Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings by Judith Dupre

Review
"An eye-popping shelf-scraper...an elevating experience." (Gene Shalit, Today )

Product Description
At a stunning 18 inches tall and celebrating all of today's most significant superstructures, this all-new edition of Skyscrapers features 15 exciting new buildings and a brand-new interview with Adrian Smith, the world's foremost architect of supertall buildings.

Retaining all of the qualities that made it a major bestseller—informative commentary, historic facts and architectural information, and glorious photography— this groundbreaking, shelf-scraping international bestseller is a Skyscrapers for the new millennium.

Unique in scale and design, the book has been expanded to 160 pages and features more than 60 buildings by such well-known architects as Santiago Calatrava, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Philip Johnson, Morphosis, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, Cesar Pelli, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Arranged chronologically, it includes features on such topics as the ancient roots of skyscrapers and visionary cities of the future-as well as a fascinating interview with Adrian Smith, designer of the Burj Dubai, the tallest structure in the world. Each informative spread includes photos, plans, diagrams, background, technological information, and more, all in an elegant design.

From the Inside Flap
Rising majestically above the hubbub of crowded cities or standing in solitude against a natural backdrop, skyscrapers captivate the eye, excite the imagination, and inspire awe. Wonders of creativity and ingenuity, they embody the best of our practical achievements and reflect our highest aspirations.

This magnificent chronological tour of the world’s tallest buildings—thoroughly revised and updated since its initial publication, and featuring cutting edge work by today’s international superstars of architecture—stands as the most thorough, authoritative, and eye-popping book on the subject, as dramatic in presentation as the structures it celebrates. Breathtaking photographs capture the buildings’ details as well as their monumental scale; architectural drawings and plans invite you behind the scenes as new buildings take shape; and lively commentary on each building explores its particular significance and provides historic context. Throughout, informative profiles, features, and statistics make Skyscrapers an invaluable reference as well as a visual feast.

From a church built to the glory of God to monuments that symbolize national or civic pride, to buildings so forward thinking that they contribute to the betterment of the environment, the 62 structures included here encompass the very best and most ingenious of our history, spanning some 125 years and circling the globe. The 15 astonishing “supertalls” that have been added to this edition represent flights of imagination and feats of engineering that the skyscraper’s earliest pioneers could never have dreamed of.

“To say that the megatall landscape has changed since this book was first published in 1996 is an understatement,” comments the author in her forward. “We are in the midst of a new skyscraper boom…Skyscraper design, now embraced by the global community, has entered a flamboyant, no-holds-barred era of exhilarating, highly personal exploration of the extreme frontiers of structural and creative possibility.”

Every civilization has expressed in buildings both sacred and secular the eternal quest to reach ever upward toward the sky. Skyscrapers invites you to relish in the stunning works born of that quest.




About the Author

Judith Dupré writes about art, architecture, and engineering in ways that delight and educate. She has written six award-winning books of illustrated nonfiction that have been translated into ten languages, including Skyscrapers, Bridges, Churches, and Monuments: America’s History in Art and Memory. She holds degrees from Brown University in English literature and studio art, and did postgraduate work at Hunter College and the Open Atelier of Design and Architecture, both in Manhattan. Currently, she is at Yale Divinity School doing advanced studies on the impact of time, memory, and ritual on architecture. She lives outside New York City.