{"product_id":"impossible-heights-adnan-morshed-9780816673193","title":"Impossible Heights: Skyscrapers, Flight, and the Master Builder","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe advent of the airplane and skyscraper in 1920s and '30s America offered the population an entirely new way to look at the world: from above. The captivating image of an airplane flying over the rising metropolis led many Americans to believe a new civilization had dawned. In \u003ci\u003eImpossible Heights\u003c\/i\u003e, Adnan Morshed examines the aesthetics that emerged from this valorization of heights and their impact on the built environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe lofty vantage point from the sky ushered in a modernist impulse to cleanse crowded twentieth-century cities in anticipation of an ideal world of tomorrow. Inspired by great new heights, American architects became central to this endeavor and were regarded as heroic aviators. Combining close readings of a broad range of archival sources, Morshed offers new interpretations of works such as Hugh Ferriss's Metropolis drawings, Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion houses, and Norman Bel Geddes's Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Transformed by the populist imagination into \"master builders,\" these designers helped produce a new form of visuality: the aesthetics of ascension.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy demonstrating how aerial movement and height intersect with popular \"superman\" discourses of the time, Morshed reveals the relationship between architecture, art, science, and interwar pop culture. Featuring a marvelous array of never before published illustrations, this richly textured study of utopian imaginings illustrates America's propulsion into a new cultural consciousness. \u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Adnan Morshed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0816673195\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780816673193\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Minnesota Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/15\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 296\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.46lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.84h x 7.54w x 0.68d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 08\/01\/2015","brand":"Adnan Morshed","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49096752791807,"sku":"9780816673193","price":37.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/impossible-heights-adnan-morshed-9780816673193","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}