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Skyscrapers Quotes

Browse 16 quotes about Skyscrapers.

Skyscrapers Quotes

“I love the buildings. They're called skyscrapers. They're the closest thing to an ocean here. But it's an ocean that goes straight up, not flat out. They say that the body of water stretching away to the east of Manhattan is the ocean but it isn't. Not my ocean, anyway. It's weird because back home I just took it for granted, my grey-green sea. Now I have a granite ocean. It gives me the same happy-sad feeling I need sometimes. When I look straight up at the buildings I can feel alone in a good way. Not in that horrible way of no one knows me.”

HomeHappinessSadnessOceanNew York CityCityManhattanBuildingsSkyscrapers
Book:Fall On Your Knees
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“It may sound ridiculous to say that Bell and his successors were the fathers of modern commercial architecture—of the skyscraper. But wait a minute. Take the Singer Building, the Flatiron Building, the Broad Exchange, the Trinity, or any of the giant office buildings. How many messages do you suppose go in and out of those buildings every day? Suppose there was no telephone and every message had to be carried by a personal messenger? How much room do you think the necessary elevators would leave for offices? Such structures would be an economic impossibility.”

ArchitectureElevatorsTelephoneSkyscrapers1908Alexander Graham Bell
Book:The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
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“What's the point of your architecture or engineering degree, if you can't build a human habitat without destroying entire ecosystems of other living things! And you call yourself an engineer, an architect - a sparrow has more sense than a stupid earthling.”

EcologyWildlifeEnvironmentalismCity LifeEnvironmental ProtectionCountry LifeDeforestationEnvironmental ConservationSkyscrapersPreservation Of Nature
Book:Kral Fakir: When Calls The Kainat
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“Structural truth at all costs war their motto and all buildings which attempted to conceal the true nature of their construction, or to disguise the materials in which they were carried out, stood convicted of acting a lie. That a high proportion of the buildings which many generations of man-kind had agreed to regard as masterpieces failed to reach this exalted standard was held to be quite irrelevant. Unfortunately the new theory did not in practice prove quite so easy to carry out satisfactorily as hoped. Simplicity is not invariably and on every occasion a virtue, and while desperate attempts to lend some transient interest to a hopelessly uninspired structure by a top-dressing of cornice and pilasters are doubtless reprehensible, the bright, unvarnished truth tends too often to be even more depressing. After all few of us, by and large, look our best in the nude.”

ArchitectureSkyscrapersBrutalism
Book:Here, of All Places
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“Environment and Development (The Sonnet) Environment is not more important than development, Development is not more important than environment. Since we no longer live in the wilderness as animals, We must make both work together in agreement. Why do we need to wipe out forests and lakes, To lay the foundation for growth and prosperity! With our achievements in science and tech, We can build modern cities nestled in greenery. Unfortunately, once the green of dollar starts rolling in, Green of nature goes out of the window. The real problem is the mindset of profits over people, It has nothing to do with our desire to grow. Let us find harmony between concrete and nature. Without harming earth, let us build green skyscrapers.”

EnvironmentProgressArchitectureArchitectSonnetSocial DevelopmentEnvironmental ProtectionReal EstateSkyscrapersGreen City
Book:Giants in Jeans: 100 Sonnets of United Earth
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“[H]e could see the island of Manhattan off to the left. The towers were jammed together so tightly, he could feel the mass and stupendous weight.Just think of the millions, from all over the globe, who yearned to be on that island, in those towers, in those narrow streets! There it was, the Rome, the Paris, the London of the twentieth century, the city of ambition, the dense magnetic rock, the irresistible destination of all those who insist on being where things are happening-and he was among the victors!”

PowerDreamsNew YorkParisNew York CityRomeTowersManhattanDensityIslandVictorBuildings1980sSkyscrapers
Book:The Bonfire of the Vanities
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