Evolution of Skyscrapers

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Content:1. Introduction2. History3. Chicago Vs New York4. International skyscrapers5. 21 century projects6. Cultural impacts7. Conclusion

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Introduction

Trough out history nations tried to build taller and taller buildings in order to show the world their architectural, economical and cultural superiority becoming an axis mundi: creating a link in between the sky and the land.

Tall Buildings have enjoyed two decades of unprecedented development - built in greater number, height and geographical spread than at any time in history becoming an important topic at international conferences.

The word skyscraper was first applied to such buildings in the late 19th century, reflecting public amazement at the tall buildings being built in Chicago and New York.

The structural definition of the word skyscraper was refined later by architectural historians, based on engineering developments of the 1880s that had enabled construction of tall multi-story buildings. This definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry. The steel frame developed in stages of increasing self-sufficiency, with several buildings in Chicago and New York advancing the technology that allowed the steel frame to carry a building on its own. Today, however, many of the tallest skyscrapers are built more or less entirely with reinforced concrete.

The crucial developments for modern skyscrapers were steel, glass, reinforced concrete, water pumps, and elevators. Until the 19th century, buildings of over six stories were rare. The first modern skyscraper was the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1885. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union planned eight massive skyscrapers dubbed “Stalin Towers” for Moscow; seven of these were eventually built. The rest of Europe also slowly began to permit skyscrapers, starting with Madrid in Spain during the 1950s. Finally, skyscrapers also began to appear in Africa, the Middle East and Australia from the late 1950s and the early 1960s. Currently Gulf and Asian cities lead the way in numbers of skyscrapers.

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History

Although 10 storey high buildings (42 meters) had been constructed since ancient times (ex The Great Pyramid of Giza 146m), they are not considered skyscrapers because they are not habitable due to lack in technology. The upper floors did not have water because of the lack of pumps and it was very impractical for the inhabitants to use the stairs every day.

In 1852 Elisha Otis introduced the safety elevators, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke allowing convenient and safe passenger movement to upper floors. Another crucial development was the use of a steel frame instead of stone or bricks; otherwise the walls on the lower floors on a tall building would be too thick to be practical.

The invention of the steel and concrete skeleton had other implications as well; that of repetition. The façade was now without any carrying function, a ‘curtain wall’. The steel skeleton made building spaces repetitive, flexible and open.

Further developments led to the world's first skyscraper, the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885. While its height is not considered very impressive today, it was at that time.

Most early skyscrapers emerged in the land-strapped areas of Chicago, London, and New York toward the end of the 19th century.

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Chicago vs New York

While Chicago may have been the birthplace of the skyscraper, and had the initial lead in the race for the skies, New York City quickly caught up with its smaller rival, and took the honor of having the world's tallest building by 1895, with the completion of the 26-story, 306-foot American Surety Building - an honor the city would keep for the next seventy-nine years.

By the start of the 1930's, technological advances, increasing prosperity, and ambitious imagination put the skyscraper race into high gear, and became so heated, it even featured secret plans by competing architects, including the famous hidden spire used to spring the Chrysler Building ahead of its competition. The spire, constructed in secret inside the Chrysler Building, was one day lifted from the interior of the building, raising the building’s height overnight by 121 feet, suddenly laying claim to the title of world's tallest building, to the amazement of stunned rivals at the Manhattan Company Bank Building (now known as the Trump Building) and startled New Yorkers everywhere. By the time the construction boom ended in 1933, New York had built the world's five tallest buildings in the span of three years, each alone a wonder equal or superior to the Eiffel Tower. And, not one of those buildings would be surpassed until the year man first set foot on the moon: 1969, when the 100-story John Hancock Building was completed in Chicago.

But soon the center of the world would begin to dissipate. A few miles across town, on that gray, twenty-first day of October, workers were busily arranging glass, steel and concrete into orderly lines and planes that would eventually rise 1,368 feet by the end of the year. With the completion of the north tower of the World Trade Center in 1972, the crown title of New York officially moved from the center of the city to its edge, as if it was about to depart. And, soon it did.

On March 6th, 1973, at 2:35 P.M., the World Trade Center towers were surpassed when a steel column reached just beyond 1,368 feet above the sidewalks of Windy City. By 1974, the Willis Tower was 86 feet taller than the Twin Towers and earned the title of “Worlds Tallest Building” until the completion of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia.

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International Skyscrapers

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21 Century Projects

Because of the high costs of making a skyscraper they are used in the financial world as a way to growth and prosperity indicating the way the monetary power moves in the world. Today, the vast majority of skyscrapers are being built in Asia and in the Arabian Peninsula leaving the western world behind.

The architecture of these new, ambitious projects is realized in a way in which the beautiful, the practical and the ecological bind together to form a building that has a low carbon footprint and makes you feel at home providing all the conditions you need.

Below I made a presentation for five ambitious projects that will provide us a source of inspiration and amazement in the following years.

Freedom Tower:One World Trade Center, more simply known as 1 WTC and previously known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 104-story supertall skyscraper is being constructed in the northwest corner of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, occupying the location where the original 8-story 6 World Trade Center once stood.At the time of its completion in 2013, One World Trade Center will be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the third-tallest building in the world by pinnacle height, with its spire reaching a symbolic 1,776 feet (541.3 m) in reference to the year of American independence.

Shanghai Tower:The Shanghai Tower is a supertall skyscraper under construction in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China. Designed by Gensler, it will be the tallest of a group of three supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Upon its completion in 2014, the building will rise approximately 632 metres (2,073 ft) and will have 121 stories, with a total floor area of 380,000 m2 (4,090,000 sq ft).At the time of its completion, the Shanghai Tower will be the tallest building in China, and the second-tallest in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It will also become China's tallest structure of any kind, surpassing the 600-metre (2,000 ft) Canton Tower in Guangzhou.

Busan Lotte World Tower:The Busan Lotte World Tower is a 110-floor, 510.1 m (1,674 ft) supertall skyscraper project in Busan, South Korea. The tower is planned on a site next to Nampo-dong station on Busan Subway Line 1 and completion is expected in 2015 at earliest, when it will become the fifth tallest building in the world after Burj Khalifa, Shanghai Tower, Abraj Al Bait Towers, and One World Trade Center.The landmark tower is the centerpiece of the new Busan Lotte Town and construction is being carried in two phases. The first phase includes a department store, completed in 2009. The second phase, an addition to the department store, completed in 2010. The third phase will be a mart, and a cinema, which is to be completed in 2014.

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Pingan International Finance Center:The Pingan International Finance Center is a 115-storey supertall skyscraper that is under construction in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. The tower was commissioned by Ping An Insurance, and designed by the American architectural firm Kohn Pedersen Fox. It is expected to be completed in 2015, and will at that time be the second-tallest building in the world, as well as the tallest in China, standing a total of 660 m (2,165 ft) high.The Finance Center complex will also include a 307-m (1,007-ft), 66-story hotel building.

World One:World One is a residential skyscraper under construction in Mumbai. It will be located in Upper Worli of Mumbai on the plot of a 17.5 acre site, which belonged to Srinivas Cotton Mills. Lodha Group obtained the plot for US$49.88 million.The project will cost US$399 million, be completed by 2014, and will have the world’s second tallest residential tower once completed.

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