Going Up, and Up, and Up | God's World News

Going Up, and Up, and Up

05/02/2016
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    A skinny skyscraper goes up at 432 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York. (AP)
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    Recent years have seen the rise of the “supertall,” and super skinny. (AP)
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    New technologies allow buildings to have footprints the size of a few homes. (AP)
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    Most skyscrapers take up a whole city block or more. (AP)
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    Skyscrapers are seen from Central Park in Manhattan, New York. (AP)
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New York City’s famous Empire State Building sits on an entire city block. In 1930, when it was built, such a footprint was necessary to carry the weight of the 102 stories that make up the skyscraper. Today, buildings are getting taller and skinnier. The thinnest of all in New York is an apartment tower at 432 Park Avenue. Its stark white pillar climbs 1,396 feet up, but each side is only about 93 feet wide. That’s just the length of a basketball court.

As cities grow, buildable tracts of land get used up. Square footage on the ground becomes scarce and expensive. So growing upward becomes the best option. Relatively tiny footprints are possible due to modern engineering and materials.

Gone are the days of heavy masonry foundations compressed under the weight of the upper floors. Today’s lightweight but high-strength steel—unavailable a few decades ago—support higher levels of stress with much less density in the structure. Buildings continue to rise up and up like spires, claiming space from the sky rather than the earth below.

Building tall and thin has its challenges too. Tall towers must be designed to flex with wind currents. A rigid structure could simply snap, so a certain amount of swaying is required. But balancing that need to sway with a comfortable sense of stability for residents is also needed. Systems of weights, springs, and pendulums are built into a skyscraper’s structure to counteract the swinging. These are called “damping systems.” Advances in computer modeling take into account height, width, materials, and wind forces. They let today’s architects and engineers design sleek, narrow structures that stand up and don’t make their occupants seasick.

Plans are in place for another New York tower that could be the skinniest skyscraper in the world. It would be about 1,400 feet tall and less than 60 feet wide. By 2020, another eight supertalls (over 300 meters, or about 984 feet) are slated to be completed in New York City. Some will be office buildings and some residential.

Prices in these buildings are expected to be as sky-high as the views. A three-bedroom apartment at 432 Park Avenue lists for $17.75 million.

But despite the demand, not everyone's thrilled with all the new additions to the skyline. Beloved landmark skyscrapers may be blocked from view. Sunlight into the already walled-in streets may be further blocked.

Investors have to balance costs of land with plans for development. Designers have to balance the science of structure with the needs of occupants. So also city planners must find the right balance between old and new as additions come to the existing city.