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Product Description
Although fundamental factors of program, technology, and economics make tall buildings everywhere take similar forms, skyscrapers in New York and Chicago developed very differently in the first half of the twentieth century. In contrast to standard histories that counterpose the design philosophies of the Chicago and New York "schools," Willis shows how market formulas produced characteristic forms in each city"vernaculars of capitalism"that resulted from local land-use patterns, municipal codes, and zoning. Refuting some common clichs of skyscraper history such as the equation of big buildings with big business and the idea of a "corporate skyline," Willis emphasizes the importance of speculative development and the impact of real-estate cycles on the forms of buildings and on their spatial distribution.Form Follows Finance cautions that the city must be understood as a complex commercial environment where buildings are themselves businesses, space is a commodity, and location and image have value.
Amazon.com Review
The central theme of this well researched history of architecture, urban planning, and real estate is that in the design of office buildings, form, space, and money are all intricately bound up with one another. This convincing hypothesis is presented in the form of a comprehensive and comparative look at the skylines of two major turn-of-the-century cities, which are also two of the most illustrious American metropolises: Chicago and New York. What differentiates this book from other histories of the skyscraper is its emphasis on economics as the chief factor in the determination of form, as well as on municipal codes, land-use patterns, and zoning. It is also an urban history and an agile investigation into the forces that shaped the tallest buildings in America. It is fascinating to learn, for instance, how new formal solutions for office buildings emerged, exactly how the height of the Empire State Building was determined, and how economics contributed to the vast majority of these and other design decisions.
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