Lecture: Why So High – The saga of building the world's tallest buildings

Since the ill-fated Tower of Babel, mankind has been powerfully attracted to the idea of buildings rising into the clouds. The Empire State Building and the Sears Tower still rank among the world’s tallest and most famous buildings, while the latest contenders for the “world’s tallest” title rise close to a quarter mile into the sky. In the 20th century, it was the American skyscrapers of New York and Chicago that regularly pushed the limit — the pre-World- War-I Singer Building, Metropolitan Life Tower, and Woolworth Building; the 1920s battles culminating in the Chrysler and the Empire State Building; and the post-World War II World Trade Center and Sears Tower, along with a dozen or more also-rans.

The destruction of the World Trade Center, the rise of its replacement, and the continuing phenomenon overseas, have focused worldwide attention on such monuments, raising the question: why so high? Was it strictly dollars and cents? Or was something more at play? The development of steel-cage construction and elevators, rising real-estate values, and the economics of proximity, all helped create the skyscraper — but none of these factors seem to have required the vast heights reached by the most famous. How could a strict, hard-nosed business proposition like constructing an office building produce skyscrapers too tall to make economic sense?

This illustrated journey across a century and a half of the race to the top pays special attention to the design and construction of the Trade Center. The lecture is part of a program called “JCC University.” Call Kathy Graff at 201-408-1454 for cost and registration information.