A while back I discussed my feedback-cycle theory of movies and skyscraper design influencing one another. The origin of that theory is Fritz Lang’s statement, some hundred years ago, that seeing Manhattan for the first time is what gave him the inspiration for Metropolis. Whatever you may think of the movie, it’s hard to deny that it is, in part, a celebration of the visual effect of a dense city of tall buildings, and as such has inspired people who design skyscrapers.
From the Wurts Brothers, two 1930s views of lower Manhattan, titled “Parks – Battery Park – looking north” and “Parks – Bowling Green”:
In one sense, they are ordinary views of the southern tip of Manhattan. The first is explicitly looking up Broadway from its end at Bowling Green; the second has that view hidden in plain sight:
Why am I pointing to these? First, here’s an older view of the future of Broadway, from King’s Dream of New York, 1908. Note the Singer Building, then the tallest in the world, looking a bit short on the left, towards the back:
And finally, here’s a still from Metropolis:
You must be logged in to post a comment.