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Selected byChoicemagazine as an Outstanding Academic Title for 2010 Nowhere in the world is there a greater concentration of significant skyscrapers than in New York City. And though this iconographic American building style has roots in Chicago, New York is where it has grown into such a powerful reflection of American commerce and culture. InSkyscraper: The Politics and Power of Building New York City in the Twentieth Century, Benjamin Flowers explores the role of culture and ideology in shaping the construction of skyscrapers and the way wealth and power have operated to reshape the urban landscape. Flowers narrates this modern tale by closely examining the creation and reception of three significant sites: the Empire State Building, the Seagram Building, and the World Trade Center. He demonstrates how architects and their clients employed a diverse range of modernist styles to engage with and influence broader cultural themes in American society: immigration, the Cold War, and the rise of American global capitalism.Skyscraperexplores the various wider meanings associated with this architectural form as well as contemporary reactions to it across the critical spectrum. Employing a broad array of archival sources, such as corporate records, architects' papers, newspaper ads, and political cartoons, Flowers examines the personal, political, cultural, and economic agendas that motivate architects and their clients to build ever higher. He depicts the American saga of commerce, wealth, and power in the twentieth century through their most visible symbol, the skyscraper.

Fitis a book about architecture and society that seeks to fundamentally change how architects and the public think about the task of design. Distinguished architect and urbanist Robert Geddes argues that buildings, landscapes, and cities should be designed to fit: fit the purpose, fit the place, fit future possibilities. Fit replaces old paradigms, such as form follows function, and less is more, by recognizing that the relationship between architecture and society is a true dialogue--dynamic, complex, and, if carried out with knowledge and skill, richly rewarding. With a tip of the hat to John Dewey,Fitexplores architecture as we experience it. Geddes starts with questions: Why do we design where we live and work? Why do we not just live in nature, or in chaos? Why does society care about architecture? Why does it really matter?Fitanswers these questions through a fresh examination of the basic purposes and elements of architecture--beginning in nature, combining function and expression, and leaving a legacy of form. Lively, charming, and gently persuasive, the book shows brilliant examples of fit: from Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia and Louis Kahn's Exeter Library to contemporary triumphs such as the Apple Store on New York's Fifth Avenue, Chicago's Millennium Park, and Seattle's Pike Place. Fitis a book for everyone, because we all live in constructions--buildings, landscapes, and, increasingly, cities. It provokes architects and planners, humanists and scientists, civic leaders and citizens to reconsider what is at stake in architecture--and why it delights us.

Fire officials said the fire occurred in a switching vault in the 38-story building at 375 Park Avenue at 53d Street, which is the headquarters of the Seagram Distillers Company.

''We take very seriously our stewardship of this historic New York City structure,'' the chairman of the insurance company, Clifton R. Wharton Jr., said. ''The Seagram Building must continue to serve as an example of how an office building can enhance the environment, rather than detract from it.'' ''The designation may be viewed as one further level of distinction that enhances the building's appeal and its attractiveness to tenants,'' an assistant vice president of the company, Claire Sheahan, said. ''And it continues to enhance the stature of the property as an investment. We see landmark designation as another step in preserving this unique architectural treasure.'' Refinement and Care ''The structure, [Ludwig Mies van der Rohe]'s first executed office building commission, expresses his ideals of order, logic and clarity,'' the statement said. ''Not only did Mies provide a sumptuous office building, but he is considered by many to have produced a beautiful work of art, one of the great buildings of 20th-century architecture.''

Michael T. Sillerman, a lawyer for the association, said the space occupied by the restaurant ''is a universal, adaptable, non-single-purpose space which was originally planned as an automobile showroom.'' He said landmark status would limit use of the space to restaurant purposes. He and others speaking for the association contended that the landmarks law extended to the designation of interior features that constitute real property. Many items that would be included in the city's landmark designation, they said, were personal or ''trade fixtures'' that could be dismantled and moved without damage and thus should not be given the designation. Although the board went along with the designations for the building and the restaurant, it stopped short of adopting the good-humored suggestion of one proponent of the designations, Lewis Davis, an architect, who proposed that the board ''also landmark the food'' served at the Four Seasons.

''But if a tenant is smart and well represented, there are some excellent opportunities right now for good, cheap blocks of space,'' said Barry Gosin of Newmark & Company Real Estate, a Manhattan firm that manages about 15 million square feet of commercial space. ''Rents are softer than a few years ago, but I think we've gone as low as we'll go.'' ''We're positioning 712 Fifth as the Seagram Building of the 1990's,'' said David L. Elovitz, with the bravado of a determined rental agent. ''Very often top-end buildings achieve their reputations over many years. What we're trying to do is achieve it instantly.'' ''The Seagram Building wasn't designed or configured for tenants that require major blocks of space,'' said Edward S. Gordon, president of an eponymous realty firm that manages the building. ''It's a building for modest-size users - anywhere from 3,000 to 15,000 feet.''

Among the things the designation covers are the bar, marble pool, staircases, fixtures, surfaces, hanging sculptures by Richard Lippold and chain curtains in the window. Taken together, in the words of the commission, they create ''among the finest International Style interiors in the United States.'' In the words of the lawsuit, the designation ''has the effect of restricting that space for use as a restaurant, particularly as a result of the inclusion of personal property within the designation.'' At the time of designation, the commission chairman, David F. M. Todd, said about the interiors: ''There could be other uses. This is not tying in a restaurant for the lifetime of the designation, but the preservation of one of the most elegantly refined and beautifully proportioned and richly created spaces in the modern movement, the height of the Miesian period.''

To further complicate matters, the designation was welcomed by the owners and operators of the Four Seasons, Tom Margittai and Paul Kovi, who had invited the landmarks commission's attention last year. ''We're gratified and pleased,'' Mr. Margittai said yesterday, ''and we hope it's going to stick.'' Their lease runs until 1999 but Mr. Margittai said their interest in the space had to do with its architecture. ''It should survive,'' he said. ''It's such an exceptional space.'' ''Landmark designation effectively prevents future adaptations of the space,'' Mr. [Philip Di Gennaro] said. ''The commission has unduly and unfairly enhanced the interest and position of the tenant, while at the same time effectively restricting T.I.A.A.'s ownership rights.'' But he also said the pension fund was ''extremely proud'' that Seagram's ''exceptional beauty'' had been officially recognized. The proprietor of New York City's other landmark restaurant, Peter Aschkenasy, said yesterday that the regulatory process had worked ''very efficiently'' when it came to making changes at Gage & Tollner, which has ornate Victorian interiors. ''There was no bureaucracy or sense of delay,'' he said. ''I think it's a great advantage.''