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Skyscrapers, Part Two: An Arms Race to the Sky · Ridiculous History

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  Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much
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  Speaker 1: for tuning in. That's our super producer, mister Max Williams.
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  Speaker 2: Max sky High Williams.
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  Speaker 3: Have you talked about the poop yet?
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  Speaker 2: The pop Day?
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  Speaker 1: That's Noel Brown. I've been bowling Noel. This is a
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  Speaker 1: two parter.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, if you can tell already, I think I
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  Speaker 2: think it earned two partner. Lots of really fun stuff
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  Speaker 2: to talk about when it comes to skyscrapers and man's
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  Speaker 2: inherent need to outdo himself, themselves, ourselves others. Yeah, there's
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  Speaker 2: a bit of a bit of a historical flex episode
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  Speaker 2: if you think about it. Let's jump right in.
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  Speaker 1: The whole Insurance building did not just stand up on
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  Speaker 1: its own. It became a symbol something that stood for
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  Speaker 1: an entire architectural movement. We loosely call this the Chicago School,
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  Speaker 1: and this gave birth to all of those amazing skyscrapers
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  Speaker 1: in Chicago from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century.
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  Speaker 1: And if you go to Chicago now and you go
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  Speaker 1: downtown or you're around the Loop, it's still very much
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  Speaker 1: a skyscraper City. You can take the little architectural river
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  Speaker 1: tour and they on a boat and they go.
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  Speaker 2: If you're lucky, the Dave Matthews Band's tour bus will
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  Speaker 2: pull under the overpass bridge and dump the contents of
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  Speaker 2: its toilets on you.
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  Speaker 1: Not guaranteed with the price of the ticket, but always
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  Speaker 1: a chance.
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  Speaker 2: It will happen. It has been known to happen. The
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  Speaker 2: very least was I saw the fun This is really
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: all by the way, look it up. I saw where
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  Speaker 2: it was like a meme where it was just a
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  Speaker 2: picture of a cassette like a fish concert, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: taping kind of thing where it's like bootlet, but it
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  Speaker 2: just said Dave Matthews Band tour bus toilet dumping incident audio.
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  Speaker 2: And it was like someone was like, that was a
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  Speaker 2: fire set right there there. It is. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And around this time the construction of the Home Insurance building.
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  Speaker 1: Around this time, in the eighteen eighties, people came up
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  Speaker 1: with a specific term to describe these types of towers.
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  Speaker 1: It was a name as bold and as ambitious as
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  Speaker 1: the buildings themselves.
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  Speaker 4: Skydnswers scraper, No scrapers, not Skuys scrapers, s Guy's scrape
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  Speaker 4: doesn't it give us a record scratch.
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  Speaker 1: Perfect? Weird side note, skyscrapers at this point was not
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  Speaker 1: entirely a new term. It used to mean a lot
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  Speaker 1: of other things.
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  Speaker 2: So weird. I had no idea. In the seventeen eighties
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  Speaker 2: it was used to describe a particularly tall horse. I
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  Speaker 2: almost wonder if it was like a particularly famous, very
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  Speaker 2: tall horse that was named skyscraper. But I can't imagine
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  Speaker 2: people thrown around lots of skyscraper, right, I don't. That
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  Speaker 2: just doesn't sound right. Skyscraper sounds like the name of
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  Speaker 2: a race horse, you know what I mean? Yeah, it
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  Speaker 2: sounds very specific. But there's more right. It even was
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  Speaker 2: used now this I can't. I don't know why this is.
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  Speaker 2: This makes more sense to me. I just don't feel
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  Speaker 2: like as tall as a horse might be, there is
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  Speaker 2: no danger of it even even appearing to scrape the
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  Speaker 2: sky in any way, shape or form. However, the mast
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  Speaker 2: of a very large ship, when viewed from the horizon
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  Speaker 2: coming in that absolutely gives skyscraping. I'm trying to talk
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  Speaker 2: like the kids, you know, they just say it gives
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  Speaker 2: that's the new thing. It's not even new. But I
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  Speaker 2: would always say it gives skyscraping vibes. But the kids
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  Speaker 2: just drop vibes. It's just implied. It's just it gives skyscraper. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Uh, tall hats or very tall bonnets.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know why that's funny to me.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, like a top hat, like a stovepipe and stovepipe.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good old aby linky.
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  Speaker 1: A ball that was hit high into the air would
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  Speaker 1: be called a skyscraper.
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  Speaker 2: That makes sense totally, like in like a you know,
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  Speaker 2: a big old pop fly or whatever you know in
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  Speaker 2: best Ball.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, don't mention baseball around Max. He hates that stuff,
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  Speaker 1: does he?
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  Speaker 2: I thought he likes the sporting.
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  Speaker 3: I'm just lost reading about the Stave Matthews fan Chicago.
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  Speaker 2: You're not aware of this?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Can you imagine relaxing water taxi tour of the beautiful
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  Speaker 2: architecture of Chicago only to be drenched in pope.
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  Speaker 3: Hundred pounds of it? Oh god, how long are they
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  Speaker 3: storing this cause waste? It's the violinists bus alone.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he wasn't in it.
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  Speaker 3: The guy was driving around, but it said, uh and
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  Speaker 3: estimated eight hundred pounds of human waste.
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  Speaker 2: Like, first of all, they get they each get their
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  Speaker 2: own full sized bus. The violinist gets his own pay.
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  Speaker 2: He has passed away, let's be respected. That's right.
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  Speaker 3: Well, when he lived, he pooped a lot. Yeah, it's
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  Speaker 3: just like, oh, it's terrible.
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  Speaker 2: Do you see anything in your research there? Max really
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  Speaker 2: quickly not to derail this too much. But was there
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  Speaker 2: legal action taken? Because I would argue, oh, yeah, they had.
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  Speaker 3: They had to pay two hundred thousand dollars in environmental protection.
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  Speaker 3: They donated another one hundred thousand dollars to like like
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  Speaker 3: the river side, like like nonprofit crews.
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  Speaker 2: But what did the people covered in filth get paid?
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  Speaker 3: I am looking into that detail.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: The bus driver, uh, did have to plead guilty to
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  Speaker 3: dumping waste April two thousand and five.
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  Speaker 2: Let's just say it wasn't Boyd Tinsley, and that was
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  Speaker 2: the name of the violinist that pulled the trigger. It was.
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  Speaker 2: It was not in the bus right.
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  Speaker 1: If anything, it's disparaging to his character to call it
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  Speaker 1: his bus. It is a bus that he rode, you
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  Speaker 1: know what I mean.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, but by the way, just want those They did
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  Speaker 3: take the boat back to doc and issue everyone a refund.
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  Speaker 3: Oh kind of that, and then quickly swapped out his
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  Speaker 3: crew cleaned everything and then having a one tour they
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  Speaker 3: got they didn't miss their next tour.
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  Speaker 1: Which is weird because there are some tours where people
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  Speaker 1: would pay for that. You know what, it's all about them,
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  Speaker 1: It's all about the framing of the experience.
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  Speaker 2: I know. But I just feel like damages would have
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  Speaker 2: had to have been paid if that happened to me.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that is a PTSD type moment, y'all. That
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  Speaker 2: is what if it got in your mouth? Who knows
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  Speaker 2: disease could have been spread.
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  Speaker 3: I mean a lot of questions if people have to
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  Speaker 3: go to the hospital for that fear alone.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I'm sure. How does this take us back to skyscrapers?
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  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you know where we're looking at the beautiful
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  Speaker 2: architecture before being blasted from our architectural reverie. But let's
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  Speaker 2: get back into it and just talk about the evolution
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  Speaker 2: of the concept of skyscrapers.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because we were talking about this off air a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. The definition of skyscraper. It is no longer
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  Speaker 1: a weirdly big horse, nor a very tall bonnet or hat.
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  Speaker 1: It is now specifically architecture, and the definition is a
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  Speaker 1: bit changeable. The idea of what constitutes a skyscraper, like
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  Speaker 1: the burden of proof gets higher and higher and high.
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  Speaker 2: Literally. By the late twentieth century, the term was used
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  Speaker 2: to describe what we would now maybe maybe more refer
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  Speaker 2: to as high rise buildings, but particularly high high rises
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  Speaker 2: generally greater than forty or fifty stories, because if we'll
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  Speaker 2: recall back, you know, in the early days of this
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  Speaker 2: type of construction, ten stories was a big deal. Twelve
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  Speaker 2: stories was a big deal. So the scale is sliding now.
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  Speaker 2: In order to be considered a skyscraper, boy, you got
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  Speaker 2: to be a minimum forty stories.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, that's a lot of stories, stories and anthology.
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  Speaker 1: So the historians sometimes will just describe skyscrapers of this
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  Speaker 1: period as the commercial style. But the architects of the
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  Speaker 1: Chicago School they had a common interest. They said, we
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  Speaker 1: can use new material science, we can use steel, we
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  Speaker 1: can use electricity, we can create these buildings that solve
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  Speaker 1: very real problems of urban density. And you know, they
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  Speaker 1: had elevators. Now, it doesn't make sense to build a
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  Speaker 1: skyscraper without elevator technology, you know. I like, what's the
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  Speaker 1: old joke about Manhattan. I got a great place. It's
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  Speaker 1: a fifth story walk up.
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  Speaker 2: That's the joke. Where's the punchline? That just sounds terrible.
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  Speaker 1: No, I think the guy was just mad about it.
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  Speaker 1: His calves were great.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the place I stayed recently, a dear friend of
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  Speaker 2: the show, Jordan Runtag, allowed me to crash in his
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  Speaker 2: pad in Brooklyn, and it's a three story walk up,
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  Speaker 2: which it definitely makes you think twice about leaving. They
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  Speaker 2: coming back, even with three stories with no elevator. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'm just you know, I'm not exactly female,
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  Speaker 2: most athletic of types, but I can't imagine a five
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  Speaker 2: story walk up. That is very much a thing. And
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  Speaker 2: these are very narrow stairways. I've never personally helped anyone
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  Speaker 2: or moved myself into one of these apartments, but can
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  Speaker 2: you imagine just just lugging your furniture, your bed frame,
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  Speaker 2: all this of turning those corners just seems like a nightmare.
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  Speaker 3: I'll say. So, as you guys know, I'm taking a
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  Speaker 3: trip to New York and here the next few weeks.
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  Speaker 2: And that's, by the way, on your first trip to
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  Speaker 2: New York City.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I bet in Chicago many years ago he did
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  Speaker 3: not have poop dumped on me.
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  Speaker 1: Though New York's great, you're gonna have a fantastic time.
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  Speaker 3: Well poopy dumped out town.
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  Speaker 2: Possibly there's places for that if you would like.
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  Speaker 1: There's always a non zero chance of being pooped on.
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  Speaker 3: But to continue on, we were gonna book this thereby
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  Speaker 3: and being at booked like the morning right before we
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  Speaker 3: got it, and we ended up getting a different one, more expensive,
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  Speaker 3: And I'm actually kind of hapy about it because the
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  Speaker 3: first one had a five story walk up. Well the
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  Speaker 3: second one has a one. So yeah, I'm like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: but I'm kind of glad we're paying extra for a
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  Speaker 3: nicer place with a one story.
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  Speaker 2: It just really makes you considerately, do I really want
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  Speaker 2: to go outside?
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  Speaker 1: Right?
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  Speaker 2: Right?
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  Speaker 1: And this is first off again Max, You're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful time. Sorry I can't be there with you.
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  Speaker 1: But next time, let's take a road trip together. What
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  Speaker 1: do you say?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, but only if we're going to like North Dakota,
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  Speaker 3: fair enough, or back to Montana's Montana's not the best
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  Speaker 3: day in this country?
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  Speaker 2: All right?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I was talking about New York, but sure.
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  Speaker 3: I mean upstate New York. You can go to Maine, Connecticut.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Never been to Maine?
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: You guys just want to start talking about Skyrm again.
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  Speaker 2: Since all things are on the table, apparently.
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  Speaker 1: No, I was in Connecticut just like a couple of
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  Speaker 1: weeks ago or last I can't remember last week. Maybe anyway, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: if everything is on the table, then let's introduce a
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  Speaker 1: couple of architects. One of my favorite names from the
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  Speaker 1: Chicago School. I don't know if you're ready for this,
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  Speaker 1: dank Mar.
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  Speaker 2: Adler, the dankest of dank Mars.
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  Speaker 1: Dank Mar d A n K M A R.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Usually I think of that name as being a Dagmar.
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  Speaker 2: This guy is dank Mar. He is like the dankest
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  Speaker 2: of the dank and his buddy Lewis Sullivan, their firm,
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  Speaker 2: gave Frank Lloyd Wright another name, well not nearly as
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: dope as dank Mar, that you may have heard of.
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  Speaker 2: They gave him his first shot architectural stardom, along with
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  Speaker 2: a guy named Daniel Burnham, who in nineteen oh two
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  Speaker 2: designed New York City's still standing flat iron building, which
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  Speaker 2: is it's very cool. Yeah, it's it's it's it's you
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  Speaker 2: love to see that it's still around.
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  Speaker 1: And the Chicago School really in fluenced, the influenced and
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  Speaker 1: popularized the idea of skyscrapers, but perhaps more importantly, the
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  Speaker 1: way humans started building cities. You know, previously unthinkable levels
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  Speaker 1: of density are suddenly possible with the elevator, with the
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  Speaker 1: building up and building down instead of out. We also
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  Speaker 1: know we also know that other cities picked up the trend.
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  Speaker 2: First.
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  Speaker 1: New York makes sense, right because the whole insurance company
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  Speaker 1: is based in New York, so they want to get
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  Speaker 1: in on this. You know what happened. It became an
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  Speaker 1: arms race to build the tallest building.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, we've already been in that, right, even since, dating
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  Speaker 2: as far back as the Pyramids. Right, everyone's trying to
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  Speaker 2: outdo everyone else there is now but now no longer
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  Speaker 2: it is there this dry I have to build as
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  Speaker 2: close to heaven as possible. It's a much more monetary drive. Right.
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  Speaker 2: But then, of course there is that prestige of making
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  Speaker 2: a name for yourself as a city. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: possess the largest building, the world's tallest building, the United
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  Speaker 2: States tallest building, what have you. It does seem though,
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  Speaker 2: that the honor of world's tallest building is never going
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  Speaker 2: to be in the United States ever.
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  Speaker 1: Again, well, the odds are not great.
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  Speaker 2: We'll see, there's a lot of money invested in some
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: of these other countries we're going to talk about into
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  Speaker 2: being the most literally the most doing the most, being
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  Speaker 2: the most. Ley what if we built the world's tallest
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  Speaker 2: building and also covered it in gold leaf?
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  Speaker 1: Folks, you may have heard it ridiculous historians. My cat,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: doctor Venkman, one of my cats, agreed with that so
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: hard that he co signed what I was about to say,
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  Speaker 1: which is, really it depends on the record for tallest building,
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  Speaker 1: depends on how many buildings stay standing over time. Right,
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  Speaker 1: It's like the old joke about inflation. One time I
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  Speaker 1: asked my dad, Hey, do you ever think I'll be
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  Speaker 1: a millionaire? And he said, inflation's crazy. You might be
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  Speaker 1: a millionaire tomorrow, which is yeah, disturbing thing to say
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  Speaker 1: to a child.
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  Speaker 2: Question, does it count that are you a millionaire if
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  Speaker 2: you've earned a million dollars over the course of your life?
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  Speaker 1: Well, by that definition, a lot of people would be millionaires.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's right. It's just funny to think about
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: when you think about things like inflation. I think a
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: lot of people in like upper middle class, over the
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: course of a lifetime have likely earned a million dollars
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: or more. But I guess maybe a million dollar a
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: millionaire is more termed for people's net worth, right.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And there were a lot of millionaires in the
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  Speaker 1: world of architecture where it would lead to a lot
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  Speaker 1: of millionaires because they like buying skyscrapers. They're super in
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  Speaker 1: to it. It's one of their things.
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  Speaker 2: And just really quickly to take a sidebar and talk
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: about an interesting concept that's kind of wrapped up in
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: the question of does the antenna count, you know, like
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  Speaker 2: who owns the air There is a legal concept wrapped
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  Speaker 2: up in this, the idea of air rights, referring to
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  Speaker 2: a real estate owner's license over the vertical space extending
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: above their property, and it is something that has to
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  Speaker 2: be procured. There's a real cool article on a blog
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: called mansion Global that says property owners gain the rights
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  Speaker 2: to the land beneath the physical property as well as
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  Speaker 2: the air space above it, which can offer significant development opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Vertical development does, though, have to consider air traffic and
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: the interests of neighbors and use and development of that
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: air space can't hang over into a neighbor's airspace or
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: else the neighbor has the right to remove the structure
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: that could involve things like antennae or satellite dishes that
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: maybe you're jutting off to the side. As we know,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of you know, New York real estate buildings
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  Speaker 2: that are owned by separate entities are real close to
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  Speaker 2: one another. But I've always found the idea of like
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: owning the air sort of like owning the moon or something.
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  Speaker 2: It's very interesting. Air rights are known today as transferable
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: development rights, and they can be leased or bought or
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: sold just like physical property, and are are incredibly valuable,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: as you know, as as available space on the ground
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: continues to be scarcer and scarcer.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, agreed, right, And it's a it's it reminds me
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: a bit of space Balls, that famous film wherein they
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: talk about selling air right, remember that they can this.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: Also, you can't say Spaceball. Don't expect me to jump in.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Did you know Tuvak is in that movie, the guy
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: who plays Tim Russ, who plays Tubac Tubac and of
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: course he has the greatest line of all time when
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: they're like comb the planet and they go through like, no,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: we found nothing. They ask like the the two Black
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: stormtroopers who have a pick and Afro pick. Yeah, yeah, screens,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: we found. That's pretty about it.
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  Speaker 2: Last thing that I just want to say that the
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  Speaker 2: up until the nineteen hundreds, air rights were considered to
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: reach indefinitely into the heavens until a little thing called
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: air travel became increasingly viable and popular. So now the
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: Federal Aviation Administration actually has what's called a public easement
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: for air transportation at high altitudes above all real estate.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go. Just thought i'd mentioned that because
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  Speaker 2: I think it's an interesting concept.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's an innovation that becomes necessary or an idea
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  Speaker 1: that becomes necessary with the construction of things like skyscrapers,
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  Speaker 1: which get higher into the air.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: And then also the question is the same as or
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  Speaker 1: it's similar to the question of medieval architecture, right, where
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they would build two story buildings and then the second
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: story would jut out from the first, right, which is
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: part of why the streets looked so weird. It's because
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: if you lived on the second story of these buildings
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: in medieval Europe at least, you would commonly throw your
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: poop out I'm doing a Dave Matthews call back, or
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: throw your poop out into the street, and you would
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: who would stop you? Because you were there, you had
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the rights to that air well.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: And just swear to God. Last thing. This is fascinating
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: for some reason. You probably already thought about this. But
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: one way that developers can capitalize on their air rights
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: if they're not building up, they've reached a cap kind
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: of anything above that is going to be impractical, Well,
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: they can lease it out to advertisers, you know, for billboards.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: And the innovations with the skyscrapers continue. In the first
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: decade of the twentieth century, there was this demand for
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: office space. They had a lot of white collar staff
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: we could call them, that are growing all these office jobs, right,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: so where are we going to put all these offices
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: for all these people. Engineering developments made it easier to
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: build and live in ever taller buildings. Chicago kept building
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: new skyscrapers, and New York was more experimental. This is
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: where we see, you know, the FLATIRN building, which we
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, is where we see the Singer Tower, is
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: where we see the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company tower, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the Woolworth building. And I have to tell you it's
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: weird to me that multiple skyscrapers are the property of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: insurance companies. I guess that's a good billboard, yeah.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: For sure. And I guess it is sort of an
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: old industry as well. These skyscrapers were largely commercial successes,
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: but this idea of these kind of towering structures started
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: to feel to some like eye sores. They broke up
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: the city skylines and created issues with kind of neighboring
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: streets and buildings being shrouded in shadow because of these giant,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: looming structures. There was, of course, we know was coming.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: We all saw it, maybe not the time, but a
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: serious economic depression coming that led to zoning restraints in
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: New York City in nineteen sixty. Up until this point, guys,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: it was kind of wild westy you know, in terms
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: of like with the unfettered development and being able to
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: build up. So zoning became much more of a thing.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: And as many folks that are interested in city planning,
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: no zoning is very very important. It can be a
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: real pain in the butt in terms of like what
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: is this space zoned for? You know what type of use?
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: And you have to get permits based on all of
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: these things to build and unless you're Greece and some palms,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: which as we know, certainly is a thing. It can't
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: hold you up, it can hold up development, and definitely
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: if you're not, you know, ticking the boxes.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And people love a good idea, right at least in
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the world of engineering, And so between World War One
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and World War Two, skyscrapers spread to most major US cities.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: And if you look around the world at this time,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you'll see skyscrapers popping up in Japan and China, Argentina, Italy, Poland, Spain.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Of course the United Kingdom. They took our comments about
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the Tower London person, yeah, and built things like the Strand.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So the economic boom of the nineteen twenties and all
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the real estate speculation encouraged a new wave of skyscraper
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: projects in New York and Chicago. They also did something
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: pretty smart. We talked about it a little bit, the
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: exoskeleton concept. So our old architect Jenny figured out this
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: idea of a curtain wall. That's where you build this
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: skeleton of metal and then you sort of tack masonry
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: on it and it looks like it's a stone building,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: but the actual internal structure is steel. And skyscrapers mimic
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: that design today.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Kind of reminds me of like the you know, traditional
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: home building where you got like a wood sort of strain,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: you know, with studs and all of that, and crossby
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: that's then covered with drywall.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And this is the story of the skyscraper. This has
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: turned into a two parter. Spoiler, folks. We also know
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: that now skyscrapers, which were once commercial architecture, they're residential
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: at this point, Like a lot of people live in
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: what we would call skyscrapers. And you may be asking
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: yourself what happened to that famous home insurance building. Well,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: it was demolished in nineteen thirty one and replaced with
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: an even taller skyscraper.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Of course it was yeah, forty five stories, the Lesalle
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Bank building. Well, I guess that kind of does bring
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: us to the presence we should probably talk about some
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: absurdlyly phallically dog swinging skyscraper flexes.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Huh yeah, yeah, you want to talk about the top five,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: Maybe we start with number five and get together.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: I think we should number five. Oh boy, I'm not
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: gonna do an amazing Joba pronouncing. Actually, Ben, maybe you
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: should do this one. You've got a little bit more
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: grasp of Chinese pronunciation than oh no, no.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Just spelled PI n G Space A in the ping
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: On Finance Center in Shenzhen, China, built in twenty seventeen.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit south of two thousand feet tall
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: and it has one hundred and fifteen occupied floors nine
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five feet tall. We are fund at parties.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is I guess the name says it
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: all right, it is. Oh, it's a it's a real
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: cool looking building. Very it looks like some sort of
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: like crystal, you know, like with the tip of it,
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: like a like a very giant sort of like energy crystal.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Some guy. It's considered actually a many of these are
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: considered like superstructures, like super tall skyscrapers. Right. And it
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: was commissioned by ping On Insurance and designed by an
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: American architect actually American architectural firm Kohne Patterson Fox Associates,
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: and was finished in twenty seventeen. And it's the tallest
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: building in Shenzen and the second tallest building in China,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: but only the fifth tallest in the world.
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah. To look at the next tallest building, We're traveling
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The Macaw Royal Clock tower.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: It was built in twenty twelve, so it's older than
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the ping Alan Finance Center. It is one nine hundred
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and seventy two feet tall. It has one hundred and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: twenty occupied floors. So again we see this. These people
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: are edging each other out by margins.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: You know. Wow. And to be fair, I've never been
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: in this building, but it does have a bit of
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: a topper, almost like a hood ornament type deally bob
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: on the top. That doesn't seem occupiable to me. There's
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: in a big chunk of it is the clock face
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: in and of itself. So this one seems to be
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: hedging a little bit. I don't know, guys, what do
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: you think?
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Well, it still has more. That's that's why I wanted
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to put the occupied floors.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay, so that's taking into account, thank you.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So it as five war occupied floors, right, non antenna,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: non clock, dally bops.
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: The next window is even taller.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: That's right. It is the Shanghai Tower in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: That's a joke. That's fun. It's a funny joke.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Did it work?
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: Do you guys know? The deal with Ohio? It is
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: the thing the kids are saying like, is Ohio good
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: or bad? You know if you're you've got skibbity Ohio riz?
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: Do you guys know about this? Okay? I think Ohio's lame.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I think I think Ohio is considered kind of milk toast,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: kind of like no swag, not cool.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: I mean the Buckeye state think think about it.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: You are fun at parties, aren't you've been?
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: I do that one not too actually, but that's some
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: universal mission fan. It's like, let's make a swamp, make
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: it completely flat, and then make it cold. Are you
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: talking about DC or Ohio? H DC is also really
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: hot as well.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's different.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I mean DC's a different level of swamp.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: We're keeping all of this, of course.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: We are, because I thought Cleveland rocks. The kids don't
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: appreciate rocket.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Have you ever seen the hastily made Cleveland tourism videos. No,
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: it's an early early YouTube jokes type of stuff. There's
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: some stuff, and of course that's age like milk. But
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: I'll send them to y'all later.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Please, But you guys are familiar with this idea that
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: the kids are slandering Ohio on the regulars lo key Okay,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: So no, it's not actually in Cleveland, Ohio. It's in Shanghai. Oh.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: The tower yes, built in twenty fifteen, being a little
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: bit north of two thousand feet tall, one hundred and
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: twenty eight occupied floors. How would how would we describe
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: the appearance?
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's uh, let's let's do that. Oh boy, uh,
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: very very Lord of the ringsy. It looks kind of
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: like the like it's got a weird bowing structure on
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: the inside, like it tapers kind of. I don't know,
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: it's giving souron vibes to me for some reason. It
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: just needs that eye floating over the top. By the way,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: I've always thought this been and there's one in particular
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: I want to say it's in It's a city that
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: we've been to a couple of times. I think Austin maybe,
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: But there's like a building that does have these two
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: two towers kind of that you could picture like electricity
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: tesla coiling between. And there's something kind of sinister about
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: the designs of some of these buildings, especially.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: When we consider that the film adaptation of The Lord
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of the Rings right was made in two thousand and one.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: So whoever built the Shanghai Towers in twenty fifteen, knew
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: about the Tower of Surai and the adaptation of it,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: and they must have said it was cool. They also
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: they always.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Kind of you know what the tapering comes from, Ben,
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: I'm seeing it only from aside, But if you look
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: at like a three sixty shot, it kind of twists.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: It sort of has like a weird half twist as
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: it goes up. God, that is in the architecture is
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: so cool, Like, how'd you accomplished that? I just couldn't
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: even begin to answer that question.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: What is it like to live on floor one twenty
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: eight or have your office on the one hundred and
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: twenty eighth floor. I feel like there's a diminishing return,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: like at some point that elevator ride becomes uncomfortable, or
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: you ride multiple elevators, like you have to go to
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: floor fifty and switch and then switch again. Eventually it's
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: like taking a bus trip.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: Guys. Apparently this was a giant economic flop. Apparently due
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: to a bureaucratic red tape, safety concerns and issues from
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: local fire authorities who were concerned about this giant flexy height.
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: It took several years for the tower to gain all
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: of its fire certifications. While operating at losses, the tower
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: ran a deficit of more than one point five billion dollars. Cool,
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: nothing weird. I guess that's the gamble though, right every
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: time you build a skyscraper, you're taking an enormous risk.
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: You might end up with something like number two right now.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: The second tallest skyscraper the merdeca Ie eighteen in Malaysia.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: This was built in twenty twenty three, just last year.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: It's two two hundred and twenty seven feet tall, but
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: it only has one hundred and eighteen occupied floors, which
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: leads me to once again ask should we.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Count the antenna? Should we count the part of the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: building where people can actually.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: Go I'm with you both, Well, I'm with you Max,
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: and I think you're probably on the same I know
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: you're just being Devil's advocate here, but I think we
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: all agree that, you know, unless you're one of those
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Spiderman type figures who can like crawl the top of
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: that antenna to do a crazy panoramic YouTube video that
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: makes me want to vomit. You see those these crazy
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: Russian kids that go out and do these and they
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: hang off the top of these things. Absolutely terrifying just
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: watching the video. I can't even do the VR, you know,
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: stepping off the edge of the plank game without getting
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a cold sweat. But I think
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: one thing we're learning clearly here is that past a
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: certain point, this stuff does become risky, as evidenced by
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: the Shanghai towers and ability to get those permits because
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: of safety concerns. So you do get to a point
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: where this is literally a d measuring contest.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we know that this contest continues right now
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: as we are recording on May twenty first, twenty twenty four.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: The Berje Khalifa in the UAE United Arab Emirates is
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: the tallest building in the world. It was built in
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: twenty ten. It's two thousand, seven hundred and seventeen feet tall.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: There are one hundred and sixty three occupied floors. However,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: this will be number two pretty soon if everything else,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: if everything goes to play in Saudi Arabia, is going
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: to make the world's newest tallest building. The Jetta Tower.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Located in Jetta, Saudi Arabia, which is a port city
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: bordered by the Red Sea. It's the second most populated
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: city in Saudi Arabia. When complete, this skyscraper will be
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: the tallest skyscraper in the world. But that's going to
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: be quite a way away though, right Do we have
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: an ETA on completion? Everything I'm seeing is just kind
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: of artists rendering. It looks here, oh, it has. It
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: is under construction. It started back at twenty thirteen, took
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: a pause in twenty eighteen because they switched contractors, I
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: believe due to some political issues. It is predicted to
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: be completed. Jeez, it doesn't really say.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: They don't really know. They just have construction restarted in September.
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: Speaking of stuff that's been under construction for ages, I'm
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: really excited. I'm going to Barcelona, Spain for the first time,
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: and I'm looking forward to seeing the gaudy church that
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: has been under construction for like one hundred years. It
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: is called the Sagrada Familia. It is the largest unfinished
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Catholic church in the world, designed by Antony Gaudi, and
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: it is just about to be officially finished and you
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: can take a tour, and I'm really looking forward to
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: checking it out. It looks like something out of like
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: an alien movie. It's very otherworldly.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: And the construction continues. Humans like making stuff. This is
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: our week on skyscrapers, folks. It ended up as a
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: two parter because we just kept building. I'm doing references
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: and talking about poop. Well, Max, it needs to be mentioned.
• 35:31
  Speaker 3: Not throw me under the bus. No, you brought up
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: skyrm beforehand. You brought up the poop.
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: I know, but then you just double down every time. Max,
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: You're incorrigible, you're encouraged.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: That's my job. That's what y'all pay me to do.
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Fair enough, fair enough, and worth every penny.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: And thank you to our super producer, mister Max Williams,
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Thanks to aj Bahamas Jacobs, thanks to doctor Rachel Big
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: Spinach Lance and of course thinks that Eves Jeff goat
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: here in spirit.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: And thanks to you Ben for rocking this incredible outline,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: taking us on this incredible water taxi tour through the
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: history of skyscrapers, and we emerged unscathed by the fecal
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: matter of the Dave Matthews Band, So thank you for
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: that as well, maybe slightly slightly scathed.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: You know, he's a big fan of Dave Matthews. Jonathan
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Strickland aka the quister.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: I wonder if he's such a monster. We'll see you
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: next time, folks. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: favorite shows.