Once the world's tallest skyscraper, the Woolworth Building is noted for its striking but incongruous synthesis of Beaux-Arts architecture, fanciful Gothic ornamentation, and audacious steel-framed engineering. Here, in the first history of this great urban landmark, Gail Fenske argues that its design serves as a compelling lens through which to view the distinctive urban culture of Progressive Era New York.Fenske shows here that the building's multiplicity of meanings reflected the cultural contradictions that defined New York City's modernity. For Frank Woolworth - founder of the famous five-and-dime store chain - the building served as a towering trademark, for advocates of the City Beautiful movement it suggested a majestic hotel de ville, for technology enthusiasts it represented the boldest of experiments in vertical construction, and for tenants it provided an evocative setting for high-style consumption. Tourists, meanwhile, experienced a spectacular sightseeing destination, and avant-garde artists discovered a twentieth-century future. In emphasizing this faceted significance, Fenske illuminates the process of conceiving, financing, and constructing skyscrapers as well as the mass phenomena of consumerism, marketing, news media, and urban spectatorship that surround them.As the representative example of the skyscraper as a "cathedral of commerce," the Woolworth Building remains a commanding presence in the skyline of lower Manhattan, and the generously illustrated "The Skyscraper and the City" is a worthy testament to its importance in American culture.
具體描述
讀後感
評分
評分
評分
評分
用戶評價
相關圖書
本站所有內容均為互聯網搜索引擎提供的公開搜索信息，本站不存儲任何數據與內容，任何內容與數據均與本站無關，如有需要請聯繫相關搜索引擎包括但不限於百度，google,bing,sogou 等
© 2025 qciss.net All Rights Reserved. 小哈圖書下載中心 版权所有