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Coffee table books are a special breed intended:
The volume's tall, slender being (tastefully and adroitly designed by Alleycat), immediately suggests tall, slender objects. Sagaciously and economically avoiding color, the book's black, gray, and white composition leads your mind to the steel, stone, and concrete that comprise most skyscrapers.
The author's incisive "Introductory Interview with Philip Johnson," the nonagenarian dean among today's American architects, both establishes Dupre's authoritative base and gives you a clean overview of her subject. To broaden your scope, Dupré cites five eloquent examples of "Ancient Roots." She follows then with photo essays with brilliant text describing 50 skyscrapers, in chronological order from the Washington Monument (1884) to Indonesia's Kunnigan Persada Tower, projected to be the world's pinnacle after its 1998 completion. Not every skyscraper is featured, so she closes with a listing of all "100 Tallest Buildings in the World" (one third of them outside the U.S.A.)!
For the "skimmers," each entry includes a uniform stat-strip stating: unique fact, architect, completion date, height, materials, and a significant note. Each unit also displays an icon of itself comparing it to scale with icons of the landmark Sears Tower, the Empire State Building, and the Eiffel Tower -- all that plus a full view of the structure and a relevant quotation from the classics.
Wisconsin architecture professor Wayne Attoe did a graphic text on Skylines in 1981. It was produced as a short-broad book to convey the notion of horizon. In it he depicted and described many skylines toward the understanding and molding of urban silhouettes. But he never wrote any discussion of the distinctive tall buildings that make up those skylines. Skyscrapers now provides in graphic prose that missing element.
Most coffee table books are showpieces, as is Skyscrapers. But spending time with it is bound to take you up.
M.D. Morris, P.E. is a writer and editor living in Ithaca, New York, who worked at building tall ones.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.
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