Evolution of the Skyscraper in the United States
(works chronologically ordered in time)




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The fire that devastated the city of Chicago in 1871 led to the late nineteenth century architects and engineers of the first school of Chicago think of a new way of planning to rebuild the city through a new type of high-rise buildings: the Skyscrapers, in a perimeter of small size, many plants were repeated at height. With the arrival of the elevator and new materials such as iron in the foreground and then to steel, thanks to its ductility, it could start building the first high-rise buildings by the use of a curtain wall system (without walls load), booming until today. This innovative construction system,-which consisted of a shell or structure with pillars and beams of steel-, was not only that you could make a lot more height, but also that it could open larger conservatories on the front, a better ventilation and natural lighting inside certainly provided better comfort and quality of life to people, users of these tall buildings.

The Home Insurance Building built in Chicago between 1884 and 1885 by the architect - "Father of the Skyscraper" - William Le Baron Jenney (1832-1907), with 10 storeys high, and expanded to 12 in 1890, became the world's first tall building or the first skyscraper in history. Very soon, in the early twentieth century and due to the scarcity and high land value, this type of construction is also transferred to the island of Manhattan, in New York. The architect Daniel Burnham, who died in 1901 before he could see his work-completed, was the designer of the famous Flatiron Building Beaux Arts (Fine Arts), and like the Seagram Building, International Style and works Mies van der Rohe, simulates the figure of a Greek column divided into three parts.






In the second Chicago School skyscrapers were improved high getting new records in the world and bringing great modern American cities like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas and Seattle, among others. Very good examples of skyscrapers built in the United States is the Sears Tower, now called Willis Tower, the John Hancock Center, the Onterie Center or the Lake Point Tower in Chicago, also the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building style Art Deco, both in New York, which although not as interesting from the standpoint of structural and architectural, were built between 1928 and 1931, along with other buildings like the 40 Wall Street or the American International-, in the interesting race to build the world's tallest skyscraper. Therefore, the cities of the West, both Chicago and New York, became the birthplace of the skyscraper par excellence, being no doubt the origin of skyscrapers.

The construction system called concrete slab that was first used to build residential towers Marina City in Chicago,-which was inaugurated in 1964, designed by the great architect Bertrand Goldberg was later refined to build another high rise buildings Self-climbing system, also known as climbing system, consisting of a metal casing which, surrounding the core, due to a huge hydraulic jacks and concreted after each plant, repeatedly rises at various levels until reaching the final height. In the late twentieth century skyscrapers have been refined with the new cutting edge technology, new building systems, new materials and new construction techniques that have made it possible to construct skyscrapers increasingly beautiful, but also more resilient and secure. Therefore, the reinforced concrete, thanks to its stiffness and employee in the central core, is presented as the best material of this century for the construction of high-rise buildings.

The sad bombing of the Twin Towers happened on September 11th 2001 in New York City marked a before and after in the history of skyscrapers and the world. This tragic event has caused architects and engineers from around the world have had to rethink how to build a new high-rise buildings more safely. A good example might be the One World Trade Center design by David Childs of SOM American firm, which is currently being completed in the work of rebuilding Ground Zero in New York. This new skyscraper, which will become its 541 meters high at the tallest skyscraper in the United States of America, has the distinction of possessing a reinforced concrete superstructure in its core combined with a plot perimeter steel columns in the outer ring, making it one of the safest buildings in the world.






Today, climate change has led to a green architecture, green and sustainable, to be revealing to be more self-sufficient buildings. Very good examples of new ecological skyscraper built in the United States of America in this century is the Hearst Tower designed by Norman Foster, the One Bryant Park, designed by Cook + Fox architects, or Eight Spruce Street by Frank Gehry, all in New York, also the Aqua Tower in Chicago, Studio Gang Architects design, which means protruding terraces winding a curtain wall made of concrete as a continuation of the floor, by doing the role of a brise-soleil-, protect the interior of the building Hybrid solar radiation.

Because of the density of American cities today and already established decades skyscrapers begin to live with a new generation of tall buildings called Highrise, renewing the urban fabric of inner cities or become true icons scenographic the natural or artificial waterfronts, looking also surprised by a modern and edgy. In order to know the evolution of the skyscraper in the United States from its inception until today, I wanted to order this interesting directory chronologically in time.









One World Trade Center
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
2006-2014






Eight Spruce Street
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Gehry Partners LLP
2006-2011






Aqua Tower
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Studio Gang Architects
2007-2009






Trump Chicago Tower
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, SOM
2005-2009




Bank of America Tower
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Cook+Fox Architecs LLP
2004-2009




The Chicago Spire
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Santiago Calatrava
2007-






The New York Times Building
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
2004-2007




Hearst Tower
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Foster + Partners
2003-2006





Espirito Santo Plaza
Miami, Florida, USA
KPF Kohn Perdersen Fox
1997-2002







Miami Tower
Downtown Miami, Florida, USA
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
1984-1987






Fountain Place
Dallas, Texas, USA
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners
1984-1986






Citicorp Center
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Stubbins Associates; Emery Roth & Sons
1974-1977






Sears Tower (Willis Tower)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan, SOM
1970-1974




The World Trade Center
Manhattan, New York, USA
Minoru Yamasaki & Associates
1966-1973








Transamerica Pyramid
San Francisco, California, USA
William L. Pereira & Associates
1969-1972




John Hancock Center
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, SOM
1967-1970




Lake Point Tower
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Schipporeit & Heinrich
1965-1968






Marina City
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Bertrand Goldberg
1959-1964






Seagram Building
Manhattan, New York City, USA
Mies van der Rohe
1956-1958






American International Building
Manhattan, New York City
Clinton and Russell; Holton & George






Empire State Building
Manhattan, New York
Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates
1930-1931







570 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan, New York
Cross & Cross
1929-1931






Chrysler Building
Manhattan, New York, USA
William van Alen
1928-1930






Flatiron Building
Manhattan, New York, USA
Daniel Burnham
1901-1902






Home Insurance Building
Chicago, Illinois, USA
William Le Baron Jenney
1884-1885










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