Commercial and social impulse

The first skyscrapers emerged in the United States due to economic growth, the financial organization of American companies and the intensive use of developable land.[Co. 1] This phenomenon was concentrated in New York, a key seaport located on the island of Manhattan, on the east coast of the United States.[La. 1]​ As a result of its colonial history, New York's developable land was divided into small parcels of land with only large plots of land.[Wi. 1]​ During the first half of the century, the city became the center of American finance and Wall Street banks competed fiercely with their English competitors for international dominance.[1]​.

The Great Fire of 1835 destroyed much of the old financial buildings, and in their place new buildings were built and demolished in the 1840s and 1850s; The traveler Philip Hone stated that the entire city was rebuilt every ten years.[2]​[Sc. 1]​ Most buildings adopted the Italian neo-Renaissance style called palazzo (popular among rivals in England) and rose to a height of up to six stories.[3]​[Ab. 1]​ New York had no height restrictions, but low-rise buildings were built at least until 1865, so churches remained the tallest buildings in the city.[Wi. 2]​[Go. 1]​[Fo. 1]​ Between 1840 and 1870 the population of New York tripled and between 1860 and 1875 real estate values ​​increased more than 90%.[La. 2]​.

Further west, the city of Chicago also became a prominent site in the construction of the first skyscrapers. Unlike New York, Chicago emerged as a major metropolis in the middle of the century, growing from a town of about fifty inhabitants in 1830 to a city in the 1850s and nearly 1870.[Bl. 1]​ Chicago became the railroad center of the Old West and the first trading city for emerging territories, famous for its commercial culture.[4]​[Bl. 2]​ It was considered different from the other cities on the east coast and took pride in its vertiginous urban growth.[Co. 2]​.

By 1870, Chicago had become the major financial center of the West, but in October 1871 a large fire destroyed the wood-built downtown.[5][Sc. 2]​[Bl. 3] The city was rebuilt by distributing the land into large areas within a grid urbanization, [Wi. 1]​[6]​ with new ordinances that prohibited wooden constructions.[6]​[Bl. 4]​ These factors encouraged the construction of taller buildings with innovative designs, which like New York "New York (state)"), grouped different businesses and services in a single building.[6]​[The. 3]​.

The construction of tall buildings during 1870 was hampered by the financial panic of 1873 and the resulting economic depression that lasted until 1879.[La. 4]​ The construction stopped and the value of the properties plummeted.[The. 5]​ However, in 1880 it was already recovering and the appearance of new buildings in New York reached the pace of 1871.[La. 6]​ The economic recovery made the construction of taller buildings an attractive financial option again, thus establishing many of the preconditions for the development of the skyscraper.[Co. 3]​[The. 4]​.

Technological developments

The emergence of skyscrapers was possible thanks to the appearance of technological innovations during the central years of the century.[Sc. 2]​ One of these innovations was the iron structure. In traditional buildings the middle floors were supported by the walls, but the taller the building, the thicker the walls had to be made, particularly at the base: high-rise buildings quickly saw their lower floors devoured by brick or masonry.[Co. 4]​ In 1860, French engineers experimented with using prefabricated beams made of wrought iron to construct buildings supported by internal metal structures.[La. 7]​ These structures were stronger than traditional masonry and allowed for much thinner walls.[The. 7]​ The methodology was described extensively in engineering magazines and was initially used to build warehouses.[La. 7].

The use of these structures for tall buildings led to exposing them to the possible devastating effects of the wind.[La. 8]​ ​​As a consequence, anti-wind struts had to be used, made possible by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel who developed the equations for calculating loads and moments in large buildings.[La. 8]​[nb 1]​ Metal frame buildings were also particularly vulnerable to fire and required specific fire protection.[Co. 6]​ French engineers had already made progress in this field at the beginning of the century, but decisive advances only came with the work of architect Peter Wight") around 1860.[La. 9]​ Spurred by the catastrophic fires in Chicago, in 1871, and Boston, in 1872, his findings led to several fire protection products during the 1870s.[La. 10]​.

Tall, heavy buildings such as skyscrapers also required stronger foundations than those used in lighter buildings. The first buildings typically had their foundations resting on rubble, which was in turn deposited on a soft layer called residue.[La. 11]​ As buildings became taller and heavier, the layer of debris could not support their weight and the foundations needed to rest directly on the underlying rock.[La. 11]​ In both New York and Chicago this required considerably deeper excavation through soft and sometimes waterlogged soil, running the risk of the hole filling with water before the foundation was completed. The deeper the foundations had to be, the bigger the problem was.[The. 9]​ To solve this, special watertight boxes called caissons were invented in England around 1830, which were adopted in the United States throughout the 1850s and 1860s.[La. 9]​.

The development of the elevator was also essential for the appearance of the first skyscrapers, since an office building of more than six floors would not have been practical without them.[La. 3]​[Ab. 2] Elevators first appeared in England around 1830, spreading to factories and hotels in the United States in the 1840s.[La. 3]​ Cable elevators, however, could only operate effectively in low-rise buildings and this limitation encouraged the introduction of the hydraulic elevator in 1870, even though initial models suffered from dangerous design flaws.[La. 12] These defects were resolved in 1876, providing a solution for the equipment of the first skyscrapers.[La. 13]​[Pho. 2]​.

The first skyscraper

There is academic disagreement over which building should be considered the first skyscraper.[Sc. 2]​[Co. 1] The term was first used in 1780 to characterize a particularly tall horse, and was later applied to the sail at the top of a ship's mast, to tall caps and hats, to tall men, and to a ball that had been hit high in the air.[La. 19]​ In 1880 it began to be applied to buildings: first, in 1883, to describe large public monuments and then, in 1889, as a nickname for tall office blocks, a name that became widespread in the following decade.[La. 20]​[Co. 7]​ Identifying the first authentic "skyscraper" is not easy, and there are several candidates depending on the criteria adopted.[Go. 2]​ For example, the New York Equitable Life Building, from 1870, was the first office building to use an elevator, while the Produce Exchange Building, from 1884, presented substantial advances in the design of its metal structure.[Co. 4]​[Go. 2]​ However, Chicago's Home Insurance Building, opened in 1884, is most often considered the first skyscraper for its innovative use of steel in the design of its metal structure.[Sc. 2]​[Co. 7]​[Fo. 3]​.

The Home Insurance Building, a ten-story skyscraper with a height of , was designed by William Le Baron Jenney, who had been trained as an engineer in France and was a noted architect in Chicago.[Co. 8]​;[Go. 3]​[nb 2]​ Jenney's design was unusual in that it incorporated steel into the internal structure of the building alongside traditional wrought iron. This structure absorbed the weight of the building's floors and also helped to support the weight of the external walls, constituting an important step towards the creation of the genuine, structure-independent curtain walls that became a feature of later skyscrapers.[Co. 9]​ The design was not perfect—some of the weight still rested on masonry walls, and the metal structure was held together by screws, rather than rivets—but it was a significant advance in the construction of tall buildings.[Co. 5]​.

This construction system was quickly adopted in Chicago. In 1889, the Tacoma Building replaced the bolted metal design with a stronger, riveted one, and the Chamber of Commerce Building introduced interior light wells into the structural design of a skyscraper.[Co. 10]​ In 1890, the last technical problems were resolved in the Rand McNally Building, thus becoming the first steel-structure skyscraper.[Co. 10] Some buildings, such as The Rookery and the Monadnock, combined elements of the old and new styles, but in general Chicago quickly adopted steel structures as a flexible and effective way of creating tall buildings.[Co. 11]​ Professional engineers began to establish offices and studies in Chicago specialized in the steel structures needed by the new skyscrapers.[Fe. 1]​.

Once the technical challenges were overcome, Chicago experienced a period of boom in skyscraper construction starting in 1888, and the city became a leader in this new type of construction.[Wi. 3] By 1893, Chicago had already built twelve skyscrapers between sixteen and twenty stories high, all grouped in the center of the financial district.[Wi. 4]​[Bl. 3] Chicago skyscrapers, however, were affected by contemporary limits in the design of steel structures and the city's muddy subsoil, factors that limited their height to about 16 or 17 stories.[Wi. 5]​ These skyscrapers quickly became tourist destinations, both for the panoramic views they allowed from their top floors and for being notable places in their own right.[Bl. 5] Tourists were advised to hire carriages to tour the streets where the skyscrapers were located: if they lay down in the carriage they could comfortably appreciate the height of the buildings.[Bl. 6]​.

The Masonic Temple (Chicago Masonic Temple) in Chicago was the most famous of the new skyscrapers. Built in 1892 by the Masons of that city, whose community was growing rapidly at that time, the luxurious skyscraper was tall and had nineteen floors; The lower ten housed shops, and the upper ten housed the Masons' private suites and meeting places, some capable of holding 1,300 people. On the terrace was a garden and an observation deck. The Masons were competing with their local rivals, the Odd Fellows, who were attempting to build a much taller skyscraper, which they advertised as the tallest building in the world. of the Masonic Temple and drawing comparisons with historical buildings such as the Capitol or the Statue of Liberty.[10]​ The Odd Fellows project failed but the Masonic Temple took advantage of the publicity created by being declared "the tallest commercial building in the world."[11][nb 3]​.

Compared to Chicago, New York was lagging behind. In 1893, it had only four buildings over sixteen stories.[Wi. 4] Part of the delay was due to the slowness of the city authorities in authorizing metal structure construction techniques. It was not until 1889 that they compromised and allowed Bradford Gilbert to build the Tower Building, an eleven-story iron-framed skyscraper. of the twenty-story, steel-framed American Surety Building, which broke the height record held by Chicago.[Co. 13]​ Since then, New York fully adopted the construction method using a skeleton structure.[Co. 13]​ In particular, New York newspaper companies opted for the skyscraper, building several along Park Row—sometimes called "Newspaper Row"—in the 1880s. and 1890.[13] Some of the first skyscrapers were also built in Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Buffalo, such as the Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Prudential (Guaranty) Building_Building in Buffalo.[Fo 4][Re. 1] Other examples from the West Coast are the Old Chronicle. Building and the Call Building in San Francisco "San Francisco (California)"),[14]​ as well as the Luzon Building in Tacoma, Washington.[15]​.

Architectural challenges

The architects of the first skyscrapers faced several challenges. The architectural style in fashion at the end of the century was the French Beaux Arts movement, sometimes called the Italian Renaissance style, which applied classical aesthetic principles to modern buildings.[La. 22] American architects who studied that style at the Parisian Académie des Beaux-Arts "Academy of Fine Arts (France)") began to return to their homeland around 1880, bringing those ideals and standards with them. However, applying Beaux Arts standards to the first skyscrapers was not easy. The buildings that the Beaux Arts movement emulated were typically much shorter and wider than any skyscraper, and it was impossible to accurately reproduce that style in a tall, narrow building.[La. 22].

Furthermore, skyscrapers were primarily commercial buildings, and both economics and aesthetics had to play an important role in their design.[Wi. 7] Architectural writer Barr Ferree noted, in 1883, that "current American architecture is not a question of art, but of money. A building must be profitable, or it will not find investors willing to cover its cost. This is both the curse and the glory of American architecture."[16] George Hill seconded this view by condemning unnecessary features on the grounds that "every cubic foot used only for ornamental reasons, beyond what is necessary to express its use and to harmonize it with its kind, is a waste."[17]

Around 1890, Chicago architects began to solve this problem by creating a new architectural style, often called the "Chicago school of architecture."[Wi. 8]​[nb 4]​ This school included architects such as Louis Sullivan, William Le Baron Jenney and John Root, whose designs combined aesthetic theory and commercial sense. They tended to place, on the exterior of skyscrapers, rich ornamental designs at ground level and simpler ornamentation on the upper levels, with marked vertical lines.[Bl. 8]​[18]​ The roofs of its skyscrapers often formed a recognizable silhouette when viewed from afar, as part of the city's "skyline." The intention was to draw the observer's eye to the upper parts, highlighting what Sullivan called the "lofty" nature of the skyscraper, but not wasting resources on complex details that would not attract the attention of a busy businessman.[Bl. 8]​[19]​ At the same time, a more luxurious design on the ground floor would make the building stand out to passersby, making it attractive from a commercial point of view.[Bl. 9]​.

Chicago also saw the emergence of collaboration between architects, structural engineers and builders around new skyscraper projects.[Faith. 2]​ Historically the real estate industry had been dominated by individuals and small firms who combined the roles of architect and engineer, but all this was broken in Chicago at this time, being replaced by an alliance of specialists: on the one hand, architects who concentrated on the appearance of the skyscraper and, on the other, engineers who took charge of the structure that allowed it to stand.[Faith. 3]​ Chicago architectural firms became large and hierarchical, with numerous specialized personnel. The famous D. H. Burnham & Company"), for example, seemed to visitors like a small factory and ended up expanding to employ one hundred and eighty people.[Fe. 4]​.

Life in the first skyscrapers

The first skyscrapers were made mainly for small offices, with a typical width of only , which were placed side by side in long corridors, following a pattern initially used in the Oriel Chambers building in England, in 1864.[Fo. 5]​ It allowed small companies to rent a small space, with one or two offices, but making future expansion possible with the rental of additional cubicles if the need was seen.[Fo. 5] Skyscraper offices depended on natural light coming through the windows, reinforced, if necessary, with dim electric lighting from desk lamps.[Wi. 14]​ For the time, these offices were very modern, with radiators, ventilation ducts, the latest decorations and accessories, and modern communication systems such as telephones and pneumatic tubes.[Bl. 14]​ Therefore, many Chicago companies preferred to move from their old offices, located in low-rise buildings, to rented space in the new skyscrapers, considered more convenient and healthy.[Bl. 14].

The first skyscrapers were primarily occupied by male workers, but this changed during the 1890s, when the presence of female employees became more common. For example, the percentage of female office workers increased in Chicago from 11% in 1880 to 21% in 1890, reaching 30% in 1900.[21] Moral concerns were raised by the presence of men and women in such offices, which were traditionally considered a masculine space, full of tobacco smoke and indecent talk, and therefore unsuitable for women.[22]​ New employees They typically worked as typists or stenographers, using the newly invented typewriter, the number of which increased in United States offices from 146 in 1879, to , in 1890.[23]

The skyscrapers provided a wide spectrum of services to their tenants, such as shops, restaurants, barbershops, tobacco shops, newspaper sales, tailors, professional specialists and bookstores.[Bl. 15] Skyscrapers also hired a significant number of service employees for maintenance and assistance tasks: a building like the Chicago Board of Trade spent 20% of its income on service personnel, with a total of forty-one people—janitors, elevator operators, mechanics, and an electrician—[Bl. 15]​ This collection of services and facilities led to the skyscrapers of the time being considered as small cities in themselves.[Bl. 6]​.

Criticism and reform in Chicago

Opposition to skyscrapers in Chicago began to grow in the late 1880s and early 1890s.[Bl. 16]​ Even before the development of skyscrapers, there was already criticism in Chicago of large buildings for dominating churches and private homes, and this sentiment increased.[Bl. 17] Critics complained that the concentration of tall buildings in the city center was causing massive congestion, and each new skyscraper was also causing additional coal to be burned to power its facilities, all together consuming more than a million tons a year and leaving a blanket of smoke and bad air over Chicago.[Bl. 16]​ There was also concern about the risk of a large fire breaking out and ending up spreading, out of control, from building to building.[Bl. 16].

Chicago was not the only city to be concerned about the growth of skyscrapers. In Boston, the Fiske Building and the Ames Building were built in the late 1880s, with a height of 56 and , respectively, but protests from citizens and real estate interests caused the city to pass a rule limiting the height of new buildings to a maximum of , effectively banning skyscrapers.[Re. 1]​ Similarly, the cities of Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. also introduced height controls to limit the construction of skyscrapers.[Fo. 6]​.

The decisive factor for change in Chicago, however, was the economic slowdown in the early 1890s, which would end in the financial panic of 1893.[Bl. 16]​[Wi. 6]​ The recession, combined with the frenetic construction of the previous years, meant that Chicago suddenly had a surplus of office space, threatening occupancy levels and rental income.[Bl. 16]​ In order to tackle the problem the city council introduced new regulations in 1892, supported by real estate developers, who hoped to reduce the construction of new office space and thus shore up their declining profit margin.[Wi. 6]​ The height of new buildings was limited to , with lower heights on narrow streets, effectively limiting the construction of skyscrapers.[Bl. 16]​}[Wi. 6]​.

The pre-war boom

The early years of the century saw the construction, in New York "New York (state)"), of a series of technically sophisticated and architecturally safe skyscrapers, and this was termed by scholars Sarah Landau and Carl Condit as the "first great era" in skyscraper construction.[La. 26] Some buildings were of a relatively conservative and classical style, for example, the Mutual Life, Atlantic Mutual and Broad Exchange buildings, all designed by Clinton and Russell.[La. 27] Others broke new ground, such as the Flatiron Building, opened in 1903 near Madison Square.[La. 28]​ The firm Daniel Hudson Turnham, of Chicago, designed that twenty-one-story high building. The building, narrow and unusual in shape, needed strong wind reinforcement; Its façade was rich in details, incorporating stylistic characteristics more common in Chicago.[La. 29]​ The Flatiron achieved critical and public success, and was compared to the Parthenon of Ancient Greece, becoming, for a time, a symbol of New York.[La. 29]​[Go. 6]​.

The construction of the Singer Tower was announced by the company in 1906, intending to build the tallest skyscraper in the world.[The. 30] The company already owned several lower-rise buildings in New York, to which it intended to incorporate the tower, the lower part of which it planned to rent to other tenants to pay for the use of the upper part, which it reserved for itself.[La. 31]​ The skyscraper was designed by Ernest Flagg, a proponent of the Beaux Arts style and well-known critic of existing skyscrapers, who justified taking charge of the project as a way to generate support for the reform of skyscrapers.[Faith. 7]​ The design was a technical challenge, since such a tall and narrow tower needed special reinforcement against the wind and, in addition, the rock base was so deep that it required very deep foundations.[La. 32]​ The façade was made of dark brick following the Beaux Arts style of the rest of the complex, with a balcony vestibule in Italian marble.[La. 33] When it was inaugurated, in 1908, it had forty-seven floors and its height was ; Visitors paid 50 cents (about $12 in 2010 dollars) to access the viewing area at the top of the building and enjoy the views.[La. 34].

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower was opened in 1909, the culmination of a long construction project by N. LeBrun and Sons) to house the rapidly increasing staff of Metropolitan Life's headquarters, some 2,800 people in 1909. promoted the company's image and the construction was surrounded by advertising.[Mo. 3]​ The tower appeared on the covers of prominent magazines such as Scientific American, as well as on the sides of cereal containers, coffee packages and cars.[Mo. 4]​[nb 5]​ It was somewhat inspired by the Campanile of San Marco in Venice and contained abundant early Renaissance style details, with modern additions such as enormous spheres of clock, electric lamps for night illumination, and an observation platform overhead.[Mo. 5]​[La. 36]​ Contemporary architects Everett Waid and Harvey Corbett reported that the building had "the latest ideas in ventilation, air conditioning, sound deadening, artificial lighting, pneumatic tube intercommunication, telephones, call bells, clock operating units [and] special facilities as to elevators and escalators."[24]​ The design earned a general award. applause among American architects.[La. 37]​.

The construction of the Woolworth Building was announced in 1910 by Frank Woolworth, who wanted to create the most profitable property in the United States.[The. 38]​ The project took shape and Woolworth finally opted for a skyscraper fifty-five stories high, the tallest building in the world at its time, at a cost of dollars (about in 2010).[The. 38]​[Go. 7]​[nb 6]​ Architect Cass Gilbert's designs allowed for a high proportion of usable—and therefore profitable—space at ground level, with lots of light and a flexible floor plan so it could be shared by different tenants.[La. 39]​ State-of-the-art equipment was installed to attract important tenants, with the fastest elevators in the world, security features and a swimming pool.[La. 40]​ Gilbert adopted the Beaux Arts style, using terracotta and glass to underline the vertical lines that reproduced the underlying structure, and incorporating characteristics of the flamboyant Gothic style of the 2nd and 2nd centuries. The building culminated in a golden tower that merged with the sky, producing an illusion of even greater height.[Faith. 8]​[The. 41]​[Go. 8]​ ​​It was illuminated at night and crowned with white and red flashing lights.[The. 42] It was called the "Cathedral of Commerce", something that Gilbert did not like as he had tried to avoid any resemblance to ecclesiastical architecture.[La. 43].

Meanwhile, the skyscraper industry in Chicago also experienced a boom during the decade before World War I. The city's elevated rail network was already operating in 1910, allowing a greater flow of workers downtown.[26] New offices were not created until 1910, and by the end of the decade Chicago ranked second in terms of corporate headquarters office space in the United States.[26] Chicago architectural firms such as Daniel H. Burnham and later Graham, Anderson, Probst & White continued to design high-rise buildings. palazzo, which had become popular in the previous decade.[Wi. 11]​ Chicago had hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a mass international event that had sparked interest in the themes of classical architecture and well-designed urban environments.[Wi. 15]​ Chicago also had extensive discussions in 1909 about the potential redesign of large parts of the city, the Burnham Plan of Chicago").[Wi. 15]​.

The skyscrapers that appeared at this time reflected these debates: the Railway Exchange Building (Chicago), Peoples Gas, and Illinois Continental and Commercial Bank were imposing palazzo-style cubes, occupying a quarter block and of similar height, with facades divided according to the classic tripartite design and adorned with columns and classical details. [Wi. 16] Despite the apparent uniformity of design, individual buildings showed considerable variation in detail, in an effort to express their particular identities: the People's Gas building used texture and the Railway Exchange building white terracotta, for example.[27]

Building improvements

The skyscraper construction process became more sophisticated, starting with the purchase of the land necessary for the project.[Wi. 17]​ The plots were secretly acquired by brokers working on commission, operating under various names to avoid price increases if the planned construction became known.[Wi. 18] The lots located at the edge of the street were acquired first, so that, if news of the planned skyscraper became public, the owners of the lots located at the back would have no choice but to sell.[Wi. 19] Financing was normally provided by banks and insurance companies, or obtained through the issuance of debentures or bonds by a specialized house, the latter method being the most used after the First World War. [Wi. 20]​.

Efforts were made to improve the procedures for erecting skyscrapers, largely thanks to the work of builders such as Louis Horowitz and Frank Gilbreth, who built on the recent work of efficiency specialist Frederick Taylor.[Faith. 9]​ Planned schedules were devised for all tasks that needed to be performed, with all costs carefully monitored through daily reports.[Fe. 10]​ The results were evident during the construction of the Woolworth Building, where 1,153 tons of steel were assembled in just six days, a record for the time.[Faith. 10] Improved wind bracing techniques were introduced.[La. 32]​ The use of pneumatic caissons in the foundations of skyscrapers became more advanced: in the construction of the Manhattan Municipal Building, in 1908, these caissons were sunk below ground level, with specially equipped workers operating in shifts and with permanent medical assistance.[La. 44].

New technologies were also introduced inside the buildings. For the first time, Otis elevators powered by electricity instead of steam-powered hydraulic mechanisms began to be installed in high-speed skyscrapers, which were also secured with Ellithorpe air shock absorbers to protect passengers in the event of failure.[The. 40] Lighting improved thanks to the electrical levels recommended in 1916 that were double those recommended in 1890. [Wi. 21]​ However, skyscrapers still relied fundamentally on natural light, which required installing large windows and having high ceilings that allowed light to penetrate to the back of the offices: an office with a depth greater than that was not considered a practical design.[Wi. 22].

Life in skyscrapers

One of the reasons for the increase in the number of skyscrapers during this period was the increase in demand for office staff. This demand in part came from many American companies becoming larger and more complex, and sectors that employed white-collar personnel, such as insurance and banking, growing in importance.[28] It was also driven by technological change. Along with typewriters, the offices were equipped with adding machines, telephones and filing cabinets. All of this not only increased the demand for space but at the same time required increasingly specialized personnel.[29]​.

Tenants and rental income were essential to the financial success of skyscrapers, as even the tallest and those promoted by major companies rented much of their offices.[Wi. 23] Landlords could charge significantly higher rents if office space was located near the main windows, making it more profitable to build skyscrapers with lots of quality office space, even if this made construction more expensive in the first place.[Wi. 24]​ As a result, a standard model emerged for individual offices in both New York and Chicago: either a rectangular floor plan behind the façade or a "T"-shaped design, with an entrance space leading to two windowed offices, separated by translucent partitions.[Wi. 25] Skyscrapers typically took on a large number of relatively small businesses as tenants. A skyscraper like the Woolworth Building had about 600 different tenants in 1913, for example, while a typical tenant might have four or five cubicles rented.[Wi. 26].

Reviews

The skyscrapers, particularly those in New York, attracted much comment, sometimes negative. Upon his return to New York, the writer Henry James condemned these buildings in The American Scene as mere "giants of the pure market," "mercenary monsters" condemned to be torn down when other, even taller, buildings took their place.[Sc. 3]​[30]​ In Chicago the combination of skyscrapers and environmental pollution meant that, as Charles Warner complained, "you could barely see across the street on a rainy day, and the enormous buildings loomed in the black sky in a ghostly gloom."[31]​.

Artistic opinions were also diverse. Many, like Alfred Stieglitz, harbored mixed feelings about New York's skyscrapers, reflected in his famous 1903 portrait of the Gridiron Building and his 1910 work Old and New New York which presents the contrast between the soaring steel structure of the Vanderbilt Hotel and the old low-rise buildings on the same street.[Sc. 4] Poets also wrote on this topic: modernist Sadakichi Hartmann) describes how "from the city's commotion and its maddening roar the monstrous form of the Flatiron rises in massive flight." In 1908 the artist Harry Pettit produced a romantic interpretation of a New York of the future, full of giant skyscrapers that supported air bridges and received airships from all over the globe.[Go 9]​.

The Chicago Exposition inspired many architects in America to design cities with a uniform urbanism, in which each building had unique characteristics but served as an elegant complement to its neighbors, typically by being of the same height: "horizontal visual unity."[Re. 2]​ At the end of the exhibition, many of these advocates joined the Beaux Arts movement to form the City Beautiful movement, proposing low-rise cities with wide boulevards, built in classical style.[Re. 3] These critics condemned New York's skyscrapers; one of them, Montgomery Schuyler"), accused them of having produced a "horrible jagged mountain range" on the city's skyline and lamented that no modern skyscraper had become an architectural success.[32][Re. 4] Charles Lamb claimed that the skyscraper undermined the rights of the rest of the city by destroying the collective appearance of the urban area.[33] Some architects, such as Charles Mckim and Stanford White, refused to work on such a building altogether. projects.[Faith 7]​.

Reform in New York

New York also called for legislation to prevent the growth of skyscrapers, citing their effects on the city's skyline, but these requests encountered legal obstacles. The United States Constitution did not allow local authorities to prevent the construction of buildings solely on aesthetic grounds, and such legislation in New York could very likely be challenged in court.[Re. 5]​.

Others asserted that skyscraper legal reform was necessary for reasons of public health and safety, areas in which United States law permitted greater state intervention.[Re. 1]​ The risk of fire was worrying, because although skyscrapers were relatively immune to fire, their height made it difficult to fight any fire conventionally. Architect Charles Bragdon believed a large-scale, high-rise fire was inevitable if legislation was not passed in time. The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 was widely cited as an example of the risk incurred, and although Baltimore had almost no skyscrapers worthy of the name, city lawyers argued that taller buildings had caused the flames to spread across the city during the disaster. Baltimore ended up approving. a law, in 1904, prohibiting buildings with a height greater than .[Re. 1] Other critics alleged that skyscrapers compromised access to light and air, noting that tall buildings generated a long shadow on the street, preventing shorter ones from benefiting from sunlight.[La 45]​.

Ernest Flagg's first attempts, in 1896, to limit the height of New York skyscrapers failed. Subsequent attempts between 1906 and 1908 also failed, and the legislation was rejected again in 1909, due in part to pressure from the interests of the promoters.[Wi. 27] However, after 1913, the New York real estate market entered a recession and vacancies in buildings began to grow.[Wi. 27] The campaign for change was reinforced by the construction of the Equitable Building "Equitable Building (New York)" in 1915, with an estimated cost of 2010 dollars (2010), which soon became infamous for its great height and enormous volume, which blocked views and left its neighbors in permanent shadow. [Wi. 28]​[35]​ Real estate developers eventually withdrew their objections to new legislation and the 1916 Zoning Resolution "Zoning Act of 1916 (New York)") was passed.[Wi. 27].

The details of that legislation were largely the work of George Ford. This architect was sympathetic to the City Beautiful movement, disliked the unimaginative shapes of many New York skyscrapers, and was concerned about urban public health, but he nevertheless found tall buildings attractive and believed that horizontal visual uniformity produced tedious architecture.[Re. 6]​ As a consequence of Ford's influence, New York's laws were relatively detailed, dividing the city into different zones. In each one, a particular zoning envelope was applied that controlled the height of the possible buildings.[Wi. 29]​[Re. 7]​ A building could only rise vertically from the sidewalk a few feet, and from there it had to be stepped or set back at a certain angle to allow sunlight to reach the street.[Wi. 27]​ On a quarter of the lot, however, the owner could build as high as he wanted, without any additional restrictions.[Wi. 29].

Postwar growth

At the end of the First World War, a real estate explosion occurred in the United States, with a spectacular increase in the construction of new skyscrapers in the period 1925 to 1931.[Sc. 7] In New York, a quarter of the financial district was rebuilt between 1928 and 1931, with squares of new office space added only between 1925 and 1929. [Wi. 30]​[Ab. 3]​ Chicago saw pressure growing on available office space during the war; Construction was limited by supply shortages and as a result rents rose 100% between 1919 and 1924.[Wi. 31]​ This level of potential profit brought with it an explosion of new construction to the city[Wi. 32]​ and inflated prices in the property market, leading to financial speculation with the introduction of 100% mortgages for new construction. A contemporary issue of Fortune magazine sarcastically stated that “all a person needs to own a skyscraper is money and land. And he could get by without money.”[Wi. 33].

Skyscrapers continued to grow in height during the 1920s.[Wi. 34] This was partly a result of technological improvements: steel structures had become increasingly efficient, while improvements in elevator design made it easier to reach upper floors.[Wi. 35]​[Ab. 2]​ Commercial factors also played a role, as demand continued to raise rents, leading to taller buildings, and since the offices on the upper floors had more sunlight, this appeal allowed for higher rents to be charged.[Wi. 36]​ In addition, high-rise buildings provided greater publicity to their residents, making it easier to find and retain better tenants.[Wi. 36]​ Likewise, the higher the cost of land, the taller the building needed to be to generate an adequate return on investment, and thus the minimum height for a profitable skyscraper was increased to forty or forty-five stories.[Wi. 37]​[36]​ Seventy-story skyscrapers became relatively common, although an influential 1930 study showed that the best rate of return on investment in a skyscraper was to build it sixty-three stories high, generating an annual profit of 10.25%.[Wi. 38].

Skyscrapers continued to spread both in the United States and in the rest of the world. New York and Chicago remained the center of skyscraper development but most major cities in the United States had already built skyscrapers by 1929, usually as a result of competition between rival cities seeking status and investment.[Sc. 7]​[Fo. 7]​[Wi. 6]​ In Detroit, during the crazy years, the General Motors Building was built in 1920,[37]​ the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in 1924,[38]​ the Buhl Building in 1925,[39]​ the Book Tower in 1926,[40]​ the Cadillac Tower in 1927,[41]​ the Penobscot Building,[42]​ the David Broderick Tower[43]​ and the Fisher Building in 1928,[44]​ the Guardian Building[45]​ and the David Stott Building in 1929,[46]​ and the First National Building in 1930.[47]​.

Cincinnati built the Cincinnati Towers in 1914, followed by the Carew Tower complex in 1930.[Fo. 8]​ ​​In Cleveland, the Union Trust Building was built in 1923 and the Terminal Tower in 1929; the latter, built by the Van Sweringen brothers, was, briefly, the second tallest building in the world.[48] Seattle had built the Smith Tower as early as 1914, and the local government of Los Angeles exempted itself from the city's planning restrictions to build Los Angeles City Hall in 1928.[Fo. 8]​ ​​Also in 1928, the Industrial National Bank Building was built in Providence "Providence (Rhode Island)").[49]​.

Skyscrapers were also built in other developed countries, although without reaching the level of construction seen in the United States.[Go. 10]​ This was due in part to lack of funds but also to local architectural preferences.[Go. 10]​ Certain European cities, such as London or Paris, had regulations prohibiting tall buildings, but in other places skyscrapers began to appear, such as the Imperial Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto, the Boerentoren in Antwerp or the Kavanagh Building in Buenos Aires.[50]​[Fo. 4] Many other skyscrapers were proposed in Europe, in a certain urban planning frenzy, but only a few materialized.[51]​ In Soviet Russia, construction began in the late 1930s of the 416 m Palace of the Soviets, in the style of socialist Classicism, which would have become the tallest building in the world, but due to the war the skyscraper was never completed.[52]​ During the post-war period this one style gave rise to the monumental buildings known as the Seven Sisters of Moscow.[53]​.

The technology used in the construction of skyscrapers continued to evolve. Time became an important factor in the development of projects, and architects and their teams of specialists invented faster ways to design and construct buildings in order to minimize interest payments during construction and accelerate the arrival of rental income.[Ab. 4]​ By 1930, skyscrapers were built in just twelve months by teams of about five thousand workers, typically raising four floors per week.[Ab. 5]​ The construction of tower-shaped skyscrapers involved some adaptations in engineering techniques, since in reality two different buildings were designed—the base and the tower—that needed to be effectively integrated by means of elevators and other equipment.[Wi. 39]​ Most of the new offices ended up being a standard size: 2.7 m wide by 6.1 to 9.1 m deep, depending on ceiling height, preferring multiple small windows to a few large ones.[Wi. 40]​[Ab. 6]​ Electric lighting continued to improve, although it began to generate excessive heat inside the offices.[Wi. 41] Air conditioning was first installed in some skyscrapers during the 1930s.[Wi. 42].

Art deco and stepped style skyscrapers in New York

During the 1920s and 1930s, many skyscrapers were designed in the Art Deco style.[54]​[nb 7]​ This architectural approach typically combined what Carlos Willis characterized as "simple sculptural mass aesthetics" with the use of color and ornamentation on the facades of buildings.[Sc. 8]​[Wi. 43] The goal was to draw attention to the increasingly complex three-dimensional form of the skyscraper, in contrast to previous styles that could be considered, as historian Larry Ford said, as "low buildings made taller by additional floors." Ford, 2005, p. 37[Go. 11]​ Windows were de-emphasized to create a strong sense of form and mass, and the surrounding walls were treated as a textured fabric, dressing the building from below.[55]​[Ab. 8] Skyscrapers of this period normally lost their horizontal ornamental divisions and, when contemplating the building, its lines were broken by physical changes in volume, the whole of which drew a striking silhouette. [Wi. 44]​[55]​.

In New York, regulations issued in 1916 to allow light and air to reach the street encouraged a stepped or ziggurat approach to skyscraper design. This stepped style often made unrestricted use of the 25% of the land allowed by law to finish the construction with a very tall tower.[Wi. 29]​ This allowed different buildings to maintain a common element of harmony and consistency of style.[Re. 8]​ ​​The buildings 1501 Broadway and 120 Wall Street, for example, were built in the stepped style but without a tower because the small size of the lots would have made the towers relatively narrow and, therefore, once equipped with the necessary elevators and common elements, economically unfeasible.[Wi. 45] Many of the skyscrapers built on larger or more expensive sites opted for the tallest towers possible, such as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building (millions of dollars in 2010) or the City Bank-Farmer Trust Company Building.[Wi. 46]​[Ab. 9]​ New York continued its lead in skyscrapers during this era: by 1920 it had ten times the number of tall buildings than Chicago, its closest rival.[Wi. 47].

Some New York skyscrapers complemented traditional cubicle-type offices linked by hallways with larger, open spaces called "general offices."[Ab. 10]​ These offices maximized the number of employees that could be placed in a given space, and provided greater flexibility.[Ab. 10] Expensive business suites were also created during the 1930s, especially on Wall Street, and usually on the highest floors of buildings.[Ab. 11]​ They were used by executives and managers and their decoration was luxurious, with a style that varied from traditional to exotic.[Ab. 12]​ The lobbies of these skyscrapers adopted an imposing presentation, and some banks now avoided renting that space to shops and restaurants in order to achieve a more exclusive atmosphere.[Ab. 13] The largest skyscrapers housed up to , although the most common figures were between and , and the buildings maintained a variety of services with them in mind, such as beauty salons, private lunch rooms, pedicures, and gyms.[Ab. 14]​ A skyscraper like Cities Service Building directly employed more than two hundred people to manage and protect the property.[Ab. 15] Technology within offices also became more sophisticated, with dictaphones, automatic typewriters and tabulating machines being used by increasingly specialized teams of employees.[56][nb 8]​.

Towers in Chicago

Chicago altered its laws in 1920 to allow towers to be built as part of skyscrapers. The maximum height of a building in Chicago was increased to 79 m, and unoccupied elements of a building, such as ornamental towers, were allowed to rise up to 120 m in height.[Wi. 48] Other changes in the regulations came in 1923, allowing for the first time the existence of taller and more occupiable towers, although subject to controls on the overall volume. [Wi. 9] The main building of a skyscraper could rise up to 80 m, and a tower could be built on 25% of the land, but this tower could not have a volume greater than one sixth of the main complex. [Wi. 48]​ In practice, this meant that the tower could be no more than twenty stories high in a typical Chicago skyscraper.[Wi. 48].

Chicago still preferred the palazzo style for buildings, with large light courts in the center, mainly because it was still the most cost-effective design.[Wi. 49]​ The Wrigley Building, built under the 1920 law, showed the effect of two ornamental towers at the top of a skyscraper.[Wi. 48]​ Under the revised law, the Straus Building "Metropolitan Tower (Chicago)") and the Pittsfield Building adopted the palazzo design, crowning it with somewhat rickety towers but producing profitable buildings.[Wi. 50]​.

One of the most famous buildings of this era, the Tribune Tower, was the result of a contest held by the Tribune Company in 1922 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The newspaper was one of the largest in the world and used the contest, in which the public was invited to give their opinion on the skyscraper's design, to gain reader loyalty and generate free advertising. The final design was determined by a jury, mostly made up of people. named by the company, which chose the tower design of John Howells and Raymond Hood.[60] The resulting tower had a conservative Gothic appearance, which almost immediately sparked controversy over the decision: Louis Sullivan and many others criticized Howells and Hoods' design as a derivative of the Woolworth tower.[Sc. 9][61][Go. 10]​ Despite criticism, the Tribune Tower received no less than its observation deck when it opened in 1925.[58]​ The unbuilt design that came in second place in the competition, a simpler design by Eliel Saarinen, also proved highly influential.[58]​.

The popularity of the previous style began to decline in favor of the towers.[Wi. 51] A common way to build them within the Chicago legal framework was to build a square main block with a central service column, and then simply place a tower on top. The more massive the main block, the taller the tower could be.[Wi. 52]​ The Trustees System Service Building "Century Tower (Chicago)") and the Foreman State National Bank Building constitute good examples of this design.[Wi. 52]​ Alternatively, the façade of the main block could be made recessed, like that of the Chicago Civic Opera Building or the LaSalle-Wacker Building, sacrificing some volume but producing the visual effect of two slender wings flanking a very tall tower. [Wi. 53] The characteristic New York stepped style was not adopted in Chicago, the only example of this style being the Palmolive Building on North Michigan Avenue. [Wi. 54].

The Great Depression

The boom in skyscraper construction began to decline as a result of the Wall Street crash of 1929, and rapid economic growth gave way to the years of the Great Depression, in which construction suffered a widespread slowdown. but it was valued at () in 1933; The Bank of Manhattan Trust building could not meet its debts in 1935 and was put up for sale for only $100 ().[Wi. 55]​[Pho. 9]​ [Ab. 9]​[nb 9]​ The important bond issuing company, S. W. Straus, which was behind many successful promotions, was unable to remunerate bonds worth of dollars () that were in the hands of its investors; promoter Van Swerigan Brothers also went bankrupt.[Wi. 55]​[Pho. 9]​ The percentage of vacant offices began to increase in step with the recession, increasing in central New York from 1% in the early 1920s to 17% in 1931 and 25% in 1934.[Wi. 30]​.

In the face of the recession, some skyscraper projects were canceled or scaled back. The Metropolitan Life company's plans to build a hundred-story skyscraper next to the tower it had already built were presented in 1929, but ended up being abandoned due to the recession and criticism of such an expense in the economic climate of the time.[Mo. 6]​ Instead, the first phase of the project, known as the North Building, stood at a height of just thirty-two stories and the building, even with that limited height, was only fully completed in 1950.[Mo. 7]​ In many other cases, projects that had already been commissioned were completed. This meant that new offices appeared in New York between 1931 and 1934, that is, once the recession had already begun, aggravating the problem of excess rental supply.[Wi. 56] Some of these buildings, however, became emblematic, considerably raising the height limits of skyscrapers.[Go. 12].

The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, when the Great Depression was beginning to show its impact.[Go. 13]​ Architect William Van Alen competed with the designers of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building to create the tallest building in the world, constructing the spire in a last-minute effort to secure that title for the sixty-nine-story building and .[Go. 14]​[63]​ The exterior was built of white and gray brick, but a lot of metal was used in its ornamentation, with gargoyles and eagle heads in nickel chrome and even a winged helmet of Mercury "Mercury (mythology)").[63]​Goldberger, 1985, p. 80 Black granite was used at the entrance to contrast with the chrome windows, and in the lobby there was red marble and a mural on the ceiling.[64]​ The design of the different parts of the building was individualized, even with a different design for each elevator.[65]​ A Chrysler car showroom was placed on the ground floor of the building, and an observation deck next to the exclusive Cloud Club on the upper floors.[66]​.

The Empire State Building emerged in 1928 as a project to reuse the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel site to build a fifty-story mixed-use building. The purchase of the lot in dollars () set a record in New York that year.[Wi. 57] John Raskob and Pierre du Pont, who were part of the project as capital partners, concluded that the project would be more profitable if an extremely tall building, eighty stories high, was built in its place.[Wi. 58] Although a review of financial estimates advised that the height be reduced, the claim of having the tallest building in the world was considerable and so five additional floors were added to ensure that the building, with its , would surpass the Chrysler Building in height.[Wi. 59]​ An observation deck was built to attract tourists which proved to be a valuable source of income.[Wi. 60]​ The limestone, granite and aluminum skyscraper was specially designed to be easy to build, with standardized partitions and structural elements. It was completed in just eighteen months, being inaugurated in 1931.[Wi. 61]​[Go. 15] Due to the recession, however, it was only 25% occupied during the 1930s, generating losses, and critics nicknamed it the "Empty State Building", a pun on the English term .[Wi. 57]​[Sc. 10]​.

Skyscraper mania and the social echo

Interest in skyscrapers increased during the 1920s, particularly after the Tribune Tower competition.[Sc. 11]​ The drawings sent to the contest were exhibited in an exhibition in Chicago and were seen in just one month.[Sc. 12] In general, images of skyscrapers became ubiquitous in American culture, beginning what historian Merrill Schleier called "skyscraper mania."[Sc. 7] The 1925 exhibition "Titan City" celebrated existing skyscrapers and featured murals by Harvey Corbett") and Hugh Ferriss, showing skyscrapers as the heart of the "City of the Future." [Sc. 11] The short film Manhatta") (1921), by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand, explored the theme and ended with a sunset sequence sun from the top of a skyscraper.[Sc. 13]​ Authors such as Janet Flanner, John Dos Passos and Mary Borden") wrote novels in which skyscrapers were an important part of the setting.[Sc. 12]​ The musician John Carpenter composed a ballet on the subject,[Sc. 12]​ and the designer Paul Frankl created a popular series of "skyscraper furniture".[Sc. 14]​.

Many of these comments were positive and reflected optimism about technology and the direction of urban life in general.[Sc. 15] Skyscrapers were seen as an expression of rational engineering, the perfect buildings for humanity to live in, as the artist Louis Lozowick celebrated them in his lithographs. [Sc. 16] [Ab. 17] Other defenders of skyscrapers made them similar to medieval cathedrals, similar symbols in the modern era. a sublime and rational beauty, for example Ferris described them like this: «buildings like crystals, walls of translucent glass, blocks of transparent glass covering a steel grill». French-Swiss Le Corbusier praised New York in 1935 for being "overwhelming, incredible, exciting, violently alive", but complained that there were still few skyscrapers and that those that did exist were not tall enough.[70] Lewis Hine, hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building, portrayed construction crews as brave heroes, creating a genre of photography that lasted until 1941.[Sc. 19].

On the other hand, critics worried about the impact of modern technology and urban life on the human condition, claiming that skyscrapers generated pollution and noise, and imposed a militarized and dehumanized lifestyle on the people who worked in them.[Sc. 20]​ The social commentator Lewis Mumford reflected these concerns in his criticisms titled Is the skyscraper tolerable? and The intolerable city.[Sc. 21] Political scientist Stefan Hirsch condemned buildings as "bandages that cover the sky, suffocating our breath." [Wi. 66]​ Inventor Thomas Edison feared that uncontrollable expansion of skyscrapers would result in overcrowding and disaster.[Go. 16]​ The engravings of Howard Cook") expressed the oppressive nature of the new skyscrapers that threatened the traditional city.[Ab. 18]​ Berenice Abbott's photographic works on New York in 1930 explored the complex theme of urban change and the impact of skyscrapers on the traditional lifestyle of the city, extending Stieglitz's work into the first decade of the century.[71]​.

The construction of skyscrapers stopped during the years of World War II. When it resumed in the 1950s and 1960s, they entered a different phase of development, often called the international or modern period. Some experimental designs in this style had been built in the United States, according to European architectural concepts, in the early 1930s, notably the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building and 330 West 42nd Street.[73] After the war, his approaches were used in a new generation of skyscrapers. These tended to occupy the site alone—like the RCA building at Rockefeller Center—rather than being part of a row of buildings, and looked like enormous tablets and towers with facades almost completely covered in glass, which broke with pre-existing tradition.[Wi. 67]​[Go. 17]​ Inside, new technologies such as fluorescent lighting and air conditioning throughout the building made many of the old architectural features, such as light wells and windows that could be opened, unnecessary.[Wi. 68].

The trend had substantial implications for many early skyscrapers. Some were redesigned in accordance with new tastes. Much of the ornamentation was removed from the Metropolitan Life Tower in 1960, for example, to adapt to simpler contemporary fashions.[The. 35]​ But many of the old skyscrapers could not be adapted, as they lacked depth to build larger and more modern offices, or space for new service equipment.[Wi. 69] Some were demolished to make way for new, larger buildings. Among them was the Singer Building, demolished in 1968 and replaced by the International-style United States Steel Building.[The. 46]​ In the 19th century, towers such as the West Street Building have been converted into luxury homes, having large, sunny windows.[74]​.

Critical debate about the first skyscrapers began in the 1880s among architects and spread to the cultural and academic community in the interwar period. In the 1930s the terms Chicago "school" and "movement" were first used, and were popularized in the 1940s by scholars Sigfried Giedion and Carl Condit as a way of referring to early Chicago architects. They considered skyscrapers as the first precursors of modern architecture and as the symbol of a break with previous architectural forms in the United States.[Wi. 8][27]​ This interpretation of Chicago skyscrapers was later questioned by Robert Bruegmann") and Daniel Bluestone, who believed it minimized the movement's ties to pre-existing culture in Chicago.[Wi. 8]​ During the 1980s and 1990s analysis of early skyscrapers began to shift from the architects and architecture of individual buildings to focus on the role of skyscrapers in the urban context. global.[Fo. 11]​ Discourse highlighting the social, economic and cultural dimension of skyscrapers was accentuated, with those in New York receiving greater attention than before.[Wi. 70]​[Mo. 8]​[La. 19]​ The Skyscraper Museum—the first to address the topic—was founded in New York in 1977 by historian Carol Willis to preserve its history.[75]​.

The tallest skyscrapers in the world in 1940 are listed below, in table form, numbered every ten years. The tallest buildings in the world at the beginning of the century were mostly towers and steeples of great European churches and prominent elements of institutional buildings, such as domes, towers, or turrets, in state capitols, town halls, or courthouses. (In some of these buildings, those vertical elements are true skyscrapers and are included here; e.g., the Los Angeles City Hall, although it may be debatable whether or not they are included). Starting in the 1920s and already in the 1930s, the tallest buildings in the world have always been skyscrapers.

Grades.

References.

Literature.

Commercial and social impulse

The first skyscrapers emerged in the United States due to economic growth, the financial organization of American companies and the intensive use of developable land.[Co. 1] This phenomenon was concentrated in New York, a key seaport located on the island of Manhattan, on the east coast of the United States.[La. 1]​ As a result of its colonial history, New York's developable land was divided into small parcels of land with only large plots of land.[Wi. 1]​ During the first half of the century, the city became the center of American finance and Wall Street banks competed fiercely with their English competitors for international dominance.[1]​.

The Great Fire of 1835 destroyed much of the old financial buildings, and in their place new buildings were built and demolished in the 1840s and 1850s; The traveler Philip Hone stated that the entire city was rebuilt every ten years.[2]​[Sc. 1]​ Most buildings adopted the Italian neo-Renaissance style called palazzo (popular among rivals in England) and rose to a height of up to six stories.[3]​[Ab. 1]​ New York had no height restrictions, but low-rise buildings were built at least until 1865, so churches remained the tallest buildings in the city.[Wi. 2]​[Go. 1]​[Fo. 1]​ Between 1840 and 1870 the population of New York tripled and between 1860 and 1875 real estate values ​​increased more than 90%.[La. 2]​.

Further west, the city of Chicago also became a prominent site in the construction of the first skyscrapers. Unlike New York, Chicago emerged as a major metropolis in the middle of the century, growing from a town of about fifty inhabitants in 1830 to a city in the 1850s and nearly 1870.[Bl. 1]​ Chicago became the railroad center of the Old West and the first trading city for emerging territories, famous for its commercial culture.[4]​[Bl. 2]​ It was considered different from the other cities on the east coast and took pride in its vertiginous urban growth.[Co. 2]​.

By 1870, Chicago had become the major financial center of the West, but in October 1871 a large fire destroyed the wood-built downtown.[5][Sc. 2]​[Bl. 3] The city was rebuilt by distributing the land into large areas within a grid urbanization, [Wi. 1]​[6]​ with new ordinances that prohibited wooden constructions.[6]​[Bl. 4]​ These factors encouraged the construction of taller buildings with innovative designs, which like New York "New York (state)"), grouped different businesses and services in a single building.[6]​[The. 3]​.

The construction of tall buildings during 1870 was hampered by the financial panic of 1873 and the resulting economic depression that lasted until 1879.[La. 4]​ The construction stopped and the value of the properties plummeted.[The. 5]​ However, in 1880 it was already recovering and the appearance of new buildings in New York reached the pace of 1871.[La. 6]​ The economic recovery made the construction of taller buildings an attractive financial option again, thus establishing many of the preconditions for the development of the skyscraper.[Co. 3]​[The. 4]​.

Technological developments

The emergence of skyscrapers was possible thanks to the appearance of technological innovations during the central years of the century.[Sc. 2]​ One of these innovations was the iron structure. In traditional buildings the middle floors were supported by the walls, but the taller the building, the thicker the walls had to be made, particularly at the base: high-rise buildings quickly saw their lower floors devoured by brick or masonry.[Co. 4]​ In 1860, French engineers experimented with using prefabricated beams made of wrought iron to construct buildings supported by internal metal structures.[La. 7]​ These structures were stronger than traditional masonry and allowed for much thinner walls.[The. 7]​ The methodology was described extensively in engineering magazines and was initially used to build warehouses.[La. 7].

The use of these structures for tall buildings led to exposing them to the possible devastating effects of the wind.[La. 8]​ ​​As a consequence, anti-wind struts had to be used, made possible by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel who developed the equations for calculating loads and moments in large buildings.[La. 8]​[nb 1]​ Metal frame buildings were also particularly vulnerable to fire and required specific fire protection.[Co. 6]​ French engineers had already made progress in this field at the beginning of the century, but decisive advances only came with the work of architect Peter Wight") around 1860.[La. 9]​ Spurred by the catastrophic fires in Chicago, in 1871, and Boston, in 1872, his findings led to several fire protection products during the 1870s.[La. 10]​.

Tall, heavy buildings such as skyscrapers also required stronger foundations than those used in lighter buildings. The first buildings typically had their foundations resting on rubble, which was in turn deposited on a soft layer called residue.[La. 11]​ As buildings became taller and heavier, the layer of debris could not support their weight and the foundations needed to rest directly on the underlying rock.[La. 11]​ In both New York and Chicago this required considerably deeper excavation through soft and sometimes waterlogged soil, running the risk of the hole filling with water before the foundation was completed. The deeper the foundations had to be, the bigger the problem was.[The. 9]​ To solve this, special watertight boxes called caissons were invented in England around 1830, which were adopted in the United States throughout the 1850s and 1860s.[La. 9]​.

The development of the elevator was also essential for the appearance of the first skyscrapers, since an office building of more than six floors would not have been practical without them.[La. 3]​[Ab. 2] Elevators first appeared in England around 1830, spreading to factories and hotels in the United States in the 1840s.[La. 3]​ Cable elevators, however, could only operate effectively in low-rise buildings and this limitation encouraged the introduction of the hydraulic elevator in 1870, even though initial models suffered from dangerous design flaws.[La. 12] These defects were resolved in 1876, providing a solution for the equipment of the first skyscrapers.[La. 13]​[Pho. 2]​.

The first skyscraper

There is academic disagreement over which building should be considered the first skyscraper.[Sc. 2]​[Co. 1] The term was first used in 1780 to characterize a particularly tall horse, and was later applied to the sail at the top of a ship's mast, to tall caps and hats, to tall men, and to a ball that had been hit high in the air.[La. 19]​ In 1880 it began to be applied to buildings: first, in 1883, to describe large public monuments and then, in 1889, as a nickname for tall office blocks, a name that became widespread in the following decade.[La. 20]​[Co. 7]​ Identifying the first authentic "skyscraper" is not easy, and there are several candidates depending on the criteria adopted.[Go. 2]​ For example, the New York Equitable Life Building, from 1870, was the first office building to use an elevator, while the Produce Exchange Building, from 1884, presented substantial advances in the design of its metal structure.[Co. 4]​[Go. 2]​ However, Chicago's Home Insurance Building, opened in 1884, is most often considered the first skyscraper for its innovative use of steel in the design of its metal structure.[Sc. 2]​[Co. 7]​[Fo. 3]​.

The Home Insurance Building, a ten-story skyscraper with a height of , was designed by William Le Baron Jenney, who had been trained as an engineer in France and was a noted architect in Chicago.[Co. 8]​;[Go. 3]​[nb 2]​ Jenney's design was unusual in that it incorporated steel into the internal structure of the building alongside traditional wrought iron. This structure absorbed the weight of the building's floors and also helped to support the weight of the external walls, constituting an important step towards the creation of the genuine, structure-independent curtain walls that became a feature of later skyscrapers.[Co. 9]​ The design was not perfect—some of the weight still rested on masonry walls, and the metal structure was held together by screws, rather than rivets—but it was a significant advance in the construction of tall buildings.[Co. 5]​.

This construction system was quickly adopted in Chicago. In 1889, the Tacoma Building replaced the bolted metal design with a stronger, riveted one, and the Chamber of Commerce Building introduced interior light wells into the structural design of a skyscraper.[Co. 10]​ In 1890, the last technical problems were resolved in the Rand McNally Building, thus becoming the first steel-structure skyscraper.[Co. 10] Some buildings, such as The Rookery and the Monadnock, combined elements of the old and new styles, but in general Chicago quickly adopted steel structures as a flexible and effective way of creating tall buildings.[Co. 11]​ Professional engineers began to establish offices and studies in Chicago specialized in the steel structures needed by the new skyscrapers.[Fe. 1]​.

Once the technical challenges were overcome, Chicago experienced a period of boom in skyscraper construction starting in 1888, and the city became a leader in this new type of construction.[Wi. 3] By 1893, Chicago had already built twelve skyscrapers between sixteen and twenty stories high, all grouped in the center of the financial district.[Wi. 4]​[Bl. 3] Chicago skyscrapers, however, were affected by contemporary limits in the design of steel structures and the city's muddy subsoil, factors that limited their height to about 16 or 17 stories.[Wi. 5]​ These skyscrapers quickly became tourist destinations, both for the panoramic views they allowed from their top floors and for being notable places in their own right.[Bl. 5] Tourists were advised to hire carriages to tour the streets where the skyscrapers were located: if they lay down in the carriage they could comfortably appreciate the height of the buildings.[Bl. 6]​.

The Masonic Temple (Chicago Masonic Temple) in Chicago was the most famous of the new skyscrapers. Built in 1892 by the Masons of that city, whose community was growing rapidly at that time, the luxurious skyscraper was tall and had nineteen floors; The lower ten housed shops, and the upper ten housed the Masons' private suites and meeting places, some capable of holding 1,300 people. On the terrace was a garden and an observation deck. The Masons were competing with their local rivals, the Odd Fellows, who were attempting to build a much taller skyscraper, which they advertised as the tallest building in the world. of the Masonic Temple and drawing comparisons with historical buildings such as the Capitol or the Statue of Liberty.[10]​ The Odd Fellows project failed but the Masonic Temple took advantage of the publicity created by being declared "the tallest commercial building in the world."[11][nb 3]​.

Compared to Chicago, New York was lagging behind. In 1893, it had only four buildings over sixteen stories.[Wi. 4] Part of the delay was due to the slowness of the city authorities in authorizing metal structure construction techniques. It was not until 1889 that they compromised and allowed Bradford Gilbert to build the Tower Building, an eleven-story iron-framed skyscraper. of the twenty-story, steel-framed American Surety Building, which broke the height record held by Chicago.[Co. 13]​ Since then, New York fully adopted the construction method using a skeleton structure.[Co. 13]​ In particular, New York newspaper companies opted for the skyscraper, building several along Park Row—sometimes called "Newspaper Row"—in the 1880s. and 1890.[13] Some of the first skyscrapers were also built in Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Buffalo, such as the Wainwright Building in St. Louis and the Prudential (Guaranty) Building_Building in Buffalo.[Fo 4][Re. 1] Other examples from the West Coast are the Old Chronicle. Building and the Call Building in San Francisco "San Francisco (California)"),[14]​ as well as the Luzon Building in Tacoma, Washington.[15]​.

Architectural challenges

The architects of the first skyscrapers faced several challenges. The architectural style in fashion at the end of the century was the French Beaux Arts movement, sometimes called the Italian Renaissance style, which applied classical aesthetic principles to modern buildings.[La. 22] American architects who studied that style at the Parisian Académie des Beaux-Arts "Academy of Fine Arts (France)") began to return to their homeland around 1880, bringing those ideals and standards with them. However, applying Beaux Arts standards to the first skyscrapers was not easy. The buildings that the Beaux Arts movement emulated were typically much shorter and wider than any skyscraper, and it was impossible to accurately reproduce that style in a tall, narrow building.[La. 22].

Furthermore, skyscrapers were primarily commercial buildings, and both economics and aesthetics had to play an important role in their design.[Wi. 7] Architectural writer Barr Ferree noted, in 1883, that "current American architecture is not a question of art, but of money. A building must be profitable, or it will not find investors willing to cover its cost. This is both the curse and the glory of American architecture."[16] George Hill seconded this view by condemning unnecessary features on the grounds that "every cubic foot used only for ornamental reasons, beyond what is necessary to express its use and to harmonize it with its kind, is a waste."[17]

Around 1890, Chicago architects began to solve this problem by creating a new architectural style, often called the "Chicago school of architecture."[Wi. 8]​[nb 4]​ This school included architects such as Louis Sullivan, William Le Baron Jenney and John Root, whose designs combined aesthetic theory and commercial sense. They tended to place, on the exterior of skyscrapers, rich ornamental designs at ground level and simpler ornamentation on the upper levels, with marked vertical lines.[Bl. 8]​[18]​ The roofs of its skyscrapers often formed a recognizable silhouette when viewed from afar, as part of the city's "skyline." The intention was to draw the observer's eye to the upper parts, highlighting what Sullivan called the "lofty" nature of the skyscraper, but not wasting resources on complex details that would not attract the attention of a busy businessman.[Bl. 8]​[19]​ At the same time, a more luxurious design on the ground floor would make the building stand out to passersby, making it attractive from a commercial point of view.[Bl. 9]​.

Chicago also saw the emergence of collaboration between architects, structural engineers and builders around new skyscraper projects.[Faith. 2]​ Historically the real estate industry had been dominated by individuals and small firms who combined the roles of architect and engineer, but all this was broken in Chicago at this time, being replaced by an alliance of specialists: on the one hand, architects who concentrated on the appearance of the skyscraper and, on the other, engineers who took charge of the structure that allowed it to stand.[Faith. 3]​ Chicago architectural firms became large and hierarchical, with numerous specialized personnel. The famous D. H. Burnham & Company"), for example, seemed to visitors like a small factory and ended up expanding to employ one hundred and eighty people.[Fe. 4]​.

Life in the first skyscrapers

The first skyscrapers were made mainly for small offices, with a typical width of only , which were placed side by side in long corridors, following a pattern initially used in the Oriel Chambers building in England, in 1864.[Fo. 5]​ It allowed small companies to rent a small space, with one or two offices, but making future expansion possible with the rental of additional cubicles if the need was seen.[Fo. 5] Skyscraper offices depended on natural light coming through the windows, reinforced, if necessary, with dim electric lighting from desk lamps.[Wi. 14]​ For the time, these offices were very modern, with radiators, ventilation ducts, the latest decorations and accessories, and modern communication systems such as telephones and pneumatic tubes.[Bl. 14]​ Therefore, many Chicago companies preferred to move from their old offices, located in low-rise buildings, to rented space in the new skyscrapers, considered more convenient and healthy.[Bl. 14].

The first skyscrapers were primarily occupied by male workers, but this changed during the 1890s, when the presence of female employees became more common. For example, the percentage of female office workers increased in Chicago from 11% in 1880 to 21% in 1890, reaching 30% in 1900.[21] Moral concerns were raised by the presence of men and women in such offices, which were traditionally considered a masculine space, full of tobacco smoke and indecent talk, and therefore unsuitable for women.[22]​ New employees They typically worked as typists or stenographers, using the newly invented typewriter, the number of which increased in United States offices from 146 in 1879, to , in 1890.[23]

The skyscrapers provided a wide spectrum of services to their tenants, such as shops, restaurants, barbershops, tobacco shops, newspaper sales, tailors, professional specialists and bookstores.[Bl. 15] Skyscrapers also hired a significant number of service employees for maintenance and assistance tasks: a building like the Chicago Board of Trade spent 20% of its income on service personnel, with a total of forty-one people—janitors, elevator operators, mechanics, and an electrician—[Bl. 15]​ This collection of services and facilities led to the skyscrapers of the time being considered as small cities in themselves.[Bl. 6]​.

Criticism and reform in Chicago

Opposition to skyscrapers in Chicago began to grow in the late 1880s and early 1890s.[Bl. 16]​ Even before the development of skyscrapers, there was already criticism in Chicago of large buildings for dominating churches and private homes, and this sentiment increased.[Bl. 17] Critics complained that the concentration of tall buildings in the city center was causing massive congestion, and each new skyscraper was also causing additional coal to be burned to power its facilities, all together consuming more than a million tons a year and leaving a blanket of smoke and bad air over Chicago.[Bl. 16]​ There was also concern about the risk of a large fire breaking out and ending up spreading, out of control, from building to building.[Bl. 16].

Chicago was not the only city to be concerned about the growth of skyscrapers. In Boston, the Fiske Building and the Ames Building were built in the late 1880s, with a height of 56 and , respectively, but protests from citizens and real estate interests caused the city to pass a rule limiting the height of new buildings to a maximum of , effectively banning skyscrapers.[Re. 1]​ Similarly, the cities of Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. also introduced height controls to limit the construction of skyscrapers.[Fo. 6]​.

The decisive factor for change in Chicago, however, was the economic slowdown in the early 1890s, which would end in the financial panic of 1893.[Bl. 16]​[Wi. 6]​ The recession, combined with the frenetic construction of the previous years, meant that Chicago suddenly had a surplus of office space, threatening occupancy levels and rental income.[Bl. 16]​ In order to tackle the problem the city council introduced new regulations in 1892, supported by real estate developers, who hoped to reduce the construction of new office space and thus shore up their declining profit margin.[Wi. 6]​ The height of new buildings was limited to , with lower heights on narrow streets, effectively limiting the construction of skyscrapers.[Bl. 16]​}[Wi. 6]​.

The pre-war boom

The early years of the century saw the construction, in New York "New York (state)"), of a series of technically sophisticated and architecturally safe skyscrapers, and this was termed by scholars Sarah Landau and Carl Condit as the "first great era" in skyscraper construction.[La. 26] Some buildings were of a relatively conservative and classical style, for example, the Mutual Life, Atlantic Mutual and Broad Exchange buildings, all designed by Clinton and Russell.[La. 27] Others broke new ground, such as the Flatiron Building, opened in 1903 near Madison Square.[La. 28]​ The firm Daniel Hudson Turnham, of Chicago, designed that twenty-one-story high building. The building, narrow and unusual in shape, needed strong wind reinforcement; Its façade was rich in details, incorporating stylistic characteristics more common in Chicago.[La. 29]​ The Flatiron achieved critical and public success, and was compared to the Parthenon of Ancient Greece, becoming, for a time, a symbol of New York.[La. 29]​[Go. 6]​.

The construction of the Singer Tower was announced by the company in 1906, intending to build the tallest skyscraper in the world.[The. 30] The company already owned several lower-rise buildings in New York, to which it intended to incorporate the tower, the lower part of which it planned to rent to other tenants to pay for the use of the upper part, which it reserved for itself.[La. 31]​ The skyscraper was designed by Ernest Flagg, a proponent of the Beaux Arts style and well-known critic of existing skyscrapers, who justified taking charge of the project as a way to generate support for the reform of skyscrapers.[Faith. 7]​ The design was a technical challenge, since such a tall and narrow tower needed special reinforcement against the wind and, in addition, the rock base was so deep that it required very deep foundations.[La. 32]​ The façade was made of dark brick following the Beaux Arts style of the rest of the complex, with a balcony vestibule in Italian marble.[La. 33] When it was inaugurated, in 1908, it had forty-seven floors and its height was ; Visitors paid 50 cents (about $12 in 2010 dollars) to access the viewing area at the top of the building and enjoy the views.[La. 34].

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower was opened in 1909, the culmination of a long construction project by N. LeBrun and Sons) to house the rapidly increasing staff of Metropolitan Life's headquarters, some 2,800 people in 1909. promoted the company's image and the construction was surrounded by advertising.[Mo. 3]​ The tower appeared on the covers of prominent magazines such as Scientific American, as well as on the sides of cereal containers, coffee packages and cars.[Mo. 4]​[nb 5]​ It was somewhat inspired by the Campanile of San Marco in Venice and contained abundant early Renaissance style details, with modern additions such as enormous spheres of clock, electric lamps for night illumination, and an observation platform overhead.[Mo. 5]​[La. 36]​ Contemporary architects Everett Waid and Harvey Corbett reported that the building had "the latest ideas in ventilation, air conditioning, sound deadening, artificial lighting, pneumatic tube intercommunication, telephones, call bells, clock operating units [and] special facilities as to elevators and escalators."[24]​ The design earned a general award. applause among American architects.[La. 37]​.

The construction of the Woolworth Building was announced in 1910 by Frank Woolworth, who wanted to create the most profitable property in the United States.[The. 38]​ The project took shape and Woolworth finally opted for a skyscraper fifty-five stories high, the tallest building in the world at its time, at a cost of dollars (about in 2010).[The. 38]​[Go. 7]​[nb 6]​ Architect Cass Gilbert's designs allowed for a high proportion of usable—and therefore profitable—space at ground level, with lots of light and a flexible floor plan so it could be shared by different tenants.[La. 39]​ State-of-the-art equipment was installed to attract important tenants, with the fastest elevators in the world, security features and a swimming pool.[La. 40]​ Gilbert adopted the Beaux Arts style, using terracotta and glass to underline the vertical lines that reproduced the underlying structure, and incorporating characteristics of the flamboyant Gothic style of the 2nd and 2nd centuries. The building culminated in a golden tower that merged with the sky, producing an illusion of even greater height.[Faith. 8]​[The. 41]​[Go. 8]​ ​​It was illuminated at night and crowned with white and red flashing lights.[The. 42] It was called the "Cathedral of Commerce", something that Gilbert did not like as he had tried to avoid any resemblance to ecclesiastical architecture.[La. 43].

Meanwhile, the skyscraper industry in Chicago also experienced a boom during the decade before World War I. The city's elevated rail network was already operating in 1910, allowing a greater flow of workers downtown.[26] New offices were not created until 1910, and by the end of the decade Chicago ranked second in terms of corporate headquarters office space in the United States.[26] Chicago architectural firms such as Daniel H. Burnham and later Graham, Anderson, Probst & White continued to design high-rise buildings. palazzo, which had become popular in the previous decade.[Wi. 11]​ Chicago had hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a mass international event that had sparked interest in the themes of classical architecture and well-designed urban environments.[Wi. 15]​ Chicago also had extensive discussions in 1909 about the potential redesign of large parts of the city, the Burnham Plan of Chicago").[Wi. 15]​.

The skyscrapers that appeared at this time reflected these debates: the Railway Exchange Building (Chicago), Peoples Gas, and Illinois Continental and Commercial Bank were imposing palazzo-style cubes, occupying a quarter block and of similar height, with facades divided according to the classic tripartite design and adorned with columns and classical details. [Wi. 16] Despite the apparent uniformity of design, individual buildings showed considerable variation in detail, in an effort to express their particular identities: the People's Gas building used texture and the Railway Exchange building white terracotta, for example.[27]

Building improvements

The skyscraper construction process became more sophisticated, starting with the purchase of the land necessary for the project.[Wi. 17]​ The plots were secretly acquired by brokers working on commission, operating under various names to avoid price increases if the planned construction became known.[Wi. 18] The lots located at the edge of the street were acquired first, so that, if news of the planned skyscraper became public, the owners of the lots located at the back would have no choice but to sell.[Wi. 19] Financing was normally provided by banks and insurance companies, or obtained through the issuance of debentures or bonds by a specialized house, the latter method being the most used after the First World War. [Wi. 20]​.

Efforts were made to improve the procedures for erecting skyscrapers, largely thanks to the work of builders such as Louis Horowitz and Frank Gilbreth, who built on the recent work of efficiency specialist Frederick Taylor.[Faith. 9]​ Planned schedules were devised for all tasks that needed to be performed, with all costs carefully monitored through daily reports.[Fe. 10]​ The results were evident during the construction of the Woolworth Building, where 1,153 tons of steel were assembled in just six days, a record for the time.[Faith. 10] Improved wind bracing techniques were introduced.[La. 32]​ The use of pneumatic caissons in the foundations of skyscrapers became more advanced: in the construction of the Manhattan Municipal Building, in 1908, these caissons were sunk below ground level, with specially equipped workers operating in shifts and with permanent medical assistance.[La. 44].

New technologies were also introduced inside the buildings. For the first time, Otis elevators powered by electricity instead of steam-powered hydraulic mechanisms began to be installed in high-speed skyscrapers, which were also secured with Ellithorpe air shock absorbers to protect passengers in the event of failure.[The. 40] Lighting improved thanks to the electrical levels recommended in 1916 that were double those recommended in 1890. [Wi. 21]​ However, skyscrapers still relied fundamentally on natural light, which required installing large windows and having high ceilings that allowed light to penetrate to the back of the offices: an office with a depth greater than that was not considered a practical design.[Wi. 22].

Life in skyscrapers

One of the reasons for the increase in the number of skyscrapers during this period was the increase in demand for office staff. This demand in part came from many American companies becoming larger and more complex, and sectors that employed white-collar personnel, such as insurance and banking, growing in importance.[28] It was also driven by technological change. Along with typewriters, the offices were equipped with adding machines, telephones and filing cabinets. All of this not only increased the demand for space but at the same time required increasingly specialized personnel.[29]​.

Tenants and rental income were essential to the financial success of skyscrapers, as even the tallest and those promoted by major companies rented much of their offices.[Wi. 23] Landlords could charge significantly higher rents if office space was located near the main windows, making it more profitable to build skyscrapers with lots of quality office space, even if this made construction more expensive in the first place.[Wi. 24]​ As a result, a standard model emerged for individual offices in both New York and Chicago: either a rectangular floor plan behind the façade or a "T"-shaped design, with an entrance space leading to two windowed offices, separated by translucent partitions.[Wi. 25] Skyscrapers typically took on a large number of relatively small businesses as tenants. A skyscraper like the Woolworth Building had about 600 different tenants in 1913, for example, while a typical tenant might have four or five cubicles rented.[Wi. 26].

Reviews

The skyscrapers, particularly those in New York, attracted much comment, sometimes negative. Upon his return to New York, the writer Henry James condemned these buildings in The American Scene as mere "giants of the pure market," "mercenary monsters" condemned to be torn down when other, even taller, buildings took their place.[Sc. 3]​[30]​ In Chicago the combination of skyscrapers and environmental pollution meant that, as Charles Warner complained, "you could barely see across the street on a rainy day, and the enormous buildings loomed in the black sky in a ghostly gloom."[31]​.

Artistic opinions were also diverse. Many, like Alfred Stieglitz, harbored mixed feelings about New York's skyscrapers, reflected in his famous 1903 portrait of the Gridiron Building and his 1910 work Old and New New York which presents the contrast between the soaring steel structure of the Vanderbilt Hotel and the old low-rise buildings on the same street.[Sc. 4] Poets also wrote on this topic: modernist Sadakichi Hartmann) describes how "from the city's commotion and its maddening roar the monstrous form of the Flatiron rises in massive flight." In 1908 the artist Harry Pettit produced a romantic interpretation of a New York of the future, full of giant skyscrapers that supported air bridges and received airships from all over the globe.[Go 9]​.

The Chicago Exposition inspired many architects in America to design cities with a uniform urbanism, in which each building had unique characteristics but served as an elegant complement to its neighbors, typically by being of the same height: "horizontal visual unity."[Re. 2]​ At the end of the exhibition, many of these advocates joined the Beaux Arts movement to form the City Beautiful movement, proposing low-rise cities with wide boulevards, built in classical style.[Re. 3] These critics condemned New York's skyscrapers; one of them, Montgomery Schuyler"), accused them of having produced a "horrible jagged mountain range" on the city's skyline and lamented that no modern skyscraper had become an architectural success.[32][Re. 4] Charles Lamb claimed that the skyscraper undermined the rights of the rest of the city by destroying the collective appearance of the urban area.[33] Some architects, such as Charles Mckim and Stanford White, refused to work on such a building altogether. projects.[Faith 7]​.

Reform in New York

New York also called for legislation to prevent the growth of skyscrapers, citing their effects on the city's skyline, but these requests encountered legal obstacles. The United States Constitution did not allow local authorities to prevent the construction of buildings solely on aesthetic grounds, and such legislation in New York could very likely be challenged in court.[Re. 5]​.

Others asserted that skyscraper legal reform was necessary for reasons of public health and safety, areas in which United States law permitted greater state intervention.[Re. 1]​ The risk of fire was worrying, because although skyscrapers were relatively immune to fire, their height made it difficult to fight any fire conventionally. Architect Charles Bragdon believed a large-scale, high-rise fire was inevitable if legislation was not passed in time. The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 was widely cited as an example of the risk incurred, and although Baltimore had almost no skyscrapers worthy of the name, city lawyers argued that taller buildings had caused the flames to spread across the city during the disaster. Baltimore ended up approving. a law, in 1904, prohibiting buildings with a height greater than .[Re. 1] Other critics alleged that skyscrapers compromised access to light and air, noting that tall buildings generated a long shadow on the street, preventing shorter ones from benefiting from sunlight.[La 45]​.

Ernest Flagg's first attempts, in 1896, to limit the height of New York skyscrapers failed. Subsequent attempts between 1906 and 1908 also failed, and the legislation was rejected again in 1909, due in part to pressure from the interests of the promoters.[Wi. 27] However, after 1913, the New York real estate market entered a recession and vacancies in buildings began to grow.[Wi. 27] The campaign for change was reinforced by the construction of the Equitable Building "Equitable Building (New York)" in 1915, with an estimated cost of 2010 dollars (2010), which soon became infamous for its great height and enormous volume, which blocked views and left its neighbors in permanent shadow. [Wi. 28]​[35]​ Real estate developers eventually withdrew their objections to new legislation and the 1916 Zoning Resolution "Zoning Act of 1916 (New York)") was passed.[Wi. 27].

The details of that legislation were largely the work of George Ford. This architect was sympathetic to the City Beautiful movement, disliked the unimaginative shapes of many New York skyscrapers, and was concerned about urban public health, but he nevertheless found tall buildings attractive and believed that horizontal visual uniformity produced tedious architecture.[Re. 6]​ As a consequence of Ford's influence, New York's laws were relatively detailed, dividing the city into different zones. In each one, a particular zoning envelope was applied that controlled the height of the possible buildings.[Wi. 29]​[Re. 7]​ A building could only rise vertically from the sidewalk a few feet, and from there it had to be stepped or set back at a certain angle to allow sunlight to reach the street.[Wi. 27]​ On a quarter of the lot, however, the owner could build as high as he wanted, without any additional restrictions.[Wi. 29].

Postwar growth

At the end of the First World War, a real estate explosion occurred in the United States, with a spectacular increase in the construction of new skyscrapers in the period 1925 to 1931.[Sc. 7] In New York, a quarter of the financial district was rebuilt between 1928 and 1931, with squares of new office space added only between 1925 and 1929. [Wi. 30]​[Ab. 3]​ Chicago saw pressure growing on available office space during the war; Construction was limited by supply shortages and as a result rents rose 100% between 1919 and 1924.[Wi. 31]​ This level of potential profit brought with it an explosion of new construction to the city[Wi. 32]​ and inflated prices in the property market, leading to financial speculation with the introduction of 100% mortgages for new construction. A contemporary issue of Fortune magazine sarcastically stated that “all a person needs to own a skyscraper is money and land. And he could get by without money.”[Wi. 33].

Skyscrapers continued to grow in height during the 1920s.[Wi. 34] This was partly a result of technological improvements: steel structures had become increasingly efficient, while improvements in elevator design made it easier to reach upper floors.[Wi. 35]​[Ab. 2]​ Commercial factors also played a role, as demand continued to raise rents, leading to taller buildings, and since the offices on the upper floors had more sunlight, this appeal allowed for higher rents to be charged.[Wi. 36]​ In addition, high-rise buildings provided greater publicity to their residents, making it easier to find and retain better tenants.[Wi. 36]​ Likewise, the higher the cost of land, the taller the building needed to be to generate an adequate return on investment, and thus the minimum height for a profitable skyscraper was increased to forty or forty-five stories.[Wi. 37]​[36]​ Seventy-story skyscrapers became relatively common, although an influential 1930 study showed that the best rate of return on investment in a skyscraper was to build it sixty-three stories high, generating an annual profit of 10.25%.[Wi. 38].

Skyscrapers continued to spread both in the United States and in the rest of the world. New York and Chicago remained the center of skyscraper development but most major cities in the United States had already built skyscrapers by 1929, usually as a result of competition between rival cities seeking status and investment.[Sc. 7]​[Fo. 7]​[Wi. 6]​ In Detroit, during the crazy years, the General Motors Building was built in 1920,[37]​ the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel in 1924,[38]​ the Buhl Building in 1925,[39]​ the Book Tower in 1926,[40]​ the Cadillac Tower in 1927,[41]​ the Penobscot Building,[42]​ the David Broderick Tower[43]​ and the Fisher Building in 1928,[44]​ the Guardian Building[45]​ and the David Stott Building in 1929,[46]​ and the First National Building in 1930.[47]​.

Cincinnati built the Cincinnati Towers in 1914, followed by the Carew Tower complex in 1930.[Fo. 8]​ ​​In Cleveland, the Union Trust Building was built in 1923 and the Terminal Tower in 1929; the latter, built by the Van Sweringen brothers, was, briefly, the second tallest building in the world.[48] Seattle had built the Smith Tower as early as 1914, and the local government of Los Angeles exempted itself from the city's planning restrictions to build Los Angeles City Hall in 1928.[Fo. 8]​ ​​Also in 1928, the Industrial National Bank Building was built in Providence "Providence (Rhode Island)").[49]​.

Skyscrapers were also built in other developed countries, although without reaching the level of construction seen in the United States.[Go. 10]​ This was due in part to lack of funds but also to local architectural preferences.[Go. 10]​ Certain European cities, such as London or Paris, had regulations prohibiting tall buildings, but in other places skyscrapers began to appear, such as the Imperial Bank of Commerce Building in Toronto, the Boerentoren in Antwerp or the Kavanagh Building in Buenos Aires.[50]​[Fo. 4] Many other skyscrapers were proposed in Europe, in a certain urban planning frenzy, but only a few materialized.[51]​ In Soviet Russia, construction began in the late 1930s of the 416 m Palace of the Soviets, in the style of socialist Classicism, which would have become the tallest building in the world, but due to the war the skyscraper was never completed.[52]​ During the post-war period this one style gave rise to the monumental buildings known as the Seven Sisters of Moscow.[53]​.

The technology used in the construction of skyscrapers continued to evolve. Time became an important factor in the development of projects, and architects and their teams of specialists invented faster ways to design and construct buildings in order to minimize interest payments during construction and accelerate the arrival of rental income.[Ab. 4]​ By 1930, skyscrapers were built in just twelve months by teams of about five thousand workers, typically raising four floors per week.[Ab. 5]​ The construction of tower-shaped skyscrapers involved some adaptations in engineering techniques, since in reality two different buildings were designed—the base and the tower—that needed to be effectively integrated by means of elevators and other equipment.[Wi. 39]​ Most of the new offices ended up being a standard size: 2.7 m wide by 6.1 to 9.1 m deep, depending on ceiling height, preferring multiple small windows to a few large ones.[Wi. 40]​[Ab. 6]​ Electric lighting continued to improve, although it began to generate excessive heat inside the offices.[Wi. 41] Air conditioning was first installed in some skyscrapers during the 1930s.[Wi. 42].

Art deco and stepped style skyscrapers in New York

During the 1920s and 1930s, many skyscrapers were designed in the Art Deco style.[54]​[nb 7]​ This architectural approach typically combined what Carlos Willis characterized as "simple sculptural mass aesthetics" with the use of color and ornamentation on the facades of buildings.[Sc. 8]​[Wi. 43] The goal was to draw attention to the increasingly complex three-dimensional form of the skyscraper, in contrast to previous styles that could be considered, as historian Larry Ford said, as "low buildings made taller by additional floors." Ford, 2005, p. 37[Go. 11]​ Windows were de-emphasized to create a strong sense of form and mass, and the surrounding walls were treated as a textured fabric, dressing the building from below.[55]​[Ab. 8] Skyscrapers of this period normally lost their horizontal ornamental divisions and, when contemplating the building, its lines were broken by physical changes in volume, the whole of which drew a striking silhouette. [Wi. 44]​[55]​.

In New York, regulations issued in 1916 to allow light and air to reach the street encouraged a stepped or ziggurat approach to skyscraper design. This stepped style often made unrestricted use of the 25% of the land allowed by law to finish the construction with a very tall tower.[Wi. 29]​ This allowed different buildings to maintain a common element of harmony and consistency of style.[Re. 8]​ ​​The buildings 1501 Broadway and 120 Wall Street, for example, were built in the stepped style but without a tower because the small size of the lots would have made the towers relatively narrow and, therefore, once equipped with the necessary elevators and common elements, economically unfeasible.[Wi. 45] Many of the skyscrapers built on larger or more expensive sites opted for the tallest towers possible, such as the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building (millions of dollars in 2010) or the City Bank-Farmer Trust Company Building.[Wi. 46]​[Ab. 9]​ New York continued its lead in skyscrapers during this era: by 1920 it had ten times the number of tall buildings than Chicago, its closest rival.[Wi. 47].

Some New York skyscrapers complemented traditional cubicle-type offices linked by hallways with larger, open spaces called "general offices."[Ab. 10]​ These offices maximized the number of employees that could be placed in a given space, and provided greater flexibility.[Ab. 10] Expensive business suites were also created during the 1930s, especially on Wall Street, and usually on the highest floors of buildings.[Ab. 11]​ They were used by executives and managers and their decoration was luxurious, with a style that varied from traditional to exotic.[Ab. 12]​ The lobbies of these skyscrapers adopted an imposing presentation, and some banks now avoided renting that space to shops and restaurants in order to achieve a more exclusive atmosphere.[Ab. 13] The largest skyscrapers housed up to , although the most common figures were between and , and the buildings maintained a variety of services with them in mind, such as beauty salons, private lunch rooms, pedicures, and gyms.[Ab. 14]​ A skyscraper like Cities Service Building directly employed more than two hundred people to manage and protect the property.[Ab. 15] Technology within offices also became more sophisticated, with dictaphones, automatic typewriters and tabulating machines being used by increasingly specialized teams of employees.[56][nb 8]​.

Towers in Chicago

Chicago altered its laws in 1920 to allow towers to be built as part of skyscrapers. The maximum height of a building in Chicago was increased to 79 m, and unoccupied elements of a building, such as ornamental towers, were allowed to rise up to 120 m in height.[Wi. 48] Other changes in the regulations came in 1923, allowing for the first time the existence of taller and more occupiable towers, although subject to controls on the overall volume. [Wi. 9] The main building of a skyscraper could rise up to 80 m, and a tower could be built on 25% of the land, but this tower could not have a volume greater than one sixth of the main complex. [Wi. 48]​ In practice, this meant that the tower could be no more than twenty stories high in a typical Chicago skyscraper.[Wi. 48].

Chicago still preferred the palazzo style for buildings, with large light courts in the center, mainly because it was still the most cost-effective design.[Wi. 49]​ The Wrigley Building, built under the 1920 law, showed the effect of two ornamental towers at the top of a skyscraper.[Wi. 48]​ Under the revised law, the Straus Building "Metropolitan Tower (Chicago)") and the Pittsfield Building adopted the palazzo design, crowning it with somewhat rickety towers but producing profitable buildings.[Wi. 50]​.

One of the most famous buildings of this era, the Tribune Tower, was the result of a contest held by the Tribune Company in 1922 to celebrate its 75th anniversary. The newspaper was one of the largest in the world and used the contest, in which the public was invited to give their opinion on the skyscraper's design, to gain reader loyalty and generate free advertising. The final design was determined by a jury, mostly made up of people. named by the company, which chose the tower design of John Howells and Raymond Hood.[60] The resulting tower had a conservative Gothic appearance, which almost immediately sparked controversy over the decision: Louis Sullivan and many others criticized Howells and Hoods' design as a derivative of the Woolworth tower.[Sc. 9][61][Go. 10]​ Despite criticism, the Tribune Tower received no less than its observation deck when it opened in 1925.[58]​ The unbuilt design that came in second place in the competition, a simpler design by Eliel Saarinen, also proved highly influential.[58]​.

The popularity of the previous style began to decline in favor of the towers.[Wi. 51] A common way to build them within the Chicago legal framework was to build a square main block with a central service column, and then simply place a tower on top. The more massive the main block, the taller the tower could be.[Wi. 52]​ The Trustees System Service Building "Century Tower (Chicago)") and the Foreman State National Bank Building constitute good examples of this design.[Wi. 52]​ Alternatively, the façade of the main block could be made recessed, like that of the Chicago Civic Opera Building or the LaSalle-Wacker Building, sacrificing some volume but producing the visual effect of two slender wings flanking a very tall tower. [Wi. 53] The characteristic New York stepped style was not adopted in Chicago, the only example of this style being the Palmolive Building on North Michigan Avenue. [Wi. 54].

The Great Depression

The boom in skyscraper construction began to decline as a result of the Wall Street crash of 1929, and rapid economic growth gave way to the years of the Great Depression, in which construction suffered a widespread slowdown. but it was valued at () in 1933; The Bank of Manhattan Trust building could not meet its debts in 1935 and was put up for sale for only $100 ().[Wi. 55]​[Pho. 9]​ [Ab. 9]​[nb 9]​ The important bond issuing company, S. W. Straus, which was behind many successful promotions, was unable to remunerate bonds worth of dollars () that were in the hands of its investors; promoter Van Swerigan Brothers also went bankrupt.[Wi. 55]​[Pho. 9]​ The percentage of vacant offices began to increase in step with the recession, increasing in central New York from 1% in the early 1920s to 17% in 1931 and 25% in 1934.[Wi. 30]​.

In the face of the recession, some skyscraper projects were canceled or scaled back. The Metropolitan Life company's plans to build a hundred-story skyscraper next to the tower it had already built were presented in 1929, but ended up being abandoned due to the recession and criticism of such an expense in the economic climate of the time.[Mo. 6]​ Instead, the first phase of the project, known as the North Building, stood at a height of just thirty-two stories and the building, even with that limited height, was only fully completed in 1950.[Mo. 7]​ In many other cases, projects that had already been commissioned were completed. This meant that new offices appeared in New York between 1931 and 1934, that is, once the recession had already begun, aggravating the problem of excess rental supply.[Wi. 56] Some of these buildings, however, became emblematic, considerably raising the height limits of skyscrapers.[Go. 12].

The Chrysler Building was completed in 1930, when the Great Depression was beginning to show its impact.[Go. 13]​ Architect William Van Alen competed with the designers of the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building to create the tallest building in the world, constructing the spire in a last-minute effort to secure that title for the sixty-nine-story building and .[Go. 14]​[63]​ The exterior was built of white and gray brick, but a lot of metal was used in its ornamentation, with gargoyles and eagle heads in nickel chrome and even a winged helmet of Mercury "Mercury (mythology)").[63]​Goldberger, 1985, p. 80 Black granite was used at the entrance to contrast with the chrome windows, and in the lobby there was red marble and a mural on the ceiling.[64]​ The design of the different parts of the building was individualized, even with a different design for each elevator.[65]​ A Chrysler car showroom was placed on the ground floor of the building, and an observation deck next to the exclusive Cloud Club on the upper floors.[66]​.

The Empire State Building emerged in 1928 as a project to reuse the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel site to build a fifty-story mixed-use building. The purchase of the lot in dollars () set a record in New York that year.[Wi. 57] John Raskob and Pierre du Pont, who were part of the project as capital partners, concluded that the project would be more profitable if an extremely tall building, eighty stories high, was built in its place.[Wi. 58] Although a review of financial estimates advised that the height be reduced, the claim of having the tallest building in the world was considerable and so five additional floors were added to ensure that the building, with its , would surpass the Chrysler Building in height.[Wi. 59]​ An observation deck was built to attract tourists which proved to be a valuable source of income.[Wi. 60]​ The limestone, granite and aluminum skyscraper was specially designed to be easy to build, with standardized partitions and structural elements. It was completed in just eighteen months, being inaugurated in 1931.[Wi. 61]​[Go. 15] Due to the recession, however, it was only 25% occupied during the 1930s, generating losses, and critics nicknamed it the "Empty State Building", a pun on the English term .[Wi. 57]​[Sc. 10]​.

Skyscraper mania and the social echo

Interest in skyscrapers increased during the 1920s, particularly after the Tribune Tower competition.[Sc. 11]​ The drawings sent to the contest were exhibited in an exhibition in Chicago and were seen in just one month.[Sc. 12] In general, images of skyscrapers became ubiquitous in American culture, beginning what historian Merrill Schleier called "skyscraper mania."[Sc. 7] The 1925 exhibition "Titan City" celebrated existing skyscrapers and featured murals by Harvey Corbett") and Hugh Ferriss, showing skyscrapers as the heart of the "City of the Future." [Sc. 11] The short film Manhatta") (1921), by Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand, explored the theme and ended with a sunset sequence sun from the top of a skyscraper.[Sc. 13]​ Authors such as Janet Flanner, John Dos Passos and Mary Borden") wrote novels in which skyscrapers were an important part of the setting.[Sc. 12]​ The musician John Carpenter composed a ballet on the subject,[Sc. 12]​ and the designer Paul Frankl created a popular series of "skyscraper furniture".[Sc. 14]​.

Many of these comments were positive and reflected optimism about technology and the direction of urban life in general.[Sc. 15] Skyscrapers were seen as an expression of rational engineering, the perfect buildings for humanity to live in, as the artist Louis Lozowick celebrated them in his lithographs. [Sc. 16] [Ab. 17] Other defenders of skyscrapers made them similar to medieval cathedrals, similar symbols in the modern era. a sublime and rational beauty, for example Ferris described them like this: «buildings like crystals, walls of translucent glass, blocks of transparent glass covering a steel grill». French-Swiss Le Corbusier praised New York in 1935 for being "overwhelming, incredible, exciting, violently alive", but complained that there were still few skyscrapers and that those that did exist were not tall enough.[70] Lewis Hine, hired to photograph the construction of the Empire State Building, portrayed construction crews as brave heroes, creating a genre of photography that lasted until 1941.[Sc. 19].

On the other hand, critics worried about the impact of modern technology and urban life on the human condition, claiming that skyscrapers generated pollution and noise, and imposed a militarized and dehumanized lifestyle on the people who worked in them.[Sc. 20]​ The social commentator Lewis Mumford reflected these concerns in his criticisms titled Is the skyscraper tolerable? and The intolerable city.[Sc. 21] Political scientist Stefan Hirsch condemned buildings as "bandages that cover the sky, suffocating our breath." [Wi. 66]​ Inventor Thomas Edison feared that uncontrollable expansion of skyscrapers would result in overcrowding and disaster.[Go. 16]​ The engravings of Howard Cook") expressed the oppressive nature of the new skyscrapers that threatened the traditional city.[Ab. 18]​ Berenice Abbott's photographic works on New York in 1930 explored the complex theme of urban change and the impact of skyscrapers on the traditional lifestyle of the city, extending Stieglitz's work into the first decade of the century.[71]​.

The construction of skyscrapers stopped during the years of World War II. When it resumed in the 1950s and 1960s, they entered a different phase of development, often called the international or modern period. Some experimental designs in this style had been built in the United States, according to European architectural concepts, in the early 1930s, notably the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society Building and 330 West 42nd Street.[73] After the war, his approaches were used in a new generation of skyscrapers. These tended to occupy the site alone—like the RCA building at Rockefeller Center—rather than being part of a row of buildings, and looked like enormous tablets and towers with facades almost completely covered in glass, which broke with pre-existing tradition.[Wi. 67]​[Go. 17]​ Inside, new technologies such as fluorescent lighting and air conditioning throughout the building made many of the old architectural features, such as light wells and windows that could be opened, unnecessary.[Wi. 68].

The trend had substantial implications for many early skyscrapers. Some were redesigned in accordance with new tastes. Much of the ornamentation was removed from the Metropolitan Life Tower in 1960, for example, to adapt to simpler contemporary fashions.[The. 35]​ But many of the old skyscrapers could not be adapted, as they lacked depth to build larger and more modern offices, or space for new service equipment.[Wi. 69] Some were demolished to make way for new, larger buildings. Among them was the Singer Building, demolished in 1968 and replaced by the International-style United States Steel Building.[The. 46]​ In the 19th century, towers such as the West Street Building have been converted into luxury homes, having large, sunny windows.[74]​.

Critical debate about the first skyscrapers began in the 1880s among architects and spread to the cultural and academic community in the interwar period. In the 1930s the terms Chicago "school" and "movement" were first used, and were popularized in the 1940s by scholars Sigfried Giedion and Carl Condit as a way of referring to early Chicago architects. They considered skyscrapers as the first precursors of modern architecture and as the symbol of a break with previous architectural forms in the United States.[Wi. 8][27]​ This interpretation of Chicago skyscrapers was later questioned by Robert Bruegmann") and Daniel Bluestone, who believed it minimized the movement's ties to pre-existing culture in Chicago.[Wi. 8]​ During the 1980s and 1990s analysis of early skyscrapers began to shift from the architects and architecture of individual buildings to focus on the role of skyscrapers in the urban context. global.[Fo. 11]​ Discourse highlighting the social, economic and cultural dimension of skyscrapers was accentuated, with those in New York receiving greater attention than before.[Wi. 70]​[Mo. 8]​[La. 19]​ The Skyscraper Museum—the first to address the topic—was founded in New York in 1977 by historian Carol Willis to preserve its history.[75]​.

The tallest skyscrapers in the world in 1940 are listed below, in table form, numbered every ten years. The tallest buildings in the world at the beginning of the century were mostly towers and steeples of great European churches and prominent elements of institutional buildings, such as domes, towers, or turrets, in state capitols, town halls, or courthouses. (In some of these buildings, those vertical elements are true skyscrapers and are included here; e.g., the Los Angeles City Hall, although it may be debatable whether or not they are included). Starting in the 1920s and already in the 1930s, the tallest buildings in the world have always been skyscrapers.

Grades.

References.

Literature.