New York City History Day: The Rise of the New York Skyscraper

The skyscraper is America’s gift to world architecture and New York City is the city of skyscrapers. Some of the most iconic buildings of our time -Flatiron Building, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, and World Trade Center-- are the icons of our dynamic city. This lecture explores how New York City skyscrapers responded to the technological advances of the 19th and 20th centuries, and how the events of 9/11 created new concerns for the shape and security of new skyscrapers.

Dr. Seth Gopin, a writer in residence in the Wertheim Study, is known to several generations of Rutgers University students for his dynamic lectures on the history of art. Prior to his retirement he also held several administrative positions at the university, including Director of Global Studies, and he furthered the course of international education in the United States and Europe.  Dr. Gopin's interests are diverse.  He curated an exhibition in France on a French painter who lived in Constantinople in the early 18th century, and he served the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile as editor of Tibet News, their newsletter for North America.  In recent years Dr. Gopin has been a featured lecturer on art and architecture on Cunard line ships, where he discusses architecture and urban development, especially topics concerning New York and Paris. His new book on the rise of the New York City skyscraper is now in its second printing.