Birth of the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyline

Skyscrapers: boon or blight? That appears to be the perennial question. For the architect Cass Gilbert, designer of the famous Woolworth Building, the high-rise was a “machine which makes the land pay,” a response to various needs in the modern era of urbanization. But to critics, they were “freak” buildings destroying the ‘good city’ in a vainglorious attempt to create monuments by and for builders. In our time, that debate continues, more or less in the same terms. Join us for this Insiders event, where we'll dig into this history with Jason Barr, economic historian at Rutgers University and the author of Building the Skyline: The Birth And Growth Of Manhattan’s Skyscrapers. Conversation will be led by Untapped New York’s Chief Experience Officer Justin Rivers, and Peter-Christian Aigner, Director of The Gotham Center for New York City History. For more events like this, become an Untapped New York Insider! https://untappedcities.com/become-a-member/