Judith Dupré, Adrian Smith and special guests – Architectural Explorations in Books Series Event

New York Public Library: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Margaret Liebman Berger Forum

Join architectural historian Judith Dupré, renowned architect Adrian Smith, and additional special guests to explore the latest environmental innovations in skyscrapers. The look of cities is changing as designers and builders realize that the best tall buildings arise from working, as the ancients did, hand in hand with nature. Tapping into the elemental forces of the sun, wind, and water, today’s green skyscrapers are pushing the extreme frontiers of environmental, structural, and creative possibility. That sensibility is also strengthening bonds between architects and engineers who, more than ever, are joining forces to find aesthetically pleasing, environmentally astute solutions.

Judith Dupré, SKYSCRAPERS: A History of the World’s Most Extraordinary Buildings

In the book SKYSCRAPERS: A History of the World’s Most Extraordinary Buildings, Judith Dupré takes us on a chronological tour—spanning 125 years and circling the globe—of the world’s tallest buildings, designed by such star architects as Adrian Smith, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Philip Johnson, Morphosis, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Breathtaking full color photographs capture the buildings’ monumental scale and larger-than-life personalities, while the book’s design and oversize format mirrors the shape of its subject. Admire such classic masterpieces as the Chrysler Building, Willis (Sears) Tower, and the Transamerica Pyramid, and fall in love with the newest skyscrapers, including the Shard of London, International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, and Makkah Clock Royal Tower in Mecca. SKYSCRAPERS features a fascinating introductory interview with Adrian Smith, designer of the Burj Khalifa and the world’s newest tallest, the Kingdom Tower, now rising in Saudi Arabia.

Copies of SKYSCRAPERS (Black Dog & Leventhal) are available for purchase and signing at the event after audience Q&A.

Masdar City Headquarters, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Judith Dupré is passionate about the built environment. Above all, she seeks to engage and delight those who profess “not to know much” about architecture. Few writers possess her breadth of experience in writing about history through the lens of a single building type, whether skyscrapers, bridges, memorials, or churches. A New York Times bestselling author published in ten languages, she has written books about all these subjects, including Skyscrapers, the best selling book in the world on that topic; Bridges; Churches; and Monuments: America’s History in Art and Memory. Her editorials have appeared in America, Architectural Record, USA Today, The Daily Beast, and the Huffington Post, among others. A graduate of Brown and Yale universities, she also serves as a design facilitator on large-scale infrastructure projects.

Masdar City Headquarters cross section, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo: Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Adrian Smith has been a practicing architect for over 40 years. His extraordinary body of work includes some of the world’s most recognizable landmark structures, including the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China; Rowes Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest structure. His design for the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia is slated to be the first structure to exceed 1,000 meters. Adrian was a Design Partner in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill from 1980 to 2006. In 2006, he founded Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a firm that designs high-performance, energy-efficient, and sustainable structures around the globe.