PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, commonly referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the second-most populous city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. It is one of the most historically significant cities in the United States and served as the nation's capital until 1800. Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-most populous city with a population of 1,603,797 as of the 2020 census.
Burj KhalifaThe Burj Khalifa (known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration in 2010) is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the world's tallest building. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 242.6 m spire) of , the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009, supplanting Taipei 101, the previous holder of that status.
Sky lobbyA sky lobby is an intermediate interchange floor in a skyscraper where people can change from an express elevator that stops only at the sky lobby to a local elevator that stops at a subset of higher floors. When designing supertall buildings, supplying enough elevators is a problem – travellers wanting to reach a specific higher floor may conceivably have to stop at a very large number of other floors on the way up to let other passengers off and on.
ConstructionConstruction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations, and comes from Latin constructio (from com- "together" and struere "to pile up") and Old French construction. To construct is the verb: the act of building, and the noun is construction: how something is built, the nature of its structure. In its most widely used context, construction covers the processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life.
Buenos AiresBuenos Aires (ˌbweɪnəs_ˈɛəriːz or -ˈaɪrᵻs; ˈbwenos ˈajɾes), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South America's southeastern coast. "Buenos Aires" is Spanish for "fair winds" or "good airs". Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha- global city, according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) 2020 ranking.
United StatesThe United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America and consisting of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations.
Taipei 101Taipei 101 (; stylized as TAIPEI 101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a skyscraper in the capital Taipei, Taiwan. The building was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2010 completion of the Burj Khalifa. Upon completion, it became the world's first skyscraper to exceed a height of half a kilometer (about 0.3 miles). Taipei 101 is the tallest building in Taiwan. The elevators of Taipei 101 that transport passengers from the 5th to the 89th floor in 37 seconds (attaining ) set speed records.
Ludwig Mies van der RoheLudwig Mies van der Rohe (miːs...roʊ ; ˈluːtvɪç ˈmiːs fan deːɐ̯ ˈʁoːə; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886 - August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. Along with Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius and Frank Lloyd Wright, he is regarded as one of the pioneers of modernist architecture. In the 1930s, Mies was the last director of the Bauhaus, a ground-breaking school of modernist art, design and architecture.
Early skyscrapersThe earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significant economic growth after the American Civil War and increasingly intensive use of urban land encouraged the development of taller buildings beginning in the 1870s. Technological improvements enabled the construction of fireproofed iron-framed structures with deep foundations, equipped with new inventions such as the elevator and electric lighting.
Curtain wall (architecture)A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, designed only to keep the weather out and the people in. Because the curtain wall façade carries no structural load beyond its own dead load weight, it can be made of lightweight materials. The wall transfers lateral wind loads upon it to the main building structure through connections at floors or columns of the building. Curtain walls may be designed as "systems" integrating frame, wall panel, and weatherproofing materials.
