Ultra-tall skyscrapers continue to redefine the skylines of Shanghai and Dubai. One World Trade Center is now reaching completion in New York City, having recently topped out as the tallest building in the U.S. There can be no doubt that we are in the midst of another...

In the late 19th century, a rapidly growing Chicago, flush with railroad and manufacturing capital, gave birth to an architectural icon that would change the face of the modern skyline. The discovery and implementation of steel-frame construction, first successfully...

From the ancient tale of the Tower of Babel to the era of the modern skyscraper, the desire to build ever-taller structures seems fundamental to the human story. For nearly four thousand years, the title of ‘world’s tallest building’ belonged to the Great Pyramid of...

For a moment in the 1970’s, it seemed like every major city was rushing to attain a peculiar feather in its architectural cap: a rotating restaurant. Hundreds of these status symbol features appeared atop luxury hotels and observation towers from Ankara to Zagreb. The...

Creating an amazing building can be a complicated dance of considerations, as aesthetic and practical concerns are hardly ever perfectly aligned. Even re-markable buildings designed by eminent architects may have serious or unforeseen flaws that are only revealed as...