Why We STOPPED Building Skyscrapers - What Happened?

For 100 Years, the tallest buildings int he world were all in the United States. But as the world caught up, the U.S. stopped setting records. So I got to thinking, are we losing our dreams of reaching for the sky? So let's look into skyscraper data world wide and see what the future of cities may look like. Let's figure this out together!

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Chapters
0:00 - Introduction
2:00 - Looking Back
6:30 - Why?
8:00 - Economic Changes
10:00 - Funding

what we'll cover
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[grkuntzmd]

Many years ago, I had a friend/coworker who had worked in one of the top floors of the World Trade Center (before 9/11, obviously). He said that in high wind conditions, the top of the build would rock more than 1 meter in each direction and people would get nauseous.

[deezynar]

You missed one factor that made a big impact on people who might be tempted to build a record breaking skyscraper. That factor is the spire, or antenna, being counted as part of the building.
Sears Tower lost its title for tallest to a shorter building. They built a shorter building and put a taller spire on it.
When cheating gets rewarded, competitors back out of the game.

[chriswheeler]

I remember standing at the top of the Sears tower and seeing how many flat car parks I could see within a few blocks. It clearly wasn’t built because land was expensive.

[jonjohns]

- 10:49 - That's Not Sheikh Khalifa .. You are looking for Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan. No idea who this is.
- Sheikh Khalifa did not pay for the building, it was financed with a loan from the Government of Abu Dhabi to the Government of Dubai (Both are Emirates in the UAE Federation).
- The Spike in Sky Scraper building at the Turn of the 20th Century was mostly due to the Improvement in Quality and reduction in Cost of producing Steel.

[pauluk]

I always had a sense that Skyscrapers was and is still a power status symbol, with countries doing it to announce, hey look guys, we are a power like others are.

Europe is one of the odd one out that doesn't really build them, part of that reason is that Europe didn't really have much to prove, it's already got a long history and is already a power, but another reason is culturally, Europeans don't find Skyscrapers appealing on the landscape and they are right, a lot of people around the world don't really like living near Skyscrapers.

As we see, Asian is on the rise as a power and they are doing what is expected as a rising power, building lots of Skyscrapers, just like the US did to announce their rise as a power and to be different from Europe.

Today, thought, Skyscrapers are not appealing and most of us don't want them or don't want to live near them, in Europe, we do build them but we have designated areas for them that are well away from landmarks and residential areas, usually they are in business areas that you travel to work in but not usually live in, and also, today, Skyscrapers doesn't have that power status symbol it used to have and honestly, I think Europe has the right approach when it comes to Skyscrapers and the well-being of its citizens.

In any case, I think the real problem with Skyscrapers, the higher they go, the less appealing they become to want to work, live in them or to want to live anywhere near them as they block out a lot of the natural scenery and the more expensive they are to build and maintain, and I think some that build these buildings forget the quality of life impact it can have on the citizens in those areas.

In fact, if I recall, in Europe, there was a boom of Skyscrapers in Europe, but a lot of people turned against them because of the harm they were doing to the natural landscape, so some regulations came into force, I think first starting in Belgium and then spreading across Europe on what kind of building can be built, how high and where they can be built, without those regulations, Europe might have ended up like many other cities around the world with lots of Skyscrapers around.

[reiteration]

It's always amazing to me, as a Brit, whenever I'm reminded of how far back my ancestors (and other Europeans) had in-depth record-keeping. To think that we have almost a millenium of building height records is just mind-blowing.

[Orozco_PNW]

Fun fact, currently Mexico has a taller building under construction than anything currently under construction in the US (excluding anything already built). Look up Torre Rise in Monterrey, Nuevo León, it's going to be about 1, 552 ft when finished with the spire being taller than the newly built Central Park Tower in NYC...

[USNUSA]

The golden era is over.
Being a country boy, I don’t like tall buildings. I’m afraid of heights so I avoid ultra tall buildings.
I think the tallest building in Connecticut is Mohegan Sun resort hotel at 38 stories.
My house is a 2 story house 21 feet above sea level.

[orhsxqu]

Not about height, more concerned with quality

[christianheichel]

I'd be curious to see where we and the rest of the world is when it comes to building down. 10 floors 20 floors. How do they introduce lighting... Just bland electric lighting. Fiber optic cables for lighting from the Sun? Are the buildings cheaper or more expensive per floor? Safety from flooding earthquakes where do they stand in that regard?

PS
Loved the video

[nicolasfrankboehmer]

Recently spoken to a guy in this business - he said, in Europe not only the cost increases dramatically with more stories, but sustainability decreases as well significantly - which is a no-go for many developers and in an increasing number of cities. In Europe, cost for high rise buildings (9 stories and more) make condo prices less market compatible, costing at least +25% - and, therefore, often have troubles finding buyers if resold.

[spacefun]

1:24 As someone from Chicago it deeply offends me when they have the Sears tower horribly misscaled like that. The antenna part is not calculated in its height, so its roof is actually just below the top of the petronas’s spires!

My only remorse is that the Freedom tower has an even worse scaling.

[OpieApproved]

Super serious presentation with lots of serious info and then I hear SALMON bars! I had to laugh thinking the other ones must be Harlequin and Canary 😝

[grkuntzmd]

When the Empire State Building was built, they didn't have OSHA, but they did have "Oh Shit!".

[dhoover]

An additional factor in the office space world is occupancy is way down post coronavirus. With the work from home trend buildings are finding it difficult to fill the existing space much less building more.

[_Breakdown]

10:00 - - *_SO TRUE!_*
Q: So last US record-breaking tower was Sears tower in … 1978? 1980?

[tbananas]

In the coming decades, the architecture of cities will fundamentally alter to reflect changes in population, online shopping, work from home, AI replacing humans in certain roles, safety and environmental concerns.

Office and retail spaces may play a less important role. Malls are already failing, office and retail spaces stay empty.

Combine that with the extra expense of building taller, they won't be economically viable.

I think project's focus will change to providing lower level building complexes with open space and maybe plenty of planting. These areas will still have office and retail spaces, but will be out numbered by homes. Given moves to reduce car use, public trams, subways etc need major overhauls.

Outside these zones, the picture will be a very different picture. All the problems of today, with old dilapidated building, high crime and poverty. It will take time to rebuild cities to meet the changes in society. Not everywhere will be rebuilt.

The younger generations aren't having as many children, more adults are choosing to stay single. Over the next several decades, as the boomers and gen x age, there will the problems of an aging population and less people paying taxes. That is going to impact cities far more than most realise given many are still convinced by over population narratives.

[NickCombs]

2:45 The 19th century. 18th century would be the 1700s.

[ccatarinajm]

Funny to see Brussels there at 9'40" - I hardly ever go to Brussels, hate it, to be honest because it's supposed to be our capital but hardly anybody speaks Dutch, while 60% of the country does. But it doesn't take much to recognize the "grand marketplace" (Grote Markt) and just by pausing it, you can tell by the double street name that it is indeed Brussels and no other Belgian city. It's filmed from the Hoedenmakerstraat, don't ask me what that's called in French.

[dougsheldon]

We have a wonderful gigantic round hole here in Chicago. Remember the "Spire"?