Nowhere to go but up: A vertical history of the skyscraper

The modern skyscraper has its distant origins in antiquity and the middle ages, with its precursors in the insular apartments of Rome and the mud-brick residential towers of the city of Shibam in Yemen. However, even these buildings were limited by structural integrity as masonry constructions. Indeed, few buildings matched the height of the Great Pyramid in Egypt until well into the industrial age.

The industrial age signaled the true beginning of the skyscraper, which allowed buildings to go up beyond twenty storeys and remain practical. The safety elevator, structural steel frames, and reinforced concrete all led to the construction of the opulent high rises that dominated the major cities of the U.S. at the turn of the 20th Century.

Image source: cnn.com

The skyscraper truly came into its own in the 20th century as the world's powerhouse economies began seeing value in building up. Throughout the world, wealthy cities started to resemble the tower-studded metropolises of New York and Chicago.

Those two cities remained the leaders of the race for height, first led by New York with such structures as the Chrysler, the Empire State, and the former World Trade Center, and Chicago countering with what is now known as Willis Tower. The race for the world's tallest building went to Asia, with the construction of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, the Taipei 101 Tower in Taiwan, and finally the Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates.

Image source: travelingmyself.com

Of course, one secret to the world's tallest buildings is that their height is not based on the number of floors but on the total height of the structure, including spires (antennas don't count). The Chrysler Building even “cheated” its way to the record books through its spire. In their respective tenure as the world's tallest building, the Taipei 101 and Petronas did not have as many floors as the Willis Tower. The title “tallest building” with “most number of usable floors” was once again held by the same building upon the completion of the Burj Khalifa.

There's more to the story of the skyscraper than can be comfortably fit in a single post. Follow me, William B. Lauder, on Twitter for more topics on architectural history.