The program focuses on urban commercial architecture to examine a lesser-studied type of tall buildings by use: hotels. Urban historian A.K. Sandoval-Strausz draws on his detailed studies and analysis of this distinctive development type in his book Hotel: An American History. The analysis of the design and function of the architecture is connected to the social and economic construction of the industries they accommodate, as well as their urban context.
The format of this program is paired as a talk and a dialogue.
This discussion builds on several past lectures at The Skyscraper Museum by each speaker: the videos of these previous talks are highly recommended as background.
Tom Mellins, Hotels: Big and Tall; Carol Willis, Lofty Lofts in The Rise of the Skyscraper City
Readings
A.K. Sandoval-Strausz
A.K. Sandoval-Strausz is Associate Professor of History at Penn State University where he directs the Latina/o studies program. The winner of numerous grants and academic awards, he is the author of Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City(University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019) and Hotel: An American History (Yale, 2007), which was named a Best Book of that year by Library Journal. With Nancy Kwak, he is co-editor of Making Cities Global: The Transnational Turn in Urban History (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017).