San Francisco International Airport's Kadish Gallery features a visual tour of architectural landmarks from various international urban environments -- touchstones in the continuing history of the significant building type that is the skyscraper.
Skyscrapers prompt a range of emotions in us -- from fear to fascination. We have been intrigued with these buildings since they were first built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of us still view these buildings with awe and pride.
The Kadish Gallery exhibit features some the newest skyscrapers in the world in Tokyo, London, and New York, cities we would expect, and as far a field as Pulau Pinang, Manila, Montevideo, and Bonn.
The international rivalry to build the world's tallest building is still ongoing as contenders threaten to take the title away from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which was declared the record setter in 1996. New York City's Empire State Building had previously held the world's tallest crown for 41 years, followed by the Sears Tower in Chicago for 22 years. The gallery exhibit also looks at new structural systems, ecological concerns, and smaller high-rise buildings.
The Samsung Togok Tower, a high-rise residential project with hotel/conference center is slated for Seoul, Korea. It will contain 236 residential furnished rental units and 421 condominiums. The complex will also include a large park to the south, a sports club, business center, restaurants, retail shops, and a 'sky garden.'
Intended to add a unique shape to Seoul's skyline, the tower's form is characterized by a series of radiating planes, providing a strong sense of verticality and an ever-changing appearance as the sun reflects on the building's faces. The skyscraper will be clad in light blue-green-tinted, high performance glass and metallic panels on its solid surfaces. (Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP, Chicago, IL.)
The Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China was completed in 1999. At approximately 1,380 feet tall and eighty-eight stories high, it is China's tallest skyscraper. Built of high-strength concrete and structural steel, the earthquake-resistant structure comprises an octagonal concrete core surrounded on four sides by a pair of "super columns," large-scale reinforced-concrete supports.
Three sets of eight, two-story high trusses, connecting the columns to the core at six floors provide additional support. The stepped-back form of the tower evokes traditional forms of Chinese architecture, while the tower's size, contemporary materials and sophisticated structure ground it is the present day. (Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP, Chicago, IL.)
The Kowloon MTR Tower will be 1,883 feet tall, on land reclaimed in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. The multiuse building, slated for construction on a podium over the new railway station, will consist of a hotel, commercial office building, retail areas, public gathering spaces, and a car park.
The top of the tower will be occupied by a restaurant and public observatory. The twenty-three-story hotel in the lower portion of the building will be organized around an atrium that will be visible, not only from the lobby level, but also from the circulation corridor on each floor, providing access to the guest rooms. (Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP, Chicago, IL.)
The AMA Tower, completed in 2001, is a thirty-seven-story tower with a distinctively nautical shape of its contoured northern facade which projects from the tower's otherwise rectangular mass to symbolically propel the building along what designer Ralph Johnson has described as a "river of asphalt and concrete roadways." The ephemeral image of the ship-like tower floating away reflects the building's function as a temporary living and working space for foreign businesspersons. As Johnson has recognized, "This analogy does gain power from the fact that the Philippines is a series of islands and has a long nautical history." (Architect: Perkins & Will, Chicago, IL.)
Located in Berlin's historic Potsdamer Platz, the twenty-six-story Sony Center Berlin represents an interesting variation on the multiuse skyscraper. Whereas a typical skyscraper's functions are arranged vertically, with retail areas in lower levels, and residential areas in upper levels, the Sony Center Berlin will extend these areas horizontally. Thus, the Sony Headquarters will be contained in the curbed glass tower, with Filmhaus, IMAX, and other facilities located in the adjacent low-rise Sony Forum.
(Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, IL.)
A contender for the world's tallest building and slated for completion in 2004, 7 South Dearborn, in the heart of downtown Chicago, will reach 1,500 feet at the roofline and almost 2,000 feet a the top of the antennas. From bottom to top, the structure's mixed-use plans include a retail concourse, thirteen floors of parking for 800 cars, approximately thirty stories occupied by offices, 360 residential units on forty floors, and communications levels. The design is sleek, rectangular, steel-and-glass towers with curved corners containing sections that step back as the tower rises. The top section will be devoted to communications floors, mechanical systems, a cooling tower, and a tuned mass damping system. (Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill, LLP, Chicago, IL.)
Deutsche Post, a split-shifted oval form, facilitates views of the city and minimizes potential effects of wind. The skyscraper's wedges are separated by about 25 feet, with connecting glass floors that form sky gardens at nine-story intervals. The gardens link the two sections of the towers and allow crossovers from one elevator bank to the other.
Many aspects of the building are designed for energy efficiency. With a twin-shell facade that enables natural ventilation, the structure has an integral heating and cooling pipe system that takes advantage of the energy efficiency of water and the thermal storage capabilities of concrete. Exhaust air from the offices is used to help climatize the sky gardens. A computerized building management system controls all of these components and selects the most effective operational mode. It is estimated that these measures could reduce operating costs by sixty percent. (Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, IL.)
21 Century Tower, in an effort to contextualize the other Pudong buildings in Shanghai, China, appropriates Asian architectural forms such as the pagoda and clearly references Chinese traditions in its literal use of the color red on it structurally expressive elements. The design, however, does not simply recreate historic Chinese architecture. Instead, the forty-eight-story tower's geometric minimalism, which is "high tech" both aesthetically and mechanically, looks forward to a new China.
(Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, IL.)
Menara UMNO, a twenty-one story office building is designed for a climate that is humid and warm and is air-conditioned. It also incorporates windows that open to allow for natural ventilation when conditions permit. All desks are located less than twenty feet from an operable window to ensure that each has access to natural ventilation and light. Extreme light effects are modified by sunshades that project from recessed tiers of ribbon windows. Addressing nature both in terms of site and sustainability, Menara UMNO embodies the architect's holistic approach to skyscraper design. (Architect T.R. Hamrah & Yeang, Selangor, Malaysia.)
Although the Netherlands is not a nation known for its skyscrapers, the country's second largest city, Rotterdam, has earned enough of them to be designated as the "Manhattan on the Maas." The Generale Bank Tower opens onto a square at the pedestrian level to integrate the building into is urban context, providing spatial and visual continuity with the environment and serving as a threshold to both Schielandshuis and Hoogstraat streets. The building's design also responds to the pre-existing conditions of the site. The tower's wedge shape accommodates the daylight requirements of the adjacent apartment building, and its elevation creates a visual connection with the nearby Maritime Museum. (Architect: Murphy/Jahn, Chicago, IL.)
The Skyscrapers exhibit was organized by The Art Institute of Chicago with major support from Julien J. Studley, Inc.
Pat Rioux
