Skyscrapers serve multiple purposes, with space for offices, retail, and living often rolled into the same tall building. In Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World’s Tallest Skyscrapers, author Jason M. Barr explains the usefulness of skyscrapers in our modern history and advocates for their continued evolution as human progress marches on.
The skyscraper is in its second century of existence, from its humble beginnings in Chicago in the 1880s. As technology and construction design improved, taller and taller buildings gradually took over the skylines of major cities. While there have been pushes against tall building construction over the years, whether by city legislation or gentlemen's agreements, the skyscraper gradually won out in many urban areas. For example, Philadelphia had a gentleman’s agreement that no building could be taller than the top of William Penn’s hat at the top of its City Hall. Since that agreement was broken in the 1980s, 12 buildings have since exceeded the 548 foot height of Penn’s hat. Some of the tallest buildings on Earth now exceed 2,000 feet, and Barr even predicts that the first kilometer tall (over 3,100 feet) building will grace our presence at some point soon.
Some cities have pushed back against tall and supertall building construction, which Barr delves into with a discussion about the “Not In My Backyard” (NIMBY) and “Yes In My Backyard” (YIMBY) movements, property prices, and housing affordability. While some of this discussion is helpful in painting the picture of property prices, Barr drifts a bit too far into income inequality issues and away from the core issues of office and housing supply vs. demand that typically drives property values in many major cities.
While the economic validity of skyscrapers is certainly a worthy topic of discussion, it felt like those issues needed more depth if they were going to get proper consideration. The story of the skyscraper, on its own, is certainly a very worthy topic without trying to weave in additional socioeconomic discourse.
MY RATING: 4
