On the day the World Trade Center fell, the Empire state Building once again became the tallest building in New York City. In the months that followed, six of its commercial tenants ran off. They did not want to be in the tallest anything, anywhere, anymore. At a time when U.S. Vice president Dick Cheney was still being shuttled around to undisclosed locations, skyscrapers suddenly seemed like the most disclosed locations. For a while, it looked as though the tall building, at least in the U.S., might be one more casualty of war.

　　Three years later, despite fears of terrorist attacks, big is beautiful again. On July 4, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presided at the rise at the World Trade Center site. New skyscraper projects are under way once more elsewhere in the city and around the U.S. Meanwhile, outside the states, where the taste for tall buildings never really faded, the skyscraper has also been poking its head up in very different ways, and not just for reasons having to do with security. Since the 1990s, tall buildings have been reshaped by a number of global architecture stars whose vision is finally beginning to penetrate the more conservation American market.

　　Some of the best examples of that rethinking now fill two large galleries of the Museum of Modern Art’s temporary outpost in Queens, New York. Using 25 spectacular architectural models (some of more than 4 m high), “Tall buildings”, a show that runs at MOMA through Sept.27, looks at the ways in which the skyscraper has evolved since the early 1990s, at least in the hands of its most gifted practitioners, the kind who are proposing-and even producing, but usually in other nations-buildings that don’t resemble the dull boxes that crowd most American downtowns.

　　Engineering is, among others, a path to new kinds of beauty. Just look at Renzo piano’s London Bridge Tower, a slender glass pyramid that forms a glittering stalagmite against the old city’s skyline. You get a grasp of what ingenious engineering is all about from the London Headquarters of the insurance firm Swiss Re, designed by Norman Foster. Even before it opened in April, it was known as the small cucumber because it rises against the sky like a green pickle. But the building’s single feature is the inclusion of larger interior gardens throughout. But there’s a dematerializing spirit even in a building that didn’t requiring new fears of engineering-the Arcos Bosques Corporativo in Mexico City, an arched tower with a vertical slot down its center that lightens the building’s mass brings the sky itself into play.

　　“Not only did American invent skyscraper”, says the Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava, “it invented the skyline.” But American skylines have got a little dull. With some work, the world’s architects might bring them back to a very tall standard.

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　　世貿大廈倒榻的那一天，帝國大廈又一次成為紐約最高的建筑。在接下來的幾個月，六家帝國大廈的商務住戶搬走了，他們再也不想住在最高的樓里了，無論在什么地方。曾經有一度，當美國副總統迪克.切尼仍舊被不停地周轉護送到各個隱蔽地點時，摩天大樓似乎突然間成了最暴露的地點。一時間，高樓大廈似乎成了戰爭的又一種犧牲品，至少美國是這樣。

　　三年之后，人們依舊害怕恐怖襲擊，但是高樓大廈再次成了美的化身。7月4號，紐約州州長喬治.帕塔奇和紐約市市長米歇爾.布魯伯格主持了自由大廈的破土儀式，這座寫字樓將建在世貿大廈原址上。在紐約的其他地方，甚至全美國，新摩天大樓的建設工程又開始火熱地進行。同時，在摩天熱從末褪去的其他國家，摩天大樓以截然不同的形態拔地而起，而這不僅僅是因為安全問題。從九十年代初期開始，高樓大廈的形態就被一些世界設計大師重塑了，這些設計大師的遠見最終打入了較為保守的美國市場。}

　　那些新設計中的一些杰作現在正占據著位于紐約皇后區的現代藝術博物館的兩個臨時展區。9月27號，現代博物藝術館會舉行一次名為“摩天大樓”的建筑模型(有些有四米多高)，以此來向人們展示九十年代初以來摩天大樓是如何發展的。至少在那些最有天賦的設計者手里設計出來或者是建造出來的建筑物，這些通常出現在別的國家，不再像一堆呆頭呆腦的盒子簇擁在美國各城市的中心。

　　在眾多領域里，工程建設是通向另類美麗的一種途徑。看看雷佐.皮耶羅設計的倫敦塔，細長的玻璃金字塔組成一個閃耀的石筍直指倫敦上空，在空中形成美麗的輪廓。從瑞士在保險公司的倫敦總部大樓我們就能看出工程建設是多么的巧妙，那棟樓是由羅曼.弗斯特設計的。甚至在四月份對外之前，這座樓就被人們稱為小黃瓜，因為它直聳入云，在天空的映襯下看上去就像一根綠黃瓜。但是這棟樓最顯著的特點卻是遍布室內各處的室內大花園。即使在不需要新工程技術的建筑物里也存在著非物質精神——墨西哥城的阿克斯.波斯克期公司大樓是一座拱行的樓，在這座樓的中間有一條狹槽從上通向底部，這座狹槽把光帶到了樓里的大部分地方并且使樓里的人能看見天空。

　　“美國發明的不光是摩天大樓”西班牙設計師圣地亞哥.卡拉托弗說，“它發明的還有摩天大樓的空中輪廓。”但是美國的空中輪廓顯得有些單調。一段時間的努力之后，世界建筑大師們或許會使其重返“高”標準。