Welcome to On Verticality. This blog explores the innate human need to escape the surface of the earth, and our struggles to do so throughout history. If you’re new here, a good place to start is the Theory of Verticality section or the Introduction to Verticality. If you want to receive updates on what’s new with the blog, you can use the Subscribe page to sign up. Thanks for visiting!
Click to filter posts by the three main subjects for the blog : Architecture, Flight and Mountains.
“Mechanical wings allow us to fly, but it is with our minds that we make the sky ours.”
-William Langewiesche, American journalist and aviator, born 1955.
“The heavens call to you, and circle about you, displaying to you their eternal splendors, and your eye gazes only to earth.”
-From The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, Italian poet and philosopher, 1265-1321.
“He who occupies the high ground…will fight to advantage.”
-Sun Tzu, Chinese military strategist and philosopher, 544 BC-496 BC.
“There is a kind of supernatural beauty in these mountainous prospects which charms both the senses and the minds into a forgetfulness of oneself and of everything in the world.”
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Genevan philosopher and writer, 1712-1778.
“As its basic fact and most critical element, it is structure that is at the heart of the tall building’s design.”
-Ada Louise Huxtable, American architecture critic, 1921-2013
“[In the mountains], the highest parts of the loftiest peaks seem to be above the laws that rule our world below, as if they belonged to another sphere.”
-Conrad Gesner, Swiss physician and naturalist, 1516-1565.
“The skyscraper is Orwellian or Olympian, depending on how you look at it.”
-Ada Louise Huxtable, American architecture critic, 1921-2013.
“Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”
-The Book of Genesis, on the construction of the Tower of Babel.
“Every one must know the feeling of triumph and pride which a grand view from a height communicates to the mind”
-Charles Darwin, English biologist, 1809-1882.
“This is the human paradox of altitude: that it both exalts the individual mind and erases it. Those who travel to mountain tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion.”
-Robert Macfarlane, British author, born 1976
‘We lack the wings to fly, but will always have the strength to fall.’
-Paul Claudel, French poet, 1868-1955
“The instinct to climb up to some high place, from which you can look down and survey your world, seems to be a fundamental human instinct.”
-Christopher Alexander, British-American architect, born 1936
“Can you give me an explanation as to why the pharmacist has to be two-and-a-half feet up above everybody else? What the hell is he doing, he can't be down there on the floor with you and me?”
-Jerry Seinfeld, American comedian & actor, born 1976
“A skyscraper is the incarnate rebellion against the supposedly unattainable; against the mystery of altitude, against the otherworldliness of the cerulean.”
-Joseph Roth, Austrian journalist and novelist, 1894-1939
“I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing.”
-Tom Petty, American singer and songwriter, 1950-2017
“You don’t build [the world’s tallest] skyscraper to house people, or to give tourists a view, or even, necessarily, to make a profit. You do it to make sure the world knows who you are.”
-Paul Goldberger, American architecture critic, born 1950.
"[The skyscraper] must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing"
-Louis Sullivan, American architect, 1856-1924
“The problem of the tall office building is one of the most stupendous...opportunities that the Lord of Nature in His beneficence has ever offered to the proud spirit of man.”
-Louis Sullivan, American architect, 1856-1924
"Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight, For the greatest tragedy of them all, Is never to feel the burning light."
-Attributed to Oscar Wilde, Irish poet and playwright, 1854-1900
"For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will cost me an increased amount of money if not my life."
-Wilbur Wright, inventor and aviation pioneer, 1867-1912