Building Case Studies

Independent Study Terminal Research Housing and the High-Rise Typology jared dukes

- summer 2018

professor: mark donofrio

Herbert & Katherine Jacobs House Madison, Wisconsin (1936-1937)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Description The Herbert and Katherine Jacobs house was the first Usonian house built by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is considered by some to be the purest and most famous of the Usonian style. Herbert Jacobs, who owned a newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin, was an acquaintance of Wright and challenged him to design a home with only a $5,000 onstruction budget and $500 for the architect fee.

The house subsequently went through several owners and a restoration effort began in 1983. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003. The American Institute of Architects ranks the Jacobs House as one of the twenty most important residential designs of the 20th century. This house as well as the tower design featured in the St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie/ Price Tower both served as housing prototypes for Wright’s Broadacre City master plan vision.

Characteristics of Usonian Houses • • • • • • • • •

Wright’s response to the Great Depression and simplifying the home and lifestyle Relates directly to nature and emerges from the earth Unimpeded by a foundation, front porch, downspouts, or towering chimney Surrounded by open space; the house should “open up” to the natural elements as opposed to having cookie cutter window openings Use of natural materials such as wood, stone, and clay bricks Glass curtian walls and use of clerestory windows Flat roofs with cantilevered overhangs No garage and little storage space Generally L-shaped plans

Other Prominent Usonian Houses

Rosenbaum House - Florence, AL Gordon House - Silverton, OR

Zimmerman House - Manchester, NH

Malcolm Willey House - Minneapolis, MN

Hanna–Honeycomb House - Stanford, CA

Structure & Support Wright’s goals for the house centered around space, cost, structure, and thermal behavior. The building is highlighted by natural materials, most of which were sourced locally. The pinewood for the house was sourced from Northern Wisconsin. The redwood, however, was shipped from California. Much of the plate glass was salvaged from store fronts in downtown Madison.

The “dry wall footing” foundation is a 4” slab on grade with a thickened perimeter that acts as a grade beam. There is a gravel bed under the slab and the slab itself holds 2” steam pipes for the radiant heating system. Originally steam heated from oil was used but was switched to a hydronic system when coal began to be used over the oil. This radiant system apparently provided sufficient heat to both the house above and kept the ground below from freezing.

WALL ASSEMBLY

Redwood Batten

A masonry core surrounds the kitchen/ workspace and contains a small cellar below. There radiators are stored that serve the heating system in the floor. The oversized masonry core itself also acts like a radiator in essence. It absorbs heat in the summer time from the surrounding spaces, in effect cooling them to a degree, as well as releases collected heat during the winter to help warm the spaces. It get be argued that this thermal flux is almost as important as distributing the building loads to the ground. The masonry blocks used in the Jacobs House mostly came from rejected pieces at the SC Johnson Wax Headquarters which was being constructed in Racine, Wisconsin, at the same time.

This also helped keep the total cost of the house down.

Pine Board

The wooden wall assembly was sort of revolutionary at the time and resembled a custom 3-ply cross-laminated timber type construction. They were roughly a 2-5/8” thick sandwich of board and batten made from Ponderosa Pine and Redwood. The board and battens were placed on both the exterior and interior and contained a plywood core with building paper serving as waterproofing. The interior and exterior layers featured horizontal 7/8” pine boards held together with horizontal 5/8” redwood battens which held the screws. The bottom edge of each pine board was grooved to receive the tongue of the redwood batten below it, while the top edge was sloped to shed water. Then a layer of building paper was present on either side of a vertically oriented, lower grade pine interior layer. This system can be seen in the illustration to the right. The base of the walls were thickened to 5 layers to help deal with weathering.

The walls also served as a stiffening element by turning corners in certain areas. This also allowed private nooks to be incorporated into the plan. The several year restoration that was began in 1983 brought a modern ventilation system as well as insulation in the walls. The lack of insulation in the original design has been a main target for many critics of the house over the years. However, they may simply be looking at it from a narrow perspective and not considering how the building performed as a whole thermally.

Redwood Batten

Vertical Pine Core

Building Paper

Program/ Layout Like many Usonian styles homes, the Jacobs house features an L-shaped plan.

It is based on a 2’ x 4’ grid and has 1550 total square footage. It has a horizontal orientation similar to the Prairie Style and is characterized by spatial continuity. The living room is contained in one wing while the bedrooms are in the other wing. These two wings come together in an area comprised of the more functional/ workspace type area that is much taller than the wings to provide ventilation and clerestory lighting to the core of the house. This is where the kitchen and bathroom are located. Beneath this area is a small cellar that holds radiators.

There is no great reception room and entry is made from the outside corner near the carport through a narrow passage leading directly to the living room or alternatively entering with access to the kitchen. The building is set in an extreme corner of the lot to allow the living space and bedrooms to open onto outdoor garden terraces.

Study

Bedroom Garden

Bedroom

Dining

Living Room Kitchen

Carport

Photos

Questions/ Comments The Jacobs House has received a lot of criticism for the lack of traditional insulation in its wall system. I do think to much of this was based on modern standards and did not take into consideration how the house actually performed. Overall, the temperature might have been at a cooler level during the winter but still performed well enough to be comfort in the cold environment of Wisconsin. The occupants often had to wear sweaters and use blankets but the original owner, Herbert Jacobs, welcomed that trade-off in exchange for the large number of windows. He also commented that the down draft from the clerestory windows caused for discomfort than the makeup of the wall assembly.

To me this Usonian house simply resembles a scaled down and cheaper Prairie Style home. I wonder if there is actually enough distinction to distinguish the two styles? Especially as the Usonian houses became for extinsive after the Great Depression, did they simply re-enter the Prairie Style realm?

St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie (Never Built) New York City

(1927-1931)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Description The St. Mark’s tower project was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the late 1920’s for the East Village neighborhood of New York City. It was commissioned by a Reverend Guthrie of St. Mark’s Church to house apartment buildings that would supplement the income of the church. However, due to some of the investors being cautious of Wright’s unprecedented design and the onset of the Great Depression, the towers were never built. It would have been the first all-glass high-rise in New York City.

Wright first started conceiving his tower idea in the 1890’s and developed it in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Later he would incorporate it as a fundamental element of his Broadacre City master plan. The concept intended for decentralization of the city to decrease congestion, with the towers meant to stand free in an open park. This also helped establish each towers identity as it was not lost among many clustered high-rises. The only realized version of the design was the Price Tower built in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in 1956.

Structure & Support The structure of the building was to resemble a tree with its protruding branches. The masonry core mimics the trunk while each concrete floor slab cantilevers out like branches. The slabs thin out as they extend further away from the core. It uses materials organically: steel in tension and concrete in compression. The exterior façade features modular glass panels with copper detailing in shading blades, balconies and parapets. Ascending the building, each higher floor is slightly bigger than the one below to allow rain water to drip freely to the ground. The entire structure was meant to be standardized to allow for prefabrication and easier construction.

Wright made certain claims about the performance of the building. He stated that the total weight of this style of tower would be 6/10th the that of a Rockefeller style skyscraper. He also claimed that it would be earthquake, fire, and sound proof but doesn’t go into detail about how those are achieved.

proGrAM/ lAYout The design called for 3 or 4 towers of straight line and flat plate architecture that was not monumental in nature. Each would be 14-stories tall except for one 18-story tower that would have a private penthouse apartment at the top for Wright’s personal use. The original idea was for the program to be a combination of both apartments and offices, which became a reality in the Price Tower, but was to only consist of apartments in the St. Mark’s project that would span two levels. The plan shows a pinwheel core, that contains the vertical circulation, with blocks filling in between each leg, using octagonal shapes and built in furniture. The composition emphasizes allowing daylight into each space. Due to this composition, Wright claimed that a traditional 5-room apartment at the time could fit within two-thirds of the space in a St. Mark’s tower.

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PRICE TOWER

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ST. MARK’S Lower Level

Price Tower Bartlesville, Oklahoma

(1956)

Frank Lloyd Wright

Description Price Tower is one of only two realized vertical oriented buildings for Frank Lloyd Wright, the other being the Johnson Wax Research Tower. It was commissioned by Harold C. Price for his pipeline company and occupies a quarter of a block in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. His two sons encouraged him to seek out Wright for the planning, arguing that it would cost no more to get a beautiful design from the famous architect than it would to get a typical box type design. Wright sought for the building to “grow out of the earth” in a tree like manner of organic architecture.

It rises to 221 feet high at the tip of its 70-foot television spire. As it was the sole high-rise in the small city of the Oklahoma prairie, Wright stated that it was the “tree that escaped the forest” and it can be seen from 16 miles away.

Program/ Layout The fidelity of Wright’s design concepts was stuck to very closely during construction of the tower. Harold Price asked for 2 stories but instead it became 19 stories with a square plan skewed on angle featuring straight line and flat plate architecture. Its original program mainly consisted of offices and apartment dwellings. There is a 2-story wing that juts off the tower at ground level. It held offices for the Public Service Company of Oklahoma and featured a skylight in its center. A driveway separates it with the base of the tower which consisted of a retail space and separate entries for the offices and apartments of the upper floors. The 2nd floor held more retail space above the lower one and the upper area of the double height entrances.

The next 14 levels are split into four quadrants around a central circulation core. On each floor one quadrant is for a dwelling space while each of the other three hold offices. The dwelling quadrant is skewed again in relation to the others and oriented to the city grid. The eight apartments are in duplex style each occupying two levels with the bedrooms in a triangular mezzanine balcony overlooking the living room. The alternating floors carrying these mezzanines project through the outer glass wall to form small outdoor balconies accessed from the master bedrooms.

Each apartment floor corresponds to one office floor. Each of these 14 floors hold three offices in the other three quadrants for a total of 42 individual offices. The top three levels start to recede back to a degree and feature lavish outdoor terraces. Here there was a buffet, conference rooms, and on the top floor a private office for H.C. Price. The view from the top allows for unobstructed sightlines for 800 square miles.

Ground Level

2nd Level

Program Today Today the program for the tower is quite different. The main tenant is the Price Tower Arts Center and the upper levels have been converted into a 21-suite hotel named the Inn at Price Tower.

There is also the Copper Restaurant and Bar. In 2002, Zaha Hadid won a design competition for an addition to be built on the site. It would contain a museum, lecture hall, exhibition hall, classrooms, library, and offices but has yet to be built.

Mr. Price’s Office at the Top

Tower Plan with Bedroom Mezzanine

Roof Terrace with Copper Louvres

Structure & Materials Wright brought a variety of forms and materials to the project. The structure centers around four 18’ wide triangular shaped concrete shafts that are arranged in a pinwheel fashion. These shafts act like the trunk of the tree-like concept and support the tower. They also contain the utilities, plumbing, and carry air supply and returns to ventilate the building. The four elevators are located adjacent to each shaft. Their thickness is 16” at the base and reduce periodically to 14”, 12”, and 10” as the tower rises. The cantilevered floors extend out up to 20’ from the shaft core and are meant to resemble the branches of a tree. They are thick at the center and thin out to 3” at the rim. The concrete structure uses expanded reinforced steel mesh throughout the floors and walls. Vertical steel rods in the central shaft tie the building to the foundation.

The overall weight of the building is said to be half that of a typical masonry enclosed steel cage construction type.

The enclosure consists of pre-fabricated aluminum window units around most of the façade. However, the kitchen/ bath sections of the apartments use pre-fabricated copper wall units with small windows in them. Alternating parapets are faced with a blue-green copper and stamped with a custom Wright relief pattern. This pattern is also present in many incidents on the interior. There are 9” shading louvres, also made of copper, that run vertical along the dwelling units and horizontal across the office spaces.

Aerial View

Interior Photos

Living Room

Living Room

Built In Furniture

Comments At first, I wondered if combining living and office spaces on the same level was a good idea instead of splitting them up between floors. However, it seems to work in this example since the access to the apartments is completely separate from the offices. As one possible option, I like the idea of separating the civic program slightly to the side on the lower levels from the high-rise portion similar to how it works with Price Tower. Doing this to the museum in the terminal project, at least partially, could be a good move. Wright was a master at arranging a floorplan that I always enjoy exploring.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York City (1959) Frank Lloyd Wright

Introduction & Description The Guggenheim Museum can arguably be considered the most famous work by Frank Lloyd Wright and most vividly embodies his ideal of organic architecture analogous with nature. It is located in New York City overlooking Central Park on Fifth Avenue between 88th Street and 89th Street. It was designed to house the growing art collection of Solomon R Guggenheim and his wife Irene. The project was met with many obstacles and proved to be Wright’s most time consuming and difficult to get built. The process started in 1943 and went through at least four plans.

Construction did not start until 1956 and it was not completed until 1959. He had some difficulties with the two museum directors Hilla von Rebay, who stepped down in 1952, and James Johnson Sweeney who was very contentious.

There was also a lot of resistance from the city as the design violated many building codes in place at the time.

It ultimately took four years to get a permit and may not have happened without the influential assistance from Robert Moses. Wright had moved to New York to oversee the construction of the building but unfortunately passed away six months before it was completed. Unlike the Price Tower, the fidelity of his original plans was not adhered to as closely. However, a renovation started in 1991 restored the program more closely to Wright’s original concepts.

Building Section

Floor Plan

Main Gallery

Offices

Layout & Structure The museum is the apotheosis of Wright’s ideal of spatial and material continuity and is associated with plasticity in contrast to rectilinear architecture. The building consists essentially of two domed, circular sections. The dominant one is the iconic tall, spiral ramping main gallery. It has been compared to a street winding up a rotunda. The space gradually widens as it ascends to allow for an ample domed skylight that provides light into the lower areas. The idea is for visitors to get a preview of the visual vocabulary of the museum as they enter the vestibule at ground level. Then an elevator takes them to the top to slowly descend the ramp down as they take in the collection. The original concept was to utilize a glass elevator leading to a spherical glass observatory but this was not realized. The circulatory gallery is meant to give a series of museum overviews as well as a relaxing descend down. The lower part of the spiral consumes itself into the ground as the last step at a pool of water in a mandorla shape. Once at the bottom, patrons can find a restaurant, theater, and bookstore. The Irene Guggenheim theater is directly below the main gallery and holds 281 seats. The smaller domed section of the building is known as the Monitor and contains administrative and curatorial offices for the museum staff.

Wright disliked the sequence of discrete rooms present in most museums. Thus, the Guggenheim paintings set freely in three-dimensional curvilinear space. Instead of flat paintings resting on curved walls, they use a new framing system that holds them out from the wall at a slight incline. This is meant to give the impression of sitting on an easel and also allows for better lighting. This wasn’t always adhered to and collections were hung from the ceiling at times.

The ramping structure of the galley was inspired by early parking garages for automobiles. These allowed for a continuous ramp through the structure. The spiraling egg-like shell of the structure was difficult to achieve without columns breaking up the sequence on the interior. It is built with steel reinforced concrete with 12 inverted triangular ribs laid out radially with a pointed vortex joined at 30-degree intervals to the supporting cylinder that protrude sharply at the summit. The walls slant slightly outward. The slab of the ramp spans up to 60 feet in some areas and cantilevers up to 25 feet. On the interior it cantilevers over the inner court 14.5 feet. The overall width of the ramp increases as it ascends due to the increasing cantilevers.

Looking Down Atrium

Early Model Including Glass Elvevaot with observatory Exterior View

Carbon 12 Portland, Oregon (2017) Path Architecture

Description Carbon 12 is currently the tallest wood framed building in the United States at 85 feet high. It is located in north Portland, OR, and was designed

by Ben Kaiser and PATH Architecture. The firm claims that it is “one of the most environmentally sustainable residential projects in the world.� It was submitted in the 2014 USDA Tallwood Buildings contest but did not win an award. With 8 stories it includes 2 retail spaces and 14 condominium living spaces. Building codes have historically restricted wood buildings above 5 levels for roughly the past century but with new technologies in heavy timber, codes are being revised and buildings like Carbon 12 are able to be constructed. The ceiling for how tall timber structured high-rises can go is continually being challenged and explored.

Structure

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT)

The building features a steel, buckling restrained core surrounded by mass timber framing for most of the structure. The Oregon produced timber units are held together by steel connectors.

The foundation has a thickened concrete slab sitting on 41 steel pilings that are buried 45 feet deep. The basement, parking garage, and ground floor are also made of concrete. The columns consist of glued-laminated timbers (glulams) while the floors and walls are conprised of cross-laminated timbers (CLT).

Cross-laminated timber is made from kiln dried lumber that is glued and pressed together in alternating directions. It is currently produced in 3, 5, 7, and 9-layer, large scale panels that can be cut to custom dimensions. These prefabricated panels allow for quick installation, reduced cost, as well as reduced waste on the construction site. Current manufacturing practices only utilize trees of 9-10� diameters so the larger, old-growth trees are left standing.

Wood is a great building material for many reasons. It is renewable unlike steel and conrete and sequesters carbon, both of which are more sustainable features. Timber construction is generally far lighter than building with only steel and concrete. This provides much better seismic performance which is important in the Pacific Northwest. Wood also provides better acoustics, insulation qualities, fire resistance, and the exposed members are more aesthetically pleasing.

3-ply Example

Program/ Layout The building features eight levels with the ground level dedicated to retail and the other 7 containing market rate condominiums. The retail spaces include a cafe and credit union that open directly to the nearby streets. Each floor above have two living units that flank an elevator/stair core on each side. The elevator will allow entrance directly into each unit with controlled access. The condos will average about 684 square feet and each include a recessed balcony. The master bedroom is slightly split off at an angle from the rest of the space to resemble a split in a piece of wood. This can be seen in the plans on the next page and in some of the exterior photos on the first page. Finally, there is an automated parking garage underground. Residents simply pull into a surface one-car-sized garage, exit, and the vehicle is transported below ground on a sort of conveyor belt system and spun around for easy exiting.

Interior Photos

Questions/ Comments The living units are being sold at market rate so they likely won’t be affordable. Maybe this won’t have a hugely adverse effect on Portland’s housing problems since it has a small number of units. One of the arguments with current building practices in the city is the lack of devotion to a certain number of affordably priced units. However, the building does howcase heavy timber construction and as more of this type of buildings is made it could lead to lower priced living options.

I don’t see any exterior shading devices so that must be controlled with interior blinds/currents. In general, I wonder what the deciding factors are between using exterior form designs for shading or simply internal ones?

The parking system is very high-tech and interesting. It was stated the average time to park or retrieve a car is about 3 minutes. I still wonder if it can get backed up at certain high traffic times and cause delays. And it would be a huge inconvience if the system ever breaks down.

Finally, the living units are relatively small which fits the trend many people are gravitating toward in cities.

Floor Plans

Credit Union

Elev.

Cafe

GROUND LEVEL

Master Bedroom

Bath Balcony

Optional 2nd Bedroom

Living Room & Kitchen

Elev.

Living Room & Kitchen

Optional 2nd Bedroom

Balcony Bath

2ND-8TH FLOORS

Master Bedroom

Marina City Towers Chicago, Illinois (1964) Bertrand Goldberg Associates

Description Marina City is a well known 2-tower complex located in Chicago, Illinois. It was designed by Bertrand Goldberg Associates (BGA) upon the commissioning of the Building Service Employees International Union (name at the time) which had the vision of promoting the ability for blue collar workers to live and play near their workplace. Its union president was William McFetridge and the site developer was Charles Swibel, an up-and-coming individual in Chicago. Bertrand Goldberg himself was a life long Chicago architect who studied at Harvard, the Bauhaus in Berlin, and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Goldberg not only gave the project its design form, organization, and urban purpose but also helped advance the financial, political, and urban goals. This was the first project of this scale and magnitude for the architect and his firm but the outcome nevertheless was a huge success and made him internationally known. Marina City was the largest financial partnership between federal, union, banking, and business interests ever in a housing complex in North America.

When it was completed, the towers were the tallest residential buildings in the world as well as the highest reinforced concrete structures.

Program/ Layout The complex sits on approximately 3 acres and is comprised of 5 main building elements: 2 residential towers, 1 rectangular office building, 1 theater, and a commercial base comprising a total of 1.8 million square feet. It was designed to be a city within a city and its extensive program features a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, boat marina, shopping, restaurants, offices, bank, television station, parking, and housing.

Theater

Marina Below Towers

The commercial platform is 1 story high, covers the entire site, and acts as a pedestal for all the other structures of the site to stand upon. It straddles a railroad beneath it which splits it into north and south components. There is also a marina beneath that provides boat access to the Chicago River. The theater primarily holds the television station. It is curvilinear and symmetrical with a saddle shaped roof. The final design of its roof was changed four times during the process of design and construction.

It is tucked in between the two towers but plays an important programmatic role as the main entrance to the towers. This takes place through its glass lobby, down into the commercial base, and then into each towers’ individual lobby. Secondary entrances can also be made directly at street level off of Dearborn and State streets.

Program/ Layout The two residential towers are the dominant features of the complex. They are identical with each having 60 levels and reaching 585 feet high. The first 18 floors contain a parking garage, the next two are for laundry and storage, and the top 40 floors hold 896 residential units. The circular form of the plan radiates out from a central core into 16 ‘’petals�. The core holds 5 high speed elevators, which were said to be the fastest in Chicago when it was completed, as well as a staircase and garbage chute. There are 256 efficiency units that occupy 1 petal, 576 1-bedroom units that occupy 1.5 petals, and on the top ten floors there are 64 2-bedroom units which occupy 2.5 petals. The residences were originally rental units but were converted to condominiums in 1977.

The last major piece is a 10-story office building. It anchors the edge of the property and acts as a barrier to a jumble of buildings to the north. It has a rectangular footprint and rests on concrete groin vaults on top of the commercial platform. These vaults raise the building to the same level as the 5th through 15th floors of the towers. The building consists of 170,000 square feet of flexible, open office spaces oriented around a central circulation core.

Living Space

Model of the Complex

View from Balcony

Typical Residential Floor Plan

Efficiency Unit

1-Bedroom Unit

Structure & Support Bertrand Goldberg Associates provided the design, engineering, and construction sequencing of the project.

It was the first project of this size and extent for the firm. The concept was unique and quirky dealing with important solutions for how mass production met individual craftsmanship. The design centers around the expression of its structure of reinforced concrete. The foundation extends 120 feet into the ground in order to penetrate the limestone bedrock. Eight large caissons extend out for the core to rest on. The 35’ wide core was built first and resembled a minaret before the floors were added. Sixteen concrete beams radiate out about 40’ from the core toward 16 exterior columns. Each floor is 105’ in diameter with a height of 8.5’. As the building rises the amount of concrete reduces as does its strength per square inch. Thermopane windows are set back within a 10’ balcony overhang. The concrete is painted on the interior and the bathrooms feature floor to ceiling glass tiles. The firm worked with tenants to customize the interiors for the office spaces.

The project was completed with a fast-paced construction timeline. The construction of the towers completed one floor every two days in an alternating fashion between the two. This allowed each floor to cure properly and ensured that both towers were built the same. Goldberg used an innovative bidding process that anticipated the fast-tracking system of today.

He took bids for the foundation and while it was in progress completed the design of the superstructure.

The circular form with its symmetry allowed for many economies. It offered the highest ratio of usable floor space to exterior skin. It also reduced length and return of runs for utilities as well as reduced actual wind loads.

A new reinforcing wire mesh was also used in place of traditional steel reinforcement for the parking ramps and apartment floors which helped save on material and cost.

The theater uses steel frame construction in a saddle shaped manner. Smaller steel members are triangulated between the main ribs. The façade consists of lead and was the first building to be fully clad in this fashion.

Environmental Systems The architect was dedicated to providing several systems to reduce its impact on the environment.

The balconies with recessed windows create shade in the summer and help reduce heat gain and loss. The services are grouped near the core while the living spaces open to one exterior façade. This also helps to keep energy costs lower. The core is under positive air pressure which flows into each apartment and out exhausts in the kitchen and bathrooms. This keeps stale air or offensive smells from entering the core from the apartments. The building is all electric and tenants have control over all lighting, heating, and cooling.

Parking Levels

Burj Khalifa Dubai, UAE (2010) Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill

Description The Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, has been the tallest building in the world since it was completed in 2010.

It was named after United Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who helped secure funding for the project. Burj means ‘tower’ in Arabic. It was designed by a team in the American firm Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM) under the leadership of Adrian Smith. The Burj Khalifa stands at 2,716 feet, twice the height of the Empire State Building, and holds many records including the highest observation deck in the world, highest occupied floor, and the longest distance for an elevator to travel. However, it will soon be stripped of its title as world’s tallest building by the Jeddah Tower that is currently under construction in Saudi Arabia.

Program The Burj Khalifa is part of a larger mixeduse development that includes offices, retail space, residential units, and a hotel. The tower overlooks the Dubai Fountain, Burj Park, Dubai Mall, and downtown Dubai itself. At street level visitors will find green spaces, water features, and pedestrian friendly boulevards. The tower itself boasts 162 inhabitable levels with the overall height being equivalent to 200 levels. The concourse level to 8th floor along with the 38th and 39th floors consist of the 160 room Armani Hotel. I do not know why the hotel has a gap in floors. It was the first hotel designed by famous fashion designer Giorgio Armani and features his typical minimalist style. The interiors are a muted gray with Japanese wood flooring. Next, the 9th through 16th floors hold the Armani Residences.

They comprise 144 suites, either 1 or 2 bedrooms, in the same fashion as the hotel except are sold as permanent living units. Sky lobbies are present on floor 43, 76, and 123 servicing as elevator transit areas, each also having a fitness center. The 76th floor also boasts the worlds highest swimming pool. At.Mosphere, the worlds highest restaurant, is located on the 122nd floor. Most of the other levels hold more luxury residences or corporate suites. Outdoor observation decks can be found at levels 124, 125, and 148. Finally, there are 5 service floors spaced roughly every 30 floors.

Typical Floor Layout

Program in Wings

office building

office building

Buttressed Core

office building

Structure & Support The design is said to be loosely based on a local desert flower as well as characteristics of Islamic architecture.

The footprint has a Y-shaped plan in order to maximizes views and sufficiently deal with wind loads. Extensive wind testing had to be conducted before construction began in 2004. The three petals compose sculpted volumes around a six-sided central buttressed core. As the structure rises, setbacks occur in an upward spiraling pattern that gradually reduces the building form. The core contains building services, the multiple elevator shafts, and emerges at the top to form the spire built of structural steel. The 3 wings of the plan hold the building program.

The foundation is a 3.7-meter-thick pile supported ‘raft’ with 194 cast-in-place pilings extending into the ground below it. The structure is made with high strength reinforced concrete, except for the steel spire, and is clad in tinted glass panels. Instead of using any sort of washing robot, the tower uses a team of manual window washers that rotate around the building throughout the year.

The project incorporated many new structural and construction efficiencies to reduce materials and waste. The tower has a sky sourced ventilation system that pulls cooler, less humid air from the top down into the lower floors. It also has a large condensation recovery system as another water resource.

Comments In my opinion, the Burj Khalifa and Jeddah Tower are not great examples for what the scope will be for my terminal project. The supertall structures seek solely to make a statement with their height and aren’t practical on most levels.

They are partially meant to be tourist attractions and tend to cater to very wealthy clientele. So, they are not feasible on a mass scale and provide a poor example for density and housing solutions within cities. However, it is still interesting to look at these extreme cases on this side of the scale.

Jeddah Tower (Under Construction) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia - Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture

Description Jeddah Tower will soon be the world’s new tallest building and the first over 1 kilometer or about 3,281 feet. It was formerly known as Kingdom Tower and Mile High Tower. Unlike the Burj Khalifa, which grew taller through the design phase, Jeddah Tower was scaled down from initial ambitions of it being a mile high. When finished it will be 568 feet higher than the Burj Khalifa which currently holds the distinction as the tallest structure on earth. Jeddah Tower will serve as the focal point of a $20 billion (US) development known as Jeddah Economic City led by Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the wealthiest person in the Middle East, and will itself cost approximately $1.25 billion to construct. The site is located north of the heart of Jeddah where a sizable portion of land was available. The hope of the project is to encourage tourism and invigorate further development.

At the beginning stages, a design competition was initiated that invited 10 prominent firms to participate. The project was awarded to Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture with the engineering firm of Thornton Tomasetti. Architect Adrian Smith had been on the team at SOM that designed the Burj Khalifa before opening a new firm with several of his colleagues. The design consists of a 3-petal triangular foot print featuring a Y-shaped floor plan.

It has a smooth, gradually sloped exterior that narrows as it rises in contrast to the stepping system of the Burj Khalifa. The program will be comprised of a Four Seasons hotel, apartment floors, Class A office space, and luxury condominiums. There will also be the world’s highest observation deck on the 157th floor. There will be 59 elevators and 3 sky lobbies for transfers to accommodate the vertical travel. Traditional rule of thumb has held that, because of elevator cores, usable space is significantly reduced after 80 stories. Newer technology and specific program types have defied that rule in supertall buildings like this tower.

Jeddah Economic City Render

Jeddah Tower Render

Observation Deck Render

Generic Tower Floor Plan

Structural System

Structure & Support The primary challenges to a building of this height in the desert setting are extreme winds that cause building sway as well as super column settling. To deal with these realities, the structural system consists of a high strength, cast-inplace concrete with reinforced bearing wall construction.

A series of intersecting shear walls radiate from a central closed prismatic tube that create “closed cells” which rise through the building. This cell system resolves gravity, lateral, and torsional load resistance requirements and has more than sufficient redundancy with the ability of forces to take alternative load paths. There is also integrated steel framing in certain areas, like the protruding observation deck for example. The foundation is made up of 270 piles that range from 60 to 70 inches in diameter. They extend 345 feet into the ground in the center of the building out to about 45 feet deep at the extreme edges. The weight of the building is transferred to the ground primarily by fiction along the sides of the piles. A dynamic façade featuring one custom current wall type is used throughout the entire building. These curtain panels have low emissive reflective glass that can resist thermal variations between 36°F and 129°F. The smooth exterior allows for much better aerodynamic performance.

Reception & Issues The building has been received by mixed opinions. The engineering team quipped that the practical objectives would be more of an obstacle than the structural challenges. The form of the structure is purely motivated to be the tallest in the world which brings criticism from some people. There has also been concerns about gentrification and sustainability, though the project leaders set out with sustainability in mind. There are pockets inserted in the form of the facades to provide shadows in certain areas and reduce solar gain. There are also water systems incorporated such as condensation recovery, rain water catchment, and a gray water system. However, there is still the issue of the carbon produced by the amount of concrete used as well as the amount of energy required to continually air condition the building. Nevertheless, the project will invigorate commerce and bring tourism.

Construction began in April of 2013 and progress was at the 60th floor early in 2018. Challenging logistics scheduling and the time required for concrete to finish extends the length of construction. The hope is for the tower to open in 2020.

Aerial Render

Sources Jacobs House books •

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Insulating modernism : isolated and non-isolated thermodynamics in architecture

by Kiel Moe Frank Lloyd Wright: Master Builder

by David Larkin

online sources • • •

http://www.usonia1.com/ https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/herbert-jacobs-house-1/ https://interactive.wttw.com/ten/homes/more/first-jacobs-house

photos • • • • • • • • •

Entry Hall: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27245899@N07/3506387719/ Exterior View: https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/herbert-jacobs-house-1/ Gordon House: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_House_(Silverton,_Oregon) Malcolm Willey House: http://www.thewilleyhouse.com/ Zimmerman House: https://franklloydwright.org/site/zimmerman-house/ Rosenbaum House: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenbaum_House Hanna-Honeycomb House: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna%E2%80%93Honeycomb_House View from Garden: https://gooddaytodiet.com/modern-usonian-house-plans/modern-usonian-house-plans-luxury-herbertjacobs-house-i-madison-wisconsin-1937-frank-lloyd-wright/ Living Room: https://www.pinterest.ph/pin/282319470366031144/

St. Mark’s Project books •

The story of the Tower : the tree that escaped the crowded forest

by Frank Lloyd Wright

online sources • • •

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/305 https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/27/the-new-york-city-that-never-was-frank-lloyd-wrights-all-glass-towers-in-the-park/ http://bedfordandbowery.com/2017/06/frank-lloyd-wrights-unbuilt-east-village-towers-rise-high-in-new-moma-exhibit/

photos • •

Sketch: https://untappedcities.com/2013/11/27/the-new-york-city-that-never-was-frank-lloyd-wrights-all-glass-towers-inthe-park/ Model: http://bedfordandbowery.com/2017/06/frank-lloyd-wrights-unbuilt-east-village-towers-rise-high-in-new-momaexhibit/

Price Tower books •

The story of the Tower : the tree that escaped the crowded forest

by Frank Lloyd Wright

online sources • • • •

https://franklloydwright.org/site/price-tower/ https://www.visitbartlesville.com/frank-lloyd-wrights-price-tower_id58.php?action=view&place_id=50&cat_id=4 https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/price-tower/ https://www.cnet.com/news/price-tower-frank-lloyd-wrights-only-skyscraper/

Sources photos • • • • • •

Entry Hall: https://www.flickr.com/photos/27245899@N07/3506387719/ Exterior View: https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g51191-d650068-i205535111-Price_Tower_Arts_ Center-Bartlesville_Oklahoma.html Section and Plans: The story of the Tower : the tree that escaped the crowded forest Aerial View: https://www.cnet.com/news/price-tower-frank-lloyd-wrights-only-skyscraper/ Terrace: http://galenfrysinger.com/oklahoma_bartlesville_price_tower.htm Interior Photos: https://www.cnet.com/pictures/inside-frank-lloyd-wrights-only-skyscraper-pictures/23/

Guggenheim Museum books •

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Frank Lloyd Wright: Master Builder

by David Larkin The Guggenheim : Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconoclastic masterpiece

by Francesco Dal Co The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Guggenheim : Frank Lloyd Wright and the making of the modern museum.

online sources • • •

https://www.guggenheim.org/the-frank-lloyd-wright-building?gclid=CjwKCAjwy_XaBRAWEiwApfjKHm4MHg_ OxQaYLWLTRexr7YXLvb7ePVbMnRR747P1cIyT38ai3Ds0QBoCy9YQAvD_BwE https://www.archdaily.com/874207/the-58-year-evolution-of-frank-lloyd-wrights-guggenheim-museum https://franklloydwright.org/site/solomon-r-guggenheim-museum/

photos • • • •

Exterior 1: https://www.archdaily.com/874207/the-58-year-evolution-of-frank-lloyd-wrights-guggenheim-museumExterior Exterior 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/realestate/28scapes.html Atrium: https://www.guggenheim.org/the-frank-lloyd-wright-building Section and Model: The Guggenheim : Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconoclastic masterpiece by Francesco Dal Co

Marina City books •

Marina City : Bertrand Goldberg’s urban vision

by Igor Marjanović and Katerina Rüed

online sources • • • •

http://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago/building/marina-city/ https://www.archdaily.com/87408/ad-classics-marina-city-bertrand-goldberg http://bertrandgoldberg.org/projects/marina-city/ http://moss-design.com/marina-city/

photos • • • • • • • •

Exterior River View: http://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago/building/marina-city/Exterior 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/realestate/28scapes.html Theater: http://www.gurtzelectric.com/house-of-blues-hotel-chicago/ Marina: https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Marina_City_marina_by_Matthew_Bisanz.jpg Site Plan and Construction Photo: http://bertrandgoldberg.org/projects/marina-city/ Interior: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/283797213993857795/ Balcony: https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/8/28/16216890/marina-city-chicago-apartment-condo-for-sale Model: http://arcchicago.blogspot.com/2009/11/amazing-archival-photos-of-marina-citys.html Parking: https://www.archdaily.com/87408/ad-classics-marina-city-bertrand-goldberg/5037e99728ba0d599b000418-adclassics-marina-city-bertrand-goldberg-photo

Sources Carbon 12 online sources • • •

https://carbon12pdx.com/ https://www.architecturepath.com/portfolio/carbon12/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon12

photos • • • •

Exterior View and Interior Photos: https://carbon12pdx.com/gallery/ Construction Photo: http://djcoregon.com/news/2017/03/08/wood-the-skys-the-limit/ CLT: https://timberfirst.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/what-is-cross-laminated-timber-clt/ CLT Panel Diagram: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Schematic-representation-of-a-typical-CLT-panel-8_ fig1_269162220

Burj Khalifa books •

Tall and supertall buildings: planning and design edited by Akbar R. Tamboli

online sources • • • • • •

https://www.som.com/projects/burj_khalifahttps:// www.cnn.com/travel/article/burj-khalifa-dubai-guide/index.html http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/the-tower/design.aspx https://www.archdaily.com/882100/burj-khalifa-som http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/burj-khalifa/3 https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/tallest-building-in-the-world/

photos • • • • • •

Exterior: https://www.archdaily.com/882100/burj-khalifa-som Glass Cladding: https://twitter.com/burjkhalifa/status/750992768684744704 Aerial Site View: https://www.lamadubai.com/products/burj-khalifa-tour-at-the-top-148-floor Interior: https://www.visasignaturehotels.com/hotel-detail/armani-hotel-dubai Program Section: http://www.burjkhalifa.ae/en/the-tower/components.aspx Plans: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/451063718918972140/?lp=true

Jeddah Tower books •

Tall and supertall buildings: planning and design edited by Akbar R. Tamboli

online sources • • • • •

https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/jeddah-tower/2 https://www.cnn.com/style/article/jeddah-tower-saudi-arabia-new/index.html https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/jeddah-tower-worlds-tallest-skyscraper-photo-preview# http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5426863/Timelapse-reveals-construction-3-300ft-Jeddah-Tower.html http://fortune.com/2018/02/22/kingdom-tower-jeddah/

photos • •

Renderings: https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/jeddah-tower-worlds-tallest-skyscraper-photo-preview# Structure Diagiam: https://www.newcivilengineer.com/world-view/super-tall-super-smart-jeddah-tower/10010551.article