Autobiography of a Skyscraper

Name: Autobiography of a Skyscraper
Price: 54.99 AUD
Availability: PreOrder
ISBN: 9781682195161

And the Story of Those Who Built It

Francis Greenburger, Rebecca Paley

$54.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

OR Books
20 May 2026

Residential buildings, domestic buildings; Autobiography: business & industry; Property & real estate; Construction industry

A highly original inside look at how vision becomes reality in constructing the modern urban landscape.

Building a skyscraper requires more than steel and concrete-it takes a wide array of people, each with their particular skills. In Autobiography of a Skyscraper, legendary developer Francis Greenburger offers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the construction of Chicago's 1000M tower, describing the way almost 1,000 people-from concrete workers to concierges, architects to investors-transformed an empty lot into a 74-story landmark.

""Real estate isn't about property; it's about people,"" Greenburger reflects in this book that, throughout, underscores his point. This is the story of an Italian immigrant who bet his family's entire inheritance on a hole in the ground; of window installers dancing on narrow ledges 800 feet above Michigan Avenue; of a chief concierge managing a community of 700 residents across 80,000 square feet of amenities; and of the safety manager who ""babysits grown men"" to keep them safe hundreds of feet in the air. These and dozens more stories turn the spotlight on the extraordinary people who brought 1000M to life and keep it running today.

The story unfolds with cinematic scope-helicopter shoots for marketing renderings, midnight crane installations, the delicate negotiation of moving a 5,000-pound marble sculpture through a lobby before the revolving doors are installed. Yet it never loses sight of the human scale: the leasing agent explaining why closet space matters more than square footage, the chief engineer worried about scuff marks on hand-applied Venetian plaster, the resident finding inner peace playing Bach on the communal grand piano.

Autobiography of a Skyscraper arrives at a moment when cities worldwide are grappling with questions of growth, community, and what it means to build for the future. Through the lens of one remarkable building, Greenburger and Paley have created both a paean to the collaborative spirit of urban creation and an intimate portrait of how, against all odds, a vision can become reality.

By: Francis Greenburger, Rebecca Paley
Imprint: OR Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 165mm,
ISBN: 9781682195161
ISBN 10: 1682195163
Pages: 300
Publication Date: 20 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Francis Greenburger is an American real estate developer, literary agent, author, philanthropist, and activist. As the founder, CEO, and Chairman of Time Equities Inc., he oversees a multibillion-dollar real estate firm that owns, manages, and develops a portfolio of properties in the U.S., Caribbean, Canada, and Europe. Francis is also the chairman of Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, a literary agency founded by his father, representing authors such as Dan Brown and Brad Thor. A long-standing supporter of the arts, he established Art Omi International Arts Center, a nonprofit residency and sculpture park in upstate New York for international visual artists, writers, dancers, musicians, and architects. Most recently, he founded The Greenburger Justice Center, which advocates for reforms to the criminal and civil justice and mental health systems. Rebecca Paley is aNew York Timesnumber one best-selling author of memoirs and other books-including her first collaboration with Francis,Risk Game. Her work has also appeared in publications such asThe New York Times,Mother Jones, andARTnews. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.

Reviews for Autobiography of a Skyscraper: And the Story of Those Who Built It

""In this phenomenal book, Francis Greenburger gifts us with paired capstones of a life lived generously and triumphantly—one wrought in glass-and-steel, and the other in paper-and-ink."" —Rod Colburn “The nine-year odyssey of 1000M is a testament to our collective will. Francis continually challenged us to do better. Likewise, we, as architects, challenged him to push the residential tower to new limits. Through such collaboration and tension, we elevated the architecture of this building to the level of art.” —Philip Castillo, Jahn Studio