Famous buildings in North America.

Famous buildings of North America

Hi/Ben here.
I'm going to start of showing you modern structures of North America. Their different designs and when they were built .Why the were built/by who and their commercial use etc.

Before I start I just want to mention a really interesting website, which is slightly off topic. Its called Skyscrapercity and its a forum which discusses projects around the world, their stage of completion and peoples views. In my opinion it gives a more depth look at modern architecture.

List:
1.The Empire State Building   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_State_Building#mediaviewer/File:Empire_State_Building_by_David_Shankbone.jpg

First on the list is the Empire State Building which is located in New York City. It is approx 443m including the spire. Construction started in 1929 and it took approx 2 years to build. It cost approx 635 million dollars today and became a new landmark and an icon for New York. Its Architects were Shreve , Lamb and Harmon. It set a new standard for supertalls and became the worlds tallest building for a number of years due to its 101 floor count.

Influences and the Architects backgrounds:

Shreve and Lamb set up their firm in 1920 which was based in New York. Shreve  was born in Canada and his influences were architects in firms like Carrere and Hastings which was his life ambition to work there.

William F Lamb was from Brooklyn, New York.

In 1929 Arthur Harmon joined the newly set up firm. Prior to his join of the firm he had work on monuments at Tours, Cantigny and Somme-Py in France.

For the construction of the Empire State Building Shreve was responsible for the exterior design

2. The Trump Tower

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g35805-d674283-i112894660-Trump_International_Hotel_Tower_Chicago-Chicago_Illinois.html

This tower is located in Chicago and construction started in 2005.Construction took 4 years and the tower topped out in 2009.Its approx 415m tall and is as strong enough to stand a mega tornado with its extremely strong triple glazed window panels and reinforced structure which is needed in a tornado prone city. It 92 stories high and was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. I think this tower is very unique and shows 21 century innovation and design. Did I mention that the it has one of the deepest bases in the ground in the world.

Architects backgrounds and the company:

The Firm was formed in Chicago in 1936 and they opened their first office in New York in 1937.Today the are one of the largest Firms in the world and have designed many projects. Unfortunatly there is very little detail background to these three men but ill tell you the projects that they have completed. From the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to Willis tower in Chicago.

3. The Transamerica Pyramid



http://www.insecula.com/PhotosNew/00/00/09/78/ME0000097810_3.JPG

This tower is located in San Francisco and is the tallest building in San Francisco. It is 48 stories and has a roof height of 260m.It will soon be no longer the highest building in San Francisco by 2017 due a new tower called Salesforce Tower which is currently in preparation mode. Construction started on December 1969 and it was completed in Summer of 1971.It was designed by architects William l and Harry B. It is currently being used by The Bank Of America. In my opinion its very beautiful and I was surprised to find out that it was over 40 years as it aged well and still looks modern.

The influences of these architects were from Norway, Finland and Sweden.

Thanks for reading this and stick around for more posts.

Next is famous buildings in South America.