Note 541 — CHAPTER 25 ARCHITECTURE AT THE MID CENTURY

The term skyscraper in this context is to be understood as meaning a very tall office building. Many European housing blocks, such as are discussed below, would have been considered skyscrapers a generation ago, and the same is true of much urban office building in central areas which often today rivals in height the German examples of the twenties mentioned in Chapter 20. However, the significant skyscrapers of the post-war period are much taller than this, and—perhaps equally important—they characteristically stand in their own space, rising sheer from some sort of plaza at their base.