"The fire ... had showed that
iron frames were not the answer
since they wilted rapidly when the
temperature rose."
Vincent Sully, American Archi-tecture and Urbanism, 1969
The Carson Pirie Scott Building of Chicago, 1899-1904
designed by Lewis Sullivan
The 1871 fire allowed Chicago to be completely rebuilt. Coinciding with the industrial revolution and the manipulation of steel, it gave contemporary architects an opportunity develop the skyscrapers that would soon tower over our city streets.
Later these skyscrapers would be the focus of much Utopian thought in Architecture and in some cities they would become the nexus of the Housing Project from the 1940s.
INTERESTINGLY MANY OF THESE
PROJECTS WOULD LATER BE DESTROYED AS
GOVERNMENTS, ARCHITECTS AND
THE COMMUNITY REALIZED THAT THE
SKYSCRAPER, WITH IT'S LINEAR, STRUCTURED,
FORM DOES NOT NECESSARILY
PROMOTE THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY.
Derrida's sollicitation: "...A SHAKING AT THECORE, A TREMOR THROUGH THEENTIRE STRUCTURE."
Jeff Collins & Bill Mayblin,Derrida for Beginners, p48
"We have indulged in negative anti-utopias aimed at ending all utopias.
This is throwing out the baby with the bathwater."
Frederick L Polak in Frank Manuel, Utopias and Utopian Thought, p294
"...Derrida is not simply against foundations, he knows they're inescapable.."
Jeff Collins & Bill Mayblin, Derrida for Beginners, p48
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