Showing Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago by Carol Willis

Form Follows Finance 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 20th century. In contrast to standard histories that counterpose the design philosophies of the Chicago and New York "schools, " Form Follows Finance 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 cliches of skyscraper history such as the equation of big buildings with big business and the idea of a "corporate ...