Skyscrapers and Skullduggery

Thomas Leslie is a professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois, and a noted skyscraper scholar. He has just published “Chicago Skyscrapers, 1934-1986: How Technology, Politics, Finance, and Race Reshaped the City, the second book in a magisterial series on how the famous Chicago
skyline came to be. This period saw the birth of icons like the Sears (Willis) Tower and John Hancock Center, the story of which is inextricable from the skullduggery in the backrooms of Chicago politics and real estate.

Intro/Outro: “Skullduggery”
by Steppenwolf

Discussed:

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The Richard J.
Daley Collection archives at University of Illinois Chicago

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The Development Plan for the Central Area of
Chicago, 1958

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Chicago as a gameboard, in which skyscrapers
were chess pieces

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Arthur Rubloff

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The Field Building, 1934

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860-880 Lake Shore Drive, 1951

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C.F. Murphy, the Zelig figure of Chicago architecture and real estate

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The State of Illinois Building > James R. Thompson Center > Google

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The Sears Tower and its land accumulation saga

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The John Hancock Center – the “car chase” scene in the book