A New App Explores the Powerful Workings of Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers aren’t the friendliest places in the popular imagination. Awesome as their gravity-defying heights may be, they can also pique a certain uneasiness in a bystander—the detection of excess power, of hubris gone too far. No wonder they’re often characterized as “impenetrable fortresses”; “imposing monoliths”; symbols of “overbearing evil and phallic overcompensation.”

Of course, these towers aren’t going anywhere. Indeed, they are proliferating. Last year, 106 buildings taller than 200 meters were completed worldwide, setting a new record, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Perhaps city dwellers could use some fresh perspective on their concrete canyons. “Skyscrapers,” an educational app designed for children, is a cutesy, digital tonic for high-rise malaise.