ABSTRACT
In the 19th century, the earliest high-rise buildings tended to simply be mere enlargements of traditional forms, such as the tower, progressively adding stories and increasing height without adequately addressing the aesthetic of a tall structure. Designers such as Louis Sullivan, John Wellborn Root, and George B. Post eventually tackled this problem, theoretically and in practice, by considering the nature of skyscraper form itself as a new building type. When combined with advances in engineering and materials, the skyscraper thus became not only a monument to modern progress but also a symbolic link to the historical past, a past that the United States lacked and sought to evoke or, perhaps, to distance itself from.
