What was the First Skyscraper? Call for Abstracts: CTBUH 10th World Congress

As part of the CTBUH 10th World Congress, the Council, in association with the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), will host an important one-day symposium on Thursday, 31 October, entitled “First Skyscrapers: Skyscraper Firsts.” The purpose of the Symposium, kindly sponsored by the Otis Elevator Company, is to identify the ground-breaking achievements in the formative years of the skyscraper, and to separate popular myth from settled scholarship in the debate over “the first skyscraper.”

CTBUH is thus issuing a Call for Abstracts to all scholars of history and colleagues with an expertise in this field (including architecture, architectural history, construction, economics, engineering, and beyond) to answer the prompt, “What skyscraper could be considered a ‘first’ in a particular technological field or other dimension?” and to state upon what criteria this assertion is based.

Selected abstracts will be developed into full papers and presented at the First Skyscrapers: Skyscraper Firsts Symposium, which will also be included in a subsequent CTBUH & SAH publication.

Submit your abstract by March 26 for a chance to take part in this landmark occasion.

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