The Skyscraper and the City: The Woolworth Building and the Making of Modern New York

by Gail Fenske

Once the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Woolworth Building is noted for its striking but incongruous synthesis of Beaux-Arts architecture, fanciful Gothic ornamentation, and audacious steel-framed engineering. Here, in the first history of this great urban landmark, Gail Fenske argues that its design serves as a compelling lens through which to view the distinctive urban culture of Progressive-era New York.
             Fenske shows here that the building’s multiplicity of meanings reflected the cultural contradictions that defined New York City’s modernity. For Frank Woolworth—founder of the famous five-and-dime store chain—the building served as a towering trademark, for advocates of the City Beautiful movement it suggested a majestic hotel de ville, for technological enthusiasts it represented the boldest of experiments in vertical construction, and for tenants it provided an evocative setting for high-style consumption. Tourists, meanwhile, experienced a spectacular sightseeing destination and avant-garde artists discovered a twentieth-century future. In emphasizing this faceted significance, Fenske illuminates the process of conceiving, financing, and constructing skyscrapers as well as the mass phenomena of consumerism, marketing, news media, and urban spectatorship that surround them.
            As the representative example of the skyscraper as a “cathedral of commerce,” the Woolworth Building remains a commanding presence in the skyline of lower Manhattan, and the generously illustrated Skyscraper and the City is a worthy testament to its importance in American culture.

Genres: New York, Nonfiction, Cities

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Viridian5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes this reads a little too much like an academic dissertation, but otherwise it's a deep dive into the Woolworth Building as work of art, feat of engineering, tourist attraction, and advertisement/pr piece as well as a look into the origins of Woolworth himself, Cass Gilbert (the architect), and a little bit of the engineers and construction company. It's also a glimpse into a lost, old Manhattan just starting to build higher and how that initially went (city of towers!) and an lost, old America changing its identity from a nation of producers to a nation of consumers, with the values shift that came with it. It has a lot of very helpful photos and illustrations of the building of course but also the evolving sketches/plans as the height and style kept changing, art of the buildings that influenced it, and Manhattan itself.

I never really thought about all the considerations--size of the office space companies want, electricity, water, elevators, load bearing sections, where windows can go, etc.--that go into the design of a skyscraper, even at that time, but here I found out. The word "imperial" comes up a lot about designs and heights of the period. I appreciated finding out that part of Woolworth's riches came from hiring women for the low level store positions because he could get away with paying them even lower wages than men--though managers were men--and justified paying below poverty wages by saying working for his stores imparted prestige.

Now I want to see the building... and its ornate lobby, though I can't figure out online if there's the option of seeing the lobby for yourself without paying for a tour. It doesn't seem like it. The rooftop observatory is, unfortunately, closed. In the photos it looked amazing. Cass Gilbert truly was an artist (and had a studio of artists working with him).

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading the "Skyscraper and the City" was a wonderful surprise. I had been expecting something like an academic textbook, but I found myself absorbed in page after page by the author's infectious passion for both the skyscraper and the city. The book contains excellent illustrations and is fully researched, but most important, the author's writing style brings old New York to life. This book was fascinating to read and highly recommended.

[Nathaniel Partagus · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have never seen such an in-depth and fascinating profile about the famed Woolworth building. Clearly, Fenske knows her subject incredibly well and conveys it in a manner that is truly fascinating, even for a person who considers architecture appreciation a hobby like myself. What's more, is that this book also provides valuable insight into the whole birth of the concept of skyscrapers. Truly, a must read for anyone who is interested in architecture and architecture history.

[Kar Wai Ng · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not bad

[Edward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essential reading for anyone with a serious interest in skyscrapers or the history of New York City.