Building Big with David Macaulay: Skyscrapers (2000) Reviews

David Macaulay, the renowned author/ illustrator of The Way Things Work, has a knack for demystifying mechanical structures by explaining the engineering, physics, and human ingenuity that have gone into their design -- although in sum, his explanations usually make the man-made world seem ever more curious and phenomenal. In WGBH Boston's Building Big series, Macaulay visits the world's great architectural structures to tell their stories and the stories of the men who built them; in this program he discusses early "skyscrapers" created by powerful Italian families, introduces rare footage of the building of the Empire State Building, explains how flaws in the Citicorp Center in New York produced a near-disaster, and profiles the career of Gustave Eiffel -- the bridge builder and eventual designer of what may be the most recognizable structure on earth. The video includes a mini skyscraper-building activity. ~ Sarah Welsh, Rovi