This book presents the best 60 projects of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Skyscraper Competition. An investigation by architects, students, and designers on the future of the skyscraper. What is the skyscraper in the beginning of the XXI Century? What is the historical and social context of these mega-structures? What is their response towards the urban fabric? Is the modern skyscraper a city in and of itself? Is the human scale lost? Talented architects have entered these competitions to explore, re-think, and speculate on this fascinating architectural genre. Each project includes a full description by the author as well as several illustrations and drawings. In addition, reknown architects were invited to present their thoughts on this fascinating architectural genre.

More than a century after its inception, the skyscraper has finally come of age. Though it has long been lampooned as a venal and inhospitable guzzler of resources, a revolutionary new school of skyscraper design has refashioned the idiom with buildings that are sensitive to their environments, benevolent to their occupants, and economically viable to build and maintain. Designed by some of the best-known architects in the world, these towers are as daring aesthetically as they are innovative environmentally. Big and Green is the first book to examine the sustainable skyscraper, its history, the technologies that make it possible, and its role in the future of urban development. The book examines more than 40 of the most important recent sustainable skyscrapers-including Fox & Fowle's Reuters Buildings in New York, Norman Foster's Commerzbank in Frankfurt, and MVRDV's spectacular Dutch Pavilion from Expo 2000 in Hanover-with project descriptions, photographs, and detailed drawings. Interviews with such leaders in the field as Sir Richard Rogers, William McDonough, and Kenneth Yeang are also included.

The modern skylines of major cities around the globe are both majestic and awe-inspiring. Since the turn of the century, ever more impressive and innovative skyscrapers have been built. This resource features the tallest and most famous buildings standing, and inspires young aspiring architects and engineers to dream of ever taller buildings. The sky's the limit for readers, who will gain valuable insights into engineering basics while their imaginations are stirred by images and descriptions of these architectural giants from all over the world.

Trace the history of the skyscraper from its beginnings in Chicago through the splendour of the Art Deco age all the way to the 21st century.

The Skyscraper Curse is Dr. Mark Thornton's definitive work on booms and busts, and it explains why only Austrian economists really understand them. It makes business cycle theory accessible to a whole new 21st-century audience. And they need it, especially those under 40. Many of the brilliant quants working on Wall Street and at the Fed barely remember the Crash of 2008, much less understand it. But Mark Thornton does, and his book is a warning about overheated equity markets, over-inflated housing prices, and clueless central bankers. Given the shaky stock markets lately, 2018 may be the year the Fed’s latest bubble bursts. And when it does, it will be even more painful than 10 years ago. In fact, US household and business debt is now one trillion dollars higher than 2008. Mark is well known as an expert on bubbles and Fed malfeasance. His work appears in outlets like Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, The Economist, Barron’s, and Investor’s Business Daily. His now-infamous Skyscraper Index theory draws the connection between loose monetary policy, artificially low interest rates, and vanity construction projects. Put the three together and it doesn’t turn out well. And let’s not forget that Dr. Thornton was among only a handful of economists to warn about the dangerous housing bubble in 2004, and again in 2006. Cabbies and waiters bought up condos with no money down in places like Las Vegas. Prices rose 25 percent or more every year in some coastal markets. Even people with terrible credit financed houses at five or seven times their annual income. All of it was made possible by the Fed and its mania for low interest rates. So when the experts said “Nobody could have seen this coming,” the Mises Institute had Mark’s articles and papers ready to go. The housing crash, and the meltdown in equity markets less than a year later, were thoroughly explained by Austrian business cycle theory. And Mark was the capable face of the Mises Institute during it all. Without a lay-friendly book like The Skyscraper Curse, millions more Americans will be duped by the next crash. Dr. Thornton’s book tells the story that needs to be told. It will be among the only alternative explanations available when the next crisis comes.

The modern skylines of major cities around the globe are both majestic and awe-inspiring. Since the turn of the century, ever more impressive and innovative skyscrapers have been built. This resource features the tallest and most famous buildings standing, and inspires young aspiring architects and engineers to dream of ever taller buildings. The sky's the limit for readers, who will gain valuable insights into engineering basics while their imaginations are stirred by images and descriptions of these architectural giants from all over the world.

tenant is looming in importance. The owner is having more influence on the building. As Gerald D. Hines has said, there are indications that the desire for more discretionary time will lead to more residential high-rises dose to or in the midst of downtown office buildings. Downtown living could become the desired alternative. Tall buildings will be approached increasingly from the standpoint of an urban ecology - that what happens to apart can influence the whole. Provid ing for public as well as private needs in a tall building project is just one example (facilities for schools, shops, religious, and other needs). More attention will be paid to maintaining streets as lively and interesting places. Will a new "world's tallest" be built? Will we go a mile high? The answer is probably "yes" to the first, "no" to the second. With the recent spate of super-tall buildings on the drawing boards, going to greater heights was in the back of many people's minds at the Chicago conference. But in the U nited States, at least, buildings of 70 to 80 stories would appear to provide needed space consistent with economy. The future, then, is described in depth by papers that go into specific areas.