The first skyscrapers rose on masonry support walls. Then came steel frames and, soon after, glass facades. So what’s the next big thing in tall buildings? Titanium? Skyhooks? How about: Wood!
Tall wooden buildings – called “woodscrapers” or “plyscrapers,” depending on your preference – have been rising in Europe and Canada, and could soon come to U.S. skylines.
It could be argued that most building materials are recycled: wood, brick, and stone, after all, are just reuses of other materials. But today, driven by economic and environmental forces as well as aesthetic considerations, builders are experimenting with a wide variety of recycled and reclaimed materials – wood used in previous buildings, discarded shipping containers, cans, bottles, tires, and phone books. Many modern buildings make use of just about anything that might provide shelter, insulation, or decoration.
Q: What should we do with a building no longer needed for its original purpose?
A: Find a new purpose for it.
Adaptive reuse – the restoration and/or adaptation of a building for a use different than its original purpose —has caught on in urban areas nationwide, giving new life to buildings that once housed factories, warehouses, train stations, and even corner gas stations.
What buildings and trends will shape our future landscape? While architectural hindsight may be 20/20, it can be much more difficult to predict what the future holds for our built environment.
Far from the flying cars and personal helipads envisioned by the fanciful futurists of the mid-twentieth century, trends in our built environment today are moving toward sustainability, renewable and recycled materials, energy efficiency, and a smaller footprint – both literally and figuratively.
When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck San Francisco in 1989, it seriously damaged many structures, including the California Academy of Sciences, one of the largest museums of natural history in the world.
A far cry from the neoclassical building it replaced, the Seattle Central Library is a dramatic, even startlingly modern presence in downtown Seattle.
For more than 100 years, American civic buildings embraced the form of neoclassical temples. Then the modernists pushed back with sleek, stark boxes.
Founded by Jonas Salk, M.D., who developed the polio vaccine, the Salk Institute is a research institution dedicated to the biological sciences: molecular biology, genetics, neuroscience, and plant biology.
In 1959, seeking to draw the best researchers in the world to San Diego, Dr. Salk asked architect Louis Kahn to design a campus that would foster collaboration, take advantage of its natural environment, and be worthy of “a visit by Picasso.”
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, widely known simply as “The Guggenheim,” was the result of a long and contentious but ultimately fruitful relationship between architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his client, for whom the museum is named.
In 1955, Ray Kroc, who had joined the McDonald’s brothers in their hamburger business the year before, opened his first McDonald’s drive-in restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Architect Stanley Meston had designed the building to be both attention-getting and functional, with its red-and-white glazed tile exterior and exterior benches. Indoor seating would not be introduced until 1962. The built-in golden arches and “Speedee” logo signage were part of the early iconography of this soon-to-be-ubiquitous structure.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece of organic architecture, Fallingwater, was built for the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The home demonstrates Wright’s love of nature and expresses his desire to create harmony between manmade structures and the natural environment.
The home is integrated into the natural landscape in multiple ways. It uses local materials such as stone quarried on the site, flagstone floors, and extensive wood to echo natural forms and textures in the surrounding environment.
When the Chrysler Building rose in midtown Manhattan in 1930, it was the first building to exceed the Eiffel Tower in height, and the tallest building in the world – a record it claimed for less than a year when the Empire State Building was completed.
Designed for Walter P. Chrysler to house his Chrysler Corporation, the building captured not only the machine-age spirit of the 1920s, but also the poetic idea of the car itself: sleek, modern, fast, and stylish. Its interior spaces added the opulence of African marble and chrome.
The Woolworth Building in lower Manhattan was the world’s tallest building when it was completed in 1913 and, at 57 stories, held that distinction until 1930 when it was surpassed by the Chrysler Building.
Commissioned by F. W. Woolworth as the new corporate headquarters for his growing five-and-dime retail business, the dramatic neo-Gothic tower soon became an iconic shape in the Manhattan skyline.
Just across Boston’s Copley Square from H. H. Richardson’s Trinity Church sits another National Historic Landmark: the 1895 Boston Public Library building, designed by Charles Follen McKim of the New York firm of McKim, Mead & White.
The buildings featured in 10 Buildings that Changed America are not the only ten buildings that influenced our built environment. In fact, selecting just 10 buildings from all of the landmarks recommended by our panel of experts was extremely challenging.
So here, we present 10 MORE BUILDINGS that deserve recognition.
We invite you to share your own choices, and join the conversation about other buildings that shaped America.
