Willis, Carol
Willis, Carol
Bio Sketch
Carol Willis is an American architectural historian and the founder and director of The Skyscraper Museum in New York City, where she is also Adjunct Associate Professor in Urban Studies at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her work reframes skyscraper history away from hero-genius architects and "schools" toward the economic and programmatic forces that actually determine tall-building form.
Key Works
- Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (Princeton Architectural Press, 1995) — the definitive statement of her thesis that skyscrapers are "vernaculars of capitalism."
- Editor/curator of Hugh Ferriss, The Metropolis of Tomorrow (reprint ed., 1986/1998); founding director of The Skyscraper Museum.
Key Concepts
Concepts associated with this author that have pages in this wiki:
Relevance to Geoffrey's Research
Willis matters to Geoffrey's neoliberalism, finance & the city, capitalism & urbanization, and everyday & vernacular architecture areas: her "form follows finance" thesis gives a concrete, empirical account of how finance, rent, and real-estate cycles produce building form — complementing the theoretical financialization accounts of Matthew Soules, Bismarck, and David Harvey, and connecting the vernacular to the built environment of capital.
Source Support
Source notes in this wiki drawn from this author's work: