GATEWAY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

AND DESIGN

TALL BUILDING DESIGN – IX

LESSON PLAN -2

NEED AND CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL -

BUILDINGS, ECONOMICS, SOCIAL CONDITIONS,
PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS, GEOGRAPHICAL, POLITICAL &
OTHER FORCES IN DEVELOPMENT, SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL
FACTORS EFFECTING SUCH DEVELOPMENT
SOME SOCIAL ISSUES WHICH AFFECT HIGH-RISE LIVING
 QUICK RECAP OF LESSON PLAN - 1
• Definition of Tall buildings, High-rise and Skyscraper

• Concept of height intertwined with ‘tall-ness’

• The role of CTBUH - Concept of Super-tall & Mega-tall.

• Historical Development of Tall Buildings – ancient,

medieval and modern (Chicago & New York)
 CONTENTS OF LESSON PLAN - 2
NEED AND CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL
BUILDINGS (After Industrial Revolution – primarily in
the US)

❑Geographical,
❑Economics,
❑Social conditions,
❑Political &
❑Other forces in development
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS

GEOGRAPHY & COMMERCE

Chicago
CHICAGO – HOW?
❑ When the settlement was founded in 1830 on the south
west of Lake Michigan, its population was less than two
hundred.

❑ Designated a city seven years later, this had grown to

4,000. From then on it skyrocketed with wagon trains,
boats and then trains bringing hundred of thousands of
emigrants to the Midwest and the boundless opportunities
it offered.

❑ From 1848, the Illinois and Michigan Canal provided a

trade route from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi all the
way south to New Orleans, while railroads soon connected
Chicago to all points of the American compass.
 CHICAG – WHY?

❑ Imports and exports flowed through Chicago from all over

the world, while from 1865 millions of cattle were
transported to the Union Stockyards, the city’s enormous
meatpacking district created by the railways.

❑ By 1900, the stockyards employed 25,000 people and

produced more than 80% of American-reared meat for the
nation’s domestic market.

❑ Manufacturing, banking, commerce and culture along with

salubrious public parks and the country’s first
comprehensive sewage system were all part of the city’s
phenomenal growth. In 1880, Chicago’s population was
505,000. Ten years on and it had more than doubled.
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS

ECONOMIC & POLITICAL

FACTORS
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS

American CIVIL WAR

➢ The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865.
➢ Between Confederacy (South) & the Union
(North).
➢ Confederacy was pro-slavery, anti-tariff, anti-federal
power.
➢ Union was mostly anti-slavery, pro-tariff, pro-
federal
➢ After 600000 lives lost, slavery ended, Federal
Govt. established.
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS

Issues that resulted in the Civil War:

a. Industry vs Farming

b. States Rights (controversy on power distribution

between Federal Government and States).

c. Westward Expansion

d. Slavery
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS
Post-Civil War Economy:
a. A large part of the industrial expansion of the
immediate post Civil War years was based on
connecting the industrial northeast with the farm
and grazing area of the Midwest and plains states
and completing the transcontinental railroads.
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS
Post-Civil War Economy:
a. The iron and steel industry was one direct
beneficiary of the expansion of the railroad system.

b. Steel production increased from 19,643 long tons in

1867 to 198,796 in 1873 and 1,588,314 in 1881.

c. The expansion of steel led to comparable increases

in mining and other basic industries.
NEED & CRITERIA FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TALL BUILDINGS
❑ Nationwide network of railways

❑ Inventors developed products which the consumers

wanted. Industrialists manufactured products in large
quantities.

❑ Investors and bankers pumped in large amount of

capital to business leaders to expand their business.

❑ Industrial growth made major impact on American life.

❑ Record number of people moved to cities and the cities

grew in leaps and bounds.
THE BACKGROUND
INNOVATIONS STARTED COMING
 BUT THERE WERE MOMENTS OF WORRY
❑ In 1870,around 25% Americans lived in the urban areas. In
1916, it grew to 50%.

❑ Some of these industrialists amassed huge wealth.

Number of millionaires grew from 20 in 1850 to 3000
in 1900. The under-previleged toiled 60 hours per week.

❑ As the population grew so did the competition for jobs.

Supply of labour force outstripped the demand, which led to
unemployment.

❑ Depressions slowed down the economy to mere standstill

in 1873, 1884, 1894 & 1907.
 THE POLITICS

Reformers like the cartoonist Joseph Keppler depicted the Senate as controlled by the giant
moneybags, who represented the nation's financial trusts and monopolies.
 THE UNDERSIDE OF URBAN LIFE

❑While American cities allowed many middle- and upper-

class Americans to live a glamorous lifestyle, this was simply a
fantasy to many poorer urban dwellers.

❑Slums, crime, overcrowding, pollution, disease. These words

more accurately described daily realities for millions of urban
Americans.
 THE UNDERSIDE OF AMERICAN URBAN LIFE
❑ Much of the urban poor, including a majority of incoming
immigrants, lived in tenement housing. If the skyscraper was
the jewel of the American city, the tenement was its boil.

❑In 1878, a publication offered $500 to the architect who

could provide the best design for MASS-HOUSING.

❑JAMES E. WARE won the contest with his plan for a

DUMBBELL TENEMENT. This structure was thinner in the
center than on its extremes to allow light to enter the
building, no matter how tightly packed the tenements may
be. Unfortunately, these "vents" were often filled with
garbage. The air that managed to penetrate also allowed a fire
to spread from one tenement to the next more easily.
THE UNDERSIDE OF URBAN LIFE
THE BACKGROUND
 THE BACKGROUND

Jacob Riis documented the plight of New

York City slums in the late nineteenth
century.
 TALL BUILDINGS - SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

Tall Buildings:
Some Social Issues & Concerns
 TALL BUILDINGS - SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS
❑ Tall buildings fit in well where business and
organizational structures are geared to large-quantity
operations; where building materials are plentiful; and
where there is an adequate force of skilled labour.

❑ The economic viability of building tall is ultimately a

matter of location and local conditions. It can be the
lowest-cost solution in a developed country in a
location with other high-rises where the needed
infrastructure and urban services are in place

❑ The impact of tall buildings on property values varies.

In some places, because of newly generated traffic and
crowding, property values in nearby neighbourhoods
may diminish.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

❑ Most high-rise apartments are located near the

centre of the city, which may provide a
better commute to work. High-rise apartment
complexes have more rooms available, allowing for
more variety and leasing options.

❑ Most high-rise apartments also include a

variety of amenities, including laundry services,
pools, convenience stores and even small
grocery stores located within the building itself.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS
❑ Families where the life style includes intensive use
of private open spaces (walled courtyard), public
open areas around a tall building are not a
satisfactory substitute and they lack the sense of
home ownership.

❑ Families of any economic class with small children

and elders are concerned about losing eye contact
with them while at play and strolls.

❑ Occupant dissatisfaction relating to noise levels,

lack of accessibility to people with disabilities.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

While the benefits of high rise buildings are generally

considerable—such as proximity to services and public
transportation, efficient use of land and infrastructure—some
inadequacies are there; these include:

Density and land use:

Higher construction is not necessarily equivalent to higher
residential densities.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

ECONOMICS:
❑ Can support the upward increase of the cost of urban
land in cases where the land value is low, high rises can
contribute to higher cost per dwelling unit.

❑ Initial costs, maintenance costs and operation costs are

higher.

❑ Also lower construction time for low rise as compared

to longer times for tall buildings result in high interest
costs.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

Development control:
❑ If not located and constructed in coordination with
comprehensive master plan and development schedule,
tall buildings create additional problems of urban
infrastructure.

❑ Tall buildings give limited balconies and surrounding

open spaces are converted for public use creating
dissatisfaction for people demanding sizable open
private spaces.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

Transportation
❑ If provision is not made in the master plan or existing
development does not allow for expansion, large
amount of traffic generated by tall buildings can
overtax public transportation systems and create
extensive automobile traffic.

Services

❑ High domestic water consumption,

❑ Wastage of usable floor area in services like lifts etc.
❑ Fear of soil subsidence due to overloading etc.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

RESOURCE AND MATERIALS

❑ Tall buildings consume a large amount of building
materials, particularly steel & cement and sometimes
drain these resources away from the necessary
development projects.

❑ Also higher proportion of skilled labor is required which

may have to be brought internationally creating higher
local unemployment.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS
URBAN ENVIRONMENT
❑ Tall buildings may become objects of visual pollution in
urban environment.

❑ They may generate uncomfortable winds at street level if

not appropriately designed and can alter the city’s micro-
climate.

❑ Refuse, increased pollution by automobile traffic can

lower the quality of environment in the nearby areas.
❑ They can be responsible for overshadowing of adjacent
buildings
 SOME Socio-cultural issues……..

❑ Loss of contact with ground:- lack of out door activities,

greenery, sun and children’s play Spaces.
❑ Feeling of anonymity: living with many stereotyped and
standardized inflicts the sense of “loss of identity and
flexibility”.
❑ Sway is a psycho-physical phenomenon and is better
adopted by long term residents.
❑ Elevators delays, crowding, break downs and unwanted
meetings are bad.
❑ Long term stay create sense of belonging, while short
term create sense of instability and transit feeling in high
rise buildings
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS
SAFETY
❑ Due to their size, complexity and interdependence of
systems risks of potential danger increases and more
secure features have to be designed into the building.

❑ Feeling of being away from nature.

❑ Feeling of being trapped.

❑ Fears of accidental fall.

❑ Problems related to medical fitness specially in case of

cardiac and asthmatic patients.
 HIGH RISES – SOME FACT CHECKS

❑ Concentration of tall
buildings create problem to
change microclimate.

❑ Long shadows happen. so

care should be taken for this
account while designing.

❑ Lack of sunlight leads to

affect the building
development and dampness is
developed. Loss of natural
lights creates a depressive
attitude in the habitants.
 SO,WHERE TO LOCATE OUR TALL BUILDINGS ?

The important factors to be remembered before selecting

the site for tall buildings are:

❑ Location- with-respect-to existing structures, transport

facilities, approach roads, linking roads etc.

❑ Geography : Orientation with respect to sun, seismic

conditions of the area, density, population growth, land
use pattern etc. etc.

❑ Topography: Study of existing and surrounding site

features, vegetation, surfaces etc. and the effect on the
microclimate, etc.
 SO,WHERE TO LOCATE OUR TALL BUILDINGS ?

❑ Wind conditions: The intensity of wind flow, and their

nature (dry, Moisture-laden).

❑ Orientation: of sun and wind to check the impact of wind

loads and other external influences on the tall structure.

❑ Skyline: The existing skyline should not be hampered and

the proposed structure should be in consonance with the
existing skyline.

❑ Disturbing elements: Tall buildings should not be located

too close, or in an area consisting of ordinary buildings.
This disrupts the hierarchical process of space privacy in
quite private places (House) and semi-private places.
SO,WHERE TO LOCATE OUR TALL BUILDINGS ?
 SITE CHARACTERISTICS

PARKING:
• The majority of parking for the residents of high-rise
projects should be provided underground or in above
ground structures (parking garages).

• Surface parking for visitors should be developed at the

side or rear of the building, and be well landscaped.

• Parking garages should be designed with residential,

commercial or community uses at a grade to provide for
active frontages.
 Pruitt-Igoe – AN INTRIGUING EVENT IN HISTORY

❑ The demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe

housing project in St. Louis in 1972 has
been ingrained in the minds of a
generation of planners and architects.
The demolition occurred in response to
strong residential dissatisfaction and high
levels of criminal activity.

❑ To many people, tall buildings

became synonymous with cheaply built,
poorly maintained, blocks of apartments
or offices detached from the ground
plane which did not meet the needs of
their users.
REFERENCES:

• http://www.ctbuh.org/
• http://www.ushistory.org/us/38b.asp
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
• https://www.ducksters.com/history/civil_war/causes_of_th
e_civil_war.php
ASSIGNMENT
1. Write about the social, political and economic scenario
in post Civil War USA which catapulted it to be the
New World ? Listen to the You Tube Video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z66lixOeJfc
GLIMPSES OF LECTURE - 3
1. Philosophy behind Tall Building structures.