Skyscrapers

These spectacular spires sometimes inspire us, and astound us while we stare in awe skyward at their sheer size. Ever since Otis invented the elevator the sky’s the limit when it comes to erecting these iconic towering structures. However, it wasn’t always easy, many lives have been lost and many lessons learned as we build our modern day towers of Babel higher and higher. Join me as we discover skyscrapers on this week’s episode of FYI!

Transcript

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these spectacular spires sometimes Inspire us and Astound us while we stare in awe Skyward at their sheer size ever since Otis invented the elevator thus SKU the limit when it comes to erecting these iconic towering structures however it wasn't always easy many lives have been lost and many Lessons Learned as we build our modernday towers of Babel higher and higher join me as we discover skyscrapers on this week's episode of FYI welcome to for your info English you got it you got it hello hello hello and welcome to this another exciting episode of FYI hello FYI I am proud to welcome you to another episode and today the sky the limit we're going to talk about sky scrapers and before we even begin let's pronounce it it's not a sky scraper it's skyscraper skyscraper and don't say sky crapper gagos like my friend damyan says it's skyscraper coming from the verb to scrape which is similar to scratch so in essence it's the same word rasos skyscraper good now that we've gotten that out of the way let's take a look at today's intro because it's chalk full of vocabulary you need to know I started out by saying these spectacular spires sometimes Inspire us Spire Inspire do you see what I did there well a Spire is a tall pointed roof in Spanish I think you say Chapel I don't know if I'm pronouncing that correctly they also Astound us while we stare in awe and to stare is to look without looking away in Spanish you say and we look in awe in awe is when you say awesome in Spanish you say asombro we were in awe because the episode was awesome and we look skyward do you recognize that word from torwards that's a difficult one we say torwards or towards I would naturally say towards but it's that same suffix there so sky word AIA a at their sheer size and the word sheer is M we've looked at this word a lot on the episodes and I'm not talking about the fish m i mean Mir hey there's a syn for sheer and it Rhymes I'm a poet and I didn't even know it then I said ever since Otis invented the elevator and I know all of you know about Otis every elevator I've ever been on Bears his name the inventor of the elevator and this was one of the many breakthroughs that needed to happen in order for the skyscrapers to continue to grow Skyward with without Innovations such as the elevator steel and iron and certain processes used with them we couldn't go any higher well do you feel like walking up a 100 flights of steps I didn't think so and a flight of steps is one level you'll hear me say floors or stories they both mean plantas so you'll hear that word a few times throughout today's episode I already gave you the the idiomatic expression the skies the limit when it comes to erecting these iconic towering structures however it wasn't always easy many lives have been lost even to this day there are more deaths than there should be especially in certain countries that don't protect the workers so we hope no more lives are lost and we hope that many lessons will continue to be learned as we build our modernday towers of Babel and we build them higher and higher and I think this is a Fascination we've had forever reaching the heavens but also if you remember how the ending of the story of the Tower of Babel goes it doesn't go too well but I don't want to babble on about that to Babylon is to keep on talking just be careful it's not Babel we say Babel but it's true we've always wanted to build higher and higher I see it with my daughter we use building blocks and we build towers and the idea is to get higher and higher and it's something that's almost innate in fact it makes me think of the word the building blocks the building blocks are the basic elements of anything and and we'll take a look at a lot of idiomatic expressions in the bonus part we'll also take a look at the world's tallest towers and some of the ones that are in development as we speak we'll look at some of the ugliest in billionaires Row in New York City some people call these eyesores I'll give you the facts you be the judge and an isore is something that's not fun to look at something that's ugly and let's be honest some of these skyscrapers you see nowadays are downright ugly so we'll take a look at some of those we'll also take a look at some fun facts we'll take a look at some disasters where engineering went wrong we'll take a look at it in pop culture music and movies and as always some idioms that have to do with the topic as well all that and much more in the bonus episode of today's FYI if you want to get a bonus episode every week plus get PDF documents with all the vocabulary you can join my community for as little as €3 a month in fact you can join for free now you just don't get access to all the posts but depending on what level you're on you can get even private classes with me once a month as well as weekly group classes with me and if you want to find out more go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso you'll see it's organized into four levels take a look around let me know if you have any questions the good news is the community is growing every single day and more importantly you guys are improving your English you're gaining the confidence you need all while making friends with people who have similar interests as you if you want to join our curious Community go over to patreon.com / Alberto Alonso there are almost 200 of us now and I want to send a shout out to each and every one of you especially my super duper students Louise Mara Javier pakco Roberto and don't forget about my Interstellar students the ones who get a private class with me Garmin Lena Issa Paco David Jose Maria patri IO and Edgard keep it up if you guys want to join my Curious Community go to patreon.com Alberto Alonso and also if you have ideas for upcoming episodes just let me know as always we'll start by defining the topic what is a skyscraper according to Wikipedia and you've got to trust Wikipedia in fact you've got to trust everything you read online not a skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors modern sources Define skyscrapers as being at least 100 m for our friends in the United States 330 ft but some definitions say it's 150 M so 50 m taller so what does that mean there is no universally accepted definition historically the term referred to buildings with 10 and 20 stories this was in the 1880s that's as high as skyscrapers would go obviously nobody wants to walk more than 10 floors even five is a lot but you'll be in great shape I'll tell you that but it's just not practical all joking aside as we know skyscrapers can have offices hotels residential spaces like condos and and Retail spaces as well as parking garages underground one common feature of skyscrapers is that they have a steel frame and that steel frame supports curtain walls this was an idea that was invented by Violet leuk in his discourses on architecture and these curtain walls they don't bear the load they are either below or suspended from the framework work so there are pillars or beams in the middle that carry all the load the outside part is just a facade because before that you would use concrete and it was just heavy you couldn't go up too high and all the walls had to be loadbearing walls but in Modern Skyscrapers the walls the exterior walls I'm referring to are usually not loadbearing and the word load is got if you haven't figured it out most skyscrapers are characterized by large surface areas of windows again made possible by these steel frames and curtain walls so the frame is like the skeleton and as long as that's steel and that's strong well the exoskeleton if you will can be designed any way you want thinking about form thinking about function or preferably both Modern Skyscrapers often have a two ular structure as well they're designed to act like a hollow cylinder the word Hollow is wo and this way they can resist wind seismic activity and other lateral loads some statistics for you as of September 2023 14 cities in the world have more than a 100 skyscrapers that are 150 M or taller that's 492 ft which city in the world do you think has the most skyscrapers over 150 M tall did you say Hong Kong nice job Hong Kong has an astounding 552 skyscrapers over 150 M tall the second place one doesn't even come close shenzen China has an astounding 373 but if you compare it to Hong Kong it's almost double and in third place we've got you guessed it Start Spreading the News I'm leaving today New York City New York New York with 314 skycrapers over 150 M then you've got Dubai which we'll talk about later on with 252 wangu China with 188 Shanghai with 83 Tokyo with 168 koala lmour Wuhan Chicago's on the list with 137 Bangkok is also on the list with 111 so as we can see a lot of these cities are in the East where the population is astronomical and they have to be able to support all that growth so they build upwards I mean that's the whole idea behind a city now many cities are sprawling and they're built horizontally like Los Angeles but even in Los Angeles if you go downtown there's always an area that's built vertically the downtown area the business district where the big banks are also think about it that's the best sign yeah you can put a little billboard next to the the road or you can be the tallest building in a city and your logo is right over the city and we'll talk about that a lot of these buildings are named after the business or the man's name who built them such as the Sears Tower which was at one point the tallest one in the United States it's located in Chicago it's called the Willis Tower now but it was called the Sears Tower and Sears was like a courting type thing so they've made brand names icons the Chrysler Building for the love of God chryler might not be the most popular car brand but that is one of the most popular buildings in the United States so the word Chrysler is uttered by people all over the world so is there better advertising no and that's why these Banks and insurance companies know that look at Madrid KPMG these big auditing companies financial industry Consulting these businesses I know very little about but I know anywhere you go they're the ones that are in the skyscrapers let's take a look at a little history of skyscrapers again the definition is disputed but according to many the first steel frame skyscraper was the home insurance building in what city did you say Chicago nice that's right in 1885 it reached a height of 42 M that's 138 ft translation 10 stories whoa remember folks we're talking about 1885 over here 2 years before Alicia Otis introduced the safety elevator because the home insurance building is disputed some people point to a building in Philadelphia called the Jane building which was built from 1849 to 1850 that was also 10 stories as well and some say it was the seven floor Equitable life building in New York City built in 1870 but there's one thing that is not disputed the EV how out building in Manhattan was the first building to successfully install a passenger elevator and this was in March of 1857 so they all had their contribu tion but it was that steel skeleton in the home insurance building that has allowed for today's super tall skyscrapers the ones that you're seeing popping up all over New York City these days on what we call billionaires row but more about that in the bonus now if you were paying attention before I said the first building that had an elevator was the EV how out building and that was in 1857 it's when when Otis introduced the safety elevator but this was just the precursor it wasn't until 1870 in the aformentioned Equitable life building that we saw the first commercial passenger elevators again that was in 1870 and that's why by many historians it's considered the first skyscraper another crucial element that made the Equitable life building such a milestone such a breakthrough was the use of the steel frame before that they were using stone or brick and obviously that was not practical as you got higher and higher another thing that let us go higher and higher was sprinklers sure what if you have a fire and you're in the penthouse you're not going to want to buy a condo without sprinklers cuz the first thing that's disabled when there's a fire is the elevators so all of these things not only added to the safety but it l us build Higher and Higher and as we said before that's the goal even today the goal is not to build beautiful buildings anymore it seems like taller is better I'm not saying I agree with that statement I'm just saying the way it is and from the Tower of Babel to the tallest structure in ancient times the Great Pyramid of Giza which was 146 m well is I should say that was the 26th Century BC and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years by the way speaking of the pyramids if you haven't listened to the episode on the Seven Wonders give it a listen it's wonderful another early title holder was the Lincoln Cathedral this was 160 m but that was thousands of years later and only 20s something meters taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza and now it seems like the tallest building in the world title lasts for a year and then somebody comes and makes a taller building into the stratosphere and boom they take the title an interesting thing about the Lincoln Cathedral is the Spire collapsed well the Lincoln cathedral was not surpassed until the 169 m Washington monument in 1884 but again these are uninhabited the definition of a skyscraper is they have to be habited so none of these comply with the modern definition of a skyscraper but they were all predecessors the idea was the same bigger Bolder and pushing higher into the heavens some other notable ones the singer building it was the world's tallest building when it was completed in 1908 and it was located in you guessed it New York City then you've got the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower this is right across from the iconic flat iron building well this took the title when it was completed in 1909 so the poor singer building didn't have the title for more than a year then came the Woolworth Building which you can still see because it's still standing taller than it's ever been looking like a true survivor feeling like a little kid and we'll talk about that in the bonus part two we'll talk about the average life of these Mega skyscrapers and you'll be surprised it's quite short but the Woolworth Building is absolutely beautiful it is a neogothic Cathedral of Commerce and it's in downtown Manhattan it's 240 1 M tall and when it was completed in 1913 it became the world's tallest building and it held that title until 1930 so a lot longer than the singer building the next one is still an iconic building so many years later we mentioned it before the Chrysler Building in 1930 it took the lead as the tallest building in the world reaching 319 M tall as many of you know it's got an art deco style and there are even gargoyles on the top near the spire and it continues to be a favorite to this day that was eventually beaten by the Empire State building another one that continues to be a favorite just 9 streets South and this one is 381 M tall 102 stories that was in 1931 and the empire State Building was the first building to have more than a 100 Floors eventually it was surpassed by the World Trade Center this was in 1970 well actually it was completed in 1973 and for a short time the World Trade Center's North Tower which was completed in 1972 was the tallest building in the world but the following year the Sears Tower in Chicago took the title now it's called the Willis Tower and if you guys are on patreon you'll see I shared some photos with my wife and I at the top it's awesome there's a glass Skywalk and if you're afraid of heights I wouldn't go up there my knees were shaken and it's funny because people still call it the Sears Tower even though they call it the Willis Tower the name just stuck and that was completed in 1974 again thankfully that one the Empire State Building the Chrysler Building the Woolworth Building you can still visit those today but do it before it's too late cuz the same way they're building up these towers they're knocking them down too we talked about that a lot in our Las Vegas episode after the Sears Tower the title was finally taken from the United States the petronus towers in 1998 they took the title from the United States before that the battle was between New York and sometime Chicago there's still a battle of the skyscrapers you know what I say both cities have the most amazing skyscrapers I've ever seen in my life it's worth going to both cities and when we were in Chicago we did an architecture tour it was fascinating I'll give you more fun facts in the bonus part here's a little trivia for you at the time of this recording 2024 what's the tallest building in the world it's the Burge Khalifa it's located in Dubai it's been featured in movies Tom Cruz climbed it on a stunt and it's become an icon but it won't be the tallest for long because some people are already planning to take the title so whether you like skyscrapers or not it's interesting to see the battle to be the biggest and that battle continues from the Tower of Babel to today and I'm not the only one who's fascinated by this topic because every September 3rd is global skyscraper day I hope you found this fascinating and I hope you'll join us in the bonus episode of this week's FYI a