The Atlantic on Skyscrapers and Cities

How the Crash Will Reshape America (March 2009)
By Richard Florida
The crash of 2008 has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America's economic landscape will look very different than it does today. What fate will the coming years hold for New York, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas? Will the suburbs be ineffably changed? Which cities and regions can come back strong? And which will never come back at all?

Gentrification and Its Discontents (May 2010)
By Benjamin Schwarz
Manhattan never was what we think it was. Using Greenwich Village to draw lessons and issue prescriptions about New York has been de rigeur since Jane Jacobs' The Death and Life of Great American Cities. But such arguments have never really held up.

Little Skyscraper on the Prairie (July 2008)
By Wayne Curtis
A rare Frank Lloyd Wright tower—one of his most bizarre buildings ever—rises high above the Oklahoma plains.

Downsizing Cities (October 1995)
By Witold Rybczynski
To make cities work better, make them smaller.

How Portland Does It (November 1992)
By Philip Langdon
A city that protects its thriving, civil core.

The Not-So-Second City (January/February 2006)
By Benjamin Schwarz
"Chicago's architecture constitutes one of this country's greatest contributions to modern civilization." A survey of books chronicling the story of Chicago's legendary skyline.

Are Cities Dead? (January 1962)
By Robert Moses
Moses defended the modern city against the criticisms of historian Lewis Mumford. "Admittedly the gasoline motor has provided us with problems which did not exist in ancient Rome. But the jaundiced eye of the city historian sees no signs of achievement and progress. He is obsessed with the harlotry and the decline and fall of Rome and Babylon, and the beams and motes blot out Jones Beach."

New York After Paris (December 1906)
By Alvan F. Sanborn
"New York's disconcerting sky-scrapers are vastly picturesque, and even grandiose in certain lights." Having spent years living in France, where he was charmed by the serene beauty of Paris, the author returned home to New York and found himself again falling under its spell.