Skyscraper

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A skyscraper is a very tall, continuously habitable building, at least 500 feet in height. The word skyscraper was first applied to such buildings in the late 19th century, reflecting public amazement at the tall buildings being built in New York City. 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, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicago's Monadnock Building. Philadelphia's City Hall, completed in 1901, still holds claim as the world's tallest load-bearing masonry structure. The steel frame developed in stages of increasing self-sufficiency, with several buildings in New York and Chicago 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. In the United States today, it is a loose convention to draw the lower limit on what is a skyscraper at 150 metres. Elsewhere, though, a shorter building will sometimes be referred to as a skyscraper, especially if it is said to "dominate" its surroundings. Thus, calling a building a skyscraper will usually, but not always, imply pride and achievement.

Originally, skyscraper was a nautical term for a tall mast or sail on a sailing ship. A skyscraper taller than 300 metres (1,000 feet) may sometimes be referred to as a supertall.

The somewhat arbitrary term skyscraper should not be confused with the slightly less arbitrary term highrise, defined by the Emporis Data Committee as "a building which is 35 metres [115 feet] or greater in height, and is divided at regular intervals into occupiable floors" [link]. All skyscrapers are highrises, but only the tallest highrises are skyscrapers. Habitability separates skyscrapers from towers and masts. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a more significant load factor than weight is. Note that this criterion fits not only highrises but some other tall structures, such as towers.

History

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. So many flights of stairs were impractical for inhabitants, and water pressure was usually insufficient to supply running water above about 15 metres (50 feet). However, despite this lack of sanitation, high rise housing dates back to the 1600s in some places. In Edinburgh, Scotland for instance, the defensive city wall defined the boundaries of the city. With limited land area for development the houses increased in height. Buildings of 11 stories were common, and there are records of buildings as high as 14 stories. Many of the stone-built structures can still be seen today in the old town of Edinburgh particularly in the 'Wynds' and 'Closes' just off the Royal Mile.

The oldest iron framed building in the world is The Flaxmill (also locally known as the "Maltings") in Shrewsbury, UK. Built in 1797, it is seen as the "grandfather of skyscrapers” due to its fireproof combination of cast iron columns and cast iron beams developed into the modern steel frame which made modern skyscrapers possible. It unfortunately lies derilict and needs much investment to keep it standing. . On 31 March 2005, it was announced that English Heritage would buy the Flaxmill, so that it could be redeveloped.

The weight-bearing components of skyscrapers differ substantially from those of other buildings. Buildings up to about four stories can be supported by their walls, while skyscrapers are larger buildings that must be supported by a skeletal frame. The walls hang from this frame like curtains—hence the architectural term curtain wall for tall systems of glass that are laterally supported by these skeletal frames. Special consideration must also be made for wind loads.

While the first modern skyscraper is usually considered the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885; its height is not considered unusual or very impressive today, so that, if the building were newly constructed today, it would not be called a skyscraper. Another candidate for the title is the 1890 twenty-story New York World Building, in New York City.

Surprisingly for some, the United Kingdom also had its share of early skyscrapers. The first building to fit the engineering definition meanwhile was the then largest hotel in the world, the Grand Midland Hotel, now known as St Pancras Chambers in London completed in 1873 and 82 metres (269 feet) tall. The 12 floor Shell Mex House in London, with 58 metres (190 feet), was completed a year after the Home Insurance Building and managed to beat it in both height and floor count. By more modern standards, the first true skyscraper may be New York City's Woolworth Building.

Most early skyscrapers emerged in the land-strapped areas of New York, London, and Chicago toward the end of the 19th century. London builders soon found their height limited due to complaint from Queen Victoria, rules that continued to exist with few exceptions until the 1950s; concerns about aesthetics and fire safety had likewise hampered the development of skyscrapers across continental Europe for the first half of the twentieth century. Developers in Chicago also found themselves hampered by laws limiting height to about 40 storeys, leaving New York to be the world leader in developing supertall buildings. From the 1930s onwards, skyscrapers also began to appear in South America (São Paulo, Buenos Aires) and in Asia (Shanghai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur).

Immediately after World War II, 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, supertall skyscrapers also began to appear in Africa, the Middle East and Oceania (mainly Australia) from the late 1950s and the early 1960s.

Today, no city has more buildings over 500 ft. than New York City, home of the Chrysler Building, and Empire State Building with 189. Hong Kong comes in second with 186 although there are currently many more under construction. Chicago's skyline was not allowed to grow until the height limits were relaxed in 1960; over in the next fifteen years, many towers were built, including the massive 442-meter (1,451-foot) Sears Tower. Together, Chicago, Hong Kong, and New York are considered by some to be the "great three" skylines of the world.

Today, skyscrapers are an increasingly common sight where land is scarce, as in the centres of big cities, because of the high ratio of rentable floor space per area of land. Skyscrapers are also considered the ultimate symbols of a city's economic power, a view first held by New Yorkers, and now by developers in many newly developed Asian economies.

History of tallest skyscrapers

For current rankings of skyscrapers by height, see List of skyscrapers.

This list measures height of the roof. The more common gauge is the highest architectural detail; such ranking would have included Petronas Towers, built in 1998. See list of skyscrapers for details.

Built	Building	City	Country	Roof		Floors	Pinnacle		Current status
1873	Equitable Life Building	New York	U.S.	142 ft	43 m	6			Demolished
1876	St Pancras Chambers	London	UK	269 ft	82 m	9			Standing
1889	Auditorium Building	Chicago	U.S.	269 ft	82 m	17	349 ft	106 m	Standing
1890	New York World Building	New York City	U.S.	309 ft	94 m	20	349 ft	106 m	Demolished
1894	Manhattan Life Insurance Building	New York City	U.S.	348 ft	106 m	18			Demolished
1895	Milwaukee City Hall	Milwaukee	U.S.	350 ft	107 m	9			Standing
1899	Park Row Building	New York City	U.S.	391 ft	119 m	30			Standing
1908	Singer Building	New York City	U.S.	612 ft	187 m	47			Demolished
1909	Met Life Tower	New York City	U.S.	700 ft	213 m	50			Standing
1913	Woolworth Building	New York City	U.S.	792 ft	241 m	57			Standing
1927	Terminal Tower	Cleveland	U.S.	708 ft	216 m	52			Standing
1930	40 Wall Street	New York City	U.S.			71	927 ft	283 m	Standing
1930	Chrysler Building	New York City	U.S.	925 ft	282 m	77	1046 ft	319 m	Standing
1931	Empire State Building	New York City	U.S.	1250 ft	381 m	102	1472 ft	449 m	Standing
1972	World Trade Center (North tower)	New York City	U.S.	1368 ft	417 m	110	1732 ft	528 m	Destroyed
1974	Sears Tower	Chicago	U.S.	1451 ft	442 m	108	1729 ft	527 m	Standing
1998	Petronas Towers	Kuala Lumpur	Malaysia			88	1483 ft	452 m	Standing
2004	Taipei 101	Taipei City	Republic of China(Taiwan)	1474 ft	448 m	101	1671 ft	509 m	Standing

Source: [emporis.com]

At the moment construction of the Burj Dubai is taking place in Dubai. Its exact future height is kept secret, but it is expected to become at least 700 m high, making it the tallest building in the world. The Burj Dubai is to be completed in 2008.

With the rise of Burj Dubai comes a new class of building being called the superscrapers by the architectural community. While there is no official definition any building over the height of Burj Dubai (whose height is unknown) will be considered a superscraper.

Quotes

:''"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous."

::—Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

:"What is the chief characteristics of the tall office building? It is lofty. It must be tall. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."

::—Louis Sullivan's The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered (1896)

See also

Paris, La Defense

New York City and the Empire State Building as seen from the Rockefeller Center observation deck

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• List of tallest buildings and structures by country
• Architecture, Construction
• World's tallest structures - List of the world's tallest structures - World's biggest and largest buildings
• List of buildings - List of skyscrapers - List of towers - List of masts - List of tallest churches
• Tallest structures in the United States - Tallest buildings in the U.S. - Tallest buildings by states
• Skyscrapers in film
• Supertall

External links

Main skyscrapers portals

• [SkyscraperPage - Technical information and diagrams]
• [SkyscraperCity - Largest forum for urbanity. City portals with some technical information]
• [Emporis Buildings]

Other sites

• () [Urbanity.es]
• [City, Urban and Skyscraper Forum]
• [All About Skyscrapers]
• [Skyscrapers.org]
• [City Skylines]
• [SkyscraperNews (UK only)]
• [SkyscraperModels.us]
• [Construction photos of Burj Dubai (Worlds tallest by 2008)]
• [Skyscrapers] at the Open Directory Project
• [World's Tallest Skyscrapers] Placemarks of skyscrapers for Google Earth
• [Skyscraper] 1880s "skyscraper" citations from word researcher Barry Popik.

 

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