Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 1

Skyscrapers (High-rise Building)

Today, the sky's the limit!
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Content:

Chapter -1 Introduction 3-5

Chapter -2 Forces acting on Skyscrapers 6-9

Chapter -3 Substructure in skyscrapers 10 - 13

Chapter -4 Material used for Skyscrapers (Super structure) 14 - 15

Chapter -5 Skyscrapers Construction 16

Chapter -6 Skyscrapers Elevators 17 - 18

Chapter -7 Safety in Skyscrapers 19 - 20

Chapter -8 Skyscrapers in future

Case study 21 - 24

Conclusion 25
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Reference 26

Chapter -1
Introduction

1.1 What is a Skyscraper? When you hear the word 'skyscraper', what do you think of?
  "A very tall building" as Webster puts it. But the word skyscraper was first used as a
nautical term for a tall sail on a sailing ship. Now today the image of a skyscraper in today's urban
society is that of a mega structure rising to the sky that can only be found in a huge city like Hong
Kong or New York. People must remember time as it was in the late 1800s, when 'tall buildings'
were just being introduced. As buildings started to reach 6 floors and above, they came along a
problem. The problem was with water pressure. The water pressures from the normal city lines
were not adequate to supply a whole building. To fix this problem, water tanks were installed on the
tops of buildings taller than 5 floors (about 50 ft, 15m). The word 'skyscraper' was then assigned to
the buildings facing this problem. It was also very impractical to make people walk up all those
stairs. The invention of the elevator was needed. The structural make-up of the building is also
different for skyscrapers. Building to about the 4th floor can be supported by their walls along, while
skyscrapers being taller and heavier have to be supported by large a large network of steel and
concrete known as a skeletal frame. The walls then hang from this skeletal frame. People don't
normally think of the 'shorter' buildings being 'skyscrapers', but really, they are. You never know,
there could be a skyscraper right around the corner from you.

First Skyscraper, Home Insurance Building the first skyscraper erected, is debatably the
Home Insurance Building in Chicago which was 10 stories, supported by steel.  In fact, the building
weighed 1/3 what it would have weighed if constructed from stone. In 1890, two additional floors
were built on top of the original 10-story building.
A skyscraper (High Rise Building is defined as a building 35 meters or greater in height,
which is divided at regular intervals into occupiable levels.

1.2 Tallest Vs. Highest

There is a grammatical error that very often comes up when talking about skyscrapers,
there is a fine difference between the highest and the tallest building.
The Highest means having a relatively great elevation where as tallest means having a specified
height.The meaning height is the elevation terms and tallest is meaning the distance from the top
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to the bottom of the structure itself. The Taipei 101 is the highest building in the world, but there are
many other buildings with a higher elevation.

Fig 1.2 showing highest and tallest structure

1.3 Radio / TV Masts
Radio and TV Masts are some of the worlds tallest man made structures.  These
extremely tall masts are made to support electrical equipment to broadcast radio and television
signals.  Although they are extremely tall, they can not be appropriately compared to Skyscrapers,
due to their lack of habitable space.  Due to the use of these structures, they are relatively
inexpensive, mainly because they are merely steel lattice and cable.  The average cost of these
masts can be determined by squaring the height of the structure.  Most of these masts are
supported by guy wires (cables).  
A mast in engineering terms is a structure which requires outside support, such as guy wires, while
a tower is self-supporting.  In both colloquial American and British English, the terms tower and
mast are interchangeable.  All About Skyscrapers retains the engineering distinction. The masts
can be placed on top of Buildings to minimize costs; examples of these can be seen atop the Sears
Tower and Empire State Building.
In some cases, even balloons are flown to support a temporary transmitter.  This is often
used by the military and amateur radio enthusiasts. After the modern invention of the cell phone,
thousands of towers were constructed to accommodate the huge boom in the cellular industry. 
These cell towers were often considered ugly and out of place.  Today, these towers are being
hidden as large trees, or even church towers.
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(Seattle Needle) (Senior Road TV Tower)

Fig 1.3 showing tower and mast

 Fig 1.4 showing mast placement

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Chapter -2
Forces acting on skyscrapers:

2.1 Gravity load:

The major problems in building skyscrapers are to overcome the downward magnetism of
gravity. While constructing if more material is required at the bottom to sustain the combined
burden of all the materials above there is a need to insert an additional vertical layer. Hence the
total force on every point below that layer multiplies. In the case of the pyramid, if its base keeps on
increasing, it can be built up without end. But this becomes impractical very quickly, since the base
will take up too much space.

As for regular buildings made of bricks and stones there is a need to increase
thickness the lower walls when you construct the upper floors. After you arrive at a
particular height, this will not work. There would be very little room in the lower
floors, therefore defeating the purpose of creating a tall building. Therefore people
could not form buildings with over ten stories using this skill.

However, in the late 1800s, several technological advancements made the building of
skyscrapers feasible. New manufacturing methods made it possible to create long metal beams.
Not only could the narrow and light metal beams uphold a lot more dead weight than the solid brick
walls of older buildings, it could support more live load too, while taking up a tiny portion of the
space. This foundation of metal beams and columns distributes the load into the surrounding
ground material, helping the structure to maintain balance. The mass production of iron and steel
beams acted as a huge progression in expanding the metropolis upwards, towards the sky.

Fig 2.1shows the skyscraper pushes down into the ground.

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2.2.1 Wind load:

As skyscrapers grew taller and taller, engineers were faced with a new enemy: wind.
Today's tallest skyscrapers, which are almost 1,500 feet tall, must be 50 times stronger against
wind than the typical 200-foot buildings of the 1940s. For taller skyscrapers, tighter connections
don't really do the trick. To keep these buildings from swaying heavily, engineers have to construct
especially strong cores through the center of the building. In the Chrysler Building and other
skyscrapers from that era, the area around the central elevator shafts is fortified by a sturdy steel
truss, braced with diagonal beams. Most recent buildings have one or more concrete cores built
into the center of the building. But when the wind blows, the columns on the windy side stretch
apart, and the columns on the other side squeeze together

Fig 2.2.1 shows the wind acting on skyscraper

2.2.2 Design of skyscrapers to resist wind

By means of clustering steel columns and beams in the skyscraper's core, engineers
create a stiff backbone that can resist tremendous wind forces. The inner core is used as an
elevator shaft, and the design allows lots of open space on each floor. In newer skyscrapers, like
the Sears Tower in Chicago, engineers moved the columns and beams from the core to the
perimeter, creating a hollow, rigid tube as strong as the core design, but weighing much, much
less.

Fig 2.2.2 shows the column and beam arrangement in skyscraper to resist the wind
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2.3.1Earthquake Load:

Unlike many of nature’s deadly forces, earthquake almost always strikes without warning.
These destructive and divesting forces can topple cities in seconds. Leaving behind rubble and
tragedy in their wakes. Earthquakes are not limited to any one area of the world or any one season
of the year. Although most earthquakes are just small temors, it only takes one to cause millions of
dollars in property damage and thousands of deaths. For this reason, scientists continue to pursue
new technologies to limit the destruction that earthquakes can dish out.
Making buildings more rigid also braces them against earthquake damage. Basically, the
entire building moves with the horizontal vibrations of the earth, so the steel skeleton isn't twisted
and strained. While this helps protect the structure of the skyscraper, it can be pretty rough on the
occupants, and it can also cause a lot of damage to loose furniture and equipment. Several
companies are developing new technology that will counteract the horizontal movement to dampen
the force of vibration.
2.3.2 Design of skyscrapers to resist Earthquake effect

At Lord Corporation’s labs in N.C.researchers believe they have developed in co operation

with university of Notre Dame Researchers the latest Damper that can reduce the damage caused
by earthquake. Lord Corporation is one of the largest producers of a unique substance, called
Magnetorheological fluid (MR fluid).During an earthquake, MR fluid inside the dampers will change
from solid to liquid and back as tremors activate a magnetic force inside the damper. Using these
dampers in building and on bridge will create earthquake resistant structure that automatically
reacts to seismic activity. This will limit the amount of damage caused by Earthquake.

Until about 1990, there were few applications of MR fluid because there was no way to
properly control it. Today there are digital signal processors and fast, cheap computers that can
control the magnetic field applied to the fluid.

2.3.3 Skyscraper Seismic Wave Dampers

  Some buildings already use advanced wind-compensating dampers. The Citicorp Center
in New York, for example, uses a tuned mass damper. In this complex system, oil hydraulic
systems push a 400-ton concrete weight back and forth on one of the top floors, shifting the weight
of the entire building from side to side. A sophisticated computer system carefully monitors how the
wind is shifting the building and moves the weight accordingly. Some similar systems shift the
building's weight based on the movement of giant pendulums.
Seismic activity happens everyday all around the earth, large and small. And with the
growing number of mega structures, it is necessary to have some kind of protection. This
protection isn't just for the sake of saving a couple billion dollars in the actual building, but saving
human life.
 
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Once sensors on the building detect motion, the dampers begin to sway to help the building absorb
the vibrations. Using dampers will make the vibrations last longer, but the vibrations will be much
smaller, keeping the building intact. Different sizes of buildings require different arrangements of
dampers there may be hundreds in a single building. The largest active damper is currently in the
Taipei 101.

3.4 The structural system in Skyscrapers:

The primary function of a structural system is to help define and then support the spaces
desired within a building. In general, this requires that the structure be designed by considering two
basically different situations. First, the structure must be able to carry all of the loads associated
with the use of the building, and its own weight, safely down through the structure, to the
foundation and then into the ground. In addition to these vertical loads, the structure must also be
able to resist the horizontal forces associated with the wind and with the possibility of an
earthquake. The structural system must function in two different modes: the vertical mode of
gravity induced forces and the lateral mode of wind (and earthquake) induced forces. The
skyscrapers use different portions of its structural system to respond to these vertical and lateral
loads. The overall system is called tubular framing, since the perimeter frames of the building are
designed to act as a cantilevered tube in resisting lateral forces. The interior framing of the
structure acts semi-independently of the perimeter tube and carries the gravity loads downward to
the foundation.

Fig 2.2.2 shows the structural system in skyscrapers

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Chapter -3
Skyscrapers sub structure and Foundations
3.1 What is concrete?
Concrete is the building block of our modern society.  This extremely useful material is
often taken for granted or ignored completely.  We all walk over it, and use it in some form almost
every day.  Whether this use be driving on the highway or walking into a skyscraper, we all interact
with this material everyday of our lives.
 
What is concrete though?  Concrete is a composite mixture of aggregate and cement
binder.  The most common form of concrete consists of Portland cement, aggregate, and water.  
Aggregate is basically sand and gravel.  When concrete hardens, it does not actually 'dry'.  The
concrete absorbs the water, in a process known as hydration which binds the other ingredients
together, creating the well known concrete product we see every day.  As of 2005, six billion cubic
meters are produced annually.
3.2 The strength of concrete
Concrete has a high compressive strength, but a significantly low tensile strength.  In fact,
concretes tensile strength is only about 10% of its compressive strength.  Tensile strength is the
ability to be pulled apart.  Here is a simple diagram showing what tensile strength is:
 

Fig 3.2 showing tensile strength of concrete

Compressive strength refers to just the opposite, the ability to withstand a compression of
compaction force.
3.3 Pre-tensed concrete and rebar
For concrete to be truly useful, its tensile strength needed to be greatly improved to meet
the modern demands of construction.  To do this, steal or 'rebar' became the skeleton for which
concrete would be poured.  A metal cage of steel was constructed before the concrete was laid. 
This steal goes through a process to 'pre-stress' it to greatly increase its tensile strength.   When
the steel is stressed before the concrete's casting, it is pre-tensioning concrete; and when
performed after the concrete has cured, it is referred to as post-tensioning concrete.
 
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Fig 4.3(a)
3.4 Steel grillage foundation in skyscrapers:
In a typical skyscraper substructure, each vertical column sits on a spread footing the
column resets directly on cast iron plate, which sits on top of a grillage .the grillage is basically a
stack of horizontal steel beams, lined side-by-side in two or more layers. The grillage resets on a
thick concrete pad directly on to the hard clay under the ground. Once the steel is in place the
entire structure is covered with concrete.

Fig 4.4(a)
This structure expands out lower in the ground, the same way a pyramid expands out as you go
down. This distributes the concentrated weight from the columns over a wide surface. Ultimately
the weight of the building resets directly on the hard clay materials under the earth in very heavy
building the base of the spread footing reset on massive concrete piers that extend all the way
down to the earth’s bedrock layer.
3.5 Concrete foundations in Skyscrapers
Due to the great height of skyscrapers, huge foundations are needed to support these
structures.  First, a large hole is dug into the ground to reach a point of stable soil.  After some sort
of bedrock is reached, large steal footings are placed, and from these, vertical steal beams are
placed along with a network of rebar. The foundation itself is almost 5 floors deep!   Most house
foundations are only 1-2 feet deep.  Compare that to a skyscraper!
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Fig 3.5(a)
CN Radio Tower in Canada
 
This is an image in actual proportion; the foundation of the CN Tower is 50 ft (15m) deep,
to support the 1,815 ft (553m) structure. This is nothing compared to the worlds deepest
foundation!  The Petronas Towers has a foundation that is 394 ft (120 m) deep!
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 Fig 3.5(b)

The unusually deep foundation needed for the Petronas Towers was because of the areas
bedrock.  The bedrock in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is quite deep, causing many headaches for
construction companies.
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Chapter -4
Materials used for Super structure in Skyscrapers:

Following are the different materials used in construction of skyscrapers

1. Masonry,
2. Concrete,
3. Composite Materials
4.1 Masonry:
Building with a load bearing structural system utilizing brick or stone. This type has nothing
to do with the curtain wall. Examples of masonry skyscrapers are very rare, and most of them were
built in 19th century. A small number have been built since using reinforced masonry usually on
sites too constructed for scaffolding. Many historic building such as churches, monuments,
pyramids, towers, and low-raised buildings use masonry load bearing system.

Fig 4.1 Man dock Building (Masonry skyscraper)

4.2 Concrete:
Concrete, unlike any other structural building material, allows the architects and engineers
to choose not only its mode of production, but its material properties as well. When architects and
engineers call for a concrete structural system, they must also specify a multitude of variables,
such as its strength, durability, forming techniques, hardening characteristics, nature and extent of
reinforcement, aesthetics and much more. As a result, the field of concrete tall building
construction is rapidly changing and its limits are constantly being tested and stretched
Buildings whose structural framework is composed of concrete: a hard aggregate
substance made from cement, lime, crushed rock or sand water and other ingredients. Concrete
performs exceptionally well under tension no in most construction including skyscrapers concrete is
reinforced with steel bars (rebars).most residential skyscrapers are built with concrete frames.
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4.3 Composite Materials:

Since the 1960’s there have been an increasing use of “composite system” in which both
steel and concrete are utilized together in ways that neither material predominates over the other.
Composite structural systems have variation, including:

1. A steel frame surrounding a concrete core.

2. steel beams encased in and interacting with a concrete enclosure
3. Steel outrigger beams used with a concrete structure.

Concrete building that use steel reinforcing bars are not classified as composite structure,
although the materials do act in a composite manner. Also concrete floor plates in a steel structure
do not normally act as framing elements and do not decide the materials classification.

The introduction of composite construction to tall tubular buildings, first conceived and
used by Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in the 1960s, has paved the way for
super tall composite buildings like the Petronas Towers and the Jin Mao building in the present era.

Example: A total of 8 composite super-columns with the size up to 8’-0” X 10’-0” were used in the
Taipei101 tower which was scheduled to be open in late 2004 and will stand 1666’ tall.

Fig 5.3(a)
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Chapter -5
Skyscraper construction:

Following are the steps involved in construction of skyscrapers:

1. A clear piece of land with stable ground and a good location is found to build upon.

2. A hole is dug until they hit bedrock to support the building, this could be up to 200 feet down.

3. The footings are then placed at the bottom of the hole; the footings are like big pads that spread
out the weight.

4. A concrete it then poured all over the footings to create a bottom floor.
 
5. The vertical support beams are then constructed and placed with large cranes. These are used
to support the vertical load.

6. The horizontal steel girders are then placed between the vertical beams. These are used to hold
the building together.

7. The outside walls which act like curtains are then placed and the building is finished off.

The actual construction process happens in gradual succession.  As the vertical beams
are constructed, the horizontal ones are constructed right after, and then the outer skeleton is
built.  The separation between the vertical horizontal beam placements is usually only 1 or 2
floors.  The outer skeleton is usually 2/3 up the height of the building during construction.

Example:

The 101-story Taipei 101 constructed in Taipei, Taiwan will top out at 508 m, a new world
record for building heights. It’s indeed more challenging to design and build a super-tall building in
Taipei than any other location in the world because typhoon winds, large potential earthquakes and
weak soil conditions all need to be overcome. The strength and the stiffness requirements of the
structure to resist gravity and lateral loads were achieved by base structural members before the
common problem of the occupant comfort encountered in tall buildings could be worked out in the
structural design of the Taipei 101. A damping system was implemented to reduce the excessive
lateral accelerations from wind.
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Chapter -6
Skyscrapers Elevator:
When elevators first came into civilization in the BCs they were powered by animals,
water, or even humans. In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis showed the world a safe machine
powered elevator. He demonstrated to the public the break system he had made that would stop
the elevator car if a cable broke. From this the public didn’t fear the sight of an elevator anymore
and went on them with confidence. The Otis Company started manufacturing elevators in 1861 that
were powered by steam. Then the electric elevator came into use toward the end of the 19th
century. The first one was built by the German inventor Werner von Siemens in 1880. To this day
elevators are electric, many improvements have been made to the elevator such as the increase of
speed. Elevators today can travel up to 25 mph and can hold very many people. With the future of
extremely tall buildings coming near, elevators will have to keep up.

Engineers and architects can now build monumental skyscrapers towering over hundreds
of feet in the air. However, the giants need some technological innovations in order to make it
feasible for people to work or live in them. Imagine what life would be like without the aid of the lift if
you worked on the top floor of a skyscraper -- it would be miserable and weary.
The 2 most common designs of elevators now a day are:
1) Hydraulic elevators and
2) Roped elevators.

7.1 The Hydraulic Lift: Powered by Fluid Pressure

The hydraulic lift is driven by a device called the hydraulic ram (a fluid-driven piston
mounted inside a cylinder). While the roped lift is moved
by traction steel ropes (cables attached to the roof),
rather than pushed from below. Both kinds of elevators
have built-in weight sensors that mean that the car will
not move if it is over-loaded. To raise the car, the control
system switches on the pump of the tank. When the valve
is closed, the fluid is forced to the cylinder. As the fluid
pressure increases in the cylinder, it would force the
piston up (attached to the lift). To lower the car, the
control system sends a signal to open the valve. The fluid
from the cylinder flows to the tank again, and as the fluid
pressure in the cylinder decreases, the piston lowers.

Fig 7.1showing the elevator in skyscraper

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7.2 Roped Elevators: Powered by pulleys

An electric motor switches on the pulley system, raising and lowering the car along guided
rails. At the end of the cable is the counterweight. It moves up when the lift lowers and moves
down when the lift rises. It counteracts with the potential energy of the car in order to conserve
energy (the car has to work against the friction). Unlike the Hollywood action movies, real-life
elevator cables will not snap into two, as they possess a safety system (built-in brakes that will grip
on the cable when the car is over-speed). The system is activated by a governor, which is a
rounded device built around a sheath, positioned at the top of the lift shaft. There are 2 hooked
flyweights (weighted metal arms) held down by a high tension spring fitted around the shealth. If
the governor rotates fast enough, for the centripetal force (the force acting towards the centre) to
overcome the tension of the spring, the flyweight would be released, and the hooks of the
flyweights would catch the ratches mounted on the stationary ratchet. This would halt the lift to a
stop.

7.2.1 Where are elevators in skyscrapers placed?

The most popular design for the placement of elevators is in the center or core of a
building. This is to leave more space for windows and to make it easiest for the greatest amount of
people to access them. The elevator systems being designed for the buildings today and for the
future divide the building into sections. As seen in the former World Trade Center Towers in New
York, they had 3 sections of elevators. These three sections of elevator shafts were connected by
main service elevators. These large express elevators would bring you to a sky lobby or
transaction floor where you board another elevator to get to your destination. This is becoming ever
so common because it is very efficient and saves space. It would take up much more space if all
the elevators went all the way through the building. It would also take much longer for a person to
get where they wanted because all the elevators would have to serve all the floors. You could have
people going to 30 different floors all in one elevator car, making the ride miserable for the people
going to the last couple served floors.

7.2.3 Problems
One major restricting factor with elevators is human health. Elevators can only go so fast
due to human health factors. The human factor also limits the acceleration and stopping ability of
the elevators. Another problem is with the length of the cables. The solution for this problem is
fairly simple, take away the cables. Doing this would require the engine of the elevator to be
attached to the car itself. The advantage to doing this would be that multiple cars could serve on
one shaft. This would prevent one car from solely taking up the use of a loading or unloading
portal.
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Chapter -7
Safety in skyscrapers:

Safety is very important in skyscrapers. During the design and the construction, and also
when it is in use, safety is always a major concern. When designing a skyscraper, the designer has
to make sure his or her skyscraper does not cause harm to the surrounding environment, and most
important of all, the people in the building. He or she also has to make sure that his or her
calculations are correct and that the length of the foundations is appropriate, in order not to let the
building to fall or crumble.

During construction, the safety of the workers must be ensured. These workers, or "sky
boys", as they were called during the construction of the Empire State Building, have to wear safety
belts or harnesses to prevent them from falling to the ground, even when they lose their footing.

After construction, when people start to work or live in these skyscrapers,

fire becomes an important problem. It is very dangerous, especially in tall
buildings. Even fire escapes are a very long way down. If they are not blocked by
fire, and it would be pointless to jump from a window, because it's too high and it
would be committing suicide! Because of this fire problem, fire detection
equipment and sprinklers are installed into the building, so that a fire would be
detected earlier and the sprinklers would put out the fire.

Some skyscrapers also have a system called a pressurization system. When a fire alarm is
sounded, the system will increase the air pressure in escape routes, making smoke in the burning
rooms harder to escape. Even though the steel and concrete structure of a building cannot burn,
the heat of a fire can make the steel buckle. So when constructing a skyscraper, steel beams and
columns are either covered or sprayed with fireproof material. However, fires can't be completely
prevented. Here are some fires in skyscrapers in recent years.

1) 23-11-1995 New York Empire State Building caught fire in the basement and
filled the skyscraper with smoke because of an electrical short circuit, and
hundreds had to be evacuated while more than 40 fire engines had to be
dispatched to the scene to control the fire.

2) 21-11-1996 the worst blaze in Hong Kong's record broke out in the 16-storey Garley Building on
Nathan Road, a tourist shopping street. Forty people were killed and 81 were injured. People were
seen throwing themselves from windows to escape the flames.
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 20

3) 23-2-1997 three people were killed in the fire in the 36-floor complex of Bangkok's President
Tower. The seventh to ten floors of the building were totally destroyed.

8.1 The following data on skyscrapers:

Skyscrapers
(In number) Status

73,285 Completed
5,159 Under construction
2,130 Proposed
1,755 Approved
1,402 Demolished
1,040 Never built
256 On hold
153 Under reconstruction
149 Vision
20 Under demolition

8.2 Proposed Skyscrapers:

Following are the proposed skyscrapers

1. Burj Dubai at Dubai.

2. Freedom Tower at New York.
3. Shanghai world finance centre at shanghai.
4. International Commerce Centre at Hong Kong.
5. Federation complex
6. Dubai tower Doha
7. Twin tower 1
8. Trump tower at Chicago
9. Bank of America Tower
10. Fordham Spire
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 21

Case studies:

1) Burj Dubai:
Vital Statistics:
Location: Dubai, UAE.
Project period: 2004-2008
Height: 807.7 Meters
Stories: 162 floors

The construction of what will be the world's tallest

Building is set to begin in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The building contract was awarded to a consortium led
By the South Korean Samsung Corporation.

The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 meters tall –

Just 5 meters shy of half a mile - once completed in
2008. That will be nearly 300 meters taller than the
Tallest floored building in the world today,
The Taipei Tower in Taiwan.

The new tower's unique, three-sided design will ascend

In a series of stages, around a supportive central core
And boast a total of 160 floors, accessible via a series of
Double-decker elevators. Its shape will be integral to its
Impressive size. The design is intended to reduce the
Impact of wind and to reduce the need for a stronger
Core - allowing for more space - as it ascends.
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 22

2) Taipei 101

 
 
Vital Statistics:

Location: Taipei 101

Completion Year: 2004

Cost: $150 million

Height: 508 Meter

Stories: 101 floors

Materials: Steel, Concrete.

Facing Materials: glass

Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 23

3) Petronas Towers:

Vital Statistics:

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Completion Date: 1998
Cost: $1.6 billion
Height: 1,483 feet
Stories: 88
Materials: Concrete, Steel
Facing Materials: Aluminum, Stainless Steel
Engineer(s): Thornton-Tomasetti and Ranhill Bersekutu
Until 1998, the world's tallest skyscraper had always been in the United States. But that year,
Malaysia's Petronas Towers laid claim to this distinction.

Squeaking past the Chicago Sears Tower by 33 feet, the spires atop the Petronas Towers
peak at an impressive 1,483 feet. Yet there's a controversy. The highest occupied floor in the
Sears Tower is actually 200 feet higher than the top floor of the Petronas Towers, and its antennae
stretch higher still.

So why the Petronas Towers are considered the world's tallest buildings? According to the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, spires count, but antennae don't. Spires do not
contain floors, but they are counted in the world's tallest building race for one architectural reason:
they're nice to look at.

Built over a former racetrack, the Petronas Towers reflect a unique blend of religion and
economic prosperity. The $1.6 billion towers contain more than eight million square feet of
shopping and entertainment facilities, underground parking for 4,500 cars, a petroleum museum, a
symphony hall, a mosque, and a multimedia conference center.
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 24

Each tower's floor plan forms an eight-pointed star, a design inspired by traditional
Malaysian Islamic patterns. The 88-story towers, joined by a flexible sky bridge on the 42nd floor,
have been described as two "cosmic pillars" spiraling endlessly towards the heavens.

Fast Facts:
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 25

1. The Petronas Towers were featured in the blockbuster movie Entrapment, starring Sean
Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

2. It took 36,910 tons of steel to build the Petronas Towers. That's heavier than 3,000
elephants!

3. It takes 90 seconds to travel from the basement parking lot to the top of each tower.
Together, the towers have 32,000 windows. It takes window washers an entire month to wash each
tower just once!

Conclusion:

 Skyscrapers are convenient as you can create a lot of real estate out of a
relatively small ground area.
 Sky scrapers are saves the precious land.
 The Convenience like office, markets, recreational etc.can is provided in these
skyscrapers.
 Where the cost of land is very high in such cases or situation these sky scrapers
are constructed.
 We can concentrate much more development into one area instead of spreading
out into untapped natural resources (conserve land.
 More business can be clustered together in a city there by reducing commuting
time.
 Experts have decided about how high we can really in the future. Some say we
could build a mile high (5280 ft. or 1609m) with existing techonolgy, while other
say we would need to develop lighter stronger material fast elevators and
advanced sway dampers before these buildings were feasible. Future
Skyscrapers (High Rise Building) 26

technologies advance could conceivably lead to sky high cities housing a million
people or more.

Reference:

www.skyscrapers.com
www.allaboutskyscrapers.com
www.howstuffworks.com
www.sfgate.com
www.newscientist.com
www.isc.com
www.buildingbig.com