The USA: Plans and Their Realization

Till a moment when the world economic crisis shaken principals of the American society, the USA intended to defend a status of the brightest and incredible world skyscrapers’ owner. If a quite disputable idea to achieve absolute indices in buildings heights didn’t become popular in many places of the USA, then a complex usage of the most leader achievements of sciences and technologies became as a norm for the tall construction.

And a competition between principal owners of the very best skyscrapers – between New York and Chicago – sways from side to side. The highest building of America today is the Willis Tower (1974, 442m and 527 m with a spire, 110 storeys) and situated in Chicago, but the most famous is the Empire State Building (1931, 381 m, 443.2 with a spire, 102 storeys) and situated in New York. Chicago is fairly considered an ancestral home of buildings of that type and New York, with some efforts, keep a fame of the main “city of skyscrapers” in the planet.

Chicago and New York have an equal number of highest buildings, but as for a total number, Chicago yields twice. If the New York Freedom Tower (building of the World Trade Center 1) of 541 m in height is terminated in 2013 without changes, it will be the highest building in the USA. Originally, in Chicago a superhigh skyscraper Chicago Spire (609.6 m) was planned to build and it would deprive a title of the highest building from New York.

But that project had a bad luck. Firstly, it was blocked at a zero stage in 2009, and then the construction was declined totally due to a proper financing absence. The same economic problems forced Donald Tramp to decrease the original height (460 m) of his skyscraper Trump International built in Chicago, and now its height without spire is 423 m. Continuing our speaking about American skyscrapers of new century, in the present review we would like to draw your attention not only on new objects already built or under construction which weren’t overviewed in our previous materials, but also on interesting not-realized projects, which made considerable resonance in professional circles and influenced on principals how to create a new tall dominant in cities.

The high-rise construction within one hundred and more years is more logical and attractive mode of skyline changing in many American cities. The third millennium demonstrates that interest to the skyscrapers erection in America is still high and no crises can freeze it totally. Certainly, many interesting projects undergo changes and those changes weren’t for the better. Other projects result not-finished and constructions are frozen.

However, nowadays every large-scale project becomes important for development of artistic and engineering ideas as it permits to solve complexes of very difficult tasks and it leads to a qualitative leap in the construction industry. In the competition for highest skyscrapers America step-by-step yields the palm to the UAE and countries of Asian region. According to the data of 2011, just 4 from 25 highest world buildings are situated in the USA.

However, developments of artistic architecture styles, unexpected engineering decisions are still a prerogative of American architects and companies creating new buildings for America. Therefore, a meeting with the most interesting projects of late years, even suspended or not-realized at all, has a considerable influence on development of urban environments. In this respect, an example with the project for Oklahoma City is very revealing. A new skyscraper named Devon Energy Center, after termination of its construction, has to become the highest structure both in the city and in the state.

A previous stage of interest to the tall buildings was at the end of eighties – beginning of nineties and reflected late post-modernism stylistic searches. The new project is designed in a rationalistic system of aesthetic preferences. The Devon Energy Center will reach 259 m and have 50 operating storeys. The project pretends to conform to all existing newest technologies and norms in eco-designing, management, maintenance, etc. In spite of the crisis, the building of the tower has to be terminated in 2013.

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Text by MARIANNA MAEVSKAYA