Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986 : How Technology, Politics, Finance, and Race Reshaped the City / Thomas Leslie.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leslie, Thomas, 1967- author.

Series:

Illinois scholarship online.

Illinois scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture and society--Illinois--Chicago.

Architecture and society.

Skyscrapers--Illinois--Chicago.

Skyscrapers.

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white, and colour) ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Urbana, Illinois : University of Illinois Press, [2023]

Summary:

Thomas Leslie's comprehensive look at the modern skyscraper era views the skyscraper idea, and the buildings themselves, within the broad expanse of city history. As construction emerged from the Great Depression, structural, mechanical, and cladding innovations evolved while continuing to influence designs. But the truly radical changes concerned the motivations that drove construction. While profit remained key in the Loop, developers elsewhere in Chicago worked with a Daley political regime that saw tall buildings as tools for a wholesale recasting of the city's appearance, demography, and economy. Focusing on both the wider cityscape and specific buildings, Leslie reveals skyscrapers to be the physical results of negotiations between motivating and mechanical causes.

Contents:

Intro

Cover

HalfTitle

Title Page

Copyright Page

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1. The Second Skyscraper City

Chapter 2. Technical Developments in the 1930s-1940s

Chapter 3. Demographics and Housing

Chapter 4. Prudential, Inland Steel, and the Rebirth of the Loop

Chapter 5. Daley's City: Commercial Construction, 1955-1972

Chapter 6. High-Rise Housing in the 1960s

Chapter 7. Skyscrapers as Civic Monuments

Chapter 8. Tubes and the High Rise as Structural Art

Chapter 9. After Sears

Coda: Myth, Morality, and Mies

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on January 10, 2024).

Also issued in print: 2023.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-252-05411-3

OCLC:

1345466765