Narrator: Like giant exclamation marks,
Skyscrapers punctuate the story of our urban development.
People always want to reach.
There's something heavenly about it.
And people have wanted to race for height forever.
Narrator: Developed by the pioneers of architecture
In the late 19th century.
They were, at the time,
The equivalent of our going to the moon.
Narrator: These magnificently designed tower giants
Urbanized some of the greatest cities in the world.
It's about defying gravity and leaving a sign of humanity.
Narrator: From chicago to london,
From tokyo to dubai,
Skyscrapers have and continue to define
Our contemporary way of life.
-- Captions by vitac -- www.Vitac.Com
Captions paid for by discovery communications
In a time that quite literally soared,
The roaring 1920s had people feeling alive.
Big cities were thriving,
Each developing a distinctive cultural edge.
But like most good things, not everything lasts forever.
When the great depression descended on america,
It cast a large shadow across the country.
In the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929,
Millions of people were out of work.
Hundreds of thousands of families
Were evicted from their homes.
And the industry collapsed.
By 1931, 6 million people became
Financially and emotionally destitute.
10 years later, the country began to recover
From the financial setback thanks in part
To president roosevelt's new deal to stimulate
The economy through construction.
But the skyscraper business continued to struggle.
Barr: For the most part, from 1932 to,
Really, after world war ii there were essentially
Very few skyscrapers built.
Perhaps the big exception is rockefeller center.
Narrator: The construction of the rockefeller center
In new york city was the largest privately owned building project
Of its time.
Employing over 40,000 people, the building was conceived
As an urban renewal plan to help revitalize midtown manhattan.
The project was spearheaded by john d. Rockefeller jr.,
Son of the oil industrialist and philanthropist
John d. Rockefeller sr.
Barr: The land had been owned by columbia university,
So john d. Rockefeller signs a contract to take over
Control of the land.
He wanted it to be a series of buildings.
There was one maiden skyscraper, but then there were, around it,
Lots of plazas and they even had a skating pond,
And then they had the place where they lit
The christmas tree every year.
Anchorman: Back to america, and this time it's winter sport
Amid the towering skyscrapers of manhattan.
A new skating rink has been opened at the heart
Of new york's shopping center.
Rendezvous where you can cut a few capers on the ice
During luncheon and cocktail hour.
Barr: Part of the plan was to include an opera house
And make it like a civic center.
But then the depression came,
And the opera house deal fell through.
But they were determined to make a commercial project out of it.
Narrator: Between 1932 and 1940,
14 buildings were constructed on the site,
Including 30 rock, otherwise known as the rca building.
The rockefeller center opened up a new vision about the city,
Which was the modernist vision perhaps.
We tend to think about tall buildings
As these pieces of sculpture, these icons standing alone
Against the skyline.
I think a great example is rockefeller center,
Where a multi-block compound was designed at the same time
With a single structure in the middle
And then smaller structures around it.
Narrator: Rockefeller jr. Invested $100 million
Into the complex.
Through his investments, the project allowed
Tens of thousands of workers to regain their ability
To provide for themselves and for their families.
There was a very interesting description
Of the rockefeller center from the storied sigfried giedion,
Who used the rockefeller as a quintessential example
Of the concept of space, time, and architecture.
So in that sense the chrysler and the empire state building
Were still a building that you could appreciate
From a viewpoint.
The rockefeller center you had to experience it moving.
Barr: Primarily it was driven by the commercial entries,
Combined with having this tremendously large plot
Of land and having a team of architects and engineers
Who were sort of civic-minded and were thinking about
How to project the future within the heart of midtown.
Narrator: Regardless of when or where they were built,
A skyscraper's basic structure hasn't changed over time.
From the earliest skyscrapers to today,
Most still share many similarities.
Willis: Engineers will think of tall buildings
As a kind of perfect statement
To the principles of engineering,
The economy of holding up a structure
With the least amount of materials.
We have to do certain things.
We have to, one, make sure the ground doesn't sink below us,
So we have to put in our foundations.
We have to build in systems.
We have to have floors, which we walk around on.
We then got the columns that support those floors.
Armstrong: The correspondence between buildings
And our physical anatomy is pretty strong.
They have circulation systems.
They have electrical systems, like our nervous system.
They have a skeletal system, like our bone structure.
And they have a skin.
Baker: You have to have these mechanical systems
That enable the building to breathe and cool itself
And regulate itself,
And so a human is not a bad analogy for a tall building.
Narrator: The stock market crash and the great depression
Left the country in a state of economic crisis,
Bringing the tall-building industry to a halt.
But after world war ii, cities like new york and chicago
Experienced an industrial revitalization,
Restoring faith that the industry could
And would boom again.
So, after world war ii, you have several forces at work.
One is the need to build new, modern high-rises.
Then there's sort of the new and technological innovations
That had then become much more readily available.
Man: Those of us who have been following this subject
Most closely expect that welding will displace
Riveting entirely for building construction.
Marfella: Now, what happened with world war ii,
The military industry used welding a lot more in ship
Building and aircraft building.
So a lot of riveters were converted
To arc-welding techniques.
What that meant is that you could have buildings
That were easier to prefabricate.
In part with welding, that was high-strength bolts
That were also becoming more available.
It enabled to have connections that could be done in a factory
And completed faster on site,
So there was less hurdles to overcome in order to build high.
Narrator: Significant innovations in building construction
Were on the rise.
The type of glass installed in buildings was changing,
From pre-war plate glass to a post-war float glass system.
Technological advancements in air-conditioning
And fluorescent lighting systems
Provided workers with more flexibility and comfort
And improved a building's rentability.
Baker: One of the things about a tall building
Is that you have to design them like a swiss watch.
You cannot have wasted space
Because if you have wasted space,
You're repeating that wasted space so much.
Wells: There was definitely a period of time where designers
Were trying to find the right expression for a skyscraper.
What does it want to be?
How do I do it economically?
Barr: And so then you kind of see the economic demand,
The technological innovations,
And then architecture zeitgeist of the day,
The international school of architecture
Putting forth their ideas
About how tall buildings should be built.
Narrator: The post-war era brought forth
A new generation of chicago skyscrapers.
As the world was evolving, so was architecture.
Now, architects were designing buildings
With a functional style.
Residential and commercial buildings
Were developed to appear sleeker,
A departure from the mixed decorative styles of the past.
As modernism began to lead the charge,
A new age of design was emerging.
Its founders became known
As the second chicago school of international style.
Armstrong: People in the post-world war ii era
Really wanted to set the past aside
And look at it as behind and look forward into the future.
The most rapid way to do that was through an architecture
Or a style that purported to be international in its influences
But was seen as being the epitome of efficiency
And modernity.
The second chicago school influenced
A new generation of designers,
Bringing forth an energy and innovation to architecture.
But one pioneer stood out from all the rest.
Ludwig mies van der rohe,
Or simply mies to the design world,
Was one of architecture's most towering figures.
Mies was about aesthetics, clearly.
His buildings are functional in some ways
And they look functional,
But more importantly they're beautiful
In terms of his proportions that he picked.
He had an eye for it.
Narrator: As technology and construction evolved,
So did the american skyscraper.
The use of steel and glass
Became the signature of the international style.
Steel skeletons were exposed
For their honest expression of structure
And the glass curtain wall was a membrane that surrounded
And expressed those frames.
Narrator: Ornamentation was out, and minimalism was in.
As mies said, less is more.
Standing at 516 feet tall, this new york city building
Was one of the most iconic examples of functionalist
Aesthetic during the rise of modern architecture.
Later, as modern architecture dominated urban skylines,
Sleek, glassy skyscrapers were taking over city streets
All over the world.
But all that glass needed to be cleaned,
And with buildings getting taller,
Innovators looked to new technologies
To build more efficiently not only inside the building
But also on the outside.
♪
Narrator: Across the world, a new standard for style
Was established in the 1950s.
In a time where modernism was keen,
Leaders like ludwig mies van der rohe
Were influencing how designers approached architecture.
The first tall office building mies van der rohe designed
Was the seagram building in new york.
Located on 375 park avenue,
This 38-story masterpiece was commissioned
By seagram's founder, sam bronfman.
Man #2: Out of the dreams of one industrialist,
This great new edifice came into being,
A skyscraper that would become a landmark.
The most beautiful tower ever to rise
On manhattan's skyline.
Narrator: Through every phase of construction to its completion,
This sleek, avant-garde structure
Captured the imagination of the nation.
Floor-to-ceiling windows, made from gray topaz glass,
Offered protection from the glare
And heat of the sun
Without any real compromise to the site's natural light.
There had been visions of all-glass skyscrapers
Since the early 20th century.
After world war ii,
Our ability to create large expanses of glass
Became much more economical,
And the result was the ubiquitous glass skyscraper
Of the mid-century.
Man #2: Specially devised pinkish-gray heap and glare-resistant glass,
Windows of this glass are easier on the eyes of those
Who inhabit the office building.
Mies van der rohe sort of placed the structure within,
But then he added structure to the seagram building
Just to make it look like structure.
Narrator: The seagram building was considered
An icon of 20th-century architecture.
Made of steel, reinforced concrete,
And glass, it was the epitome of international style.
It wasn't necessarily a very efficient skyscraper.
But what it did, it celebrated steel welding as
Mies did also in other projects,
And it created this iconic image about the town.
And no city was really advanced or developed
Without having its own kind of glass skyscraper.
Narrator: Modern american architecture had arrived,
But it wasn't cheap.
The use of materials like marble and travertine
Caused the building's final cost to skyrocket.
At its completion, the seagram building was considered
The most expensive skyscraper of its time,
Costing $41 million to build.
While the seagram is arguably the most impressive
International-style building in manhattan,
The lever house created its fair share of attention.
Designed by skidmore, owings, and merrill, the lever house
Was a significant building of its time,
Transforming the evolution of skyscrapers.
Oldfield: Lever house had a podium element with it
That kind of tower above a space at ground that doesn't dominate,
That defines a site and is set back the tower above.
Lever house is perhaps most well-known
For its single-skin glass facade,
And while that created a sleek, modern aesthetic,
What it meant is the building heated up very,
Very quickly in the summer
And got pretty cold very, very quickly in new york's winters,
And so the building became one of the first
That was totally reliant on air-conditioning
And artificial heating.
Narrator: Since the building was the american headquarters
Of unilever, a multi-national soap company,
Cleanliness was also an important consideration.
Man #3: These men made a contribution to the science
Of washing that made mrs. America stand up and cheer.
Marfella: It was one of the first buildings,
The very first building that developed what we refer
To today as the bmu -- the building maintenance unit,
Which is a cradle that goes on top of the roof
That is attached to a crane and is used to clean the facade.
Narrator: Using this automated cleaning structure,
It took workers just six days to clean the entire lever building,
Proving that this system
Was an efficient way to get the job done.
Man #4: The higher you build, the bigger the window-cleaning problem.
This must be one of the few jobs where you start at the top
And work your way down.
Narrator: Fear of heights?
Not an option.
So, when you had windows, which you didn't until you had
Air-conditioning in the middle of the 20th century,
You had window washers who hung out outside those windows,
And they strapped themselves in, and I could never do it
Because I'm scared of heights.
Narrator: The taller the skyscraper, the greater the risk.
So leather harnesses and anchor bolts
Were invented to prevent window cleaners from falling.
Man #4: Hold tight, everybody.
We're gazing over the edge
Of the highest structure in the world,
Watching a crew of window cleaners
Giving the empire state building its first shine.
Narrator: But as architecture was moving towards
A functional international style,
The shape of the building was evolving.
So glass facades were becoming
Increasingly more difficult to clean.
Despite improvements in harnesses
And support structures,
Over time, it's still considered an extremely dangerous job.
♪
In the mid 1950s, aluminum was quickly becoming
The new go-to building material, but architect frank lloyd wright
Challenged its worth.
He set out to steer the tall-building business
In a different direction
With his first multipurpose tower in oklahoma,
In the center of tornado alley.
With wind speeds over 300 miles per hour,
It is not the ideal city to build tall buildings,
But oklahoma defied the odds, adding several skyscrapers
To its skyline, specifically in
The bartlesville's business district.
At 19 stories high, the price tower
Became a symbol of oklahoma's prosperous landscape.
Oldfield: Price tower by frank lloyd wright
Was an interesting foray away
From the glass box,
Which was here you had an asymmetrical geometric tower
Which embraced shading.
The price tower is perhaps
One of the first built tall buildings
That tries to be a mini vertical city.
And frank lloyd wright came up with the analogy of a tree,
Where the core was like the trunk
And the floor plates were like branches
Projecting out from this.
Now, that's quite a unique way of doing things.
Marfella: Frank lloyd wright had an enormous influence
In the conception of tall buildings.
He didn't necessarily do the classic tall buildings
That we would recognize today as pace-setters,
But he gave some vision.
Narrator: In the same year price tower was completed,
Wright stood before reporters in chicago
And unveiled his plans for the state of illinois.
Oldfield: He envisioned a mile-high skyscraper, 528 stories,
And even went so far as to examine
The technological challenges to make that achievable.
So, he envisioned five-story elevators
Which were nuclear powered,
Which would serve the upper floors, for example --
You know, technologies we don't even have, obviously, today.
Narrator: Frank lloyd wright's vision
For illinois never got off the ground
But it kept the dream of building to the sky alive.
But in an economy that was just getting back on its feet,
Developers had to carefully consider
How much to spend on building skyscrapers.
And for those who believed architecture should reflect
Historic traditions and social order,
Building a skyscraper
That would redefine a new artistic perspective
Wasn't an easy task on a budget.
Narrator: For all their inspiration and innovation,
Skyscrapers are difficult to engineer and expensive to build.
Each additional square foot increases its price tag.
So, what are the economic drivers
For building taller skyscrapers?
Howeler: So, cass gilbert, architect of the woolworth building,
Famously said that the skyscraper is the machine
That makes the land pay.
Fundamentally, he was describing the skyscraper
As an instrument for capital.
So, there is a premium to pay for height,
And that increases the cost of tall-building
Design and construction.
So, if you calculate the cost of a tall building
Per square meter, for example,
It's considerably higher than a building that is not so tall.
Watts: They're also more inefficient,
Which, from a developer's perspective, is very critical
Because it means that for every square meter of area he builds,
He gets less of that area to let to tenants
Because they require larger cores and larger structures
And more lifts to move people up and down,
And they take longer to build.
Narrator: In other words, there's a relationship
Between building taller, economic development,
And the demand for height.
You see tall buildings going up, super-tall buildings,
Around the world, that's partly because there are people
Who are willing to pay for a suite
On the 120th floor of burj khalifa
Just so that they can say that,
"we have an office at that location."
Marfella: Perhaps one way of putting it for tall buildings --
You know, there's the three "f" words
About tall buildings, right?
Function, finance, and fad.
For me, as a cost consultant, a good skyscraper
Is one that creates delight in terms of how it looks,
But at the same time is efficient and economic.
Narrator: Inevitably, cities change over time.
When cities experience periods of creativity and growth,
A city can reshape itself by providing new structures.
In the unites states, by the late 1950s,
The demand for modern corporate buildings with custom features
And forms took hold of places like new york and chicago.
Marfella: The skyscraper as we know it today originated in america,
From a point of view of building typology,
From the point of view of the technologies that are involved,
From the point of view of the real-estate developments
That are associated with that.
There are two original things in america --
One is jazz music, and the other is skyscrapers --
That have been exported everywhere.
Marfella: There was no european architect
Who could have imagined to do architecture
By taking a floor plan and stacking it relentlessly
Again and again and again and turn it into a building.
Narrator: Shortly after modernism took hold of american
In the mid 20th century,
Other countries began to push the boundaries
Between creativity and architecture.
That seed of the american building was planted elsewhere.
Particularly after world war ii, it started to develop in europe.
You see the countries have an instinct
Almost to plan skyscrapers in the city
To re-affirm the importance of their location.
Narrator: One of europe's earliest modern skyscrapers
Is the pirelli tower, a 417-foot marvel in milan.
From above, the skyscraper is shaped like a six-sided diamond,
An idea architect gio ponti believed
Represented the completeness of design.
Marfella: Pirelli tower was a concrete tower,
And that wasn't necessarily a common thing in those days.
Well, the material -- concrete, in this case --
Was tapered, and it would reduce itself
To its minimum structure at the top of the building
Because gravity laws at the top of a building
Will be less than the ones
That will be at the base of the building.
And so it created this interesting idea
Where concrete could be somehow molded differently
As you go up on the building.
Narrator: Thanks to gio ponti and his engineer,
Pier luigi nervi, the pirelli tower inevitably
Brought the american-style skyscraper to the country.
For the public, the project served
As an innovative achievement in Italy,
A visual representation that pushed the boundaries
Of architecture and engineering on an international level.
Marfella: For the work of pier luigi nervi,
We can find a link between that and other buildings
In other parts of the world.
Nervi collaborated
With an australian-born architect, harry seidler,
Who developed a generation of tall buildings for australia,
Which, in fact, were based on concrete as the main technology.
Narrator: In the 1960s, concrete became an increasingly popular material
In building construction.
Concrete allowed engineers to create bridges and buildings
That were lightweight and curvacious.
As architectural design made a departure from the old
To the new, traditionalists began to fear the worst.
New yorkers feared their city was becoming over-developed,
All due to the inconvenient realities of modernism.
♪
Narrator: By the 1960s, most people had embraced modernism.
All over the world, architectures and engineers
Were building skyscrapers taller and higher than ever,
Taking risks and producing structures
That took innovative leaps of faith.
But too much change too quickly
Can sometimes have the opposite effect.
Modernism had an enormous and detrimental impact on cities
Through planning and misguided planning.
Robert moses of new york city
Is one of the most famous examples
Of a planner who wiped out complete neighborhoods
Bringing expressways through cities.
Narrator: The rules of the development game in new york
Were changing rapidly.
As a response, action groups were formed
To advance public awareness.
By 1964, a battle between urban development and preservation
Had taken hold of the city.
The pan am building, now known as the metlife building,
Was one of the biggest and most bitter battles
Over a construction project in the city's history,
With critics declaring the building
"the ugliest thing to ever rise from the manhattan skyline."
Marfella: One of the things that was most criticized was its location,
Which denied the whole idea of the rockefeller center
In the space-time architecture.
Now suddenly you have a slab that is blocking the view
At the end of a street.
Narrator: The size of the 59-story tower was reduced to some extent
By the angles on its north and south facades
And the indentation of its two mechanical floors
Housing the building's enormous heating and cooling equipment.
♪
Man #5: Over grand central terminal,
The new pan am building rides out a controversy
That has architects and city planners in a dither.
But it was also perhaps the beginning of questioning
What modern buildings were about.
Pan am building was defined as a behemoth, right?
And so there was a moment where things started to change.
Narrator: The new york city landmark preservation commission
Was established in 1965.
Its charter was to protect the big apple's architecturally,
Historically, and culturally significant buildings,
Including many of its soaring skyscrapers.
New york has a mix of skyscrapers
That go back over 100 years.
So, how does one place value on both tradition and change?
Barr: I think people think of the new york skyscrapers
As kind of members of an extended family.
It's part of what makes new york, new york,
And when you move to new york,
It becomes part of your identity.
This idea of the skyscraper as being part of your identity
Also then creates this tension with preservation.
Willis: Buildings that were ugly at the time
Are now considered treasured landmarks and become protected.
So, one's opinion about the quality of a skyscraper
Often changes with time, as well.
Barr: The question then becomes, "do you hold on
To buildings that might be beautiful,
But then sacrifice some of the modern needs
That the city, you know, expects?
Narrator: In chicago, the inner city lost close
To 700,000 of its residents,
Many leaving to pursue the new american dream,
Which was putting down roots in the suburbs.
Marfella: Tall buildings were arguably,
In the eyes of the general public,
An expression of greedy corporations.
But most of all what was criticized was this idea
Of the 9:00-to-5:00 life.
You go into a building. You work.
You walk out, take the car back home
Where I live in the suburbs,
And the city's left with these totems that are empty.
Narrator: In order to keep the city alive,
Local councils focused on revamping
Downtown neighborhoods.
Unions pushed for workers to move back to the city,
Arguing for better jobs and better pay.
The requirements for modernization
Became an imperative,
And the first priority was housing.
Man #6: Breakfast time at the apartment.
Things are starting to move.
Narrator: One complex that quickly became the testing ground
For mixed-use skyscrapers was marina city
On the north bank of the chicago river.
Central to the design were two corncob-like structures
That incorporated office and residential spaces,
Allowing people to live in the marketplace,
Literally commuting to work via an elevator.
Inspired by the futuristic interpretation,
More than 3,500 people rushed in applications
To rent the 896 available apartments.
Oldfield: These beautifully evocative, circular buildings
Where the generosity of the design is a balcony.
The balcony space, the outside space becomes everything,
And sitting out on those balconies looking south
Across the chicago river --
I can't think of many better places to be.
Narrator: The innovations pioneered by bertrand goldberg's city
Within a city would completely change the future
Of urban living.
But if the future of building is to create cities in the sky,
How will their design hold up to the natural elements?
Narrator: By the late 1960s,
Living in the city wasn't as popular as it used to be.
More and more middle-class workers
Were abandoning the city for the suburbs.
But thanks to architect bertrand goldberg,
Chicago was forever changed
When it ushered in a reinvigoration for city life.
Marina city, located in chicago's loop region,
Influenced both form and function of architecture,
Introducing a new approach to urban planning
By catering to commercial,
Retail, residential, and entertainment sectors
Through mixed-used buildings that soared to the sky.
That's, in part, a portfolio approach
To balance against any one sector going down.
And so if you do have something
Where you have some condos that you actually sell,
You have a hotel, you have office,
And sometimes you may have a theater or transit hub,
You've kind of got enough.
Malott: So, it's not an office building which goes dark at night,
And it has its own life to it.
It really is this 24-hour community
That is always a part of the city, day or night.
Narrator: Goldberg's intention for marina city was a success.
Now more than ever, chicagoans were embracing the idea
Of living closer to work than ever before.
80% of residents who worked within the development area
Could walk to work.
Aminmansour: There are a lot of people who want to live in large cities,
And they want to work there.
Their lifestyle is better.
They don't want to commute back and forth.
Lavery: It's all about finding the right blend,
Trying to keep neighborhoods alive,
Which drives investments in the area,
Which brings in social aspects to those areas
And creates community
And gets people proud about where they live
And actually enjoying where they live.
Narrator: It's no surprise that building a city within a city
Comes with its array of challenges.
Not only do engineers and architects
Need to create a thriving way of life inside of buildings,
But they also have to construct a building strong enough
To withstand the elements on the outside.
In cities all over the world,
Engineers must consider the gravitational and lateral load
Of their buildings during construction
In order to counteract the effects of the wind.
When we build the tallest buildings in the world,
The wind is our foe.
The wind pushes on tall buildings
And creates a lateral load that we have to resist
Using additional structural material.
Man #7: Smoke is passed into the airstream
So that the airflow can be recorded on film.
This research will help to find the best materials
And design for future high buildings,
Also the best arrangement for grouping buildings
In relation to the prevailing winds.
Ali: As long as you are within a limit of maybe 10 stories
Or so, gravity load will control okay.
But as soon as it goes beyond that,
Then wind starts controlling,
Depending on the slenderness of the building also.
If you go against the wind, good luck to you
Because it takes no prisoners, by the way, the wind.
The speed of the wind obviously increases the higher you go.
Aminmansour: And that's why over the years
A number of different evolutions of new systems
For tall buildings have come up.
Narrator: One of the most innovative systems
Was developed by fazlur khan,
A structural engineer at skidmore, owings, merrill.
Oldfield: Khan realized that we didn't just have to have
Lots of columns going through skyscrapers.
We could start to use the perimeter of the tower.
Marfella: And khan was very clever in defining a chart that said,
"well, depending on your height,
You have to use different systems."
So, you can't use a simple frame building
Like the chicago-school kind of buildings
If you're going over a certain height limit.
Narrator: The future of building to the sky was tubular
And, for all intents and purposes, limitless.
The first building reinforced by khan's braced tube system
Was the john hancock center,
A 1,128-foot-tall building giant on what is referred to today
As chicago's north michigan avenue.
Ali: With base-tube system,
It put the bracing along the perimeter of the building.
So it becomes an external system,
And it makes the walls really,
Really stiff in their own plates.
And so I have a sheet here,
And you see that if I hold it like this,
It cannot even resist its own weight.
If I take the same sheet
And roll it into a roll like this,
I can hang this stack of papers from it.
So, this has a lot more stiffness
Than the sheet of paper did.
The tube doesn't have to be round.
It could be rectangular.
It could take whatever shape.
The key is that we're providing additional stiffness
By distributing the material in the cross-section differently.
On the john hancock tower, all of the columns
Are working together because --
The rule of the hancock is, every time a diagonal crosses
A vertical, it happens at a full align.
And because of that, you can move loads all over the place,
And so that all the columns are resisting the wind,
Not just the ones in the corner.
Narrator: Khan's system put an entirely new spin
On the age-old practice of creating load-bearing walls,
Which eliminated the need for inner support beams.
The hancock center was widely praised
For its structural simplicity, its gently sloping facade,
A radical departure from established design at the time,
Moving towards a style that captured the essence
Of the machine age of architecture.
Historically known for its iconic golden gate bridge,
The 1970s was a period of change for san francisco,
And a new addition to its skyline
Evoked a less-than-peaceful, loving feeling.
Narrator: While the 1970s brought forth
Unprecedented progressive changes in society,
It also produced a wave of radical ideas from architects
Who were creating out-of-the-world concepts
In response to the major shifts taking place across the world.
San francisco was the epicenter of radical change.
Known for free-spirited style,
The city's architecture fell right into the time period,
Blending styles together
And creating a new design movement -- postmodernism.
But one addition to san francisco's skyline
Was totally unexpected.
The transamerica building was a building
That was trying to do something else
Rather than the ubiquitous towers.
It was a pyramid, which is a counterintuitive approach
To a tall building, where the maximum benefit
Is for the top floor.
Narrator: The 853-foot, 48-story monolith
Designed by william pereira
Became the compass point that polarized the nation.
Some critics said it was so interested in form,
It completely compromised on function.
Marfella: It was the object of stigma because it was the tower
That somehow represented yet again another tall building
That erases some historical human fabric.
Narrator: Pereira argued the pyramid should be seen
As a statement of architectural sculpture.
But critics knocked it down for its lack of practicality
And an inefficient use of funds.
It started to become apparent that the general public
Suddenly despised everything tall buildings represented.
Marfella: And the cultural movement of the conservationists,
Like in san francisco and in other cities in the world,
Started to attack this idea that buildings were monotonously
Destroying the skyline to some extent with their presence,
But they were also destroying the historical fabric
Of the cities.
Narrator: A seismic shift was on the horizon,
One that would shake the foundations of urban culture
Throughout the world.
Architects and engineers were used
To appeasing their corporate clients.
Now it was clear engineers had to consider their obligation
To the general public and future generations.
So, what is the future of building to the sky?
Wood: So, we're building literally hundreds
And thousands of buildings around the world,
200, 300, 400, 1,000 meters high,
With absolutely no idea about their true life cycle.
You can't exactly pour a bucket of acid
On top of a building and melt it down.
It's very difficult or risky
To demolish these buildings by imploding them.
You build these buildings as though they will be
Permanent fixtures on the face of the earth.
You often hear architects say the skyscraper's
Like the modern equivalent of a gothic cathedral.
But in terms of how long it's gonna last, it isn't at all.
It's an ephemeral, throwaway architecture.
Barr: I don't think any developer sits back and thinks,
"in 50 years, I'm just gonna throw this building away."
But the world around a building might change quite dramatically.
Howeler: A lot of thinking these days has to do with,
"can we design robust structures that are not so tailored
To certain programs so that they could survive
These kind of transformations over time?"
In time, we'll see more examples of buildings
Enjoying second or third lives
And being refreshed and renovated and altered,
But also designers giving thought to that
At the beginning of the process
And try and making these buildings adaptable
And flexible in the first place.
Narrator: In order to justify their commercial existence,
Skyscrapers must be adaptable, with the ability to satisfy
The needs of not just one, but multiple generations.
And they also need to serve the public good.
As designers, architects, you have a huge responsibility
To the cities and places that you're placing
Your buildings in.
How do you integrate and connect your building into the location?
What do you put back?
Oldfield: Really tall buildings do have a responsibility
To give something back to the public.
You're taking away light.
You're taking away air.
You're always gonna generate shadow.
So, what can you give back?
Howeler: These buildings meet the ground.
As they meet the ground, they spill out.
They insert themselves into the context,
And they sort of transform their context.
So a tall building today, I think,
Would have to sort of consider, how does it meet the ground?
How does it define a kind of urban space?
And buildings will not be loved if they do not connect
And do not play a role in the city.