Skyscrapers in cities increase congestion, they were devised originally to hold concentration where it is, and they have proved to be the death of the city…Decentralization is inevitable.
– Frank Lloyd Wright, on the television program Omnibus.
Comments ( 5 )
I really don’t think skyscrapers have been “the death of the city”.
I think the real threat to the city has been the automobile and policies that steer our society towards auto dependency.
Having seen the video, I can certainly say that Wright’s prediction was at least partly off.
What he was witnessing during the time that video was shot (1950’s I assume?) must certainly have been a major efflux of people from the city. But he did not have the benefit of hindsight that we have now in 2010.
He talks about people living in New York “being in agony”. Sure, perhaps that was the case in the 1950’s, 60’s, etc as manufacturers fled the city, whole neighborhoods emptied out, and property values plummeted. SoHo was a ghost town by the 1960’s, labeled a slum, and was slated for demolition.
But ultimately Wright was wrong. Look at Manhattan today–I don’t think very many people now would say that people living there “are in agony”. It is the playground of the world’s elite, and home to many of the decision-makers of today’s global economy.
Skycrapers did NOT kill New York. I also feel the same way about Chicago.
I really don’t think skyscrapers have been “the death of the city”.
I think the real threat to the city has been the automobile and policies that steer our society towards auto dependency.
Having seen the video, I can certainly say that Wright’s prediction was at least partly off.
What he was witnessing during the time that video was shot (1950’s I assume?) must certainly have been a major efflux of people from the city. But he did not have the benefit of hindsight that we have now in 2010.
He talks about people living in New York “being in agony”. Sure, perhaps that was the case in the 1950’s, 60’s, etc as manufacturers fled the city, whole neighborhoods emptied out, and property values plummeted. SoHo was a ghost town by the 1960’s, labeled a slum, and was slated for demolition.
But ultimately Wright was wrong. Look at Manhattan today–I don’t think very many people now would say that people living there “are in agony”. It is the playground of the world’s elite, and home to many of the decision-makers of today’s global economy.
Skycrapers did NOT kill New York. I also feel the same way about Chicago.
This from the same man who in 1956 designed a mile tall building to be built downtown? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illinois
Fred,
No inconsistency – it would have been the tallest of the trees.
I love how the Illinois looks like it has a hilly base (like the new east side maybe).