Skyscrapers

In Tuesday’s lecture, we talked about a technological advancement that enabled the construction of skyscrapers. This was the development of steel at low costs. Since steel could be used for building structures this meant that buildings could be higher and the same structure could be repeated at every floor.

Additionally, the development of hydraulic elevators also contributed to the feasibility of skyscrapers. Elevators enabled the accessibility of higher floors and allowed high-rise buildings to be practical.

In Carol Willis’ piece, Form Follows Finance – Skyscrapers and Skylines in New York and Chicago, she cites social historian Olivier Zunz, who describes early-twentieth century skylines as “vertical expressions of corporate power”.

This leads us to discuss the two driving forces that propelled the proliferation of skyscrapers in New York. Large-scale commercial enterprises used these outstanding buildings as a symbol of power, plastering their company names to identify themselves among other buildings in the city skyline. On the other hand, a vast number of smaller firms also desired to be closely located to these headquarters. These resulted in densely populated metropolitan areas across the country.

While tall buildings possessed significant advertising value, they also were the supply to the high demand for office space and costly sites in prime locations. As the price of space increased, corporations built more stories to cover and respond to prices, which lowered the costs of producing a square foot of rental space. Corporations were also highly attracted to the idea of owning a skyscraper because of the economic value these held, since they could collect significant rent receipts from tenants in the building, generating increased revenue for the company as they would only occupy the first few stories and rent out the rest of the space.