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In this week’s lecture and readings we learn about the modern skyscraper as well as the horizontal growth of the suburban areas. In Le Corbusier book A Contemporary City, it gives us a brief overview of his life. We know that he is a founding father to the modernist movement known as the International style, and that he also entered a competition to plan a “contemporary city of 3 million people,” that did not end up winning. Although he did not win, in this book he describes the leading factors that would contribute to his plan of a contemporary city. Of these factors was this topic of skyscrapers. He states, “The skyscrapers are designed purely for business purposes,” he later discusses how skyscrapers are also capable of housing employees, businesses and hotel sections. We also learned that skyscrapers have essential characteristics that define what a modern skyscraper and how there were certain technological requirements that were needed in order to develop a skyscraper. With regards to the development of skyscrapers, zoning properties were quickly established, which ultimately came to the influence of the aesthetic and visual properties of the city as a whole.

In Widogers publication on The "Solar Eye" of Vision Emergence of the Skyscraper-Viewer in the Discourse on Heights in New York City, 1890-1920 we learned how Alvin Coburn, a photographer, takes his camera upon Madison Square in 1921 from the vantage point of the metropolitan life tower, and creates the first abstraction of a city viewed from above. It is also important because he also discusses how modern skyscrapers correspond to the urban transformation in New York City between the period 1890 and 1920. This then brings about the observation on how periods of social upheaval affect individualism and mass identity, which in turn conditions the way artists and writers define their artistic vision in relation to daily life in the city. He also states that, “The tower on Madison Square Garden and the Metropolitan Life Tower had similar features: they were not fully fledged skyscrapers but rather towers constructed either beside or on top of a block-shaped building.” The author also capitalizes on how this metropolitan lifestyle can alter ones behavior due to the environment that surrounds them.

Post World War Two was the beginning of the housing boom. “The transition from a war to peacetime economy was centered on the mass consumerism, ”According to the lecture. The scarce shortage of material forced designers to develop new ways of building. This then lead to large scale housing production where some of these housing parts were sometimes made up of refashioned tank and airplane parts. This allowed for houses to be produced more efficiently and in bulk. During this transition time between wartime to peacetime women played a large role in the workforce. While loved ones were away at women were encouraged to take time way from their domestic lives of being a housewife and mother and contribute time to the war efforts. The Federal Housing Administration shaped housing in the U.S. in significant ways that included the experimentation of building materials as well as fabrication techniques. One of the biggest significance the FHA contributed to was the large-scale development of Levittown that was designed by the Levitt brothers. They used a simple prefabrication method that enabled them to build affordable simple homes.

Questions:

Why do you think the zoning policy in New York had a large affect on the aesthetic and visuals of the city? Do you think the zoning policies are the most important aspect when designing a skyscraper for the city?

Do you think that the Levittown development is an influence on today’s suburban living? And do you think we should find ways to refashion materials to build our homes today so we don’t create anymore waste that is needed?