With their audacious, gravity-defying forms, skyscrapers have captured the public’s imagination for more than a century. But the structures are also symbols, and with varying, often mixed messages. In New York, the Empire State Building became an icon almost as soon as it was completed, in 1931, signaling civic unity and hope during the Great Depression; today’s supertall apartment buildings on Billionare’s Row, located just south of Central Park, double as outsize emblems of self-importance. To squabble over skylines and the inherent value of their constituents, a growing number of (mostly male) tall-building enthusiasts log onto Skyscraper Page, a zany website with a skyscraper discussion forum that has spread to some 100,000 threads. But what’s the point of obsessing over big, shiny objects if you can’t pull them out and compare them side by side?