History & Theory of Skyscraper Design

Oklahoma State University, ARCH 4173, Fall 2026

John P. Gaynor, Haughwout Building, New York, 1856-1857

Mies Van der Rohe, 860 & 880 North Lake Shore Drive Chicago, 1948-1951

William Le Baron Jenney, Home Insurance Building, Chicago, Illinois, 1884-1885

Gustave Eiffel, Eiffel Tower, Paris, France, 1887-1889

Boris Iofan, Palace of the Soviets (project), Moscow, Russia, c. 1934

William Strickland, Second Bank of the United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1818-1824

Richard Upjohn, Trinity Church, New York, New York, 1839-1846

John McArthur, Jr., City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1871-1901

Thomas Ustick Walter, architect, with Montgomery Meigs and August Schoenborn, engineers: United States Capitol Dome, Washington, D.C., 1856-1864

James Bogardus, Laing Stores, New York, 1849 (demolished 1971) 

William Johnston Jayne Building, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1848-1850

Gilman and Kendall, First Equitable Building, New York, 1868-1870

Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895)

New York Tribune Building, New York, 1873-1875

George B. Post (1837-1913)

Western Union Building, New York, 1872-1875

George B. Post, Produce Exchange, New York, 1881-1884, (demo. 1957)

Jenney, First Leiter Building, Chicago, 1879-1880, Demolished 1972

Who is Francisco Mujica?

He wrote, “The History of the Skyscraper” in Paris, France 1929. The stock market crashed in 1929.

What was the only skyscraper built in 1931?

Empire State Building

What Mujica’s definition of a skyscraper?

It is a building of great height, has a steel skeleton, and a high speed elevator.

Who is Elisha Graves Otis?

He is the man that invented the elevator.

When Otis make the elevator, showed it, and patent it?

He made it 1851, shoed it in 1854 at Crystal Palace, and then waited seven years to patent it.

What type of store was the Haughwout Building?

It was a dry goods store.

What was the first building to utilize the Otis elevator and why?

Haughwout Building. It was installed to attract tourists.

Otis Hydraulic Elevators were powered by what?

Water, but they were operated by people.

What type of elevators did the Eiffel Tower use?

Hydraulic

Who made the Electric Elevator?

Morse-Williams

Why did push button elevators become popular?

Elevator operators went on strike.

Why do you need a curtain wall over a skeleton frame?

Because it covers all the steel construction. It also looks nice and because exposed steel is able to catch on fire easily.

What was the “first” skyscraper? Who agreed that the building was a skyscraper: architects or engineers?

The Home Insurance Building. Architects said yes, but engineers said no.

What is the theory of the Tower of Babel?

The minaret of the Great Mosque is the Tower of Babel.

The Amiens Cathedral is one of the last of what period?

The high gothic period.

How many floors does the Amiens Cathedral have, and what is the scale of the cathedral?

It has one floor, but it is equivalent to the size of a 14 story building. There is a second floor, but it is not meant for people to actually use.

How many floors does the Eiffel Tower have?

3 floors

What is the Eiffel Tower made out of and why?

It is made out of wrought iron because Gustave Eiffel didn’t trust steel.

Did the Parisians like the Eiffel Tower?

No. They said, “not even Americans would like it.”

Who said his favorite restaurant was in the Eiffel Tower?

Guy de Naupassant

Why was the Eiffel Tower built?

It was built for the 100 year anniversary of the French Revolution.

What was the story about the Palace of the Soviets?

They had chosen a spot where the cathedral, Christ the Savior, stood. Stalin tore it down and dug the hole for it, but the completetion of the project wasn’t successful. The big hole ended up being a swimming pool. They rebuilt the cathedral in the 1970s.

What does soviet mean?

workers counsel

What does CTBUH stand for, and what is it called now?

It means Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. It is now called the CVU, which means Council on Vertical Urbanism.

Where was the former headquarters of the CTBUH?

Crown Hall, Mies van der Rohe

Where is the new home of the CTBUH?

Holabird & Roche, Monroe Building, Chicago, Illinois, 1910-1912

What did the plans of the Burj Khalifa resemble?

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mile-High Skyscraper.

Why did the Burj Khalifa’s plans change from a big plus sign?

They were concerned that people could see into their neighbor’s apartment. They felt that widening the angle would make it harder for them to see and upgrade their privacy.

Once finished, what should be the tallest skyscraper?

Jeddah Tower (Kingdom Tower)

Why did the construction of the Jeddah Tower come to a halt?

Ten years ago, their ruler was in a regime which led to their head constructor to be executed.

What does the Second Bank of the United States look like?

It looks like a Greek temple, with the exceptions that it has windows and it doesn’t have columns wrapping around the entire building.

What type of church is the Trinity Church?

It is an Episcopalian/Anglican church

What is the Beaux-Arts Classicism somtimes called?

Second Empire Style

What was one of the goals while making the City Hall Philadelphia?

To make it the tallest building in the world. It wasn’t.

What does zeitgeist mean?

Spirit of the time

What are the three different types of metals?

Cast iron, wrought iron, and steel

What did people think of the first United States Capitol Dome built by John Plumbe?

People hated it, and thought it looked silly because it was out of scale.

When Walter designed the new dome, what was the problem?

He was worried that the original foundation would not be able. to hold up the new dome that was going to be made out of wood. They didn’t have the resources and money to destroy the building, so instead he turned to cast iron. Cast iron didn’t weigh as much.

How long did the Laing Stores take to build?

It was built in two months.

What was the whole story about the materials of the Laing Stores?

When they put the pieces in a storage unit in the Bronx, it got stolen. They put the rest of pieces in storage, and they also got stolen.

What did Daniel Badger do?

He didn’t design buildings. He made catalogs that you could order from.

What is the difference between the downtowns of Europe compared to the downtowns of America?

People actually lived there, but in America, it is just corporate buildings.

What are the five boroughs of New York City?

1. Manhattan

2. Brooklyn

3. Queens

4. The Bronx

5. Staten Island

What was New York originally named and why?

“New Amsterdam” because it was conquered by the dutch.

What direction is Uptown? (ex. north, east, south, west)

North

What direction is Downtown? (ex. north, east, south, west)

South

How much did the Dutch buy New York from the Native Americans?

It was $24 worth of “junk jewlwery”

What was the blueprint for “Downtown Manhattan?”

The Castello Plan

When buying pieces of New York, which parts are more expensive?

The middle of the city is more expensive than where the docks are.

What is downtown Chicago called?

The Loop

Where is Lake Michigan in relation to Chicago?

It is always on the east side

Why did the railroads stop in Chicago?

Because it was too hard to go any other way around Lake Michigan

Why were electric elevated trains made?

Ash and cinder kept falling on people

Where was the first place where the subway was constructed and what type of locomotives did they use?

London, steam locomotives

Where was the first place in the states to open up a subway and then where was after?

Boston and then New York

What was one of the private companies that operated the subways in New York?

IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit)

What was so special about the First Equitable Building’s plan?

It was designed from the very beginning to have elevators…so that means that it was designed as a skyscraper.

What type of business was the First Equitable Building?

It was a life assurance company.

Why was it an incentive to include elevators in builidngs?

Buildings without elevators had cheaper rent towards the top, so if you had elevators you could charge just as much as the bottom floors to the higher floors.

What was the architectural style of the First Equitable Building?

Second Empire Style

What type of roof did the First Equitable Building have?

Mansard Roof

What did the owners think when the First Equitable Building burnt down?

You’d think the owners were upset that it burned down, but they were thinking about destroying it and making a bigger one anyway. There was no insurance policy on the building…ironic…so it wasn’t a loss.

What type of architectural style is the New York Tribune Building?

Neo-Grec

What was built on top of the site where the New York Tribune Building stood?

Pace University

Who was the first American to go to architecture school?

Richard Morris Hunt

Who invented the telegraph?

Samual F.B. Morris. He also invented morris code.

What was the name of the book of all the unsaid lectures from Viollet-le-duc?

Entretiens sur l’architecture (conversations on architecture)

Why did the Produce Exchange building stand out in its neighborhood?

Was a red brick building, and it stood out because the surrounding buildings were white

What type of layout did the Produce Exchange building have?

A donut layout

Why was George B. Post against the skeleton frame?

Because it covered the iron. “What if the iron was rusting away? We won’t be able to reach it.”