This should have been more fun for me, an architect, than it turned out to be. The photos are certainly a treasure trove in this book, but the writing doesn't live up to their potential; a more consistent approach (or more thorough research, at least) would have raised my evaluation of this attractive book. ( )

"Skyscraper facades of the Gilded Age" by Joseph J. Korom, Jr., is a pleasant stroll through the architectural history of cast iron store fronts, ever higher "skyscrapers" and the conspicuous consumption of the robber barons during the last quartiile of the the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. Many of the photos of remarkable buildings constructed during that period are from the author's own collection, and, while of varying quality, are of great historical interest. The detail photos of entryways and cornices and gargoyles bring the artistic and decorative aspects of these building to the fore, in vivid contrast to the glass and steel barrenness of modern high-rise construction. Many of the buildings he describes are iconic: the Flatiron Building in New York; the Philadelphia City Hall; the Fisher Building in Chicago. Many are no longer in existence, long since demolished for the sake of modernism, unfortunately. So it is appropriate that such a book be published to memorialize a period of great optimism and prosperity as expressed in the grandiose representation of the age - the skyscraper.

Unfortunately the writing is uneven from one historical description to the next. It is often difficult to know from what the author includes in his vignettes whether or not the building is still standing or if and when it was demolished. The reader will feel a bit frustrated at times because the information does not quite fill the bill on a particular building or building style. But the overall book is well worth reading and the information included needs to be preserved. ( )

While I had great expectations for this book, I found myself skimming more and more after the first few buildings which is something I rarely do. A tad too much emphasis was placed on drawings and photographs of building decorations and I lost interest in the facades themselves.
In short, mildly interesting to me but probably more so to an architecture aficionado. ( )

Many years ago, Editta Sherman, a friend of the family, gave me a copy of Facades, a book she co-authored with Bill Cunningham for an exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Costumes were photographed in front of appropriate buildings in New York City. I knew very little about architecture at the time but recently I had the opportunity to read Skyscraper façades of the Gilded Age : fifty-one extravagant designs, 1875-1910, a book written by retired architect Joseph Korom for McFarland’s series on art and architecture. The author explores buildings and their architects and designers along with the men and women who commissioned the buildings for themselves or their companies. The Gilded Age was also the age of the robber barons, Mark Twain and America striving to find its place in the world. Amazingly, the buildings favored by the age were based on European models with ornamentation linked to the old country. Mansions and homes were designed with this in mind so, when commissions for tall buildings were given to architects, the same standards applied. (And rethink your idea of skyscrapers 50 or more floors in height. Many are five or six to twenty or more stories.) So we have spires and domes on tops of buildings, clocks, Grecian columns, all manner of Greek gods and symbols, gargoyles and other mythological creatures. No expense was spared in these ornamentations.

After setting the stage with background material, in the next five chapters the author goes on to discuss the 51 buildings he has chosen as representative of the period, classed by an architectural style or, in the case of the last, “eclectic” to use his term. Although many of the buildings were erected in New York (and in my copy of Editta Sherman’s book) and Chicago, other cities are represented. Each building is illustrated with a photo or drawing from the period. He also includes illustrations of ornamentation from his selected buildings as well as others from homes and smaller buildings of the period. But be aware that all of the photos are in black and white. Even the cover photo is colored later.

As with all scholarly McFarland books, there is an extensive bibliography, copious endnotes with further information as well as attribution of sources, and an excellent index. Korom has made the effort to define terms for those of us who are unfamiliar with basic architecture. The one thing I was most disappointed in was the lack of floor plans (though one building did have some plans), especially for the buildings that were of unique shapes to fit into irregular plots. However, to be fair, the book clearly indicated that it was about the façades, not the interiors, although he does mention elevators and other conveniences for the tenants of the offices.

I had trouble with the author’s statements of number of stories to some of the buildings. I would count on the photo and I was either several floors too short or I counted more stories than were mentioned. I tried to account for domes and spires, but that didn’t reconcile with the number given at times. Also at one point, the author quotes from Amadeus with proper citation. However, in the text, he implies that Mozart actually said the quote as printed, not that it was from the play.

Since my town still has some of the Gilded Age mansions built in the period (and some still have the original exterior details) along with some office buildings of modest height (most of those fell to reconstruction in the 60s), it was interesting to read about similar structures. The town even has a triangular building of modest height similar to several in the book. The description of the Philadelphia City Hall was also interesting to me; the statue of Billy Penn was a source of wonder to me as a child and it was so high! I think that the average American of the Gilded Age was in the same awe of these magnificent (and sometimes garish) buildings as I was at City Hall those many years ago. ( )

For readers who may have curiosity about exterior architectural ornamentation and decoration in late 19th and early 20th century urban America, and particularly but not exclusively in New York and Chicago, Skyscaper Facades of the Gilded Age, Fifty-One Extravagant Designs, 1875-1919, offers a detailed discussion and an impressive array of visuals. It was written by Joseph Korom, Jr., a retired architect, historian, photographer, artist, and published author of two previous books on architecture—one on skyscrapers and a second on buildings in Milwaukee. Korom’s professional life has been anchored in Chicago; this volume to some extent reflects this fact.
Korom’s work introduces the reader to many of this country’s early—and by today’s standards—modest skyscapers, presenting them in several chapters, each one featuring a different architectural style i.e. Classical, Beaux Arts, Renaissance, and Romanesque. Within each chapter, this author employs a chronological arrangement in which he traces the evolution of exterior architectural adornment as it relates to the early skyscraper. He characterizes all buildings as ‘boxes’ on which decoration is applied; in this volume he specifically explores exterior ‘decoration’ and its use on fifty-one early skyscrapers located in about a dozen American cities. In each instance, he includes valuable vintage photographs and/or drawings, which provide the reader with images both of the entire façade and specific architectural detail of each edifice under discussion. Additionally, Korom includes information, sometimes salacious, about skyscraper financiers and skyscraper architects, and he extends kudos to those talented, typically immigrant craftspersons—bricklayers, marble cutters, and stonemasons—who, by the work of their own hands, provided the adornment that allowed buildings to transcend from their status as mere ‘boxes’ in order to become significant statements about culture, purpose, and vision.
Korom also addresses the often-expressed criticism that many American architects of this Gilded Age era, including some of the biggest names in their field, were overly influenced by the long-standing European architectural styles, including those that harken back to the Greeks and Romans, instead of bravely forging ahead and creating new styles appropriate for a ‘new nation.’
Skyscraper Facades of the Gilded Age, by virtue of its modestly-rendered and completely black & white format, linked with its substantial cost ($49.95/paper) considering what it is, will never be able to compete with those visually seductive architectural and design volumes that are produced by Rizzoli, Harry Abrams, Monacelli, and Acanthus. That said this work should not be dismissed as an insignificant contribution to the literature on the history of architecture. ( )