“Is there no limit to the craze for tall office buildings?” demands this New York Times Magazine article from 1911. The main downsides of tall buildings discussed here are blocking of light, and “disfigurement” of skylines. The interviewer suggests to the principle subject that not all cities view tall buildings as disfigurement. “That simply shows a lack of taste and art on the part of the American people,” replies the subject, who later clarifies that “We” (Americans) “are veritable barbarians in matters of taste.”
Later in the interview, the source suggests tallness itself isn’t the problem, but that “we have not yet applied to high buildings the same truthful, simple, and artistic treatment which ages of experience have taught us to use in monumental buildings of moderate height.”
