Sullivan saw that square footage was no longer enough and cities were suffering from blocks put up

merely to achieve real-estate goals. He was one of the first to identify what could make one
skyscraper aesthetically superior to the next and in doing so created a basic checklist for any
criticism (beyond price) of the type. Mumford’s “House of Glass” did the same for the first important
innovation for American skyscrapers since 1896: the curtain wall, which swept aside historical
ornament and traditional layout with glass and openplan offices, respectively.

Previous types, like churches, courthouses, schools, and palaces, had developed distinct
architectural language over centuries. In a new town, the building with a bell tower was always a
church; the building with columns, the town hall (or the post office). It was a grammar with which
most were familiar. Skyscrapers threw that grammar into confusion.