skyscraper, modern building of great height, constructed on a steel skeleton. The form originated in the United States.

Development of the Form

Many mechanical and structural developments in the last quarter of the 19th cent. contributed to its evolution. With the perfection of the high-speed elevator after 1887, skyscrapers were able to attain any desired height. The earliest tall buildings were of solid masonry construction, with the thick walls of the lower stories usurping a disproportionate amount of floor space. In order to permit thinner walls through the entire height of the building, architects began to use cast iron in conjunction with masonry. This was followed by cage construction, in which the iron frame supported the floors and the masonry walls bore their own weight.

The next step was the invention of a system in which the metal framework would support not only the floors but also the walls. This innovation appeared in the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, designed in 1883 by William Le Baron Jenney Jenney, William Le Baron, 1832–1907, American engineer and architect, b. Fairhaven, Mass. He studied at Harvard Scientific School and the École des Beaux-Arts.
..... Click the link for more information. —the first building to employ steel skeleton construction and embody the general characteristics of a modern skyscraper. The subsequent erection in Chicago of a number of similar buildings made it the center of the early skyscraper architecture. In the 1890s the steel frame was formed into a completely riveted skeleton bearing all the structural loads, with the exterior or thin curtain walls serving merely as an enclosing screen.

Legal and Aesthetic Refinements

In 1892 the New York Building Law made its first provisions for skeleton constructions. There followed a period of experimentation to devise efficient floor plans and aesthetically satisfying forms. In New York City the Flatiron Building by D. H. Burnham Burnham, Daniel Hudson (bûr`nəm), 1846–1912, American architect and city planner b. Henderson, N.Y.
..... Click the link for more information. was constructed in 1902, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in 1909, and the Woolworth Building, 60 stories high, by Cass Gilbert Gilbert, Cass, 1859–1934, American architect, b. Zanesville, Ohio, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in Europe. In 1880 he entered the employ of McKim, Mead, and White, New York City, and three years later opened his own office in St.
..... Click the link for more information. , in 1913. The last, with Gothic ornamentation, exemplifies the general tendency at that time to adapt earlier architectural styles to modern construction. The radical innovator Louis Henry Sullivan Sullivan, Louis Henry, 1856–1924, American architect, b. Boston, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He was of great importance in the evolution of modern architecture in the United States.
..... Click the link for more information. gave impetus to a new, bold aesthetic for skyscrapers. An excellent example is his design for the Wainwright building in St. Louis (1890–91). Frank Lloyd Wright Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1867–1959, American architect, b. Richland Center, Wis. Wright is widely considered the greatest American architect. After studying civil engineering at the Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. also contributed his unorthodox vision to such structures as the Price Tower (1953) in Bartlesville, Okla.

In 1916, New York City adopted the Building Zone Resolution, establishing legal control over the height and plan of buildings and over the factors relating to health, fire hazard, and assurance of adequate light and air to buildings and streets. Regulations regarding the setting back of exterior walls above a determined height, largely intended to allow light to reach the streets, gave rise to buildings whose stepped profiles characterize the American skyscraper of subsequent years.

With the complex structural and planning problems solved, architects still seek solutions to the difficulties of integrating skyscrapers with community requirements of hygiene, transportation, and commercial interest. In New York during the 1950s, public plazas were incorporated into the designs of the Lever House by Gordon Bunshaft Bunshaft, Gordon, 1909–90, American architect, b. Buffalo, N.Y. As chief designer for the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill , Bunshaft was responsible for Lever House, New York City's first glass curtain-wall skyscraper (1952), which has been
..... Click the link for more information. and the Seagram Building of Mies van der Rohe Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig (l
..... Click the link for more information. . These International style International style, in architecture, the phase of the modern movement that emerged in Europe and the United States during the 1920s. The term was first used by Philip Johnson in connection with a 1932 architectural exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New
..... Click the link for more information. buildings are also examples of the effective use of vast expanses of glass in skyscrapers. More recently, numerous skyscrapers have been constructed in a number of postmodern modes.

Outstanding Skyscrapers

The tallest skyscrapers are freestanding structures such as the CN Tower in Toronto (opened 1976), which measures 1,815 ft (553 m), and the Ostankino Tower in Moscow (opened 1967), which is 1,771 ft (540 m) high. By convention, however, a building is defined as being primarily for human habitation with the greatest majority of its height divided into occupiable floors. The height of a building is measured from the sidewalk level of the main entrance to the structural top of the building. This includes spires but does not include television antennas, radio antennas, or flagpoles. By this definition the tallest building is Taipei 101 Taipei 101, in the Hsinyi dist., Taipei, Taiwan; also known as the Taipei Financial Center. With 101 stories and reaching 1,671 ft (509 m) high, Taipei 101 became the world's tallest building when it was topped out in 2003, surpassing the Petronas Towers ;
..... Click the link for more information. , Taipei, Taiwan, which was topped off at 1,671 ft (509 m) and 101 stories in 2003. The twin Petronas Towers Petronas Towers, twin skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that are the world's tallest twin towers. Standing 1,483 ft (452 m) high, they were designed by the Argentinean-American architect Cesar Pelli.
..... Click the link for more information. (opened 1997) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are the second tallest; 88 stories high and topped by twin spires, they stand 1,483 ft (456 m) tall. Third highest is the Sears Tower Sears Tower, Chicago, the world's third tallest building. Until the opening of the 1,483-ft (452-m) Petronas Towers (1997) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was the world's tallest building. Constructed from 1970 to 1974 for Sears, Roebuck & Co.
..... Click the link for more information. (opened 1974) in Chicago; its 110 stories rise 1,454 ft (443 m) with an additional 253 ft (77 m) for the television antenna on top, making it the world's third tallest freestanding structure at 1,707 ft (520 m). The next tallest building, the 1,380 ft (420 m) tall Jin Mao Building (opened 1998) in Shanghai, China, is another example of leadership in skyscraper construction shifting from the United States.

Among the highest New York City skyscrapers are the Empire State Building Empire State Building, in central Manhattan, New York City, on Fifth Ave. between 33d St. and 34th St. It was designed by the firm of Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon and built in 1930–31.
..... Click the link for more information. , with 102 stories, 1,250 ft (381 m) high; the Chrysler Building Chrysler Building, in midtown Manhattan, New York City, at Lexington Ave. between 42d and 43d St. The ultimate art deco -style skyscraper , it was commissioned by Walter P. Chrysler , designed by William Van Alen, and built in 1926–30.
..... Click the link for more information. , with 77 stories, 1,048 ft (319 m) high; 60 Wall Tower, with 67 stories, 950 ft (290 m) high; and the GE (formerly RCA) Building in Rockefeller Center, with 70 stories, 850 ft (259 m) high. The former World Trade Center World Trade Center, former building complex in lower Manhattan, New York City, consisting of seven buildings and a shopping concourse on a 16-acre (6.5-hectare) site; it was destroyed by a terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
..... Click the link for more information. , which was the tallest building in the city until it was destroyed (Sept., 2001) by a terrorist attack, had two unstepped, rectangular towers of 110 stories each, one 1,362 ft (415 m) and the other 1,368 ft (417 m) high.

Bibliography

See K. Sabbagh, Skyscraper: The Making of a Building (repr. 1991); C. Willis, Form Follows Finance: Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago (1995); P. Johnson and J. Dupre, Skyscrapers (1996); D. Hoffmann, Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis Sullivan, and the Skyscraper (1999); S. B. Landau and C. W. Condit, The Rise of the New York Skyscraper, 1865–1913 (repr. 1999).

skyscraper

Very tall multistoried building. The term originally applied to buildings of 10–20 stories, but now generally describes high-rises of more than 40–50 stories. James Bogardus (1800–1874) built the pioneering Cast Iron Building, New York (1848), with a rigid iron frame providing the main support for upper-floor and roof loads. The refinement of the Bessemer process for making steel (lighter and stronger than iron) made extremely tall buildings possible. Chicago's Home Insurance Co. Building (1884–85), by William Le Baron Jenney (1832–1907), was the first tall building to use a steel skeleton. Structurally, skyscrapers consist of a substructure supported by a deep foundation of piles or caissons beneath the ground, an aboveground superstructure of columns and girders, and a curtain wall hung on the structural framework. Tube structures, braced tubes, and trussed tubes were developed to give skyscrapers the ability to resist lateral wind and seismic forces. The bundled-tube system, developed by Fazlur Khan (1928–1982), uses narrow steel tubes clustered together to form exceptionally rigid columns, and has been used to build some of the world's tallest skyscrapers (e.g., Sears Tower). Skyscraper design and decoration have passed through several stages: Louis Sullivan emphasized verticality; the firm of McKim, Mead, & White (see Charles F. McKim, Stanford White) stressed Neoclassicism. The International Style was ideally suited to skyscraper design. Originally a form of commercial architecture, skyscrapers have increasingly been used for residential purposes as well. See also setback.