I. Introduction
The Willis Tower (originally known as the Sears Tower) was for years the tallest buildi
ng in the world. The original planning and design did not envision this record as a goal to be achieved or as a parameter to guide design. Fazlur Khan’s design for Sears Roebuck not only met the client’s goal of consolidating its Chicago-area employees into one central location while allowing for anticipated company growth, but did so with an innovative and cost-saving bundled-tube structural system. This building was arguably not just the culmination but the fulfillment of Chicago’s role in advancing the towering skyscraper as a centerpiece of modern architecture. Its particular design exemplifies the “form following function” dictum in both the advantages and drawbacks of that way of conceptualizing buildings. Its aesthetics magnify the aesthetic features and the drawbacks of the huge modern skyscraper.
II. Body
The Willis Tower is 110 stories tall and 1454 feet high. Visitors can see five states from its observation deck on a clear day. The building has the highest elevator ride in the world. Its base covers two full city blocks. One way often mentioned to envision its bundled tube design is to think of a pack of cigarettes with nine cigarettes rising above the others. Two are pulled out to a middle level with two more slightly higher. Then three are pulled even higher with the last two pulled out to complete the design. Each of these cigarettes is seventy five feet square. The exterior design is that of a steel frame and glass curtain as pioneered in Bruce Graham’s Inland Steel building. The exterior frame is covered by twenty eight acres of black aluminum. Other statistics barely convey the superhuman scale of the Willi...
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...cheaply. However its aesthetic and human deficiencies reveal that form follows function succeeds only insofar as we do not let constricted or provincial ideas about a building’s function limit what it becomes in the lives of the people who have to live and work there. There is a sense here that the Sears executives who commissioned it got exactly what they wished for and what they paid for. Few people feel affection for it like the Hancock Center as a civic symbol nor would many take it as a source of inspiration. The Willis Tower will stand as a monument to Fazlur Khan’s engineering imagination and as an indictment of the aesthetic and social imaginations of those who could not conceive of a workplace where people did more than clock in and perform their set tasks and functions. Remember that the Sears people originally conceived of the building as a 40-story cube.
James F. O'Gorman, Dennis E. McGrath. ABC of Architecture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Document. October 2013.
From first impression, Burnham found that Chicago had a murky factorial image lined with a “fantastic stink that lingered in the vicinity of Union Stock yards” (41). The dreadful surface that Chicago was maintaining allowed Burnham to be determined to collaborate and recreate its image. His efforts would also make a reputational comeback for America’s poor representation in the Exposition Universelle (15). One major feature that transformed public opinion of the state was to illuminate the entire fair with clean white buildings that outlined the goodness of the area (252). Eye-catching whiteness contradicted the presumed dirtiness of the town. Making a contradiction from what was assumed of the city would allow the fair to generate a much bigger transformation. The lights also gave the fair a unique, whimsical edge. “The lamps that laced every building and walkway produced the most elaborate demonstration of electric illumination ever attempted”, incorporating new technology in a grand-scale way merely to keep the theme of brightness ongoing throughout each day and night (254). Most importantly, it displayed the town’s potential to become a thriving and respected city. The theme of whiteness interlaced with the neoclassical outline in The World Fair’s de...
Soon after the fire, legislature decided to tear down the remains of the damaged structure and replace it with a larger and more stylish design. Chicago architect, Henry Ives Cobb, was selected to design and build the second capitol. The government gave him a budget of only $550,000, which was not nearly enough to reproduce the size and design that the legislature had envisioned. Due to limited funds, Cobb was unable to finish his intended design. Legislature was embarrassed and unimpres...
Each tower was 1,362 feet tall. When they were new, they were the tallest towers in the world and they held this record for two years (Abbot 1). The Sears Tower surpassed their record of the tallest towers in 1973 (Aderson 757). After his performance, Petit was arrested (Abbot 1). As part of his sentence, Petit was to perform his tightrope act at Central Park. Subsequent to his performance, Petit has done a number of tightrope acts (“Philippe Petit Biography” 1).
On Friday, July 17, 1981, the Hyatt Regency Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri hosted a dance party, which was held in the hotel’s atrium lobby. One of the atrium lobby’s defining features was the presence of elevated walkways that were suspended from the ceiling. About 1,600 people attended the event, mostly occupying the lobby floor; however many guests were either standing or dancing on the suspended walkways as well. Tragically, at approximately 7:05 P.M. a loud crack was heard as two of the walkways collapsed onto the lobby floor below killing 114 people and injuring 216 more. Investigations following this event revealed that the walkways were not designed in a way that was structurally sound, rendering them prone to catastrophic failure. In order to make efforts to avoid such tragedies in the future, it is necessary to evaluate the engineers whose work led to the collapse of the walkways. A consideration of their ethical behavior through the framework of virtue ethics may provide insight into what virtues engineers, and aspiring engineering students, must possess so that their work is done properly with the safety of the general public in mind. To this end, it is useful to first provide some background information on the structure of the suspended walkways and to pinpoint the specific cause of their collapse.
The “White City” was a vast collection of architecture and arts that were put on display in the year 1893. The Chicago World Fair, also called the “White City”, was a major event in American history that impacted America’s culture, economic, and industry. The Chicago World Fair was held to honor Columbus’ discovery of the New World. The real reason why it was made was to proudly have back their wealth and power. Larson said, “the tower not only assured the eternal fame of its designer, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel but also offered graphic proof that France had edged out the United States for dominance in the realm of iron and steel…”(15). To accomplish this, architects led by Daniel Burnham and John Root made numerous buildings and beautiful scenery
As terrible as the Great Chicago Fire was to the city of Chicago back in 1871, the lessons learned from this disaster and the reconstruction that followed from the ashes and rubble actually helped turn Chicago into one of the great cities in the United States. This paper will examine what happened and why, what the leaders of Chicago learned from the experience, and how the will and spirit of the people of Chicago along with financial support from a sympathetic nation and beyond forever changed the city of Chicago for the better.
Frank Lloyd Wright is widely known and is considered to be America’s greatest architect. He is considered, in the eyes of many, to be the most consequential American architect of the 20th century. “Strongly individualistic, flamboyant, and arrogant, Wright designed and built more than four hundred structures that reflect his architectural genius. Directly and indirectly, he heavily influenced twentieth century architecture with his diverse use of geometry in his designs” (Eisenman).
The CN Tower is a 553.33 meter (1815 ft, 5 in) tall tourist attraction that lies in the heart of Downtown ...
Built in 1889 to commemorate the hundred year anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower has been a topic of discussion for numerous years. Designed by Gustave Eiffel and Morris Koechlin, the Tower was built originally as a temporary structure. The pieces of this eye-catching building were to be disassembled and melted down after twenty years. This did not happen, however. The Eiffel Tower has become a colossal icon throughout the world; the Tower has brought in enormous revenue and has a scientific impact on French and all of Europe’s society.
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The layout of modern day airport terminals are more than simple buildings offering protection from the weather as it was in the early days of air travel. In the early 1920’s the terminal was a small building mostly used for cargo and airmail, with very little amenities for passengers. As the demand for air travel increased the necessity for larger air facilities grew, soon airport style copied the main transportations of the time, the railroads. The smaller buildings became bigger art deco style of building, holding ticket offices, baggage handling areas and waiting areas for travelers. These early terminals most often were single level facilities that opened to the tarmac. As the number of passengers increased, these airports became inefficient and it became unsafe to have passengers walk across the apron. It was apparent that the ...