First edition of this historically significant study issued at the height of the first skyscraper age. Published in 1930 by the American Institute of Steel Construction. The authors, W.C. Clark and J.L. Kingston approached the skyscraper not as an architectural symbol but as an economic instrument, examining the relationship between land values, rentable floor area, elevator systems, zoning regulations, and the financial limits of vertical construction. An early and sophisticated attempt to quantify the economics of skyscraper development—a subject that would become central to twentieth-century urban planning, real estate analysis, and architectural history (see Lewis Mumford among others). 8vo (6.5” x 9.25”), original brown cloth-backed and tan paper-covered boards, upper cover printed with a stylized Art Deco skyscraper design. 164 pages with numerous charts and tables and a paste-down b/w photo of a skyscraper opposite the title page. From the working library of Carol Herselle Krinsky, distinguished architectural historian, scholar of urban form, and longtime professor at New York University. A remarkably well-preserved copy of one of the foundational texts in skyscraper economics, still cited today, and bearing the ownership signature of a noted architectural historian. Slight lean to spine. Minor rubbing and bumping to extremities; with minor upper-corner creasing to pages 91-101.
First edition of this historically significant study issued at the height of the first skyscraper age. Published in 1930 by the American Institute of Steel Construction. The authors, W.C. Clark and J.L. Kingston approached the skyscraper not as an architectural symbol but as an economic instrument, examining the relationship between land values, rentable floor area, elevator systems, zoning regulations, and the financial limits of vertical construction. An early and sophisticated attempt to quantify the economics of skyscraper development—a subject that would become central to twentieth-century urban planning, real estate analysis, and architectural history (see Lewis Mumford among others). 8vo (6.5” x 9.25”), original brown cloth-backed and tan paper-covered boards, upper cover printed with a stylized Art Deco skyscraper design. 164 pages with numerous charts and tables and a paste-down b/w photo of a skyscraper opposite the title page. From the working library of Carol Herselle Krinsky, distinguished architectural historian, scholar of urban form, and longtime professor at New York University. A remarkably well-preserved copy of one of the foundational texts in skyscraper economics, still cited today, and bearing the ownership signature of a noted architectural historian. Slight lean to spine. Minor rubbing and bumping to extremities; with minor upper-corner creasing to pages 91-101.
