Cities in the Sky
The Quest to Build the World's Tallest Skyscrapers
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
From one of the world’s top experts on the economics of skyscrapers—a “fascinating” (Daily Mail, London) and “informative” (Publishers Weekly) account of the ever-growing quest for super tall buildings across the globe.
The world’s skyscrapers have brought us awe and wonder, and yet they remain controversial—for their high costs, shadows, and overt grandiosity. But, decade by decade, they keep getting higher and higher. What is driving this global building spree of epic proportions? In Cities in the Sky, author Jason Barr “provides an enjoyable, expansive study of a subject he loves” (Kirkus Reviews), explaining why they appeal to cities and nations, how they get financed, why they succeed economically, and how they change a city’s skyline and enable the world’s greatest metropolises to thrive in the 21st century.
From the Empire State Building (1,250 feet) to the Shanghai Tower (2,073 feet) and everywhere in between, Barr explains the unique architectural and engineering efforts that led to the creation of each structure. Along the way, he visits and unpacks some surprising myths about the earliest skyscrapers and the growth of American skylines after World War II, which incorporated a new suite of technologies that spread to the rest of the world in the 1990s. Barr also explores why London banned skyscrapers at the end of the 19th century but then embraced them in the 21st and explains how Hong Kong created the densest cluster of skyscrapers on the planet. Also covered is the dramatic result of China’s “skyscraper fever” and then on to the Arabian Peninsula to see what drove Dubai to build the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which at 2,717 feet, is higher than the new One World Trade Center in New York by three football fields.
Filled with fascinating details for urbanists, architecture buffs, and urban design enthusiasts alike, Cities in the Sky “masterfully weaves together the history, myths, economics, and engineering behind the most iconic structures across the world’s skylines” to showcase “the ambition, ingenuity, and vision that encourage us to build higher and bolder” (Grady Hillhouse, creator of Practical Engineering).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this informative if rose-colored study, Rutgers economist Barr (Building the Skyline) argues for the inevitability of skyscrapers—calling them "a kind of natural order" for human habitats and comparing them to "the way that ants build mounds." He contends that tall buildings are a solution that emerges organically when land becomes scarce, and even asserts that the new fad for supertalls—skinny and ultra-high skyscrapers—is a rational economic development, pushing back against criticism of them as developer cash grabs and elite money-laundering schemes. He details the 130-year history of skyscrapers with a focus on the developers and engineers who made them and innovations in construction techniques, including recent improvements that allow buildings to sway with the wind at high elevations. He then pivots to an analysis of the economics of skyscrapers meant to bolster his opening apologia for them as a social good. This section, while it usefully sums up recent achievements and scandals in skyscraper construction, sometimes falls back on facile assertions, like when he defends supertalls because they are not the cause of the high cost of land in New York City, but merely a response to it—a fact that critics likely realize. Such circuitous arguments make it feel like the concerns of critics aren't being handled seriously. Still, for architecture buffs, Barr's meticulous research is worth checking out.
