Today, people might walk past the Manhattan Building in downtown Chicago without paying much attention. However, this building marked an important transition in architectural history. Architects ____ entirely on traditional masonry anymore when they built the southern part of the structure. Instead, engineers used a steel frame to support the weight of the building. Because of this new technology, architects ____ extremely thick walls, and the building could rise much higher than earlier structures. Before steel frames were introduced, builders didn’t construct very tall buildings because heavy stone walls could not support great heights. One of the most influential architects of the period was Louis Sullivan. For him, the skyscraper represented a completely new form of art. He believed that a skyscraper had to express height and strength. According to Sullivan, a tall building ____ to provide office space; it also needed to show pride and power through its design. Although this new commercial style of architecture began in the American Midwest, it developed most dramatically in New York City. In the early twentieth century, powerful businessmen competed to build the tallest and most impressive skyscrapers. One famous example was the Woolworth Building, the headquarters of a vast retail empire founded by Frank Winfield Woolworth. When the plans for the building were revealed in 1910, critics ____. Many people believed that the enormous tower would block sunlight and make the surrounding streets darker. Supporters of the project ____ these concerns, and Woolworth himself ____ to reduce the height of the building. In fact, he kept increasing the number of floors. The architect Cass Gilbert eventually asked Woolworth how tall the tower should be. Woolworth replied that the architect should make it as high as possible. He even wanted the building to be higher than its rival, the Metropolitan Life Tower. Woolworth secretly measured the height of the competing tower because he ____ his headquarters to be smaller. When construction was finished, the Woolworth Building became the tallest building in the world. It kept this title for seventeen years, until 1930, when even taller skyscrapers appeared in New York.

SIMPLE PAST NEGATIVE FORM & EARLY SKYSCRAPERS

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