Manhattan Skyscrapers /anglais - Tapa dura

Appreciating the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building is easy: their greatness is agreed upon. It is a lot harder to say something intelligent about the hulking Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square. In "Manhattan Skyscrapers, " Eric P. Nash manages to do both. The book, which features 75 extant examples built since the skyscraper was invented a century ago, is admirable grounded in the details of stone, steel and glass. In fact, nonarchitects will find themselves consulting the handy glossary when words like "chamfered" and "intrados" come up. Nash, a researcher at "The New York Times Magazine, " writes a deft prose: in his entry on the postmodern Cond Nast Building, he compares buildings that look different from various side to "politic but perhaps hypocritical gentlemen." The magnificent Lever House, financed by a soap-manufacturing fortune, remains "bright, minty-fresh, and smacks of prosperity." His take on the Marriott Marquis acknowledges its "ghastly" elements but finds the anti-urbanist design, which encourages guests to shun the city, "insidiously brilliant." Even an architecture writer should be able to empathize with the villain of the piece.

The city of New York is the city of skyscrapers. Every visitor to Manhattan experiences the awe of gazing up at the soaring towers of Wall Street or Midtown, and wonders how they came to be built. This book answers this question, presenting 75 of the most significant buildings in the skyline. From Louis Sullivan's Bayard-Condict building of 1898 to the Conde Nast tower rising above Times Square, this book presents over 100 years of New York's most interesting and important tall buildings. It profiles familiar skyscrapers such as the Woolworth Building, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the World Trade Towers, the AT&T Building, and the Seagram Building, while also championing several often-overlooked yet significant structures, such as the McGraw-Hill. For each building, the author identifies the building style, the overall profile and image, and discusses its construction as well as presenting quotes from the buildings' architects.