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Bologna, Italy
12th century
The towers of Bologna were the worlds tallest structures in the 12th century. The Asinelli Tower is approximately 100m tall and is 9m wide
at the base. An aspect ratio of 11:1 ! To achieve such height in a masonry structure the walls at the base are almost 3m thick.
Washington Monument
Washington DC
1848-1884
The Washington Monument was designed by architect Robert Mills. On its completion in 1884, it became the worlds tallest structure (169m)
surpassing the towers of Cologne Cathedral, Germany (157m) completed only in 1880. The tower is slightly tapered and is 16.8m wide at the
base and 10.5m wide at top of the shaft(aspect ratio 10).
The Washington Monument design by architect Robert Mills, a classicist, presented a circular colonnaded base. Entrance is a consideration.
Construction on the monument was halted in 1854 due to lack of funds. The estimated cost of the tower was $1 million ($561,000,000 in 2012).
Statue of Liberty
93 m
Paris/NYC 1880-84
Eiffel Tower
Paris, 1889
324m
December 1887
May 1888
December 1888
The super structure of the Eiffel tower was constructed rapidly in about one year.
The foundations of the tower consist of thick concrete slabs with stone pedestal bases on top.
Timeline of the tallest structures in the world with the tallest non-building structures (blue) and the new ecological skyscapers (green).
Chicago, IL USA
1891
16 story solid masonry load-bearing walls. Note the shear walls in the transverse direction for additional resistance to wind loads.
The invention of the modern hi-rise building was made possible by three important
technological advances:
Glass curtain wall construction. The development of large, sheets of mass produced
glass allowed for the development of a transparency of envelope that provided large
amounts of daylight. In a hi-rise building the reliance on maximum light from the window
wall is essential as only the top floor can obtain natural light from the roof. Glass as a
building skin was introduced in Paxtons famous Crystal Palace for the international
exposition of 1851.
Steel frames. Enabled buildings to to be very tall and resist the extreme loads
resulting from gravity and wind. At the same time, the steel frame provided an open,
flexible interior space planning that was required for modern office accommodation.
Lift or elevator. Otiss invention of the lift provided the means for people to circulate
easier in tall buildings. In the NY Worlds Fair of 1853, Otis personally demonstrated
the safety of the lift. By 1857 the first passenger lift was installed in a building in New
York City.
The historical event of the fire of Chicago in 1871 that destroyed most of the central
built fabric of the city provided an impetus for rapid reconstruction of the city. The speed
of rapid assembly using a pre-fabricated framing system was ideal for building multistory office buildings on high priced real estate quickly.
Chicago, IL
1885
Often considered to be the first modern skyscraper because of its early use of a steel frame. Above the sixth floor the framing employed the first rolled steel
sections. All connections are bolted. The Home Insurance Bldg. also incorporated a passenger lift although not the first to do so (the Equitable Building in NYC
1870 by Gilman and Kendall was first). Above left: diagram of the Fair Store Building, Chicago, 1891 by Wm. LB. Jenney illustrating floor construction and
prefabricated terracotta fireproofing.
There must be sufficient material and no more, for it is essential, not only for economy but also to reduce the weights on the foundations that
the construction should be as light as possible, consistent with stability. William Le Baron Jenney
Three Chicago buildings: the first two on the left are by Holabird and Roche (1899). The faade of the Gage Building on the
far right is by Louis Sullivan. The glazing in the first two employs the Chicago style 3 part window frame. Sullivans faade
exhibits the naturalistic decorative elements (e.g. medallions at the top of the columns) that he later became known for.
Auditorium Building
1889
The expression of Romanesque style is attributed to the architect H. H. Richardson. In the Auditorium Building an expression of unity is
achieved through the rustication of the masonry and the scale and grouping of the window openings.. In the Bayard Building, Sullivan creates an
abstracted unity through the expression of the structural bay combined with a variation in ornamentation based on naturalistic themes .
Reliance Building
Chicago, IL
1894
The Reliance Building expresses the transparency of the modern glass curtain wall although the glass frames here are still infill units between
the spandrel beams. The reading of the columns is suppressed lending a strong horizontality to the fenestration. Window bay units are
cantilevered out from the structural frame.
Chicago, IL
1925
Bruno Taut
Elliel Saarinen
On Elliel Saarinens design, the Italian critic Manfredo Tafuri wrote, His interpretation of the skyscraper is, in fact, exactly the
opposite of the whole American experience in the matter of the skyscraper: not a structure materializing the concept of laissez-faire,
and thus not an image of the competition among the great commercial concentrations but an element capable of exercising formal
control over the urban complex as a whole.
Skyscraper Le Corbusier
Cap de la Marine
1938
Plan Voisin
Cap de la Marine
1938
Use of regulating line and Golden Section proportion in the composition of the faade.
Cap de la Marine
1938
Possible skyscraper massing under the NYC 1920 zoning laws. Drawings made by Hugh Ferris with Harvey Wiley Corbett in 1922.
Barclay-Vesey Building
NYC
Woolworth Building
Cass Gilbert
NYC
1913
The Woolworth Building at 235m was the tallest building in the world (the Eiffel Tower at 300m is not considered a building as it
lacks floor loads and enclosure). The 29-story base is U-shaped. The slender tower of the Woolworth Building grows gracefully
out of the base with a compositional flatness and layering that presages phenomenal transparency.
NYC 1931
At 383m the Empire State Building remained the tallest building in the world for 40 years. The time of realization from preliminary
drawings to completion was only 18 months. The structure of the tower is a braced steel frame with semi-rigid connections. It remains
one of the stiffest towers for its height, largely due to the heavy cladding that is designed to stiffen the frame.
40 Wall St.
NYC 1929
Leonidov
Moscow 1934
Russian constructivism
Rockefeller Center
NYC
1933-40
The complex of buildings in the heart of Manhatten is possibly the most successful urban design complex of the 20th century. The main tower is 259m. Twenty-one buildings
cover 3 city blocks with features that include an underground commercial network, rooftop gardens and a sunken skating rink plaza in the center of the scheme.
Philadelphia, PA
1932
A milestone in the history of American Modernism. Structure is a steel skeleton 150m tall with a transfer truss at the third level. This truss enables the banking floor on the 1st
level to have a wide column spacing of 19m. Above the columns are on an 8.5m grid. The bank building also introduced the concept of central a/c with the distribution located at
the mid-section of the tower so that the air supply and return ducts would be a short as possible.
Chicago
1949
On the right is a view of one of the Lake Shore Drive Apartment towers. Note the narrow window bays on adjacent to the columns as a result of
the position of the column. This defect was corrected by Mies in a later project by recessing the column and letting the curtain wall pass in front.
Mies van der Rohe. Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951), Seagram Building (1958), Dominion Center (1969) and IBM Building (1970).
Lever House
NYC
1952
Seagrams Building
1954-58
1958
Lake Shore Drive Apts. Mies van der Rohe Chicago 1951
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