PositiveNew York Times Book ReviewA thoughtful inquiry into the current generation of skyscrapers ... The premise behind this book: This is not your grandfather’s skyscraper that you are seeing out your window; the new generation of skyscrapers is bigger and more ubiquitous than the one that came before ... Al...writes clearly. He understands that skyscrapers are a product of technology, finance, zoning, marketing, social preferences and aesthetics ... There is a lot of rich history here, well and concisely told (and illustrated with superb line drawings) ... Al is a mostly enthusiastic booster of the supertalls, sometimes to the point of excess or cliché, like when he calls them \'the cathedrals of our time\' ... But then the social challenges that supertall buildings present bring him back down to earth, as it were, and he recovers his clear and critical eye.
Mark Lamster
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review...stimulating and lively ... the reality of Johnson...is that the ... qualities that make him, and this book, fascinating are his nimble intelligence, his restlessness, his energy, his anxieties, his ambitions and his passions, all of which were channeled into the making of a few pieces of architecture that will stand the test of time, and many others that will not ... Lamster’s timing is excellent: He has written the story of Philip Johnson for the age of Donald Trump, and it makes us see a side of Johnson that is, at the very least, sobering. Johnson, like Trump, made himself impossible to ignore. Lamster’s most important contribution may be to show us that, however electrifying the ability to command the spotlight may be, it does not confer the lasting qualities of greatness.