Skyscrapers weren’t always the shimmering glass-and-steel giants we know today. In the late 19th century, the idea of building upward wasn’t just a necessity. It was a statement. Cities were swelling, ...

Although we dressed up our early skyscrapers in Old World styles (the Met Life Tower as an Italian campanile, the Woolworth Building as a French Gothic cathedral), most foreigners agreed that ...

Built during the proliferation of American skyscrapers in the early 20th century, they represent attempts to harness engineering breakthroughs to find a mode of building that represented America's ...