The book talks and lectures below are held at The Skyscraper Museum from 6:30-8 pm and are free of charge, except when noted. The gallery and exhibition are open for viewing from 6 pm. To assure admittance, guests must either use the RSVP form on this site or send an email to [email protected] with the name of the program you would like to attend.
Please be aware that reservation priority is given to Members and employees of Corporate Members of The Skyscraper Museum. Not a member? Become a Museum member today!
In Tudor City: Manhattan’s Historic Residential Enclave, Lawrence R. Samuel recounts the history of Midtown Manhattan’s “urban Eden.” Created by the innovative developer Fred F. French from 1925 to 1929, Tudor City is arguably the world’s first skyscraper apartment complex was and remains an idyllic enclave of neo-Tudor towers, parks, and quiet. Longtime resident Samuels traces the development of the Tudor City neighborhood over the decades to the present day. Lawrence R. Samuel Lawrence R. Samuel is the founder of AmeriCulture, a consultancy based in Miami and New York dedicated to transforming the cultural landscape into business opportunities. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, an MBA in Marketing, and an MA in English. He is the author of numerous books on American history, American culture, and psychology. His most recent books include Love in America: A Cultural History of the Past Century (2019), Happiness in America: A Cultural History (2018), and The American Writer: Literary Life in the United States from the 1920s to the Present (2017).
In this new book, The Structure of Skyscrapers in America, 1871–1900, historian and structural engineer Donald Friedman presents a thorough history of the development of high-rise buildings, not only in New York and Chicago, but across the country in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Providing a rich historic context for the emergence of the skyscraper, he details the range of the technical aspects of construction of this new building type. Donald Friedman Donald Friedman, co-founder of Old Structures Engineering, has thirty years of experience as a structural engineer, working on both the construction of new buildings and the renovation of existing structures. He has taught at the Pratt Institute, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He is the author of numerous articles for technical publications and five books on construction, renovation, and engineering.
Wright and New York turns upside down the conventional notion that Frank Lloyd Wright hated the city, and the city was antagonistic to him. In this illustrated lecture based on his new book, Anthony Alofsin outlines the developments in Wright’s life and work that demonstrate how New York turned around his career in the late 1920s and early 1930s to position him for the glory—and branding—of his final decades. The talk focuses on Wright’s visionary design for an immense Modern Cathedral to serve all religions and for the skyscraper, he designed for the church of St. Marks-in-the-Bouwerie in New York’s East Village. Anthony Alofsin Anthony Alofsin, FAIA, is the Roland Roessner Centennial Professor of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. A practicing architect and art historian, he is known internationally as a leading expert on Frank Lloyd Wright. The author of a dozen books ranging on subjects from the architecture of the late Austro-Hungarian Empire to the history of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he has also written review essays for the Times Literary Supplement, The Atlantic, and The Burlington Magazine.
