ABSTRACT
By 1905 a relatively small number of American
companies were exporting steel-framed skeletons to
erect high-rise buildings for clients dispersed around
the globe. Frederick Esler and his syndicate might not
have succeeded in erecting an American high-rise
in London, but other entrepreneurs (such as those
who hired Alfred Zucker in Buenos Aires) scraped
the sky in other cities. Zucker was one of the fi rst,
previously U.S.-based architects to promote, design
and construct high-rises derived from U.S. origins in
newly industrializing metropolises outside western
Europe. The Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aires stands in
testimony to Zucker’s ingenuity in employing the
Milliken system there. By the end of World War I
Zucker was joined by other American architects,
contractors and agents who similarly employed
U.S. construction technologies elsewhere. Frank
Lloyd Wright and William Vories were designing in
Japan, Bertram Goodhue and Purdy & Henderson
were operating in Cuba, Roland Curry and Henry
Murphy were practising in China. Some became
famous; most did not.
