Robert Whitlock

Speakers

With three decades experience at the firm, Robert Whitlock is one of KPF’s foremost designers of high-rise towers, mixed-use developments, and large-scale master plans. He is the design principal for three supertalls in our exhibition: Suzhou International Finance Square, a 450-meter signature tower of the ancient Chinese city; Chongqing International Trade and Commerce Center, a 475-meter tower that anchors a development for Shui On Land in the megacity of southwestern China; and CITIC Tower, at 528 meters the tallest building in Beijing. Also known as China Zun after the flaring form of a Bronze-Age ritual vessel, the 109-story tower is the headquarters of CITIC Group, a state-owned investment company.

Mark Sarkisian

Speakers

Mark Sarkisian is the structural and seismic engineering partner in SOM’s San Francisco office. He holds fourteen U.S. and international patents for high-performance seismic structural mechanisms and environmentally responsible structural systems. Mark has designed more than 100 major building projects around the world, including the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the NBC Tower in Chicago, and two supertalls, Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait.

Remembering 9/11: Before, After, and Since

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Our 2021 lecture series WORLD VIEW invites architects, engineers, and building industry experts to explain and reflect on the art and science of the supertall skyscrapers they have designed and constructed around the world. Conceived as a semester of talks, the series explores the history of the supertall typology and its evolution in the 21st century, emphasizing the global reach of supertall ambitions and the pivotal role of American firms in exporting design expertise. Continue reading “Remembering 9/11: Before, After, and Since”…

WORLD TRADE CENTER RESOURCES

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WORLD TRADE CENTER RESOURCES In honor of the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, this landing page brings together various projects, both records of the Museum's physical exhibitions and online resources and projects, that address the history of the original World Trade Center, their destruction, and the rebuilding at Ground Zero in the decades that followed. A brief overview summarizes each project and connects to the pages on our "legacy" website, which in most cases retain their original layout and coding. These pages span from 1997 – that is, within the lifespan of the Twin Towers – to the present. Two special exhibitions, WTC Monument in 2002 and GIANTS: The Twin Towers and the Twentieth Century in 2007, present detailed histories of the design and construction of the World Trade Center, but from the post-9/11 perspective. The projects are presented chronologically, no matter their media or scope. They range from a large mural in our first temporary exhibition in 1997, Downtown New York, that placed the towers in the history of height, to such team efforts as the Viewing Wall at Ground Zero in 2002, and to installations in our permanent home in Battery Park City after 2004. Other archive projects document and interpret the design and construction of the original World Trade Center and the rebuilding of the site in the two decades after 9/11. Tallest Towers Mural, 1997 Big Buildings, 1999 WTC: Monument, Continue reading “WORLD TRADE CENTER RESOURCES”…

The Skyscraper Museum

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The Primacy of Petronas Towers: Supertalls Go Global

Book Talks & Lectures

Fred Clarke,FAIA, RIBA, JIA Senior Principal, Pelli Clarke Pelli In 1998 the twin Petronas Towers in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur took the title of "world's tallest building" away from the United States for the first time. The towers’ developers, private investors working with the Malaysian government and Petronas, the national oil company, sought to create a headquarters and a landmark that would establish KL's prominence as a commercial and cultural capital. In the design of American architects Cesar Pelli and Fred Clarke, they found a winning scheme, paired towers of slender proportions and scalloped spires that suggest both Islamic geometries and temple forms. Like the towers that would proliferate in Asia and the Middle East in the next decade, Petronas was constructed of high-strength concrete, supported by massive core and an outer ring of widely-spaced super columns. In both structural engineering and iconic imagery, Petronas pointed the way to the supertalls of the 21st-century. Fred Clarke co-founded his firm, now known as Pelli Clarke Pelli, in 1977 in New Haven with the late Cesar Pelli while Cesar was Dean of the Architecture School at Yale University. As Senior Design Principal, Fred has directed all the projects in the New Haven and Asian studios. A career-long teacher and writer, Fred has been a faculty member of Yale University, Rice University, and the University of California at Los Angeles.   < View All Lectures The video begins with Fred Clarke's lecture,

Scott Duncan

Speakers

Scott Duncan is a partner in SOM’s Chicago office, where he leads the design of high-rise and mixed-use projects locally and around the world. Since joining SOM in 1998, he has championed the firm’s vision for integrated design, leading interdisciplinary teams that focus on research on quality of life, planetary health, and improving cities. His portfolio includes Central Place Sydney; 600 Lonsdale, a solar-responsive, biophilic mixed-use high rise in Melbourne; the Shenzhen Rural Commercial Bank Headquarters, a naturally ventilated tower in Bao’an, Shenzhen; and a 500-meter tower in Nanjing, China, just beginning construction. Duncan also plays a key role in the firm’s commitment to Chicago, where he is currently leading the designs of several large-scale mixed-use projects, including 400 Lake Shore Drive, Lincoln Yards, and 330 North Green Street. Duncan serves as Chair of the Height and Data Committee of the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and is a member of the Board of Directors of the SOM Foundation, as well as a leader of The Earth Project, SOM’s multidisciplinary research project on planetary health. Educated at Lehigh University and at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Scott frequently lectures at design schools and serves as a guest critic.

Pivot to China: How Jin Mao Portended Future Supertalls

Book Talks & Lectures

Mark Sarkisian, PE, SE, LEED®AP, Structural and Seismic Engineering Partner, SOM Mark Sarkisian is the structural and seismic engineering partner in SOM's San Francisco office. He holds fourteen U.S. and international patents for high-performance seismic structural mechanisms and environmentally responsible structural systems. Mark has designed more than 100 major building projects around the world, including the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, the NBC Tower in Chicago, and two supertalls, Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and Al Hamra Tower in Kuwait. Mark will discuss the structural design of SOM’s Jin Mao Tower. Its multiple functions, with offices on the lower floors and a luxury hotel and observation deck above, established the mixed-use typology that would characterize many Chinese supertalls in the next two decades. Mark will explain the innovative foundations and seismic design of Jin Mao and the concrete core and mega-column structural system that accommodated the dramatic central atrium that rises through the hotel stories.

Beijing: CITIC/China Zun

Book Talks & Lectures

Robert C. Whitlock, FAIA; Principal, KPF With three decades experience at the firm, Robert Whitlock is one of KPF’s foremost designers of high-rise towers, mixed-use developments, and large-scale master plans. He is the design principal for three supertalls in our exhibition: Suzhou International Finance Square, a 450-meter signature tower of the ancient Chinese city; Chongqing International Trade and Commerce Center, a 475-meter tower that anchors a development for Shui On Land in the megacity of southwestern China; and CITIC Tower, at 528 meters the tallest building in Beijing. Also known as China Zun after the flaring form of a Bronze-Age ritual vessel, the 109-story tower is the headquarters of CITIC Group. Whitlock focuses his high-rise and mixed-use master plan designs on density, public space, programmatic integration, and the influences of these elements on the quality and sustainability of the “multi-layered city.” His projects for the Shenzhen Chegongmiao District and Greenland Bund Centre in Shanghai explore new ways of creating active urban spaces.

Tianjin CTF Finance Centre

Book Talks & Lectures

Brian Lee, FAIA, LEED® AP; Consulting Partner, SOM Tianjin CTF Finance Centre dominates the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), located just outside Tianjin, the coastal city south of Beijing that is China’s fifth largest metropolis. The sleek tower's undulating curves subtly express three programmatic elements: offices on the broad lower floors, serviced apartments in the shaft above, and a luxury hotel in the tapering top floors. The curtain wall of gently curving glass conceals the innovative structural system of eight sloping columns that increase the structure’s stiffness in response to seismic concerns. Multistory wind vents combined with the tower's aerodynamic shape reduce vortex shedding, which in turn dramatically minimizes wind forces.

Guiyang WTC Landmark Tower: “Precious Sun,” A Story of Trade Routes and Supertalls

Book Talks & Lectures

Scott Duncan, AIA, LEED® AP; Design Partner, SOM Scott Duncan is a partner in SOM’s Chicago office, where he leads the design of high-rise and mixed-use projects locally and around the world. Since joining SOM in 1998, he has championed the firm’s vision for integrated design, leading interdisciplinary teams that focus on research on quality of life, planetary health, and improving cities. SOM’s Guiyang World Trade Center will anchor a new district of Guiyang, a city which is emblematic of China’s stratospheric growth and pivotal in its network of global trade. Duncan will describe how such districts are shaped and how the supertall under construction at its core is advancing new ideas about structure and environmental performance.

The Floating Pool Lady: A Quest to Bring a Public Pool to New York City’s Waterfront

Book Talks & Lectures

Historian and waterfront planner and activist Ann L. Buttenwieser is The Floating Pool Lady. As parks protector Adrian Benepe writes in the description of Buttenwieser's new book, "Never mind Molly Brown of RMS Titanic fame—meet the unsinkable Ann L. Buttenwieser! In  The Floating Pool Lady , Buttenwieser recounts, with the energy of a suspense novel, her visionary quest to bring to New York City the first floating swimming pool in more than seventy-five years." Ann L. Buttenwieser is an urban planner and urban historian. She has taught at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University and at the Macaulay Honors College at the City University of New York. She is the author of  Governors Island and Manhattan Water-Bound. 

Beaver Builder PowerPack

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Accordion 2014: Stephen M. Ross .fl-node-5e3cc23ed0377 {width: 100%;}.fl-node-5e3cc27d7668a {width: 66.66%;}.fl-node-5e3cc3c10df7f {width: 100%;}.fl-node-5e3cc27d76690 {width: 33.33%;}.fl-builder-content .fl-rich-text strong {font-weight: bold;}.fl-module.fl-rich-text p:last-child {margin-bottom: 0;}.fl-builder-edit .fl-module.fl-rich-text p:not(:has(~ *:not(.fl-block-overlay))) {margin-bottom: 0;}img.mfp-img {padding-bottom: 40px !important;}.fl-builder-edit .fl-fill-container img {transition: object-position .5s;}.fl-fill-container :is(.fl-module-content, .fl-photo, .fl-photo-content, img) {height: 100% !important;width: 100% !important;}@media (max-width: 880px) { .fl-photo-content,.fl-photo-img {max-width: 100%;} }.fl-node-5e3cc3d019fdf, .fl-node-5e3cc3d019fdf .fl-photo {text-align: center;}.fl-builder-row-settings #fl-field-separator_position {display: none !important;}.fl-builder-row-settings #fl-field-separator_position {display: none !important;}.fl-node-5e3cc3c105afc .fl-row-content {min-width: 0px;}.fl-node-5e3cc23ecf455 .fl-row-content {min-width: 0px;}@media (min-width: 881px) and (max-width: 1280px) {.fl-col-group .fl-visible-desktop-medium.fl-col,.fl-col-group .fl-visible-medium.fl-col,.fl-col-group .fl-visible-medium-mobile.fl-col {display: flex;}}@media (max-width: 880px) {.fl-col-group .fl-visible-medium-mobile.fl-col,.fl-col-group .fl-visible-mobile.fl-col {display: flex;}} On Tuesday evening, June 17, 2014, The Skyscraper Museum presented the 2014 Making New York History Award to Stephen M. Ross, Chairman and Founder of Related Companies. Since forming Related in 1972, Steve Ross has been a leading urban developer and skyline builder, completing major projects in American cities from coast to coast. Related owns more than 45,000 units of housing, both luxury and affordable, and has developed more than 10 million square feet of commercial real estate, including the transformative Time Warner Center. Realizing a career-capping vision, Steve Ross has led Related's plans for the 28-acre Hudson Yards, the largest private real estate development in the United States. Contributors 10th Anniversary Donor Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC Carol & Mark Willis Mark and Carol Willis Platinum Bloomberg The Coach Foundation Andrew L. Farkas - C III Capital Partners Feil Family Foundation First Republic Bank Hudson Yards, a Related Oxford venture Ismael Leyva Architects, Continue reading “Beaver Builder PowerPack”…

Lecture Videos: Curated Series

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The Museum’s menu of Past Programs features videos of authors' talks, lectures, and symposia that explore tall buildings and cities – especially New York – from multiple perspectives. This page compiles past programs into curated series. Visit often to see what talk we’re featuring or follow a theme across several programs! Continue reading “Lecture Videos: Curated Series”…

Business Buildings: Landmark Skyscrapers in New York

Book Talks & Lectures

Two scholars of the skyscraper, Gail Fenske and Carol Willis address an opposition that has long characterized the framework for understanding the history of tall buildings – corporate vs. commercial – and ask: “What do those words mean, and how do they apply to skyscraper history?” The program focuses on use, which architects generally call “program.” Office, residential, manufacturing, and commercial (meaning rental) are the terms that generally describe the different uses of high-rise buildings. Yet, one can argue that the most basic commonality in the vast majority of skyscrapers is that they are buildings erected to produce space for rent: i.e., all these uses are urban commercial architecture. The idea of “corporate architecture” as applied to skyscrapers needs new scrutiny, especially in the early age of the rise of the corporation in the U.S. and especially in New York City in the last decades of the 19th century. Certainly, corporate headquarters, “branding,” and competition played a role in the inspiration and investment in early skyscrapers, as Fenske illustrates. But, as Willis argues, most “corporate” buildings included a significant portion of rental space, and from the 1890s, speculative real estate drove both the height and volume of high-rise construction. 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. Gail Fenske, The Skyscraper and the City: the Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York (2008) Gail Fenske,

Modern Mobility Aloft: Elevated Highways, Architecture, and Urban Change in Pre-Interstate America

Book Talks & Lectures

In Modern Mobility Aloft: Elevated Highways, Architecture, and Urban Change in Pre-Interstate America, Amy Finstein reveals the utopian roots of elevated highway designs in the first half of the twentieth century, connecting built projects in New York, Chicago, and Boston to high-style and popular discourse about cities of the future. Highlighting New York’s role in this pattern, she introduces us to the architects and sculptor responsible for the West Side Elevated Highway, who also were designing iconic Manhattan skyscrapers. Finstein will discuss how New York’s experience connects to a broader pattern of design that synthesized local concerns for economic vitality, urban movement, and architectural modernity via the sinewy forms of elevated highways. Amy D. Finstein is an architectural and urban historian who teaches in the Department of Visual Arts at College of the Holy Cross.

An Alternate History of the American Skyscraper: Joseph M. Wilson of Philadelphia

Book Talks & Lectures

Is it possible that Philadelphia is the birthplace of the skyscraper? George Thomas, preeminent scholar of the work of that city’s 19th-century genius architect Frank Furness, argues that the critical breakthroughs in modern construction systems came not from Chicago or New York, but from Philadelphia, where engineers and architects for the powerful Pennsylvania Railroad played a key role in translating their experience into high-rise office buildings. Mathews will focus in particular on the work of Furness’s principal competitor, the Wilson Brothers, led by engineer / architect Joseph Miller Wilson (1838-1902). Joseph Wilson became the chief of the bridge department for the Pennsylvania Railroad and in 1875 took over the design of the principal buildings for the Centennial Exhibition. In 187?, he left the company and opened the Wilson Brothers practice which had clients   across the western hemisphere. In 1879, their Broad Street Station in Philadelphia incorporated a frame of steel carrying masonry infill that, Matthews argues, predates similar systems in Chicago and suggests an alternative history to the modernist emphasis on the Midwestern origins of skeleton construction. George E. Thomas George E. Thomas is a principal in a Philadelphia consulting practice of CivicVisions, LP and is co-director of the Masters in Design Studies program in Critical Conservation in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. His most recent publication, Frank Furness: Architecture in the Age of the Great Machines (2018) won the Victorian Society in America’s book award for 2019.  View the DISCUSSION with Carol Willis's introduction and dialogue with George Thomas,

Tall and Tethered: Telephone Buildings in the City

Book Talks & Lectures

Two scholars of the skyscraper, Kathryn Holliday and Carol Willis will address an opposition that has long characterized the framework for understanding the history of tall buildings – corporate vs. commercial – and ask: “What do those words mean, and how do they apply to skyscraper history?” This week focuses on use, which architects generally call “program.” Office, residential, manufacturing, and commercial (meaning rental) are the terms that generally describe the different uses of high-rise buildings. Yet, one can argue that the most basic commonality in the vast majority of skyscrapers is that they are buildings erected to produce space for rent: i.e., all these uses are urban commercial architecture.

How Masonry Construction Transitioned to Steel, 1870s-1890s

Book Talks & Lectures

A pair of programs led by New York structural engineer Donald Friedman, author of The Structure of Skyscrapers in America, 1871–1900, and historian of Chicago Thomas Leslie, will revisit the fabled architectural rivalries of America’s largest and most innovative cities. Their talks will keep a tight focus on the key decades of the 1870s, the beginning of the end of “the age of masonry,” and the dawn of mass-production of rolled steel I-beams, which from the mid-1880s offered new economies for construction. Yet the eventual marriage of masonry and metal took time to birth the full steel skeleton, often called “the Chicago frame.” Leslie and Friedman will explore the ways that traditional bearing walls enlarged window openings to illuminate interior workspaces until the wall became, in effect, a frame, and how hybrid systems of “cage construction” served practical purposes and were slow to disappear in practice. Both emphasize how construction moved toward industrial materials to reduce the cost of skilled labor, especially...

Rewriting Skyscraper History

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Over the fall of 2020 during Covid restrictions, The Skyscraper Museum presented a series of webinars designed as a free online course on the early development of the skyscraper as a distinct building type. The virtual format for these talks allowed the professors from a wide array of institutions to come together for an evolving dialogue. Continue reading “Rewriting Skyscraper History”…

Green Buildings

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Here, we've put together educational activities perfect for learning and teaching about skyscrapers and cities while at home! Continue reading “Green Buildings”…

Design Your Own Green Neighborhood

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Here, we've put together educational activities perfect for learning and teaching about skyscrapers and cities while at home! Continue reading “Design Your Own Green Neighborhood”…

Virtual Tour Through Battery Park City

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← Back to Learning from Home Virtual Walk of Battery Park City The neighborhood at the southwest tip of lower Manhattan called Battery Park City was created, beginning in the late 1960s, from landfill from the excavations for the original World Trade Center. Consisting of north and south sections of residential enclaves, a central commercial district of skyscrapers, and public parks, Battery Park City was designed to be both a City and a Park that created new spaces for downtown residents and opened the waterfront to nature and public open space.  In 2000, the Battery Park City Authority introduced a set of Green Guidelines for all new residential buildings. As a result of this policy, Battery Park City is famously known as one of the first “green communities.” With our virtual green tour, you can explore the neighborhood from home through Google Earth and plan your future visit.  Battery Park City Virtual Walk Itinerary Itinerary: You’ll start at The Skyscraper Museum. Skyscraper Museum, 39 Battery Place Battery Park City School, 55 Battery Place Robert Wagner Park and Pavilion, 20 Battery Place World Financial Center/Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey Street The Verdesian, 211 North End Avenue Tribeca Green, 325 North End Avenue Solaire, 20 River Terrace One River Terrace, Continue reading “Virtual Tour Through Battery Park City”…

Virtual Exhibitions from the Archives

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Though the main event is in our gallery, the Museum preserves complete records of its past shows in an online version, not just through installation views, but displaying every image and label text! You can view more than 25 virtual exhibitions through this portal. Each one has a microsite with its own navigation menu that is archived on our original "legacy" website: you'll notice a change in format, but you will find a wealth of history! Continue reading “Virtual Exhibitions from the Archives”…

Research Resources

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Our website offers access to the Museum's collections and research projects through a wide range of online archives, interactive maps, and charts, photographs, and graphics that allow both time travel and explorations of skyscrapers both local and global. Students and amateurs alike can explore our archives of digitized documents, historic photographs, and more through innovative graphic interfaces in a wide range of projects. Continue reading “Research Resources”…

The Structure of Skyscrapers in America 1871-1900: Their History and Preservation

Book Talks & Lectures

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 historical context for the emergence of the skyscraper, he details the range of the technical aspects of the construction of this new building type. 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.

Affordable Housing in New York: the People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City

Book Talks & Lectures

The astonishing range of high-quality affordable housing efforts realized in New York over more than a century are the subject of Affordable Housing in New York. a smart and handsomely illustrated volume that highlights, as its subtitle suggests, “The People, Places, and Policies That Transformed a City.” Editors and authors Nicholas Dagen Bloom and Matthew Gordon Lasner frame an essential overview of the subject, drawing together targeted essays by leading historians in the field, illustrated with historic and contemporary humanizing portraits that make clear the continuing importance of subsidized housing in the life of the city. Matthew Gordon Lasner Matthew Gordon Lasner is an Associate Professor of Urban Studies and planning at Hunter College, City University of New York, where he teaches courses on urbanism, US and global housing, and the built environment. He is the author of High-Life: Condo Living in the Suburban Century. Nicholas Dagen Bloom Nicholas Dagen Bloom is an Associate Professor of Social Sciences, Chair of Interdisciplinary Studies, and the Director of the Urban Administration and Core Curriculum programs at New York Institute of Technology. He is the author or editor of eight books about urban development, including Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century and American Tourism: Constructing a National Tradition.

All the Tall Buildings in Manhattan, 1874-1900

Book Talks & Lectures

The first session begins with an introduction by Director Carol Willis that introduces the aims of the symposium and the evening. After her illustrated overview of key themes of the exhibition, she introduces the five speakers, who explain their research interests.

The Rise of the Skyscraper City

Book Talks & Lectures

The second Friday afternoon session explores new narratives in nineteenth-century New York. Speakers focus on lesser-studied typologies of commercial architecture, hotels, and lofts, and on the extraordinary importance of Broadway as a high-value corridor, made visible by the Ten & Taller survey. 0:00 – 4:02Introductions by Carol Willis4:03– 31:53Hotels: Big and TallTom Mellins, architectural historian and independent curator31:54 – 51:09Broadway: The Tallest Street in the CityMichelle Young, Adjunct Professor, Columbia, GSAPP and founder of Untapped Cities51:10 – 1:17:20Lofty Lofts and the Broadway Bridge to MidtownCarol Willis, Director, The Skyscraper Museum1:17:21 –1:23:37Questions and ColloquyAll symposium speakers Speakers Carol Willis is the founder, director, and curator of The Skyscraper Museum. She is the author of Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), among other publications. An Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Columbia University’s GSAPP, she teaches in the program Shape of Two Cities: New York and Paris. ​​Michelle Young​​ is Adjunct Professor at Columbia GSAPP, where she leads the Urban Studies Studio in the New York/Paris: Shape of Two Cities program. The founder of Untapped Cities, a popular urban discovery and exploration website, she is also the author of ​​Broadway​​ (Arcadia Publishing, 2015), as well as other publications on New York City. Thomas Mellins is an architectural historian, author, and independent curator specializing in New York City.

Whither Wall Street?

Book Talks & Lectures

A program organized by The Skyscraper Museum in partnership with the Museum of American Finance. Addressing the changing fortunes of Wall Street–not the forecast of financial markets, but the architectural assets and liabilities of the physical place–our panel of experts discusses the recent history and possible futures of America’s most famous street. Focusing on the widespread conversion of office buildings to residential, hotel, new retail uses, expanded tourism, and the demands on the design of the public realm that need to serve the conflicting needs of both access and security of a post-9/11 world. Speakers Carol Willis Carol Willis is the founder, director, and curator of The Skyscraper Museum. An architectural and urban historian, she has researched, taught, and written about the history of American city building. She is the author of Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995), which received an AIA book award and was named “Best Book on North American Urbanism, 1995” by the Urban History Association. She has written introductions to several monographs and collections and has appeared in numerous television documentaries and radio broadcasts. Ms. Willis is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Urban Studies at Columbia University where since 1989 she has taught in the program The Shape of Two Cities: New York and Paris in The Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Elizabeth H. Berger Elizabeth H. Berger joined the Alliance for Downtown New York–the city’s largest Business Improvement District–as President in November 2007.

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