Unit III from Pyramids to skyscrapers

 

Warming up

 

Work with a partner. Which of these people have you heard of? Why are they famous?

Read their quotations. Which do you agree with?

 

1. “What is the chief characteristic 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 (1856-1924)

2. “The architect must be a prophet... a prophet in the true sense of the term... if he can't see at least ten years ahead don't call him an architect.” Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959)

3. “To become an Architect in the right sense of the word means that a man shall give his life to it and nothing else, and shall study the work he has to do with enthusiastic interest in every detail pertaining to it, and content himself with nothing less than complete success.” Cass Gilbert (1859-1934)

Do you know any modern architects and constructors? What can you tell about them? Discuss with your partner, then the group.

Reading task A

Work in groups and answer the questions.

SKYSCRAPER QUIZ 1. What was the tallest building built in the 26th century BC?   a. the Lincoln Cathedral b. the Great Pyramid of Giza c. the Washington Monument d. the Great Pyramid of Khufu   2. Which 16th-century city entirely consisted of high-rise houses?   a. Fustat b. Chicago c. Edinburgh d. Shibam   3. Which building is considered to be the first skyscraper in the world?   a. the Grand Midland Hotel b. Home Insurance Building c. Wainwright Building d. the Empire State Building   4. Which cities known as the "the big three" are recognized as having the most compelling skylines in the world?   a. Chicago, Hong Kong, New York b. London, Manhattan, New York c. Chicago, New York, Dubai d. New York, Dallas, Dubai

Read the text and check your answers

 

The History of Skyscrapers

 

The word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. The skyscraper, in name and social function, is a modern expression of the age-old symbol of the world center or axis mundi: a pillar that connects earth to heaven and the four compass directions to one another.

Modern skyscrapers are built with materials such as steel, glass, reinforced concrete and granite, and routinely utilize mechanical equipment such as water pumps and elevators. Until the 19th century, buildings of over six stories were rare, as having great numbers of stairs to climb was impractical for inhabitants, and water pressure was usually insufficient to supply running water above 50 m (164 ft).

The tallest building in ancient times was the Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt, which was 146 metres (480 ft) tall and was built in the 26th century BC. Its height was not surpassed for thousands of years, possibly until the 14th century AD with the construction of the Lincoln Cathedral (though its height is disputed), which in turn was not surpassed in height until the Washington Monument in 1884. However, being uninhabited, none of these buildings actually complies with the definition of a skyscraper.

High-rise apartment buildings already flourished in antiquity: ancient Roman insulae in Rome and other imperial cities reached up to 10 and more stories, some with more than 200 stairs.

The skylines of many important medieval cities had large numbers of high-rise urban towers. Wealthy families built these towers for defensive purposes and as status symbols. The residential Towers of Bologna in the 12th century, for example, numbered between 80 to 100 at a time, the largest of which (known as the "Two Towers") rise to 97.2 metres (319 ft). In Florence, a law of 1251 decreed that all urban buildings should be reduced to a height of less than 26 m, the regulation immediately put into effect.

The medieval Egyptian city of Fustat housed many high-rise residential buildings. An early example of a city consisting entirely of high-rise housing is the 16th-century city of Shibam in Yemen. Shibam was made up of over 500 tower houses, each one rising 5 to 11 storeys high, with each floor being an apartment occupied by a single family. The city was built in this way in order to protect it from Bedouin attacks.

An early modern example of high-rise housing was in 17th-century Edinburgh, Scotland, where a defensive city wall defined the boundaries of the city. Due to the restricted land area available for development, the houses increased in height instead. 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. The oldest iron framed building in the world is the Flaxmill (also locally known as the "Maltings"), in Shrewsbury, England. 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 that made modern skyscrapers possible.

Early skyscrapers

The first skyscraper was the ten-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885. In this building the architect Major William Le Baron Jenney created the first load-bearing structural frame – a steel frame which supported the entire weight of the walls, instead of load-bearing walls carrying the weight of the building, which was the usual method. This development led to the "Chicago skeleton" form of construction.

Sullivan's Wainwright Building in St. Louis, 1891, was the first steel-framed building with soaring vertical bands to emphasize the height of the building, and is, therefore, considered by some to be the first true skyscraper.

The United Kingdom also had its share of early skyscrapers. The first building to fit the engineering definition, meanwhile, was the largest hotel in the world, the Grand Midland Hotel, now known as St. Pancras Chambers in London, which opened in 1873 with a clock tower 82 metres (269 ft) in height. The 12-floor Shell Mex House in London, at 58 metres (190 ft), was completed a year after the Home Insurance Building and managed to beat it in both height and floor count. 1877 saw the opening of the Gothic revival style Manchester Town Hall by Alfred Waterhouse. Its 87-metre-high clock and bell tower dominated that city's skyline for almost a century.

Most early skyscrapers emerged in the land-strapped areas of Chicago, London, and New York toward the end of the 19th century. A land boom in Melbourne, Australia between 1888-1891 spurred the creation of a significant number of early skyscrapers, though none of these were steel reinforced and few remain today. Height limits and fire restrictions were later introduced. London builders soon found building heights limited due to a 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 (with the notable exceptions of the 26-storey Boerentoren in Antwerp, Belgium, built in 1932, and the 31-storey Torre Piacentini in Genoa, Italy, built in 1940). After an early competition between New York City and Chicago for the world's tallest building, New York took a firm lead by 1895 with the completion of the American Surety Building. Developers in Chicago also found themselves hampered by laws limiting height to about 40 stories, leaving New York with the title of tallest building for many years. New York City developers then competed among themselves, with successively taller buildings claiming the title of "world's tallest" in the 1920s and early 1930s, culminating with the completion of the Chrysler Building in 1930 and the Empire State Building in 1931, the world's tallest building for forty years.

Modern skyscrapers

From the 1930s onwards, skyscrapers also began to appear in Latin America and in Asia. 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, skyscrapers also began to appear in Africa, the Middle East and Oceania (mainly Australia) from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

To this day, no city in the world has more completed individual free-standing buildings over 492 ft (150 m) than New York City.

The number of skyscrapers in Hong Kong will continue to increase, due to a prolonged highrise building boom and high demand for office and housing space in the area.

Chicago is currently undergoing an epic construction boom that will greatly add to the city's skyline. Since 2000, at least 40 buildings at a minimum of 50 stories high have been built. The Chicago Spire, Trump International Hotel and Tower, Waterview Tower, Mandarin Oriental Tower, 29-39 South LaSalle, Park Michigan, and Aqua are some of the more notable projects.

Chicago, Hong Kong, and New York City, otherwise known as the "the big three," are recognized in most architectural circles as having the most compelling skylines in the world. Other large cities that are currently experiencing major building booms involving skyscrapers include Shanghai in China, Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Miami, which now is third in the United States.

Today, skyscrapers are an increasingly common sight where land is scarce, as in the centres of big cities, because they provide such a high ratio of rentable floor space per unit area of land. But they are built not just for economy of space. Like temples and palaces of the past, skyscrapers are considered symbols of a city's economic power. Not only do they define the skyline, they help to define the city's identity.

 

3. Match the building with the year of its creation:

 

The Chrysler Building Home Insurance Building The Flaxmill Manchester Town Hall Wainwright Building The Boerentoren The Empire State Building The Shell Mex House The Torre Piacentini The American Surety Building

1884–1885

4. Make questions for these answers:

 

a) Steel, glass, reinforced concrete and granite.

b) The Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt.

c) Due to the restricted land area available for development.

d) The architect Major William Le Baron Jenney.

e) The American Surety Building.

f) The Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.

g) In Latin America and in Asia.

h) From the late 1950s and early 1960s.

i) Chicago, Hong Kong, and New York City.

j) Shanghai, Dubai, and Miami.

Follow-up