
Re:NY : Recycle | Retrofit | Reinvent the City
Rockefeller Center @ 75: Tribute to a Miraculous Mega-Project
New York Modern Lecture Series
2007 PROGRAMS
Burj Dubai Lectures
Mixed Greens
Kimball Symposium
2007 BOOKTALKS
DECEMBER 12
Jim Rasenberger
America 1908: The Dawn of Flight, the Race to the Pole, the Invention of
the Model T and the Making of a Modern Nation. (Scribner)
NOVEMBER 13
Suzanne Wasserman, Rebecca Lepkoff
Life on the Lower East Side: Photographs by Rebecca
Lepkoff, 1937-1950 (Princeton Architectural Press)
OCTOBER 23
Alice Sparberg Alexiou
Jane Jacobs: Urban Visionary (Rutgers University Press)
SEPTEMBER 18
David Friend
Watching the World Change (Picador)
DECEMBER 5
IN-GALLERY CURATOR'S TOUR
LOCATION: The Skyscraper Museum | 39 Battery Place | NY, NY
6:30 pm
To be both big and tall was a phenomenon of the 1960s and 1970s, the climax in the evolution of skyscraper size. The World Trade Center epitomized the ambitions of an era when faith in technology and a fascination with monumentality spurred designs for megastructures and urban master plans. New York’s skyline was on the rise, and modernity seemed to matter more than history. Tour the Museum's current exhibition, GIANTS: The Twin Towers and the Twentieth Century, with Founder, Director, Curator, Carol Willis.
NOVEMBER 15
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The Great Experiment Since 1936
(Electa)
Nicholas Adams presents his impressive survey of one of America's most well-established architecture firms, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Established in 1936, SOM has designed some of the world's foremost skyscrapers, including Lever House, One Chase Manhattan Plaza, and the AOL/Time Warner center in New York, Chicago's Sears Tower and John Hancock building, and an array of international towers such as Shanghai's 88-story Jin Mao. SOM continues to lead as the designer of the world's tallest buildings, including the China World Trade Center in Beijing, Burj Dubai, and Freedom Tower.
OCTOBER 5
TIMOTHY J. GILFOYLE
A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York
(W.W. Norton)
Historian Timothy Gilfoyle recounts 19th century New York through the eyes of George Appo, a master pickpocket, sometime con artist, and opium addict. Appo's lifestyle of lifting was lucrative, as he often earned more in a night than the annual salary of many workers of the day. Join Gilfoyle as he rescues the hidden history of an emblematic character of the 19th century industrial city.
September 21
JEWEL STERN & JOHN A. STUART
Ely Jacques Kahn, Architect:
Beaux-Arts to Modernism in New York
(W.W. Norton)
Ely Jacques Kahn (1884-1972) was one of the most prolific architects in New York City, most known for his work within the 1920s New York building boom. An early exponent of modern polychrome building facades, Kahn evolved an abstract, geometric decorative style that alluded to his classic training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was inspired by such diverse sources as the machine and exotic cultures. Jewel Stern and John A. Stuart are co-curators with Janet Parks of an exhibition on Kahn at the Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University (2006).
August 2
TONI SCHLESINGER
Five Flights Up and other New York Apartment Stories
(Princeton Architectural Press)
Toni Schlesinger, a columnist for The Village Voice and a New York–based fiction writer and theater artist, tells the extreme stories of New York's rental community in her recent book, Five Flights Up. Individuals of all professions and incomes come alive when they discuss where they came from and where they're going. Each interview is a vivid and insightful portrait, revealing the creative energy, camaraderie, desperation, and hope that fuel the daily lives of people in New York and everywhere.
July 19
KATE ASCHER
The Works: Anatomy of a City
(Penguin Press)
The Works: Anatomy of a City offers a cross section of the hidden infrastructure of New York City, using beautiful, innovative graphic images combined with short, clear text explanations to answer all the questions about the way things work in a modern city. Executive Vice President of NYC's Economic Development Corporation, Kate Ascher describes the technologies that keep the city functioning, as well as the people who support them—the pilots that bring the ships in over the Narrows sandbar, the sandhogs who are currently digging the third water tunnel under Manhattan, the television engineer who scales the Empire State Building's antenna for routine maintenance, and the electrical wizards who maintain the century-old system that delivers power to subways.
June 28
MARK CALDWELL
New York Night: The Mystique And Its History
(Scribner)
Critic, historian, and Fordham University professor Mark Caldwell chronicles
the story of New York nightlife from 1643 to the present, featuring the
famous, the notorious, and the unknown who have long walked the city's streets
and lived its history. New York Night is a spellbinding social
history of the day's dark hours, when work ends, secrets reveal themselves,
and the unimaginable becomes real.
May 31
CAROL WILLIS
75 Years Later: The Empire State Building
(Illustrated Lecture)
Museum Director and Architectural Historian, Carol Willis, will commemorate
the 75th Anniversary of the Empire State Building with an illustrated lecture.
In addition to articles in books and scholarly journals,Willis is the editor
for "Building the Empire State," a book on the construction of
New York's signature skyscraper, published by W.W. Norton in 1998. The Museum's
latest web project, VIVA2
is an interactive interface providing access to the Museum's unique collection
of more than 1,000 photographs of the construction of the Empire State Building
and the World Trade Center towers
-----
In conjunction with the Spring 2006 exhibition GREEN TOWERS FOR NEW YORK: From Visionary to Vernacular, The Skyscraper Museum sponsored an 8-part lecture series GREEN TEAMS, at the Donnell Library.
December 5
Jayne Merkel
Eero Saarinen (Phaidon Press)
Author Jayne Merkel will outline Eero Saarinen's life and career, which
includes 14 years of practice with his father and 10 years of practice as
head of Eero Saarinen and Associates. Saarinen is best known for the St.
Louis Arch, TWA Terminal at JFK and Dulles Airport, General Motors Technical
Center, and American Embassy in London. Merkel will also concentrate on
Saarinen's father, Eliel, and his entry to the Chicago Tribune Tower contest
which won second place and fine critical reviews (and brought the family
to America). Harold Roth, a New Haven architect, will join Merkel to discuss
Saarinen's only skyscraper, CBS / Black Rock. As a young architect in the
Saarinen office, Roth saw the building through construction after Eero died
suddenly in 1961 (at age 51).
November 22
Jeff Byles
Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (Harmony Books)
From the straight boulevards that "demolition artist" Haussmann
smashed through rambling old Paris to the frenzied implosion of Las Vegas
hotel towers, demolition has long played an ambiguous role in the architectural
imagination. Author Jeff Byles will survey the evolution of unbuilding techniques,
as old-school wreckers evolved into highly adept practitioners of "structural
jujitsu." Highlights will include pioneering figures such as Jacob
Volk (the colorful New York City "destructionist" who crumbled
skyscrapers in the Wall Street area) and epochal unbuilding feats such as
the implosion of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis. As ever grander
structures topple to make way for the new, Byles examines the profound impact
the "disappearance" of tall buildings makes on the skyline and
the urban psyche.
October 18
Roberta Moudry
The American Skyscraper: Cultural Histories (Cambridge University Press)
Historian of American Architecture and Urbanism, and editor of The American
Skyscraper: Cultural Histories, Roberta Moudry will discuss the concepts
behind the anthology, which looks at the multiple dimensions of the skyscraper
in an urban American landscape. Focusing on New York and Chicago between
1870 and 1960, the studies in this volume address aspects of the skyscraper
through an array of disciplines, including planning and public policy, art
and architectural history, labor and business history, and American studies.
September 27
Eric P. Nash & Norman McGrath
Manhattan Skyscrapers (Princeton Architectural Press)
New York Times contributor and author of Manhattan Skyscrapers, Eric P. Nash will give a talk entitled, “Making Manhattan Modern: The Evolution of Skyscraper Style.” Together with photographer Norman McGrath, Nash will discuss the development of skyscrapers from early eclecticism and Art Deco setbacks to the emergence of the International Style and beyond. Demonstrative examples will include the Park Row Building, the American Radiator Building, the Seagram Building, and Norman Foster’s Hearst addition.
June 8
Stephen Fraser
Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life. (Harper Collins.)
Historian Steve Fraser will discuss Every Man a Speculator, his new history of Wall Street. Fraser's book approaches the powerful and unpredictable nature of The Street with regard to politics, business, religion, and popular culture, as well as gender identity and the American concept of freedom. Fraser, who has appeared in the LA Times, The American Prospect, and the Nation, is the author of Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor.
May 3
Christopher Gray
New York Streetscapes: Tales of Manhattan's Significant Buidlings and Landmarks. (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
Architectural historian and New York Times columnist Christopher Gray will discuss his most recent book, a compilation of 190 of his "Streetscapes" columns for the Times. Gray illuminates the architectural and social history of Gotham in his study of local buildings and sites and the human intrigues which accompany them. Follow Gray as he takes us for a stroll down the streets of old New York.
March 29
Mary Beth Betts
Mary Beth Betts, Kevin Bone, and Stanley Greenberg have co-authored an unprecedented documentation of the rise and fall of the New York waterfront. The book traces the waterfront's architectural, technological and commercial existence over the last 150 years. Betts will discuss her essay, entitled MASTERPLANNING: Municipal Support of Transport and Commerce 1870-1930, which covers the development of planning, as well as the formation and eventual dissolution of The Department of Docks.
March 1
Philip Nobel
Philip Nobel presents a no-holds-barred look at the collision of interests behind the ambitious attempt to raise a new national icon at Ground Zero. Tracing redevelopment of the World Trade Center Site from graveyard to playground for high design, he strips away the hyperbole to reveal the secret life of the Century's most charged building project.
February 8
Fred W. Clarke
Pelli & Associates partner Fred W. Clarke spoke about the revolutionary new book, SECTIONS THROUGH A PRACTICE. Though there have been many other volumes published on the architecture of Cesar Pelli, this book is a radical departure from a traditional monograph. This is the first book to present a completely original viewing of the buildings themselves. The book also recognizes and describes the working processes among CP&A's principals and collaborators.
January 18
Douglas Levere
More than six decades after Berenice Abbott documented New York City monuments in Changing New York, photographer Douglas Levere has meticulously rephotographed many of the same scenes captured by Abbott in the 1930s. Contrasting black and white images by both photographers are displayed side by side throughout the book. Levere discussed his work and offered a visual presentation.
2004 BOOK TALKS
The Skyscraper Museum presents a series of book events exploring the skyline
architecture of New York. These programs are free, and no reservations are
necessary. All events held at the Center for Architecture at 536
LaGuardia Place, NYC (between Bleecker and West 3rd Street) 212-683-0023.
January 20, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Daniel Okrent on GREAT FORTUNE: THE EPIC OF ROCKEFELLER CENTER (Penguin, October 2003)Noted journalist and public editor for The New York Times, Daniel Okrent recounts the story of ambition and daring and the tangle of big business, politics, high society, and deal-making on the grand scale that led to the construction of Rockefeller Center, one of the world's most famous urban complexes.
February 3, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Eric Howeler on SKYSCRAPER: VERTICAL NOW (Universe/Rizzoli, December 2003)Architect Eric Howeler talks about his new book Skyscraper: Vertical Now and examines how the skyscraper shapes our urban existence and continues to serve as a symbol of our collective aspirations.
Exploring over 70 skyscraper designs of the recent past and near future, Howeler examines the cultural, technological, and social factors governing skyscrapers, the emergence of the "green skyscraper", the Asian skyscraper and the influence of the international landscape, and major works from the world's leading architects including KPF, Foster, SOM, Calatrava, Koolhaas, Nouvel, and many more.
March 9, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Richard Berenholtz, photographer of NEW YORK ARCHITECTURE: A HISTORY (Universe/Rizzoli, December 2003)April 20, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Jim Rasenberger on HIGH STEEL: THE DARING MEN WHO BUILT THE WORLD’S GREATEST SKYLINE (Harper Collins, April 2004)May 25, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
James Traub on THE DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND: A CENTURY OF PLEASURE AND PROFIT IN TIMES SQUARE (Random House, April 2004)As Times Square turns 100, New York Times Magazine contributing writer James Traub tells the story of how this mercurial district became one of the most famous and exciting places in the world. The Devil’s Playground is classic and colorful American history, from the first years of the twentieth century through the Runyonesque heyday of nightclubs and theaters in the 1920s and ’30s, to the district’s decline in the 1960s and its glittering corporate revival in the 1990s.
June 15, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Owen D. Gutfreund on TWENTIETH CENTURY SPRAWL: HIGHWAYS AND THE RESHAPING OF THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE (Oxford University Press, March 2004)Owen Gutfreund's 20th Century Sprawl is a groundbreaking study of how urban sprawl changed the face of America's cities and towns. Gutfruend takes a "follow the money" approach to show how government policies—largely unexamined—from as early as the 1920's subsidized the spread of cities and fueled a chronic nationwide dependence on cars and road building with little regard for expense, efficiency, social justice, or the environment."
July 20, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
Russell Shorto on THE ISLAND AT THE CENTER OF THE WORLD: THE EPIC STORY OF DUTCH MANHATTAN, THE FORGOTTEN COLONY THAT SHAPED AMERICA (Doubleday, March 2004)In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
August 3, 2004, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
The Skyscraper Museum Team on the Web Project VIVA: VISUAL INDEX TO THE VIRTUAL ARCHIVE (www.skyscraper.org/viva)VIVA is the Visual Index to the Virtual Archive of The Skyscraper Museum, an innovative Web interface that uses an interactive 3D map of Manhattan in 2000 as a gateway to the Museum’s archive of New York City images and views. Over 2,000 historic photographs, postcards, and other images are now available online through VIVA.
Sunday, May 16, 2004
HISTORY AND HERITAGE DOWNTOWN FAMILY FUN DAY
World Financial Center Winter Garden
On May 16th the Skyscraper Museum joined over 15 other Lower Manhattan cultural organizations to celebrate the History and Heritage of Downtown New York City. For its feature presentation The Skyscraper Museum's special guest Steve Havemann demonstrated the historical process of riveting using antique forge, tongs, and pneumatic gun. Jim Rasenberger, author of High Steel, was also present during the demonstration to further illustrate the technologies, techniques and dangers of skyscraper construction.
2003 BOOK TALKS
December 8, 2003, 6:30 - 7:30 PM
NEAL BASCOMB on HIGHER: A HISTORIC RACE TO THE SKY AND THE MAKING
OF A CITY (Doubleday, October 2003)
CENTER FOR ARCHITECTURE, NYC
In 1929, as downtown and midtown skylines soared, two towers vied for the title of world’s tallest building. Author Neal Bascomb recounts the race between the Manhattan Company Building at 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, evoking the colorful characters of an architectural drama.
June 11, 2003, 10 AM
CONSTRUCTION KICK-OFF
At the site of the Museum's new home at 39 Battery Place, three blocks west
of Bowling Green (4 / 5 Trains). A celebration to launch the construction
of our permanent home in Battery Park City.
For more information about the event, click here.
May 5, 2003
HONG KONG ~ NEW YORK
SKYSCRAPERS IN THE GLOBAL CITY
Lighthouse International, Ames Auditorium, 111 E. 59th St., between Lexington
and Park Avenues
Cesar Pelli and William Pedersen, Architects of the world's tallest buildings, discuss skyscrapers in the global city:
In Hong Kong, architects Cesar Pelli and William Pedersen of KPF have designed supertallskyscrapers and commercial centers—one completed, the otherin construction—that rise over train stations and mass transit hubs. These towers and others that are now, or will be, the world’s tallest buildings pose possible models for downtown New York.On the evening of Monday, May 5, The Skyscraper Museum will sponsor a symposium featuring William Pedersen of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and Cesar Pelli of Cesar Pelli & Associates. The architects will present their supertall towers in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and other global cities and reflect on their experiences with mega-developments in relation to rebuildingm in Lower Manhattan. A discussion with Alex Garvin, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Vice President for Planning, Design & Development, follows the architects’ talks.
As design principals of their internationally renowned firms, Pelli and Pedersen are responsible for buildings that are now, or are projected to be, the world¹s tallest towers. The current record holders, the twin Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, designed by Mr. Pelli, measure 450m (1483 ft.) to the top of their stainless steel spires. The World Financial Center in Shanghai, designed by Mr. Pedersen, scheduled for completion in 2007, will rise to 492m (1614 ft.).
2002 PROGRAMS
November 4, 2002
BOOK SIGNING AND RECEPTION
Talk at 6:30 pm, book signing and reception at 7:15 pm, Institute of Fine
Arts, 1 East 78th Street at Fifth Ave.
The Skyscraper Museum presents a talk by Donald Friedman on his new book After 9-11: An Engineer's Work at the World Trade Center (Xlibris, September 2002).Co-sponsored by the New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
November 13, 2002
BOOK SIGNING AND RECEPTION
Talk at 6:30 pm, book signing and reception at 7:15 pm, Institute of Fine
Arts, 1 East 78th Street at Fifth Ave.
The Skyscraper Museum presents an illustrated talk and book reception to celebrate the reissue of The Lower Manhattan Plan of 1966, published by Princeton Architectural Press in Association with The Skyscraper Museum.Carol Willis, Director of The Skyscraper Museum and editor of the reprint will link past and future plans for Lower Manhattan and introduce two of the original team architects, Paul Willen and James Rossant to reflect on the bold proposals for reinventing downtown in the 1960s.
Co-sponsored by the New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
October 22, 2002
LOWER MANHATTAN: FIVE DECADES OF THE FUTURE
What: A symposium with Eight Chairs of the NYC Planning Commission on Downtown,
Past and Post 9/11
Where: 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, Auditorium, Lower Level
The Skyscraper Museum sponsored a symposium on the future of Lower Manhattan that brought together, for the first time, seven past Chairs of the New York City Planning Commission and the current Chair, Amanda M. Burden, to discuss how downtown was envisioned by the NYC Department of City Planning under five mayoral administrations, from Lindsay to Bloomberg.
In addition to Ms. Burden the panel included all the heads of the Commission since 1966: Donald H. Elliott (1966-1973); John Zuccotti (1973-1975); Victor Marerro (1976-1977); Herb Sturz (1980-1986); Sylvia Deutsch (1987-1989); Richard L. Schaffer (1990-1993); and Joseph B. Rose (1994-2002). (The missing years, 1978-1980, represent the term of Robert F. Wagner, Jr., deceased.]
Spanning five decades, the plans and policies of these administrations addressed the changing problems and fortunes of Lower Manhattan through several cycles of boom and recession, significant shifts in technology, and new social and sectoral trends that changed downtown's mix of businesses, workers, and residents. These issues arise today in new ways.
Carol Willis, Director of the Skyscraper Museum introduced the panel. Ms. Willis is the editor of the reprint of The Lower Manhattan Plan: The 1966 Vision for Downtown New York (Princeton Architectural Press). This month marks the reprint of this rare, and once again relevant planning document that is in part the inspiration for the evening's discussion.
"Linking the past and future of New York City is central to the mission of The Skyscraper Museum and is essential to the identity of Lower Manhattan in the post-9/11 world," notes Willis. Downtown is the birthplace of New York, and it has been reinvented continuously for more than three hundred years. Most of the change was driven by competitive capitalism, but equally significant from the mid-twentieth century, has been the role of planning and public policy. The panel reflected on those tensions and conflicts from their considerable experience.
February 5 - May 5, 2002
WTC: Monument
An exhibition by The Skyscraper Museum at The New-York Historical Society
This tribute to the Twin Towers examines the history of the complex in its conception, design, and construction from the 1960s through the mid-1970s -- and its destruction on the morning of 9/11.
Curated by Carol Willis, the director of The Skyscraper Museum, the exhibition WTC emphasized the monumental scale of the Twin Towers and explored their place in the postwar transformations of Lower Manhattan where an aggressive policy of urban renewal was directed at modernizing physical conditions and reinforcing the evolution of the economy from port to paperwork. New York in the 1960s was a city on the rise, and no project symbolized the confidence in "bigger is better" than did the World Trade Center. On their completion in 1971 and 1973, the Twin Towers were both the tallest and the largest highrise buildings in the world. Innovative engineering carried the structures to 110 stories, multiplying floors of nearly an acre into more than four million square feet of office space in each tower. Little loved by architecture critics of the day, the great silver pylons were more appreciated for their brilliant engineering than for their minimalist design or the austerity of their windswept stone plazas. Over three decades, though, their tremendous power and presence anchored the skyline in a way that makes it difficult to think of New York without them.
Highlights of the exhibition included: an eighteen-minute film titled "Building the World Trade Center" made by the Port Authority in 1983, and the only extant architectural model by Minoru Yamasaki, with twin towers that stand seven feet tall. The Historical Society's collections enrich the exhibition, which makes use of numerous photographs from the Thomas Airviews collection, and a rare scale model of lower Manhattan circa 1970. The exhibition was accompanied by four public programs on the Trade Center's history originally planned by The Skyscraper Museum for October 2001 to be held at Windows on the World.
WTC: Monument was supported by The Bodman Foundation and The Henry Luce Foundation. The exhibitions and programs of The Skyscraper Museum are supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
February - April 2002
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER II HISTORY
A series of programs organized by The Skyscraper Museum at the New-York
Historical Society
New York in the 1960s was a city on the rise, and no project symbolized the confidence in "bigger is better" than did the World Trade Center. In conjunction with the exhibition "WTC," this series of four programs examined the planning, design, construction, and operation of the complex with talks by many of the original team who created and managed the Twin Towers.
April 10, 6:30
PAST AND FUTURE: DOWNTOWN NEW YORK
A panel of historians, planners, architects, and developers discussed the relevance of past plans for reshaping and revitalizing Lower Manhattan and the challenges facing downtown in the future.Hon. Amanda Burden, Chair, NYC Planning Commission
Hon. Sherida Paulsen, Chair, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
Carl Weisbrod, President, Alliance for Downtown New York
Philip E. Aarons, Principal & Founding Partner, Millennium Partners
Robert Selsam, Senior Vice President, Boston Properties, Inc.
Marilyn Jordan Taylor, Chair, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Philip R. Pitruzzello, V.P. for Real Estate Projects, AOL Time Warner, Inc.
Moderator: Carol Willis, The Skyscraper MuseumMarch 20, 6:30
MANAGING MILLIONS
Planned, designed, and operated by the bi-state agency The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the World Trade Center was a true "city within a city" with a population of some 50,000 tenants, and up to 80,000 visitors daily. The autonomy that characterized the creation of the complex and the engineers' culture of the PANYNJ is explored in this evening's panel which focuses on the operation of the complex over three decades.Angus Gillespie, Professor of American Studies at Rutgers; author of Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center
Charles Maikish, former Director, World Trade Department, 1991-1996
Robert DiChiara, former Asst. Director, World Trade Department, 1991-1997
Alan Reiss, Director, World Trade Department through 2001March 13, 6:30
THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BUILDINGS
Though they were only briefly the tallest buildings, the Twin Towers constituted the largest office complex in the world. Leslie E. Robertson, structural engineer of the towers, and builder John Tishman, who headed the construction management of the project, described the innovative design and unprecedented challenges of erecting the great skyscrapers.Leslie E. Robertson, Principal, Leslie E. Robertson Associates, RLLP
John L. Tishman, Chairman, Tishman Realty & Construction Corporation Co., Inc.
Moderator: Carol Willis, The Skyscraper MuseumFebruary 20, 6:30
NEW YORK IN THE 1960s
Lower Manhattan was transformed in the 1960s and 70s by an aggressive policy of urban renewal that sought to address the postwar realities of obsolete piers, aging buildings, and an exodus of corporations to midtown and beyond. The first program brought together the chief planner of the World Trade Center for the Port Authority, Guy Tozzoli, and Donald H. Elliott, Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission under Mayor Lindsay to look back at the last time government guided the reshaping of downtown New York.Guy Tozzoli, former Director of the World Trade Department, PANYNJ; currently, President, World Trade Centers Association
Donald H. Elliott, former Chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, 1966-1973; currently, Hollyer, Brady, Smith & Hines, LLP
Moderator: Carol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum
2001 PROGRAMS
Wednesday, November 14, 2001
REMEMBERING THE TWIN TOWERS
Author Tony Hiss Moderates a Panel Discussion
The Municipal Art Society, 457 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022. Website:
www.mas.org
Tony Hiss, the author of "Experience of Place", lead a panel featuring Carol Willis, director, The Skyscraper Museum; John Kriskiewicz, architectural historian; and Anthony Robins, historian and author of "The World Trade Center". The discussion centered on how the events of September 11, which took an unimaginable toll on human life, also erased what was perhaps the most powerful and defining element of Manhattan's urban landscape. The World Trade Center was a subject of debate within the architectural community, and captured the imagination of the public, from the moment its first steel girders rose into the sky. Why was it built and what were the design and engineering innovations that made it possible? What did the structures, and their use, mean to us as a society?
October 29, 2001 | 6-8:30 pm
THE "NEW" NEW YORK SKYLINE
CUNY Auditorium 365 Fifth Avenue, between 34th and 35th Streets. Website:
www.gothamcenter.org
New York City museums and civic organizations presented a forum featuring prominent architects, developers, educators, journalists, and historians who reflected on the New York City skyline -- past, present, and future -- in light of the tragic events of September 11th. Moderator: Mike Wallace, Director, The Gotham Center. Speakers include: Ralph Appelbaum, President, Ralph Appelbaum Associates; Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic, The New Yorker; Ric Burns, Director of "New York: A Documentary Film", Steeplechase Films; David Childs, FAIA, Partner, SOM; Jean Gardner, Senior Faculty, Department of Architecture, Parsons School of Design; Hugh Hardy, FAIA, Founding Partner, HHPA; Billie Tsien, AIA, Architect, TWBTA; Camilo José Vergara, Photographer and Author of "American Ruins"; Carl Weisbrod, President, Alliance for Downtown New York; Tod Williams, FAIA, Architect, TWBTA; Carol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum.
Spring 2001
SPRING LECTURES
THE URBAN OFFICE: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
A discussion with Donald Albrecht and James S. Russell
Thursday, May 10 at the Institute of Fine Arts, 1 East 78th Street
Co-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians New York Chapter.
Two observers of office-design culture considered architectural evolution and cultural shifts in the white-collar workplace. Donald Albrecht, curator of "On the Job: Design and the American Office" (on view at the National Building Museum, Washington), and James S. Russell, editor-at-large of "Architectural Record", looked back over the century and asked, what's next?
WALL STREET: THE PREQUEL
Tuesday, April 10
The Skyscraper Museum, 110 Maiden Lane
Carol Willis, director and founder of the Museum, looked back on the high-rise history of Wall Street before the days of the "Skyscraper Rivals" (see below). Her talk previewed material to be published by the Museum and W.W. Norton in the book "At the Corner of Capital".
TERRIFIC TERRA-COTTA TOWERS
Wednesday, April 25
Co-sponsored with the New York Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
Institute of Fine Arts, 1 East 78th Street
Susan Tunick, president of "Friends of Terra Cotta" and author of "Terra-Cotta Skyline", lectured on architectural terra cotta, its use, history, and manufacture. The story behind this extraordinary material was presented within the context of the changing technology in architecture that led to the development of the skyscraper.
SKYSCRAPER RIVALS
LECTURE & BOOK PARTY
Tuesday, March 20
Co-sponsored with Princeton Architectural Press
Daniel Abramson narrated the stories of some of the great Art Deco towers of Lower Manhattan in a richly illustrated lecture on their architecture, interiors, the people who built them, and who kept them running. Copies of his recently published book, "Skyscraper Rivals", were available for purchase and signing at a book party following the lecture.
Spring 2000 - Fall 2001
DESIGN / DEVELOPMENT: TIMES SQUARE
This exhibition was the first in a series that will focus on the design process. The installation presents architectural models for six new Times Square towers by four renowned firms:Fox & Fowle Architects PC: Conde Nast and Reuters Buildings
SOM Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP: Times Square Tower and 10 Times Square
KPF Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC: 5 Times Square
Arquitectonica: Tishman's Westin New York at Times SquareFor more information about the exhibition, click here.
Fall 2000
ASPIRING SKYLINES
Popular Images of New York City SkylinesMonday, October 16 | 6:30 PM
Icons in Black & White: NYC Skyscrapers on Film
At the Institute of Fine Arts | 1 East 78TH Street | NYC
Mary Woods, Cornell UniversityMonday, October 23 | 5:30 PM Tour
One Wall Street Tour
Chris McKay, Bank of New York Archivist, led a tour of Ralph Walker's 1930 Deco skyscraper.Monday, October 23 | 7:00 PM Lecture
One Wall Street Lecture
Architectural historian Andrew Dolkart offered a slide presentation of the history of One Wall Street.Monday, November 6 | 6:30 PM
Panoramic Views of New York, 1880-1930
At The Skyscraper Museum | 110 Maiden Lane | NYC
Mary Beth Betts, NYC Landmarks Preservation CommitteeCo-sponsored by the Society of Architectural Historians, New York Chapter. For further information, please call (212) 968-1961.
This project was part of State Humanities Month and was funded in part by the New York Council for the Humanities.
Summer 2000
MANHATTAN TIMEFORMATIONS
Manhattan Timeformations, a digital project by architect Brian McGrath maps Manhattan's skyscraper districts through time. The project uses computer models and interactive animations to depict the dynamic relationship between Manhattan's skyscrapers and the city's development.The public was invited to view the model in progress and interact with the project's designers at 18 open house sessions scheduled throughout the summer of 2000. For more information about the project, click here.
This project was made possible with public funds from a Technology Initiative Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency.
April 4 + 17, 2000
TIMES SQUARE NOW
Two evenings on the planning, development, design and construction that created the extraordinary explosion of activity in Times Square, the most intensely concentrated and complicated construction site in America.April 17: Times Square Towers, three architects presented their firms' new high-rise projects, including: Bruce Fowle of Fox & Fowle Architects PC, architects of 3 Times Square and 4 Times Square; T. J. Gottesdiener of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, architects of Times Square Tower and 7XSquare; and Douglas Hocking of Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC, architects of 5 Times Square.April 4: Plans and Realities, a discussion on the revival of Times Square and 42nd Street by a panel of principal actors including: Rebecca Robertson, former president of The 42nd Street Development Project; William Rudin, President of Rudin Management Company, developer of 3 Times Square; Robert A. M. Stern, architect and consultant to The 42nd Street Development Project; and Daniel R. Tishman, President and CEO of Tishman Construction Corporation, construction manager of 3 Times Square and 4 Times Square.
This series was co-sponsored by The Times Square Business Improvement District.
November 16 - December 7, 1999
TALLEST TOWERS
The Museum and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) presented three lectures by leading structural engineers on their designs for the world's tallest buildings.December 7: William F. Baker, Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill/Chicago discussed the challenges of designing and constructing Shanghai's 88-story Jin Mao Building and Chicago's 7 South Dearborn, the proposed new world's tallest building.November 30: Dr. Charles Thornton, Chairman, Thornton-Thomasetti Engineers/The LZA Group, Inc. shared his experience as chief structural engineer of Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers, currently the tallest buildings in the world.
November 16, 1999: Leslie E. Robertson, Director of Design & Construction, LERA Consulting Structural Engineers, revisited the construction of the WTC's twin towers.
October 25, 1999
DOWNTOWN DECO
Walking tour of Lower Manhattan's Art Deco buildings with architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart.October 6 - November 13, 1999
THE HISTORY OF SIZE
Three lectures on the evolution of exceptionally large structures by Carol Willis, Director of Museum and Curator of BIG BUILDINGS exhibition:Big & Tall: Skyscrapers to 1960
The Mega-Movement: Sizing Up the Sixties and Seventies
Slender or Obese: Skyscrapers 1980s-2000
July 28,1999
HIGH STANDARDS
The Skyscraper Museum surveyed the downtown designations of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, with special attention to the 1999 landmarks - American Tract Society, 15 Park Row, The New York Times Building, and 48 Wall Street. Presented by Deborah Gardner, Commissioner, and Mary Beth Betts, Director of Research.
May 22, 1999
LOWER BROADWAY WALKING TOUR
Architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart led this tour, which began at the Custom House at Bowling Green and advanced up the canyon of Broadway to explore the tall towers of the Financial District.May 15, 1999
FIFTH AVENUE WALKING TOUR
The engineering history of the high-rise building was the subject of this walk up Fifth Avenue, climaxing at the Empire State Building.May 2, 1999
PARK ROW WALKING TOUR
Led by architectural historian Andrew S. Dolkart, this tour met in front of the Woolworth Building and took in the great extant blocks of early office buildings along Park Row and Broadway.
May 1, 1999
EMPIRE STATE BUILDING BIRTHDAY PARTY
On Saturday, May 1st, The Skyscraper Museum celebrated the 68th Birthday of the Empire State Building with an afternoon of events dedicated to New York's signature skyscraper. Director Carol Willis recounted the story of opening day (1931) in her tour of the museum's current exhibition, Building the Empire State, and guests enjoyed birthday cake for the great building. The main event, however, was the screening of the 1933 classic film, King Kong, whose famous, furry star was on hand to greet museum visitors.
March 27, 1999
RIVETING DISCUSSIONS
On Saturday, March 27th, using riveters' tools on exhibit in the museum, ironworker Steve Havemann of BQR Ironshop demonstrated the work of a riveter's team and shared workers' true stories of near-death experiences.
March 24, 1999
FACE LIFTS:
Exterior Restoration of the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings
On Wednesday, March 24th, the museum sponsored a round-robin slide lecture on the facade restoration of New York's most famous skyscrapers presented by the engineers and architects of LZA Technology. Vice President and Principal Robert Nacheman, P. E. and Senior Project Director Jerry Smith, P.E. led guests through the phases of the Empire State Building project, followed by Senior Associate Jan Kalas, AIA and Project Director Eric Hammarberg, Associate AIA who discussed their work on the Chrysler Building.
February 6 - 27, 1999
REAL ESTATE CAPITAL:
Architecture and History on Wall Street
Four lectures examining Wall Street's architectural riches and real-estate development:The Corner: Carol Willis discussed the successive buildings that frame the famous intersection at Wall, Nassau, and Broad Streets.The New York Stock Exchange: Sarah Bradford Landau, Professor of Art History at New York University and author of Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913, traced the architectural history of the New York Stock Exchange, anchor of the financial district.
One Wall Street: Andrew S. Dolkart, architectural historian, addressed the building history of number 1 Wall Street.
40 Wall Street: Carol Willis considered the 70-story sckyscraper at 40 Wall Street and the contemporary Art Deco towers at 70 Pine Street and 20 Exchange Place.
December 5, 1998
THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF LEWIS HINES
On December 5, 1998, noted historian of photography Naomi Rosenblum presented a slide talk on the work of the noted social documentary photographer Lewis W. Hines entitled "Plumbed the Depths and Scaled the Heights": Lewis Hine's Photographs of American Work.
October 24, 1998
BUILDING THE EMPIRE STATE LECTURES
Carol Willis and Donald Friedman, authors of Building the Empire State, presented the design and construction of New York's signature skyscraper.
