HISTORY
OF HEIGHT
This interactive website presents illustrated episodes in the history of height from the pyramids to the present, highlighting themes and buildings that relate to the evolution of the skyscraper and point the way to 21st-century supertalls. It examines the ambition to build high, the technological advances and engineering innovations that enabled that desire, the economics that drove commercial development, the influence of outstanding architectural designs, and the codes and regulations that shaped buildings and skylines.
On the top row is a lineup of the successive
structures that held the title of "world's tallest building." On the
lower range these are scaled in silhouettes that chart that ascent through the
traditions of building in masonry, metal, and concrete, leading up to the first
skyscrapers in New York and Chicago in the 1870s and 1880s. From the 270-foot
New York Tribune Building to the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai is an astonishing tenfold rise, but the
acme of size in terms of overall scale, rather than sheer height, came in the
1970s, with the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Sears, now
Willis, Tower.
The central timeline is illustrated with
historical prints, photographs, and text boxes that are color-coded: light blue
labels describe buildings and events in New York City; green labels refer to
Chicago; dark blue in the final panel refers to Asia.
The History of Height was created for the 2011 exhibition SUPERTALL! It was installed as a 28' mural as an introduction to the show. The mural remains on permanent display in the Skyscraper Museum gallery.
2650 BCE
GREAT
PYRAMID OF GIZA
With its apex at 481 feet, the tomb of the Egyptian
Pharaoh Khufu remained the world's tallest structure until Gothic cathedrals.
Masonry was the principal material for structures of great height until the invention
of metal construction.
Maison Bonfils,
Beirut, Lebanon,Vue générale des pyramides,
between 1867 and 1899. Library of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-01
610 BCE
TOWER OF
BABEL
The
biblical Tower of Babel was imagined by artists over the centuries as a
great ziggurat, like the stepped pyramids of ancient Babylon. One of the most
famous images was a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder of c.1563 portraying
the tower as a vertical city.
"Building the Tower of
Babel," Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1563
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-02
247 BCE
LIGHTHOUSE
OF ALEXANDRIA
One of the Wonders of the Ancient
World, the Lighthouse of Alexandria was for centuries one of the tallest
masonry towers. Reaching 393-450 feet, it used fire
and mirrors to guide ships into the harbor at night.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-03
126
ROMAN
PANTHEON
The Romans invented concrete construction and perfected a method of
building with massive walls and barrel vaults that could achieve great height,
as in the dome of the Pantheon, which measures 142 ft
height and width.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-04
1049
IRON PAGODA
Throughout Asia, tiered
towers represent religious aspirations. Known as the Iron Pagoda because of its
red-brown color, the 187-foot structure was built of glazed brick and stone,
replacing a famed wooden pagoda that burned down in 1044.
The 'Iron Pagoda' of
Kaifeng, Henan, China, built out of glazed brick in 1049 CE during the Chinese
Song Dynasty (960–1279), Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D.,
2008.
Adapted from Wikimedia
Commons: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Iron_Pagoda_d.JPG
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-05
12TH
CENTURY
GOTHIC
VAULTS
The Gothic cathedral builders of the 12th
and 13th century developed a structural system of stone ribs and
vaults, much like a skeleton and curtain wall, that could achieve great height
and open large expanses of wall for stained-glass windows. The tallest vaults
were built at Beauvais, which achieved a height of 159 ft
/ 48.5 m.
Cathedral in Reims, France,
Magnus Manske, 2004. Adapted from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reims_Cathedral,_interior_(4).jpg
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-07
1330
SALISBURY
CATHEDRAL
At 404 feet, the spire
of this British cathedral is the tallest extant from the medieval period in
Europe. The tower attained its final height in 1330,
110 years after the cathedral's first foundation stones were laid in 1220.
Salisbury Cathedral,
England, Detroit Publishing Co., 1905. Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002708087/
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-06
1359
CAMPANILE, FLORENCE CATHEDRAL
Rising 278 feet, the
polychrome bell tower of the painter Giotto soared above the medieval church. The campanile was completed by Francesco Talenti
in 1359, and Brunelleschi later crowned the cathedral with a Renaissance dome which
rose to a height of 374 feet.
Giotto's
Campanile, Florence, Tuscany, Italy, Jim Linwood (Flickr), 2001.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-08
1514
ST. MARK'S CAMPANILE
At 323 feet, the brick bell
tower of St. Mark's Cathedral reigned over Renaissance Venice. In 1902, the
free- standing campanile collapsed and was rebuilt with reinforcement. The
Metropolitan Life Insurance Building was modeled on the Venetian icon.
St.
Mark's Place, with campanile, Venice, Italy, Detroit Publishing Co. 1905.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-09
1730-1769
SUGAR
HOUSES
At 5-7 stories, sugar houses were constructed with thick masonry walls and
stood taller than most contemporary buildings. At least 5 sugar refineries were
erected in lower Manhattan in colonial times. Later, refineries of 10 stories
or taller were built near the waterfront.
"Old
Sugar House in Liberty Street," Mary Louise Booth, History of The City of New York, pg.316. 1867.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-10
1759
EDDYSTONE
LIGHTHOUSE
John Smeaton
developed a new type of quick-drying cement that set under water,
revolutionizing both lighthouse design and the use of concrete in buildings.
Only 72 feet tall, the original lighthouse was replaced, but remnants of Smeaton's tower survive in the second version to this day.
"Eddystone
Lighthouse," John Platts, A Library of Wonders and Curiosities Found in Nature and Art, Science
and Literature, pg. 890. New York J.B. Alden, 1884.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-11
1779
COALBROOKDALE
BRIDGE
Spanning 100 feet over
the River Severn in Shropshire, England, Coalbrookdale was pivotal to the development of iron
construction. The world's first cast-iron bridge, it was designed, fabricated,
and constructed by the ironmaker Abraham Darby III.
"Iron Bridge," Roantrum (Flickr), July 2005.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-12
1783
MONTGOLFIER
HOT-AIR BALLOONS
The Parisian Montgolfier
brothers enabled human flight and unprecedented height with their invention of
the hot-air balloon, constructed mostly of sackcloth. The first untethered
flight attained an altitude of 3,000 feet, covered a distance of 9 km, and
lasted 25 minutes.
"Montgolfier Brother's
Flight," Paris, France, 21 November, 1783. Bildarchiv Preussuscher Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-13
1846
TRINITY
CHURCH
The third Trinity Church
on its site still stands today at the head of Wall Street. The neo-gothic
landmark was the highest point on New York's skyline until the completion of
the World Building in 1890.
Trinity Church, Ezekiel
Porter Belden, New York, Past, Present,
and Future, pg. ix. Putnam, 1849.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-14
1848
DUANE
STREET FACTORY
Described as "the first
complete cast-iron edifice ever erected" by its designer and manufacturer James
Bogardus, this 4-story factory on Duane Street was
composed of cast-iron members. The walls, floors, and interior columns were
prefabricated, making the building an important precursor to metal-framed
skyscrapers.
Designs
for Cast-Iron Store Fronts. Daniel D Badger, Major Sarony
& Knapp Lith. Illustrations of Iron
Architecture, Made by the Architetural Iron Works of
the City of New York, Plate 45. 1865. Collection of The Skyscaper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-15
1850
WALL
STREET
By 1850, most of lower Manhattan
east of Broadway was replacing residences with commercial buildings. On Wall
Street, the emerging financial district, banks erected imposing neoclassical façades, while
in the pre-elevator age, Trinity Church still dominated the street.
Moses King, King's Views of New York Stock Exchange,
pg. 67
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-19
1851
LONDON'S
CRYSTAL PALACE
The tour-de-force of
London's Great Exhibition of 1851 was the Crystal Palace, the creation of
gardener Joseph Paxton, who used his experience building large greenhouses to
design the 128-foot tall structure of cast iron and plate glass. Constructed in
only eight months, the exhibition hall enclosed 990,000 square feet. The
structure required huge quantities of prefabricated materials, which
demonstrated England's industrial power.
The Crystal Palace from
the northeast, London, Comprehensive
Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, pg. Dickinson, Brothers, Her
Majesty's Publishers.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-16
1853
NYC
CRYSTAL PALACE AND LATTING TOWER
Constructed for the
Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, New York's Crystal Palace occupied
the site behind the Croton Reservoir between Fifth and Sixth Avenues at 42nd
St., today's Bryant Park. Crowned by a dome 100 feet in diameter, the cruciform
structure of cast iron and glass prefigured the glass skyscrapers of midtown.
It was destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858.
"New York Crystal Palace
built for World Fair in 1853," Sidney Currie.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-17
1853
– 1870
PARIS
BOULEVARDS
The visual order of Paris
with its broad boulevards and uniform cornice lines was in large part the
creation of the building codes enacted under Napoleon III and his prefect Baron
Haussmann. In 1859, earlier height limits were raised slightly to 20 meters on
wide streets; buildings were limited to six stories, though a mansard-style
dormer was allowed.
Ariel
view of Paris, France, Alphonse Liébert, 1889.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-20
1853
LATTING
TOWER
The 315-foot iron-braced
wood tower was erected for the 1853 New York World's Fair. Steam elevators
accessed three observation platforms, affording panoramic views. Despite its
popularity, the tower failed to pay off its debts and burned down in 1856.
Latting Observatory near 6th.
Avenue, between 42nd and 43rd Street, New York, Wiliam Naugle, Seiber &Shearman Robertson, 1853, Adapted from
Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Latting_Observatory.png
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-22
1855
MCCULLOUGH
SHOT TOWER
Shot towers produced
round bullets by dropping molten lead from a great height. In 1855, for the
175-foot McCullough Shot Tower at Centre and Pearl Streets, James Bogardus created a 8-tiered
structure that carried an in-fill brick wall entirely on the cast iron frame.
Centre Street Shot
Tower, Hollyer Samuel, 1858. New
York Public Library.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=1-21
1854
OTIS ELEVATOR SAFETY BRAKE
At New York's
Crystal Palace exhibition, businessman Elisha Graves Otis demonstrated his
invention, the safety break, which reduced the danger of elevator free fall,
revolutionizing vertical transportation.
Elisha Otis demonstrating
his free-fall prevention mechanism, Crystal Palace, 1854. Adapted from
Wikimedia Commons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Elisha_OTIS_1853.jpg
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-01
1855
BESSEMER STEEL PROCESS
By blowing air
through molten pig iron, the Bessemer process oxidized the pig iron into steel
more quickly than any previous steel making process, allowing for inexpensive
industrial-scale production of steel.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-03
1857
HAUGHWOUT BUILDING
This six-story dry
goods store on the corner of Broadway and Broome Street had an ornate façade of
cast iron by architect and manufacturer James Bogardus,
as well as the first passenger elevator in a commercial building.
Huaghwout Building, Samuel.north, March 2009. Adapted from Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E.V._Haughwout_Building.JPG
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-02
1859
COOPER UNION FOUNDATION BUILDING
The landmark
Foundation Building of the Cooper Union, established by industrialist and
philanthropist Peter Cooper, was the first to feature a structural system of rolled
wrought iron. Together with a unique circular elevator shaft and ventilation
system, the building's innovations were a harbinger of the technological
advancements in skyscraper design.
Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art Building, New York. Library of
Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-04
1861
Elevator Patent
Elisha Otis obtained
a U.S. patent in 1861 for his "hoisting apparatus" and safety break, a catch
that sprang open if a cable failed.
Elisha
Otis's Elevator Patent Drawing, 1861.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-06
1864
ORIEL CHAMBERS
The 5-story Oriel
Chambers in Liverpool by the little-know architect Peter Ellis was the first
British building with a metal frame and a curtain wall of enlarged glass oriel
windows.
Ignacio Fernández Solla. "Is Oriel Chambers the
First Curtain Wall Ever?" Façades
Confidential. June 2013.
https://facadesconfidential.blogspot.com/2013/06/is-first-first-curtain-wall-in-liverpool.html
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-05
1870
FIRST EQUITABLE BUILDING
Often
included, along with the Tribune and Western Union buildings, in the trio
called "New York's first skyscrapers," the first headquarters of the Equitable
Life Assurance Society was a seven-story building. The upper-floor offices were
leased at high rents because the building was the first in the city to include
elevators–two "vertical steam cars" that rose in 130-foot shafts.
Equitable
Life Assurance Building, New York. George Browne Post,
1868-70.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-07
1870
FIREPROOF FLOORS
Fireproof
construction became a great concern with the increasing height of
buildings. This early system published in 1870 in The Technologist shows wrought-iron floor-beams
encased in concrete to protect them from heat. Non-combustible hollow
tiles span between beams. Wood flooring and a plaster ceiling were placed
on either side of the fireproof floor.
Fire
Proof Floor Constructional Diagram. The Technologist, vol 1. 1870.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-11
1871
THE GREAT CHICAGO FIRE
Lasting
two days, the Great Fire consumed four square miles of the center of the city, north
to the Water Tower, and destroyed $200 million dollars of property. Developers
immediately began rebuilding high-rises.
An artist's rendering of
The Great Chicago Fire, Chicago in
Flames—The Rush for Lives Over Randolph Street Bridge, John R. Chapin. Harper's Weekly, 1871.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-10
1873
DREXEL BUILDING
Located
at Wall and Broad streets, the Drexel Building, headquarters to financier J.P.
Morgan, became the first office building in the world illuminated by electric
lights. On September 4, 1882, Thomas Edison and the Directors of the Edison
Electric Illuminating Company of New York switched on lights powered by the
Pearl Street generating station.
"Drexel Building: J.
Pierpont Morgan & Co." --King's Views of NYSE 1897-1898, pg. 42. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-08
1875
TRIBUNE BUILDING
Designed
by architect Richard Morris Hunt, the headquarters of the New York Tribune newspaper was the tallest building
in the city, rising 260 feet to the tip of its ornamental tower. In 1883, the
first 10-story masonry structure became the base for an addition of nine
stories, a common practice in the late 19th century.
Tribune
Building view from Northwest, 1874. Library
of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-09
1875
CHICAGO BUILDING CODE
Four years after the
Great Fire, Chicago enacted a code intended to prevent another disaster. Unlike
New York, it embraced steel-frame construction, becoming the leader in
innovative high-rise design.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-13
1880
COLOGNE CATHEDRAL
Begun in the 13th
century, Cologne Cathedral reached its full height of 516 feet only in 1880
with the construction of masonry towers of the west façade, making it briefly
the tallest structure in the world.
Cologne
Cathedral, Max Hasak, 1911. Adapted from Wikimedia
Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hasak_-_Der_Dom_zu_K%C3%B6ln_-_Bild_02_Westseite.jpg
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-14
1880s
CHICAGO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
"The step that completed
the most radical transformation in the structural art since the development of
the Gothic system of construction in the twelfth century was the invention of
complete iron framing or skeletal construction." Thus wrote Carl Condit, chief
scholar of the architecture of the Chicago School.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-16
1880s-1900
CHICAGO FRAME
The grid of metal
columns, beams, and girders that evolved into the skeleton of steel I-beams
used in most 20th-century skyscrapers was largely the invention of multiple
Chicago architects and engineers. The frame of the 1892 Unity Building is
illustrated under construction in the book Industrial
Chicago.
Unity Building under Construction, Industrial
Chicago, 1892. Chicago History Museum, ICHi-23088.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-17
1880
PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS
In an important step
toward the development of glass curtain walls, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company
began producing the first affordable plate glass. With the advent of more open
steel-frame storefronts around 1900, panes of glass as large as 80 square feet
were produced.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-23
1882
NEW YORK CITY BUILDING CODE
This code revision was
the first in New York to allow for metal-skeleton frames, but required minimum thicknesses
of masonry–a conservatism based on concerns about fire. Masonry curtain
walls were generally allowed to be 4 inches thinner than load-bearing walls of
the same height, narrowing as they rose.
Curtain Wall thickness specifications, New York Building Code (1892).
After Birkmire, Planning and Construction of High
Office-Buildings.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-28
1883
BROOKLYN BRIDGE
The first and longest steel-wire
suspension bridge in the world, the Brooklyn Bridge spanned 1,595 feet and
reached 275 feet above the high water mark. With 16 inch
diameter cables and caissons 78 feet below water, the bridge was an epochal
feat of engineering that rose higher than any building in Manhattan.
Plan
of One Tower for the East River Bridge, 1867. National Archives.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-19
1884
HOME INSURANCE BUILDING
Long described in
textbooks at "the first skyscraper," the Home Insurance Building
was a precursor of the true skyscraper, when it is defined as a tall
building with steel-frame construction. Originally only nine stories, with two
more added in 1890, the structure designed by William LeBaron
Jenney employed the first metal frame of cast- and wrought-iron columns
and beams, as well as steel I-beams. Above the sixth floor, Bessemer steel
members were used for the first time outside of bridges.
Home Insurance Building,
History of Chicago Building, pg
59. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-15
1884
CARNEGIE BROS. POCKET COMPANION
With mills producing
their own steel shapes, each had to provide designers and builders with a
product catalog. This Pocket Companion for Carnegie Brothers illustrates the
range of I-beams and includes detailed charts for designers to select beams by
strength.
"Pocket
Companion of Useful Information and Tables Appertaining to the Use of Wrought
Iron," Carnegie Bros. & CO., Limited. 1884
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-18
1884
CHELSEA HOTEL
An early New York City
private apartment cooperative, at 150 feet, the 12-story red brick building was
the tallest residential structure in the city. Converted to a hotel in 1905, it
has been famous through the years for its avant-garde residents.
216-28 West 23rd
Street, Hotel Chelsea, Wurts Bros. 1947. Museum of the City of New York.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-21
1884
RANSOME SYSTEM
The patented system of
reinforced concrete developed by Ernest Ransome used
twisted iron rods to better bind with concrete, significantly improving its
strength and efficiency. This and other patented reinforced concrete systems of
Henry Turner and Julius and Albert Kahn later dominated the industry.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-20
1884
WASHINGTON MONUMENT
Designed by architect
Robert Mills in the 1840s, construction of the stone obelisk began in 1848,
halted at half height in 1856, then resumed from
1876-1884. Achieving a height of 555 feet, the Washington Monument surpassed
the Cologne Cathedral as the world's tallest structure–but only briefly.
In 1889, the Eiffel Tower asserted the new age of metal construction.
Washington monument illustrated: complete guide and history: authentic facts
and figures, pg.10. Hathi Trust Digital Library.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-24
1884
ROLLED STEEL BEAMS
Rather than creating beams
by assembling plates together, U.S. manufacturers used large rollers to form
molten steel into I-shaped beams for construction. At first, each mill designed
its own shapes, but by 1896 the Association of American Steel Manufacturers
standardized the shapes and their properties.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-25
1885
CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE
Chicago's first Board of
Trade was a 10-story Victorian building with a clock tower that stretched to
322 feet, making it the tallest structure in Chicago. Demolished in 1927, it
was replaced by a 44-story art deco skyscraper by the same name, the city's
tallest until 1965.
Frank
A. Randall History of Chicago Building,
1949, "Old Board of Trade," pg. 87. Collection
of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-12
1886
STATUE OF LIBERTY
The statue's internal
structure of wrought iron trusses is an early example of the skeleton frame engineered
by A. Gustav Eiffel. The frame, which at 151 feet equals the height of a
15-story building, supports the exterior copper "curtain wall" of Liberty's
garments.
Scaffolding for the
assemblage of the Statue of Liberty. Albert Fernique,
1883. New York Public Library.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-26
1888
TOWER BUILDING
Only eleven stories tall
and 22 feet wide on Broadway, but stretching 159 feet to New St., the Tower
Building employed the first metal-cage construction in New York, before the
building code allowed it. Designed by architect Bradford Gilbert, it was
demolished in 1914.
Christopher Gray.
Streetscapes: Bradford Lee Gilbert –The Architect Who Turned a Railroad Bridge
on Its Head. The New
York Times. July 2007.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/realestate/01scap.html
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-22
1888
REVOLVING DOORS
Theophilus Van Kannel
invented the revolving door to increase efficiency of traffic in and out of
skyscrapers, where the slight vacuum caused by air-flow up through the
building's stairwells, elevator shafts, and chimneys made traditional doors
difficult to open.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=2-27
1889
EIFFEL
TOWER
Conceived by the brilliant French engineer A. Gustave Eiffel, the famed "300-meter tower"
constructed for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris was nearly twice the
height of the world's tallest masonry structures. Constructed of wrought iron,
it held the title of world's tallest structure until surpassed by the New
York's skyscrapers of the late 1920s.
Elevator of the Eiffel Tower, Sampson Low, Marston,
Searle & Rivington, The Eiffel Tower: A Description of the Monument, its Construction and
its Machinery, pg .71, 1889.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-01
1889
TACOMA
BUILDING, CHICAGO
Holabird & Roche designed the 13-story Tacoma
Building, a pioneering example of skeletal construction and terra cotta curtain
walls. Built by the innovative contractor George A. Fuller, the
Tacoma was earliest large-scale demonstration of use of the single-contract
general contractor, a business practice adopted for large-scale
construction.
Tacoma Building, Picturesque Chicago and Guide to the World's Fair, pg. 3, 1893.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-02
1890
NEW YORK WORLD BUILDING
Tallest building in the world in 1890, the
headquarters for Joseph Pulitzer's World stretched 309 feet to its gold
dome. Architect George B. Post used a hybrid "cage" system
common in New York which used steel framing to support the interior structure
and exterior masonry walls with metal columns embedded to carry floor loads.
World Building Postcard,
1907-1916. Collection
of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-05
1891
MONADNOCK
BUILDING
In the same years they produced the airy Reliance
Building, architects Burnham & Root also designed one of the last
and largest masonry office buildings. The 16-story slab-like tower
required load-bearing walls up to 12 feet thick at the base to carry
the weight of the floors above: this conservative construction was requested by
the developer.
Monadonk Building, Picturesque
Chicago and Guide to the World's Fair, pg 182. 1893.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-03
1891
RELIANCE
BUILDING
Begun by Burnham and Root in the same years as the
all-masonry Monadnock, then reworked and completed by
Charles Atwood, the Reliance Building expressed an aesthetic that
prefigured the glass box of 20th-century modernism. The metal skeleton
frame–erected with astonishing speed, in just two
weeks–was clearly articulated by the curtain wall that
was principally in glass, as well as terra cotta panels.
Reliance Building, Chicago, 1891-1895. Library of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-04
1891
WAINWRIGHT
BUILDING, ST. LOUIS
Though only ten stories, the Wainwright
Building was one of the first high-rises to clearly express verticality. Rather
than composing the facade as a series of horizontal zones, Louis Sullivan
emphasized the unbroken rise of the piers, comparing the design to a classical
column with a base, long shaft, and ornamental capital.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-06
1893
CHICAGO
FAIR FERRIS WHEEL
One of the most popular amusements of the 1893 Chicago
fair, the World's Columbian Exposition, was the 264-foot elevation of the
Ferris Wheel designed by the bridge builder George
Washington Gate Ferris Jr. The wheel rotated around a hollow –forged
45.5-foot axle weighing 89,320 pounds. The ride thrilled 38,000 passengers a
day with elevated views of the midway and city beyond.
Scientific
American, Front Cover, 1893-07-01
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-09
1895
MILWAUKEE
CITY HALL
The Milwaukee City Hall, crowned by a bell tower
that achieved 353 ft., was arguably briefly the tallest habitable building
in the world when completed, although its top sections were not usable
floors.
City Hall, Milwuakee. Library of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-08
1896
LOUIS
SULLIVAN ESSAY
Often called "the father of the
skyscraper" Chicago architect Louis Sullivan expressed the poetics of
the skyscraper in his buildings and writings. In an 1896 essay "The
Tall Building Artistically Considered," he wrote that the skyscraper
"must be tall, every inch of it tall....It must
be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from
bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-07
1898
RAND
MCNALLY VIEW OF CHICAGO
A bird's-eye view of the Loop near the Board of
Trade in 1898 shows Chicago's typical "hollow square"
high-rise with a light court at the center of a large office block. In 1893,
the city imposed a height restriction of 130 feet that dramatically
curtailed a boom in construction of skyscrapers of sixteen to twenty stories
that outpaced New York.
Vicinity of Board of Trade, with Rookery and
Rand-McNally Buildings, both court buildings, in foreground. Rand-McNally map.
1898.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-10
1890s
CHICAGO
LOOP
Platted in the 1830s, Chicago was laid out with
large, squarish blocks about 360 x 320 feet and
streets 66 or 80 feet. Most were bisected by a public alley,
so that in the 1890s, large development lots covered a quarter or half a block.
The central business district was known as "the Loop," first for the
cable cars, then for the elevated trains that ringed downtown.
Map of Loop, Picturesque Chicago and Guide to World Fair, pg. 320, 1893.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-11
1892
MASONIC
TEMPLE
Built just as height restrictions were enacted in
Chicago, the Masonic Temple rose to 302 feet and briefly held the title as
world's tallest tower until surpassed by New York's Manhattan Life Tower. The
23-story tower was a mixed-use structure that featured a nine-level atrium of
shops, with office floors above and the Masonic meeting rooms on the top
floors.
Masonic Temple Postcard, Chicago. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-13
1893
RANDOLPH
STREET
A view of Randolph Street in 1893 shows a mix of
five- to seven-story buildings of the 1880s over-topped by the next generation
of towers, including in the distance the Masonic Temple, then the world's
tallest building.
View of Randolph Street. Picturesque
Chicago and Guide to World Fair, pg. 263, 1893.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-12
1903
RAILWAY
EXCHANGE BUILDING
Typical of Chicago office buildings after the city
imposed height limits, the Railway Exchange, also known as the Santa Fe
Building, was a big box with a flat roof and classical cornice that surrounded
an open court.
Railway Exchange Postcard, c.
1903. Collection of The
Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-14
1893-1923
CHICAGO
HEIGHT LIMITS
In 1893, Chicago limited building heights to 130
feet, about ten stories. The cap moved up and down several times in response to
pressures from the real estate industry. In 1902 it was raised to 260 feet; in
1911, lowered to 200 feet; then in 1920 and 1923, it was raised to 200 and 264
feet.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-15
1894
MANHATTAN
LIFE INSURANCE BUILDING
Notable for its ingenuity in engineering, this
building was one of the first to use pneumatic caissons for its foundations.
Designed by architects Kimball and Thompson and engineer Charles Sooysmith, it reached a height of 348 ft.
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-16
1894
MANHATTAN
LIFE INSURANCE BUILDING
Built on a site with a 54-foot layer of mud and
quicksand, the Manhattan Life Insurance Building required its masonry
foundations to be carried down to bedrock. Initial excavation
was carried out by men and horses scraping across the entire lot, after which
caissons were installed allowing men to continue digging beneath the masonry
piers that slowly sank to the bedrock.
Manhattan Life Insurance Building
Foundations, History of Real Estate,
pg. 480.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-17
1894
AMERICAN
SURETY BUILDING
The ornate 23-story American Surety Building at 100
Broadway was the second tallest in New York on completion in 1896. Architect
Bruce Price used steel framing and curtain-wall construction, as well as
caisson foundation piers that were described in detail in Scientific American.
American Surety Building, Scientific American, 1896
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-18
1892-97
WALDORF
– ASTORIA
Built on the site of the millionaire mansions of
the Astor family, two separate, but connected structures– the
13-story iron-framed Waldorf and the later steel-framed 16-story
Astoria–were joined to become the Waldorf-Astoria, the world's largest
hotel. Illustrating the cycle of Manhattan's rising land values, the great
hotel was demolished in 1929 and replaced by the Empire State
Building.
Postcard of Waldorf Astoria
Hotel. Collection
of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-19
1899
PARK ROW
BUILDING
At thirty stories and 391 feet to the top of its
twin cupolas, New York's Park Row Building was the tallest office building in
the world. A speculative real estate venture, it contained 950 offices and
could accommodate up to 4,000 workers.
Park Row Building Postcard. Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-20
1903
HURD LAND
VALUE MAP
The demand for prime locations drives up rents and
produces high-rise buildings. This 1903 map by land economist Richard Hurd showed how the land values in lower Manhattan varied
dramatically–tenfold and higher –in the distance of only two or
three blocks. Such differences underscore the quip that the first three rules
of real estate development are "location, location, location."
Map published in Richard M. Hurd,
Principles of City Land Values. New York:
The Real Estate Record and Builders Guide, pg. 158, 1908.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-21
1897
GILLENDER
BUILDING
The slender, 22-story Gillender
Building rose 306 feet on a lot only 26 x 73 feet, capitalizing on a tenfold
increase in land value on Wall Street. Only 12 years later, the tower and lot
were sold for $822 per square foot, the highest price ever recorded, and
demolished.
Postcard of Gillender
Building. Collection
of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-22
1901
PHILADELPHIA
CITY HALL
After thirty years of construction, the tower
of the Philadelphia City Hall stretched 548 ft
to the top of William Penn's hat, assumin the title
of world's tallest habitable building.
Philadelphia City Hall, 1899. Library of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=3-23
1902
INGALLS BUILDING, CINCINNATI
The 15-story Ingalls Building was the first concrete
"skyscraper." Using the Ransome system of reinforced
concrete, the structure consisted of reinforced-concrete columns and beams and
exterior bearing walls that were 8 inches thick. While the system had some
advantages over steel, including fireproofing and labor costs, these were
countered by the slow rate of erection, only three stories per month.
From Historical
Building Construction: Design, Materials and Technology pg . 140. No source information
offered. An illustration of the Ingalls building can be found in Engineering
Record: https://books.google.com/books?id=dagvAAAAYAAJ&dq=engineering%20record%20ingalls%20building&pg=PA540#v=onepage&q=ingalls&f=false
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-03
1902
ELECTRIC AIR CONDITIONING UNIT
The first electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis
Haviland Carrier to control temperature and humidity
of a printing plant in Brooklyn, New York. Workplaces were the Carrier
Company's primary market.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-04
1903
GEARLESS TRACTION ELEVATOR
Introduction by the Otis Elevator Company in 1903, the
gearless traction elevator became the industry standard. With the combined
weight of the elevator cab and a counterweight attached to a steel hoisting
cable, the system provided the necessary traction as the sheave turned.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-05
1903
FLATIRON BUILDING
Rising 285 feet, the Flatiron Building was shorter than
several contemporary skyscrapers, but it remains a New York favorite due to its
dramatic triangular "flat-iron" shape that narrows to just 6 feet at Fifth
Avenue and Broadway at 23rd St. The official name, the Fuller Building,
referred to Fuller Construction Co., the major skyscraper builders who erected,
owned, and had headquarters in the speculative office building.
Flat Iron
Building (sic), Meadville, PA: Keystone View Company, 1903. Library
of Congress.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-01
1905
NEW YORK TIMES TOWER
The New York Times headquarters was completed in 1905 on
a triangular site at the intersection of Broadway, Seventh Avenue and 42 St.,
an area soon dubbed Times Square. The Times claimed that at 476 ft, the building was the "City's Tallest Structure from
Base to Top," inflating its standard curb-to-top measurement of 363 ft by including its basements and flagpole.
Postcard of the New York Times Tower.
Collection of the Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-02
1907
"HOW FAR CAN NEW
YORK CLIMB INTO THE SKY?"
The New York World,
with Joseph Pulitzer as publisher from 1883 to 1911, was one of the most widely
read newspapers of its day. The Sunday edition featured colorful artwork,
including this cover of the magazine section of January 20, 1907, "How Far Can
New York Climb into the Sky?" by illustrator Louis Biedermann.
In the early 1900s, New York was the world's only true skyscraper city, for
Chicago restricted its high-rises to a maximum 260 feet. Just announced at the
time of this cartoon, the Metropolitan Life Tower would rise to 700 feet.
"How Far Can New York Climb into the Sky?" The World Magazine, January 20, 1907. Illustrator, Louis Biedermann.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-13
1908
SINGER
BUILDING
The headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Co. on lower
Broadway were expanded–upward–with a tower by architect Ernest
Flagg that became the tallest building in the world at 612 ft. The tower's
slenderness required costly caisson foundations and innovative wind bracing designed
by engineer Otto F. Semsch.
Singer Building Under Construction, A History of the Singer Building Construction, Otto Francis Semsch, pg. 27,
1908.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-06
1908
RIVETERS AT
SINGER BUILDING
The highly competitive contract for the provision and
erection of the Singer Building's steel frame was awarded to Milliken Brothers,
Inc., which had a large mill facility in Staten Island. Gangs of four highly
skilled workers were required to join the I-beams with red-hot rivets.
Singer Building Under Construction, A History of the Singer Building Construction, Otto Francis Semsch, pg. 20,
1908.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-07
1908
CITY INVESTING
BUILDING
The City Investing Company Building rose on the same block as
the Singer tower and was completed the same year, when together the two
represented the tallest and largest office buildings in the world.
City Investing Building, N.Y. Post, McCord, c. December 20
1907. Collection of the Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-10
1908
METROPOLITAN LIFE
TOWER
Built as the expanded headquarters for the "world's largest
insurer," the Metropolitan Life Building stretches 700 feet into the midtown
skyline at Madison Square. Designed by Napoleon LeBrun
& Sons, the tower's slender shaft clad in white Tuckahoe marble and ornate
high-pitched roof and lantern evoke the Campanile of San Marco. Today the tower
stands stripped of its classical detailing after a 1960 modernization remodel.
Metropolitan and New York Life Building, c.
1930. Postcard from the Collection of The
Skyscraper Museum.
1909
HUDSON
TERMINAL BUILDINGS
When completed in 1909, the pair of 22-story structures built
for the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad Company was the world's largest office
building, covering a ground area of 70,000 square feet. The complex rose above
the rail terminal connecting Jersey City and lower Manhattan; the Hudson &
Manhattan tunnels later became the PATH system, and the Hudson Terminals
Buildings were demolished for the World Trade Center.
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-11
1909
BURNHAM PLAN
In 1909, architect Daniel H. Burnham and Edward Bennett
published "The Plan of Chicago" for the business group the Commercial Club. They
envisioned a future city of Uniform blocks and radial avenues and a great,
classical Civic Center, in contrast to the city's actual heterogeneous skyline.
Proposed View of Chicago, Daniel H. Burnham, Edward H Bennet, Plan of
Chicago, the Commercial Club, Chicago, 1909.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-08
1909
"KING'S DREAM
OF NEW YORK"
The drawing featured on the cover of the 1908/9 King's Views
of New York by delineator Harry Pettit envisioned the future Broadway as a
canyon of motley office blocks with bridges springing from one rooftop to the
next or tunneling through upper floors. At a time when no zoning laws limited
heights or lot coverage, the cartoonist's projection simply enlarged the
problems of the contemporary city such as building density and traffic
congestion.
King's
Views of New York. 1911-1912, Cover Plate. Delineator:
Richard Rummell; Published by Moses King, 1911.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-15
1910
GILLENDER
BUILDING DEMOLITION
Demolition of the Gillender
Building commenced on April 29, 1910 and was completed in six weeks. The
careful deconstruction provided evidence of the structural durability of the
steel frame, which proved free of oxidation. On the site and adjacent lot, the
40-story Bankers Trust tower began construction.
Post & McCord Steel Builders, N.Y., 1910,
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-16
1911
BANKERS
TRUST BUILDING
In search of a stylistic language for verticality, New York
City architects often relied on historical precedents. This Scientific American cover observes the
exaggerated scale of the Bankers Trust Building as compared to the Venetian
Campanile of San Marco.
Cover of Scientific
American, July 1, 1911. Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-18
1911
BANKERS
TRUST BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
Even as competing steel mills rolled larger and larger beams,
riveted sections remained the norm in skyscraper construction. The massive
riveted steel frame of the Bankers Trust Building represented state-of-the-art
construction in 1911.
Bankers Trust Co. Bldg,
Post & McCord Steel Builders, N.Y., 1911, Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-19
1911
WOOLWORTH
BUILDING WIND BRACING
At 55 stories and 792 feet, the Woolworth Building was an
exceptionally tall and slender structure that required substantial bracing to
withstand lateral wind pressures. The majority of the building, up to the 27th
floor, featured portal bracing, and the upper floors used corner bracing.
Plan of the Woolworth Building Wind-bracing
Diagram. Reproduced from American Architect, 103, March 26, 1913 Collection of The
Skyscraper Museum Gift of Andrew Alpern.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-21
1913
CHICAGO
SKYLINE VIEW
While in New York the Woolworth building stretched to 57
stories, in Chicago, height restrictions of produced a skyline of boxy office
blocks.
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-09
1913
WOOLWORTH
BUILDING
Dubbed the "Cathedral of Commerce," the neo-Gothic tower
designed by Cass Gilbert for five-and-dime store magnate Frank W. Woolworth soared
792 feet on a full block of Broadway at City Hall Park to become the world's
tallest building. At evening ceremonies on April 24, 1913, electric lights that
illuminated the ornate terra cotta facade and the offices
within were switched on from Washington, DC by President Woodrow Wilson.
Cover of Scientific
American, August 5, 1911. Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-20
1913
WOOLWORTH
BUILDING TERRA COTTA
Architectural terra cotta-clay baked into building blocks-is
an ancient material that became popular in New York in the mid- 19th
century when demand for both fireproof materials and mass-produced ornament
expanded. On its façade the Woolworth building used buff-colored glazed tile
molded into Gothic-style forms by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company.
The Master Builders: A Record of the Construction of the
World's Highest Commercial Structure,
Hugh
McAtamney & Co., New York :
The Company, 1913. Internet Archive: https://www.archive.org/details/masterbuildersre00hugh
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-22
1913
CITY HEIGHT
LIMITS
Before drafting the legislation for the 1916 New York zoning law,
a committee conducted research into building height limits in European and
American cities. A page from their 1913 report is pictured.
Report of the
Heights of Buildings Commission to the Committee on the Height, Size and
Arrangement of Buildings of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment of the city
of New York, New York, M.B. Brown
Printing and Binding Co., pg. 23, 1913.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-12
1914
NEW YORK CITY
SKYLINE
A view of lower Manhattan from the Hudson River in 1914 shows
New York as a city of towers, with the Woolworth building, worlds tallest, at
the left and the Singer and Bankers Trust towers poking above a mixture of
bulky, 30- to 40- story office blocks.
Postcard from the Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-14
1914
MANHATTAN
MUNICIPAL BUILDING
Built to accommodate the growing need for government offices
after the 1898 consolidation of Greater New York, the Manhattan Municipal
Building is a 40-story skyscraper that on completion in 1914 was one of the
city's tallest and largest buildings. It rose over complicated foundations near
the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and was the first tower to incorporate a
subway station in its base.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=4-23
1915
EQUITABLE BUILDING
Built to replace the
first Equitable Building which was destroyed by fire
in 1912, the new 40-story office block rose 542 feet at 120 Broadway, casting
its neighbors into perpetual shadow. The last major skyscraper constructed
before building regulations were instituted in 1916, with 1.2 million square
feet of rentable space, it was the world's largest office building.
Collection
of the Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-01
1916
NYC ZONING LAW
The New York City Zoning
Resolution of 1916 restricted the use, height, and bulk of buildings in
districts or "zones." Its provisions for segregation of uses–commercial,
residential, and unrestricted–compared with several American cities in
the first decade of the century. Its important innovation was the concept of
the "zoning envelope," a formula that restricted the maximum mass that could be
constructed on a given site.
Designed to ensure a
measure of light and air on city streets, the law required that after a fixed
height above the sidewalk (usually 100 or 150 feet), a commercial building must
be stepped back within an "angle of light" drawn from the center of the street.
A tower of unlimited height was permitted over 25% of the lot. The resulting
"setback" massing, with or without a tower, became the characteristic form for
the New York skyscraper from the 1920s through the 1950s.
New York City Building Zone Resolutions, 1929. New York Title and Mortgage
Company. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-02
1916
NYC ZONING LAW
This map of lower
Manhattan indicates the different zones for height (in numbers) and use
(letters) districts. The most liberal height restrictions were in the heart of
the financial district where buildings were allowed to rise straight up to 2
1/2 times the width of the street before stepping back.
New York City Building Zone Resolutions, 1929. New York Title and
Mortgage Company. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-03
1917
HALLIDIE BUILDING, SAN FRANCISCO
Credited as the first
pure glass curtain wall in America, the Hallidie
Building prefigured the late-20th century aesthetic of a glass membrane or
"skin." The design by architect Willis Polk engaged the cantilevering capacity
of a reinforced concrete frame and relied on thin mullions to hold the glass
exterior in place.
Hallidie Building, 130 Stutter
Street, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress.
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1397/
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-04
1922
WRIGLEY BUILDING
The tallest building in Chicago until 1924, the
chewing-gum company headquarters comprised two towers connected by walkways.
The ornate clock tower of white terra cotta reaches 425 ft.
Wrigley
Building Postcard. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-05
1922
FERRISS FOUR STAGES
Hugh Ferriss's drawings "The
Four Stages" illustrated the step-by-step shaping of the maximum mass allowed
by the New York zoning law into a profitable commercial structure. They made
clear that block-sized lots made possible imposing towers. The rendering of the
final stage imagined a structure with a central tower of 1,000 feet, around 70
stories, flanked by 40-story setback wings–far larger than any building
of 1922, but prefiguring the scale of the Empire State Building.
Hugh Ferriss,
"The New Architecture," The New
York Times Magazine, March 19, 1922, p. 9.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-14
1929
STOCK MARKET CRASH
The Wall Street crash of
October 1929 signaled the end of the Roaring Twenties, an era of rampant speculation
that fueled the construction of many skyscrapers. Despite the disruption of
financial markets, construction continued on major projects such as 40 Wall
Street, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building, and slowed in
general after 1930.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-06
1929
ECONOMIC HEIGHT
The economic height of a
skyscraper refers to the number of stories that will produce the highest rate
of return on the money invested. At some point in the construction of every
high-rise, the law of diminishing returns sets in, and rents for additional
stories do not cover costs. The 1930 study, The
Skyscraper: A Study in the Economic Height of Modern Office Buildings,
compared eight different building heights on a 200 x 405-foot lot and determined
that, for land valued at $200 a square foot, the economic height was 63
stories.
The Skyscraper: A Study
in the
Economic Height of Modern Office Buildings, William
Clifford: New York, Cleveland,1930. Collection
of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-13
1930
CHICAGO
SKYLINE
In contrast to New
York's characteristic setbacks, Chicago's skyline was shaped by the city's 1924
zoning law that effectively limited the heights of towers through a formula
based on the area of the building's base.
Postcard of the Chicago Skyline,
1930s. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-08
1930
40 WALL
STREET
At 927 feet, the 70-story 40 Wall Street was the
world's tallest building for only a month before the completion of the Chrysler
Building. The tower required a complex strategy of simultaneous wrecking and
foundation work that builders Starrett Bros. & Eken–who erected the Empire State
Building–called "the most complicated and the most difficult" of all
their projects; still, demolition and erection took just 12 months.
Construction photograph
of Bank of Manhattan, November 11, 1929.
Original, gift of Judith Stonehill,
New York Bound Archives.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-09
1930
CHRYSLER
BUILDING
In a much publicized race into
the sky with the 40 Wall Street tower, the Chrysler Building clinched the title
of world's tallest building. Designed by architect William Van Alen, the flamboyant art deco icon reaches a total height
of 1,050 feet with its 185-foot "vertex," the stainless steel needle spire. The
following year, it was overtopped by the 1,250-foot Empire State, which also
contained twice the area of floor space.
Collection of the Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-10
1930
CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE BUILDING
Built on the site of the 1884 Board of Trade, the
tallest building in the city, the 44-story Art Deco skyscraper designed by Holabird and Root and completed in 1930 held the same
title. Rising only 805 feet, Chicago's tallest building was two
thirds the height of the Empire State.
Postcard of Chicago Board of Trade
Building. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-21
1931
HEIGHT
COMPARISON, FORTUNE
Featured in the September 1930 issue of the business
magazine Fortune as part of a five-article series on skyscrapers, this drawing
compares the structural heights of the world's tallest buildings. The same
month, the Empire State Building topped out its main structural frame at 1,050
feet on the 86th floor, poised to overtake the 1,046-foot tall Chrysler
Building.
Tallest Building's Height Comparison, Fortune Magazine, September 1930. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-12
1931
EMPIRE
STATE MOORING MAST
The equivalent of 102 stories, the top 200 feet of the
Empire State Building was an ornamental spire called the mooring mast, where
passenger dirigibles might dock (though they never did). The extra structure
above the 85 floors of offices and observation deck ensured the skyscraper
would command the title of world's tallest building by topping out at 1250
feet.
Empire State Building's Mast,
1931. From the collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-16
1931
Empire
State Building CONSTRUCTION
Designed for efficiency of
construction, the Empire State Building was erected in just 11 months from the setting
of the first steel columns on April 7, 1930 to the fully enclosed structure on
March 31, 1931. At the peak of construction the tower rose at the rate of a
story a day.
Empire State Construction, 1931. From the collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-17
1932
LOWER
MANHATTAN SKYLINE
By the 1930s, the City's Zoning Resolution of 1916 had
transformed lower Manhattan into a landscape of pyramidal masses and pinnacle
towers.
Battery Place and Lower Manhattan
Skyline, c. 1932. Postcard from the collection of The
Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-07
1932
MIDTOWN
SKYLINE
Midtown Manhattan developed as a skyscraper business
district during the real estate boom of the 1920s. Lining the axis of 42nd St.
were more than a half dozen setback towers of forty to seventy stories.
Midtown New York Skyline, c. 1932. Postcard from the collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-11
1932
70 PINE
STREET
Built for the City Services petroleum company, 70 Pine
Street was the last spire added to the lower Manhattan skyline before World War
II. The 66-story structure featured the first double-decker elevator in order
to provide sufficient service to its slender tower.
70 Pine Street, c. 1932. Postcard
from the Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-15
1932
BANKERS
TRUST ANNEX
Twenty years after completing its Wall Street tower,
the Bankers Trust Company expanded and modernized with the Art Deco Annex
building, designed by architects Shreve, Lamb and Harmon. The photograph shows
the prefabricated curtain-wall cladding that, as with the Empire State
Building, sped the construction process.
Bankers Trust Annex Construction,
1932. From the collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-18
1932
ROCKEFELLER
CENTER
The most ambitious private construction endeavor of the
era, Rockefeller Center replaced three low-rise city blocks between Fifth and
Sixth Avenue with more than a dozen high-rise buildings. The complex created a
multi-level, mixed-use development for business, entertainment, and shopping
that has served as a paradigm for recent projects worldwide.
View of Rockefeller Center, 1932. Postcard from the collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-19
1932
RCA
BUILDING
Designed by a consortium of architects led by Raymond
Hood, the RCA Building took the form of a thin slab rather than the typical stepped
pyramid, while achieving a total volume of more than 2 million square
feet—comparable only to the Empire State Building.
RCA Building, 1932. Postcard from the
collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-20
1938
FLOURESCENT
LIGHTS
Leading a group of General Electric researchers,
George Inman and Richard Thayer produced an improved fluorescent lamp at an
affordable price in the late 1930s. Fluorescent bulbs provided high levels of
illumination in buildings without excessive heat, making it possible to rent
space much deeper than the sunlight standard of 28-30 feet. This allowed for as
much as 80 percent of rentable space on each floor, as compared to 65 percent
in older buildings with light courts.
General Electric. "George E. Inman and Richard N.
Thayer, 1936 demonstrating a fluorescent lamp." Lighting a Revolution.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/lighting/bios/gi_rt.htm
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=5-22
1947
– 52
UNITED
NATIONS SECRETARIAT
Designed by a multinational team of architects, but
credited principally to Le Corbusier, the UN Secretariat established the
primacy of the post-war International Style in the U.S. The simple slab form
and expansive glass façades marked a striking contrast to the brick and stone-clad
towers of the twenties.
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-01
1951
WELDING
& HIGH-STRENGTH BOLTING
High-Strength bolting replaced riveting, allowing faster
construction using less material and labor. Welding, first permitted by NYC
Building Code in 1951, increased material efficiency and created less rigid
connections, an advancement that enabled tube structures.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-07
Collection of the Skyscraper Museum
1952
LEVER
HOUSE
The seminal "glass box," Lever House
initiated a series of high-rises built on Park Avenue in the 1960s
and 1970s that would remake Park Avenue as a corridor of corporate
modernism. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of SOM,
the headquarters for the soap company Lever Brothers rose only 24 stories, but its all-glass curtain wall and
ceiling planes of fluorescent lighting made the tower a model of transparency.
Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-02
LATE
1950'S
COMPOSITE
STEEL DOCKS
Composite steel decks were introduced as a new type
of permanent framework, used to support wet concrete floors as they dry.
Various types of metal deck systems had existed since the 1890's, but it was
only in the 1950's that strong decks became integrated into the floor system by
engaging concrete.
Collection of the Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-06
1961
1 CHASE
MANHATTAN PLAZA
Completed in 1961, One Chase Manhattan Plaza was
the first major postwar development in lower Manhattan and a major reinvestment
in the declining fortunes of the historic financial district. A "tower in
the plaza" in advance of the 1961 zoning law, 1 CMP occupied just 30% of
its lot and created a new public square.
Chase Manhattan Bank Archive
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-03
1958
SEAGRAM BUILDING
Completed
in 1958, the Seagram Building, in its rich materials and refined minimalism,
influenced the aesthetics of skyscraper design through the 1960s and 1970s.
Architect Mies van der Rohe
established the prototype of the glass-and-steel skyscraper that expressed the
structural skeleton on the tower's façade and treated the windows as a glass
skin.
RFR.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-11
1961
NEW YORK
CITY ZONING LAW
The 1961 zoning resolution, a sweeping revision of
New York's 1916 law, established the principle of FAR, or Floor Area Ratio,
which keyed the maximum floor space permitted in a building to a multiple of
the area of the lot. It also created "incentive zoning," which traded
bonus stories in the sky for public amenities such as plazas, arcades, and
subway entrances. By increasing the allowable area for a sheer tower from
twenty-five to forty percent of the lot, the 1961 code encouraged the modernist
paradigm of the tower in the plaza. The urbanistic
effect was dramatically demonstrated in midtown's Sixth Avenue towers.
Collection of the Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-04
STRUCTURAL
SYSTEMS
This diagram of structural systems created by Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill, based on the original studies by Fazlur
Khan, describes the most efficient structural system for buildings at different
heights and scales.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-05
1963
IBM
BUILDING, PITTSBURGH
A prototype for later diagrid
skyscrapers, the innovative 13-story IBM Building designed by Leslie E.
Robertson employed a diagonal-grid load-bearing steel wall and a
concrete core. It was the first building to use steel of three different
strength levels in its structure: 100,000 psi, 50,000 psi, & 36,000 psi
quenched and tempered steels.
LERA.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-08
1963
DEWITT-CHESTNUT
APARTMENTS
The 43-story reinforced concrete Dewitt-Chestnut
Apartments was the first high-rise to employ a framed-tube system of closely
spaced perimeter columns and stiff spandrel beams at each floor. One of many
structural innovations by Fazlur Khan of SOM, the
tube system made supertall construction more
economical.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-09
1959-64
MARINA
CITY, CHICAGO
Designed
by the innovative modernist Bertrand Goldberg, the twin towers of Marina City
were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete
buildings in the world when completed in 1964. Rising 65 stories, 587 feet,
above defunct train tracks and at the edge of the Chicago River, the circular
"corncob" towers stacked apartments on the top 40 floors above a parking garage
and mixed-use complex that contained a marina, theater, gym, stores, and
restaurants.
Collection of The Skyscraper Musuem.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-10
1967
SKY LOBBY
Devised
for quicker and more-efficient elevator transport in the WTC, the sky lobby
system functioned like subway lines, with express elevators carrying passengers
to transfer floors where they could switch to local elevators. The system was
appealing for supertalls since local elevator shafts
could be stacked atop one another, minimizing unrentable
space.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-12
CTBUH
The
council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an organization that studies and
reports on high-rise design and construction, has since the 1980's referred the
definition and rankings of the heights of buildings worldwide according to
several criteria: integral architectural top; highest occupied floor; and the
top of added antennae.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-13
1970
JOHN HANCOCK CENTER, CHICAGO
Architect
Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan of
SOM further developed the perimeter tube system with diagonal bracing, boldly
expressed on the façade of the John Hancock Center. The 100-story tower, a
mixed-use program of office floors below and apartments above, rises on
Chicago's Miracle Mile.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-14
1976
JOHN HANCOCK BUILDING, BOSTON
The
modernist all-glass façade reached its early acme in the John Hancock Tower in
Boston, designed in 1968 and completed in 1976. The 62-story office tower was
clad in floor-to-ceiling [panes of blue-tinted mirror glass without spandrel
panels, making a gridded and reflective surface that architect Henry Cobb
explained, created "weightless verticality" and stripped the building of "all
elements that might suggest a third dimension."
Photo courtesy of Gorchev
& Gorchev
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-15
1960's
WTC WIND TUNNEL TESTING
The
Twin Towers were the first supertalls to be tested in
a boundary layer wind tunnel, which replicates natural wind and site conditions.
Air flow around tall buildings creates turbulence and
eddies that can cause vibration or sway. These effects can be accurately
predicted by laboratory testing, providing data to design the optimal strength
and performance of the structure.
Collection
of the Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-16
1971-1973
WORLD TRADE CENTER
Upon
completion in 1971 and 1973, the World Trade Center Twin Towers were the
tallest and largest skyscrapers in the world. Innovative engineering employed
hollow-tube construction carried the structures to 110 stories – 1368 and
1362 feet – creating floors nearly an acre in area and 4.6 million sq ft per building. No supertalls have exceeded that size.
Collection
of the Skyscraper Museum
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-17
1970's
WTC FlOOR PLAN
The expansive column-free office space that was an
ideal of the 1970s was made possible by the towers' hollow-tube construction in
which the perimeter walls of closely spaced steel columns and a central steel core
carry the structure.
pANYNJ
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-18
1964
KANGAROO CRANES
Also known as jumping cranes, kangaroo cranes
originated in Australia and were used for the first time in the U.S. on the WTC.
Sitting atop a long leg that runs down the elevator shaft, they have high
lifting capacities and hoist themselves straight up the rising structure,
speeding construction time.
PANYNJ
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-19
1974
SEARS TOWER
At
1,454 feet to its rooftop (1,730 feet to the tip of the antennae) , the 110-story Sears Tower was the world's tallest
building until 1996 when the title moved to Malaysia's Petronas
Towers, leaving Sears (now Willis Tower) as America's tallest skyscraper.
World's Tallest. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-20
1974
SEARS TOWER
Engineer
Fazlur Khan developed the "bundled tube" structural
system for Sears Tower in which a block of nine tubes, each 75 feet on a side,
worked together to stiffen the structure and afford large areas of column-free
space. In elevation, above the 50th floor the extruded squares push up in pairs
or separately to create
the tower's stepped form.
World's Tower. Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-21
1975
CITIGROUP CENTER
Standing
on five points above train tracks, the complex engineering of the Citigroup
Center includes the world's first large-scale tuned mass dampers, which are large
concrete or steel weights that move on pendulums or fluids to counteract sway
in high winds.
Citigroup
Center, David Capes(Flickr), 2010:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/david_capes/4977558263/in/photostream/]
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-22
1973
JARDINE HOUSE
The first significant skyscraper
in Hong Kong, Jardine House, at 179 meters/ 586 feet,
was the tallest building in the colony and launched the high-rise development
of Central, the city's dense business and commercial district.
P&T
Group via CTBUH
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=6-23
1976
CN TOWER,
TORONTO
The 1,815-foot CN Tower functions as an
antenna, broadcasting TV and radio signals above surrounding skyscrapers. The tower includes a restaurant, gift
shop, and two observation decks. It was the tallest free-standing
structure in the world from 1976-2010.
"CN Tower Toronto Cities Cityscapes 1920x1080."
Top1Walls.
https://top1walls.com/wallpaper/1771973-Tower-Toronto-cities-cityscapes
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-01
TV TOWERS
Some of the tallest manmade structures in the world
are TV and radio broadcasting towers that double as tourist attractions and observation
platforms, in the tradition of the Eiffel Tower. Of the five current
tallest, Ostankino Tower in Moscow at 540 m/
1772 ft is the oldest, constructed from 1963-1967.
The most recent is Tokyo Sky Tree which topped
out at 634 m/ 2080 ft in March 2011.
List of Tallest Towers in the
World. Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_towers_in_the_world
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-02
1994
ORIENTAL
PEARL TV TOWER
Tallest building in Shanghai and Asia, until surpassed by the
Shanghai World Finance Center, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower was the first major
structure in Lujiazui, the master-planned economic
development district across the river from Puxi, the
city's historic core. Completed in 1994, at 468 m/ 1,535 ft,
it is now the fifth tallest TV tower in the world.
Collection of The Skyscraper
Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-03
HONG KONG
MID-LEVELS
Beginning in the 1970s, Hong Kong's high land
values and liberal zoning laws spawned dense districts of extraordinarily slender
towers. On the mountainside above Central, the Mid-levels
are a luxury residential area, perhaps the world's most densely developed
square kilometer, where even tiny sites could be built on at a ratio of up to
18 times the area of the lot
The Summit, 2003, courtesy of
Colin Hamilton.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-04
1997
THE
SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM
The Skyscraper Museum mounts its first exhibition,
"Downtown New York," in a vacant space at 44 Wall Street.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-07
1998
PETRONAS
TOWERS, KUALA LUMPUR
When the twin Petronas
Towers were completed in 1998, the title of world's tallest building passed for
the first time outside the U.S. Named for the national petroleum company of
Malaysia, the principal client, the project was designed by American architect
Cesar Pelli.
Pelli Clarke Pelli
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-05
1998
PETRONAS
TOWERS, KUALA LUMPUR
The 88-story Petronas
Towers were designed in a style that made reference to Islamic architecture in
its play with geometric forms and to Chinese traditions in its symbolic use of
"lucky eights." The complex site necessitated the world's deepest foundations
– friction piles that vary in length up to 394 feet to reach the bedrock
that slopes sharply underground.
Pelli Clarke Pelli
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-06
1990's
– 2010
CONCRETE
PUMPS
Introduced in the mid-1960's,
concrete pumps eliminate old-style chutes and hoppers and today are ubiquitous
on construction sites. Their booms reach over, around, and below to place
concrete in the desired locations. Pumps are also used to deliver concrete to
great heights using a crane and hopper. Above, pumps create the foundation of
the Shanghai Tower.
Leah Ray. "Shanghai Tower Construction Update." Gensler On Cities. July
2010.
https://www.gensleron.com/cities/2010/7/15/shanghai-tower-construction-update.html
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-09
1999
JIN MAO
TOWER
The tallest building in China and a symbol of Shanghai's
ascendancy as the "head of the dragon" when it was completed in 1999, Jin Mao
was a harbinger of the Asian supertall tower. While
its pagoda-like form referred to Chinese tradition, its structural engineering
and mixed-use program were new. Offices fill the lower 52 stories, while from
53 to 87, hotel rooms occupy the perimeter of the tower and a large open atrium
creates a vertiginous central space.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-10
1999
JIN MAO TOWER
Built around an octagonal concrete core surrounded by eight
main super-frame columns and eight exterior columns, Jin Mao's pagoda-like form
rises in mathematical increments of eight. Its 88 stories reflect the symbolic
"lucky eights" that signify prosperity.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-11
1999 JIN MAO
TOWER
In the building's upper zone, occupied by the Shanghai Grand
Hyatt Hotel, a spectacular circular atrium space extends more than thirty
stories to the 87th floor. Shanghai high-rises use substantial beam-supported
floor slabs that compensate for possible errors made by a less skilled
workforce.
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-12
2001
SEPTEMBER 11TH
The World Trade Center Twin Towers were destroyed in a
terrorist attack that claimed nearly 3000 lives. They are the tallest buildings
ever to have been demolished.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-13
2003
HIGHCLIFF,
HONG KONG
With an extraordinary slenderness ratio of 1:20, the luxury
apartment tower Highcliff rises 828 feet, seventy
stories, and is the world's thinnest residential building. Hong Kong's high
land values and liberal zoning laws encourage the development of pencil-thin
towers and great vertical density.
Highcliff, 2003, courtesy of Colin
Hamilton.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-08
2004
TAIPEI 101
Tallest building in the word on its completion in
2004, Taipei 101 stretches 509 meters to the tips of its antenna spire.
Designed to resist typhoon winds, the tower was a hybrid structure of steel and
concrete that used outrigger trusses to tie its steel-braced core to
eight perimeter mega-columns.
Thornton Thomasetti
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-14
2004
TUNED MASS
DAMPER
To counteract sway, Taipei 101's engineers Thornton Tomasetti designed a 660-ton tuned mass damper that moves
in opposition to the building. The pendulum, a sphere 18 feet in diameter and
composed of 41 circular steel plates, is suspended from the 92nd to
the 88th floor and doubles as a tourist attraction.
Thornton Thomasetti
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-15
2007
ORIGINAL
SUPERTALL SURVEY
In 2007, The Skyscraper Museum made its first Supertall Survey of buildings taller than 380 meters and
found 35 that were completed, under construction, or had gained planning
approval. The projects were arrayed on two globes, which showed a smaller
number for the North and South American continents. The largest number of new supertall projects were
projected in the Middle East, Asia, and Russia.
Collection of The Skyscraper Museum.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-21
2008
FRICTION PILES
Shanghai's mud cannot support large loads, so engineers design
long concrete and steel shafts called friction piles to transfer loads through
friction along the surface of the shaft. Shanghai World Financial Center is
supported on more than two thousand 275 – foot piles. A thick
reinforced-concrete mat transfers the column loads to the piles.
Mori Building Company, LTD. "Shanghai Financial Center: A New
'Vertical Complex City' is Born in Shanghai."
https://www.mori.co.jp/en/projects/swfc/technologies.html
KPF
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-17
2008 SHANGHAI
WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER
The first design for the tower dates to 1993, when the Japanese
Mori Building Co. and architects KPF won the government competition for the
site in Lujiazui. Foundations were laid in 1997, but
construction was halted due to the Asian financial crisis. When plans resumed
in 2001, changes included an increased height of 32 meters and a new opening
shape at the top. Completed in 2008, the mixed-use tower soars 101 stories and
is the third tallest building in the world at 492 m/ 1614 feet.
KPF
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-16
2004-2010
BURJ KHALIFA
CONSTRUCTION
The Burj Khalifa is constructed of concrete, as are most
21st-century supertalls. William F. Baker, the
building's structural engineer, wrote of the contrast between 20th- and 21-
century towers: "If skyscraper construction had stopped in 1975, one would say
that the tallest skyscrapers are made of steel; in the United States; and are
office buildings. Today, one would say they are composite, or all concrete; in
Asia or the Middle East; and likely to be residential."
EMAAR or SOM, Burj Khalifa show.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-18
2010
CANTON TOWER,
GUANGZHOU
At 600 meters/ 1,958 feet, the Canton Tower is currently the
tallest building in China. The innovative engineering by ARUP employs an open
lattice based on three simple elements: columns, rings, and braces. The TV
tower and tourist destination contains within open structure a vertical
amusement park with rides, shops, cinemas, restaurants, outdoor gardens, and
conference rooms.
Arup Kenny IP
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-19
2010
BURJ
KHALIFA
At 838 meters/ 2,717
feet, the 160-story Burj Khalifa is
nearly 1,000 feet taller than Taipei 101. Inaugurated in January 2010, the
160-story tower is the centerpiece of the 500-acre Downtown Burj
Dubai commercial and residential complex. Principally residential, the tower
includes a boutique hotel on its lower floors and apartments above, a
restaurant and tourist observation deck, and corporate suites on the top
37 stories
SOM
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-22
MANDATORY
REFUGE FLOORS
Hong Kong revised its building code in 1996 after a deadly fire
in the 16-story Garley Building. The new code
required all tall buildings to include refuge floors to protect building
inhabitants. These measures have been adopted across Asia.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-20
2011
TOKYO SKY TREE
The Toyko Sky Tree topped out at 634
meters /2,080 feet on March 18, 2011, making it the tallest TV tower, and
current second tallest structure in the world.
Courtesy of Nikken Sekkei.
https://old.skyscraper.org/hoh/?skip2=7-23
Many thanks to The Skyscraper Museum's hardworking staff and interns for conducting the invaluable research that made this project possible.
.jpg){kind=link}