Edifice Complex

http://www.slate.com/business/rivalries/2013/08/world_s_tallest_buildings_the_chrysler_building_the_empire_state_building.html

Hello Everyone:

After a bit of a crazy making week that involved exterminators, dead cockroaches, a lost and found wallet, things are back to something that resembles normal.  However, with the High Holler-days rapidly approaching, yours truly will have to work find a way to persevere through the frenzy.  I shall endeavor to do my best.  Today, we look at the question of "how high is high?"  Since the biblical Tower of Babel, nations have competed with each other to see who can build the tallest building in the world.  That spirit of competition is alive and well in the twenty-first century.  Historically, the Manhattan skyline has been the epicenter of examples of edifice complexes.  In Brian Palmer's article for Slate, "1,776 Feet. What a Letdown," Mr. Palmer looks at One World Trade Center in context to other skyscrapers and poses the question, why should we settle for fourth place?

One World Trade Center
bbc.co.uk

  When One Trade Center opens in 2014, it'll stand at a symbolic 1,776 feet, marking the victory over terrorism, fear, and despair.  When the design by Skidmore, Owings, Merrill architect David Childs was announced in 2003, the media outlets opined that upon completion, it would be the tallest building in the world.  The New York Times took a more skeptical view.  Yet while the planners, politicians, and architects continue to argue over money and financing (typical), architects in China and the Middle East built taller skyscrapers, sending an important message about the future of the cities these edifice wrecks are located.  One example is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, coming in at 2,717 feet; the unfinished Shanghai Tower, a petite 2,073 feet, and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel, a lilliputian 1,971 feet.

Burj Khalifa
deskarati.com

Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel
skyscrapercenter.com

Woolworth Building
en.wikipedia.org

Hey, what's wrong with us?  We're Americans.  We don't let anybody beat at anything, including building the tallest building in the world.  Ah, but we decided not to respond to this architectural pissing contest.  One World Trade Center takes its place in the Manhattan skyline as a monument to that good old fashioned American spirit of competition and rivalry.  We can thank Elisha Otis, the inventor of the safety brake in the nineteenth century for freeing buildings of height limitations and fueling the urges of captains of American industry to see who can go higher.  The race to see who could higher was about ego and superiority not who could make the most efficient use of land.  When five-and-dime store magnate Frank Woolworth was asked by architect Cass Gilbert how tall Mr. Woolworth wanted his building.  Mr. Woolworth responded by telling his architect to make it fifty feet taller than the Metropolitan Life Insurance Building.  Yours truly is really resisting the urge to make some dirty snarky comment about building heights and men's shortcomings.

In the mid-1920s, the stakes in the "how high is high" race were raised by three architects and their banking and automobile tycoon backers, setting the stage for a pitched battle for skyline supremacy.  Two of these architects, William Van Alen and H. Craig Severance, once partners, now rivals over who should get credit for their early success.  Walter

The Chrysler Building
object.com 

Chrysler hired Mr. Van Alen to build the tallest building-The Chrysler Building-only to see it beat by the Manhattan Bank Company Building designed by Mr. Severance.  Never let it be said that architects don't have the biggest egos.  Here's where the story gets interesting.  Not to be outdone by Mr. Severance, Mr. Van Alen built the iconic Art Deco Crown of the Chrysler Building in the hollow of the unfinished structure.  Thus, the public was lead to believe that this ode to Art Deco had topped out its maximum height.  Once H. Craig Severance believed that his rival had won, with flourish (and no doubt relish), William Van Alen pulled the top of the building from within.

The Empire State Building
metroscenes.com

Unfortunately for Team Chrysler, then-New York State Governor Al Smith and his team of tycoons and architects were getting started on an even taller building, the Empire State Building, which stood for forty years as the tallest building until it was beat by the World Trade Center's North Tower in the early seventies, Rest in Peace.  May the blood of those who died in the towers be avenged, amen.  By the way, all this building frenzy was going on as the United States was sliding into The Great Depression.




Optimistically, the designers of One World Trade Center believed they were building the world's tallest building, as did Minrou Yamasaki, the lead architect of Emery Roth in 1962, when the original towers were designed.  However, the Twin Towers were bested by the Sears (Willis) Tower with Burj Khalifa sneaking up on the Americans.  Brian Palmer concludes that the race to build taller is a fool's errand, something yours truly concurs with.  Taller is not necessarily better.  Ultimately the law of the universe will kick in and disaster will strike.  However, Mr. Palmer seems to contradict himself at the end of his article by acting as a cheerleader for America to go taller.  Mr. Palmer seems to be caught up in the competition to build, even though he states, "That's why this eternal race to the top is something of a fool's game, since it's inevitable that something bigger will come along.  But that's the point!..."  Alright, if the point is to go bigger, then when does going bigger become a fool's game?  At what point does common sense building kick in?  Hey we're Americans and bigger is always better.  Right?

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