SKYSCRAPEROLOGY: Tall Buildings in History and Building Practice (1975-1984) (2025)

"The Death of the Skyscraper,” Journal of Urban History, vol. 38, issue 6 (November 2012), 1133 - 1137

In a new methodological approach to the writing of architectural history, the skyscraper is presented not as an isolated aesthetic or technological object whose meaning is dictated by its designer (as modernist architectural histories largely assumed), but as a component in a wider social, political, and urban landscape, one whose meaning differs to various audiences and changes over time. In many ways this can be seen as a semiotics of the skyscraper, with the buildings in question understood as texts open to continual reinterpretation.

The Skyscrapers Between 1870-1910

Tall Buildings, High Expectations, Towering Responsibilities: Critically Considering Skyscrapers, Urbanism and Sustainability

Skyscrapers loom large in our urban centers, defining skylines, consuming blocks and shaping social fabric (Alotaibi & Sinclair, 2015). They contain our businesses, incorporate our shopping malls and increasingly include our homes. Cities around the world engage constantly in a frantic race towards the heavens. Whose buildings will be the tallest? Where does function end and vanity begin? What contributions do these emerging edifices make to the civic realm? And, what potential do they hold for improving our quality of life? The race upwards dates back to the late 19 th century when the first skyscraper was erected in Chicago, with New York City taking the lead a few years later, resulting in this typology of building dramatically evolving as time marched ahead. Until now the tall building has been considered, albeit with ample controversy and debate, a prominent symbol of a city's growth and prosperity; also representing land efficiency, economic value, corporate ambition, individual power, and great potential for more sustainable environments. The future reaches even higher while the demand for skyscrapers burgeons. However, to better meet shifting expectations, demands and responsibilities, this typology needs to be critically considered, redefined, reinterpreted and redesigned through the interrelated lenses of environmental psychology, building performance and urban planning. Moreover, there are numerous challenges confronting the tall building: issues of vertical transportation; aspects of human interaction with the building, including satisfaction of occupants' psychological and physiological needs; and attention to the urban realm, including how to better integrate the building with the city's fabric in a way that adds more value. Advanced technology in building construction and elevator systems, among others, pave the way for skyscrapers to grow taller and taller. Today's super-tall buildings are no longer single purpose skyscrapers, rather they are considered mixed-use vertical cities with many facilities and functions available to occupants & users. Structures such as the Burj Khalifa, Shanghai Tower, and Kingdom Tower, as cases in point, take the typology in unprecedented directions. Many aspects of this new breed of building need to be evaluated and explored, such as the concept of sky-streets that provide a sense of place. Based on statistics from the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH, 2015), approximately 90% of future super-tall buildings will be built in two international regions – Asia and the Middle East. The authors review current practices associated with tall buildings, and interpret the advanced and cutting-edge technologies realized through the development of exemplary contemporary towers. Following an assessment of a range of case study towers, the researchers present a holistic approach to the design, delivery & occupation of tall buildings, bringing together different aspects of place, attending to the occupants, linking outdoor with indoor, using sky-bridges to connect towers & communities, and emphasizing the inter-woven structural, regulatory, sociological, psychological, environmental, and urban ethos of such buildings. The present paper moves beyond conventional technological aspects of the tall building in order to pursue more culturally, psychologically and socially-engaged buildings. This paper addresses the present challenges and future possibilities of tall buildings by first focusing on two main geographical areas that globally dominate tall building construction: Asia and the Middle East. It also explores new perspectives-constructively considering perception, performance and place-making as central contributors to the innovation and emergence of a next generation of this remarkable architectural typology.

Skyscrapers and Tall Buildings

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 2018

The tall building—the most popular and conspicuous emblem of the modern American city—stands as an index of economic activity, civic aspirations, and urban development. Enmeshed in the history of American business practices and the maturation of corporate capitalism, the skyscraper is also a cultural icon that performs genuine symbolic functions. Viewed individually or arrayed in a “skyline,” there may be a tendency to focus on the tall building’s spectacular or superlative aspects. Their patrons have searched for the architectural symbols that would project a positive public image, yet the height and massing of skyscrapers were determined as much by prosaic financial calculations as by symbolic pretense. Historically, the production of tall buildings was linked to the broader flux of economic cycles, access to capital, land values, and regulatory frameworks that curbed the self-interests of individual builders in favor of public goods such as light and air. The tall building looms ...

Skyscrapers: Origin, History, Evolution and Future

Journal on Today's Ideas - Tomorrow's Technologies, 2018

From humble cottages to super tall structures, human beings have progressively developed the living and working space with time. This paper describes the origin and growth of modern skyscrapers, the subsequent challenges faced, and the way it was outdone. Research papers and case studies have been thoroughly studied and important excerpts from them have been explained to show how the modern structures have been evolved. The sources and causes of evolution is debatable among researchers, this paper has taken into account 7 most vital milestones in the growth of current generation skyscrapers and their contribution to the construction industry and concludes with the ideas and scopes where growth is still possible and challenges need to be solved.

Tall: the Design and Construction of High-Rise Architecture Bibliography

Tall Bibliography, 2019

Bibliography

Review of Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865-1913 by Sarah Bradford Landau and Carl W. Condit.

New York History, 1996

The Best Building Money Can Buy - The Future of the Skyscraper Outside its Current Capitalist Logic

ASSET ARCHITECTURE 3, 2018

Tracing the high rise building's history as a highly speculative object culminating in its current form of the pencil tower, that only serves investment purposes, this text speculates about the future of this typology beyond its current capitalist logic as an object of possible social and ecological significance.

Dynamic interrelationship between technology and architecture in tall buildings

2005

The interrelationship between the technology and architecture of tall buildings is investigated from the emergence of tall buildings in the late 1 9 th century to the present. Through the historical research, a filtering concept is developed-original technology and remedial technology-through which one can clearly understand the interrelationship between the technological evolution and architectural esthetic and further stylistic transition of tall buildings. More desirable visions for the future can be constructed based on this concept. 2.1. Early Skyscrapers in the Late 19 th Century 28 2.2. Skyscrapers in the Early 20 th Century 35 2.3. Skyscrapers of the International Style / Modernism 38 2.4. Reactions to International Style 48 3. Original Technology and Remedial Technology in Tall Buildings 3.1. Original Technology in Tall Buildings 53 3.2. Remedial Technology for Tall Building Structural Systems 3.3. Remedial Technology for Tall Building Facade Systems 3.4. Conclusion 4. Technological Limitations of Tall Buildings and Future Directions 4.1. Technological Limitations of Structures in Tall Buildings 4.2. Technological Limitations of Facades in Tall Buildings 4.3. Design Integration Approach 66

Building the Skyline: The Birth and Growth of Manhattan's Skyscrapers. By M. Barr Jason. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016. Pp. xvii, 437. $49.95, hardcover

The Journal of Economic History