Excerpt: How to Read Skyscrapers

Contents CONTENTS Introduction

6

Building high

10

Birth of the skyscraper

32

The American skyscraper

58

Global proliferation

96

American giants

154

Weird and wonderful

192

The mega skyscraper

222

Appendices Resources Glossary Index Acknowledgments

248 250 252 256

Military BUILDING HIGH Harlech Castle

Built on a high rocky outcrop, this thirteenthcentury fortress is contains an enormous ‘donjon’ (or ‘keep’), surrounded by a courtyard formed by four ‘curtain’ walls of stone and corner towers topped by watchtowers.

The height is both practical, advantaging the defender, and symbolic, representing the power of the king.

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Military architecture evolved in Europe with the collapse of the Carolingian Empire at the end of the ninth century ce. Central and western Europe was fragmented into smaller kingdoms and principalities locked in constant, often violent, competition. Castles were the prime offensive and defensive structures of nobles who claimed feudal right over the area. They evolved, notably after military experience in the Crusades (eleventh to thirteenth centuries ce), into massive stone buildings that dominated the landscape of medieval Europe. Some of the best examples are found in Wales.

First introduced by William the Conqueror in 1066, castles were subsequently built by a succession of English kings, to suppress the ever-rebellious Welsh.

The White Tower of London

The donjon of Chateau de Vincennes

William the Conqueror commissioned the first great castle in Britain—the White Tower of London (c.1075–1100) which still stands today. Huge stone walls, rising high above London, designed by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, were built not to defend, but to intimidate the city.

“Donjons”, the tallest structures in the castle, contained the residential quarters of the lord or king. These might include a great hall, or many smaller rooms. The donjon of the Château de Vincennes near Paris, commissioned by Philip VI c.1337, is 52 meters high.

Conwy Castle

Motte and bailey

Conwy Castle (1283–9) in Wales, designed

by James of Saint George for Edward I, had a donjon, defensive towers, twin gateway towers, and watchtowers overlooking the barbicans. Its massive town walls, punctured with slits for archers, still stand today.

Castles were originally “motte and bailey”, made of earth and timber. The “motte”—a large mound of earth, flat at the top— supported a tall timber structure to commanded the landscape. Next to the motte was a “bailey”, or fenced court.

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The Chicago AMERICAN SKYSCRAPERS Commercial School The Monadnock Building

The Monadnock Building appears as a single, long, tall building—but it was built in two phases that bookend the development of the Commercial School of Architecture.

By the mid-nineteenth century, Chicago had emerged as the commercial center of the United States. Situated by the great lakes and connected by railroads to the wider continent, Chicago boomed and architects and engineers flocked. In 1871, the city was largely destroyed by catastrophic fire. During reconstruction, under economic pressure to create as much commercial space as close to the center as possible, the first true skyscrapers were born. Within twenty years, Chicago could boast of an entirely new form of architecture—the Chicago “Commercial School”. Not only were the practical features of the skyscraper developed— the foundations and metal supporting frame, use of elevators, and water, power, heat and air supplies—but the aesthetic problem too—how to create an architecture that honestly and beautifully reflected its construction and use. Ornamentation, proportions, and forms derived from classical European models gradually disintegrated in the face of a new, bold, American commercial aesthetic.

The North phase (1881–91)

The South phase (1891–3)

The North phase of the Monadnock was designed so that the outer walls bore their own weight. Even without the roof or interior, at 16 stories, these walls were very heavy. As a result, the exterior of the ground floor was built in granite, with massive piers, incredibly thick—providing little interior space and no basement at all.

The South phase was designed so that the walls were “hung” from the interior frame.

No piers or thick granite were required, and the lower floors had as much space and light as the upper. The architects still designed the “ground” differently from the rest of the building, but for functional and aesthetic, not constructional reasons.

Another view

The Monadnock provides a great example of the development of the Commercial School—the North phase still has one foot in the architecture of the past, but strips away ornamentation and gains aesthetic

power from an unadorned grid of openings. The South phase embraces the full potential of the iron and steel frame, freeing space in the interior and on the surface of the building.

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Al WONDERFUL Bahr Towers WEIRD & Dynamic skin

The covering of all but the northern façades of Al Bahr Towers is made up of 2,098 mashrabiya units. The 25-story towers, designed by Aedas Architects Ltd. for the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, were completed in 2012.

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One of the greatest challenges for skyscrapers of the future will be their environmental performance. The high-tech Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi (one of the world’s hottest cities) draws inspiration from the ancient screening system mashrabiya. What makes these modern mashrabiya so innovative is that they respond dynamically to the sun’s trajectory. Each unit comprises an aluminum frame and semi-transparent PTFE-coated glass-fiber fabric that independently opens and closes as the sun moves, animating the building and giving it a distinctive character.

Responsive facade

The mashrabiya units reduce solar gain inside the building by up to 50%, reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by up to 25% a year, equivalent to over a thousand tons of CO2.

Section of mashrabiya units

Geometry of mashrabiya

Each mashrabiya unit is fixed to the building at the point of each triangle with an actuator in the middle opening and closing the mechanism.

Computational modeling and manufacturing were essential in the design and construction of the 244 different configurations.

Each of the 12,588 aluminum frame components was unique, the result of which is that no two angles in any triangular piece are the same.

The distinctive geometry of the mashrabiya screen was based on the relationship between the circle and triangle.

Each unit is triangular when open, cumulatively forming a series of hexagonal patterns that collectively creates a honeycomb appearance enveloping the building.

Highly ornamented mashrabiya used as shade

The mashrabiya has been used for millennia as an effective method for shading, with many designs being highly intricate and sophisticated in their decorative configuration and workmanship.

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Shanghai Tower MEGA SKYSCRAPERS Shanghai has always embraced modernity. During its heyday in the glamorous interwar period, this exuberant treaty port and “Paradise of Adventurers” attracted architects from all over the world who helped fashion its “Billion Dollar Skyline.” After half a century of communism and relative dormancy since 1949, the city’s fabled economic prowess is revived. Architecture played a central role in projecting China’s “global superpower” ambitions, from the Beijing Olympics to the complete transformation of Shanghai’s eastern riverbank (Pudong), which now hosts one of the world’s densest concentrations of skyscrapers.

Loftiest among this burgeoning crop is the 632-meter Shanghai Tower— the tallest building in Asia, and the second tallest in the world.

Shanghai Tower at night

The Shanghai Tower was designed by the architectural practice Gensler and completed in 2015. The distinctive floor plan and body reflect its position in time and space. The shape of the floor plates acknowledges its neighbors, the Jin Mao Tower and the World Financial Center, while the twisting body represents Shanghai’s energy and dynamism.

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The Shanghai Tower spiral in daylight

The distinctive coiling glass body is not merely an aesthetic device. Its double skin of glass regulates temperatures inside the building and the spiraling body helps reduce by nearly 25% the structural wind loads, which in a typhoon zone is reassuring for those living and working inside. It also reduces the stresses on the foundations which in Shanghai, unlike Hong Kong or New York, has no bedrock but instead relies on long concrete piles thrust deep into the hundreds of meters of alluvial mud on which Shanghai barely floats.

Shanghai old and new

Known as the Willow Pattern Tea House, the Huxinting Tea House is a diminutive eighteenthcentury pagoda in stark contrast to the modern high-rise that dominate the Shanghai skyline.

Pudong skyline

The eastern bank of the Huangpu River (Pudong) was for decades a low-rise semi-industrial landscape.

In the early 1990s the Chinese government permitted its transformation into the nation’s economic show-window, commissioning new master plans from some of the most celebrated architects in the world. In just two decades, successive skyscrapers have been built, each outdoing the last and culminating in the 128-story Shanghai Tower.

HOW TO READ SKYSCRAPERS A Crash Course in High-Rise Architecture

by Edward Denison and Dr. Nick Beech Universe Publishing, a division of Rizzoli International Publications 300 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10010 www.rizzoliusa.com ISBN: 978-0-7893-3557-9 $18.95 Paperback, 5 1/4 x 6½ inches 256 pages 350 color photographs Rights: US, Canada, and Non-Exclusive open market For serial rights, images to accompany your coverage, or any other publicity information about this title please contact: Pam Sommers, Executive Director of Publicity T. (212) 387-3465 psommers@rizzoliusa.com