ABSTRACT
In Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago, author Carol Willis, an architectural historian and the founder and executive director of The Skyscraper Museum in New York City, makes a cogent and well-documented argument that it is neither lofty design inspiration nor marketing hubris that accounts for the appearance of the magnificent skyscrapers and skylines of Chicago and New York, respectively; the form of these buildings and skylines are a function of the nuts and bolts of how these buildings are financed. Willis’s thesis is well articulated in the evolution of the Empire State Building, from conception to completion, although the building’s saga from completion and occupancy to profitability might lead one to conclude that the ultimate plan for financing and constructing the final design for the building was, itself, ill conceived.
