I can think of several large buildings in downtown Denver that already qualify.
I saw a special about one on plan that would be a city. There was shopping, recreation, a school, apartments and offices in the same building.
The Tower of Babel is the first thing that comes to mind.
Could an article about engineers and building height have been written with any more dramatic hyperbole? How many partagraphs did it go on about how the engineer who proposed a mile high building WASN'T subdued and dragged off to a looney bin?
If you want to see an exploding skyline, check out Miami Beach over the next decade. They are going to be tripling their skyscrapers during that period.
Let's take Manhattan for example. I just see that skyline getting more and more massive. It will get to the point where people can live their entire lives many stories off the ground. Imagine at the 50-story level, having all the skyscrapers in Manhattan connected by pedestrian bridges (fully enclosed from the weather) making it possible to walk up and down Manhattan at the 50-story level. Eventually, public transportation will be built at that level so that you have "skyways" (instead of "subways") rumbling through the city 50 stories high! Eventually, it will be feasible to have highways up there as well so that commuters (and taxicabs) from Brooklyn will be able to climb an elevated roadway in their automobiles to the 50-story level and get just about anywhere without causing mass confusion on the streets below.
Imagine having an elevated loop around Manhattan at the 50-story level for automobile traffic. The streets below will no longer be choked with automobiles, making the streets of Manhattan more pedestrian friendly.
This is possible!
Eventually, as the city continues to grow, you will have the same thing at the 100-story level. So Manhattan will effectively triple its capacity for traffic!
At the 100-story level, it will be possible to have a massive "roof" over the city. You will be able to put parks up there and jogging trails and baseball stadiums and shopping malls and such. All supported by the massive skyscrapers embedded in the bedrock below. Obviously there will have to be large gaps in this roof to allow for sunshine to reach the levels below. One idea I have is to have retractable roofs for the upper level so that when it rains, you can close these gaps and keep the streets below dry. Also, you will be able to collect this rainwater, purify it and use it to supply the city with running water.
This is a very strange fixation some folks have.
Architects and civil engineers ping
Lemme know if you want to be on the list.
“Everyone I know flies from Dubai to Tokyo to Shanghai to Hong Kong to Taipei,” says Carol Willis...
Me too, how about YOU...???
"1,083-foot-tall Ryugyong Tower in Pyongyang, North Korea (if its stalled construction resumes, it will be the world’s tallest hotel)'
There are pictures on the web of this. It needs to stay stalled.
....Dubai (400)Welcome to Babel. The language is English, the units are metric, the know-how is mostly American,....
This week I had an experience worthy of comment here.
I contracted with the Houston office of a Swiss company to keep an eye on materials being procured for a Saudi company project. At the French owned large American company doing the work, I met up with an Egyptian customer's engineer working for the French owned sister Saudi company and his assistant, a very bright and hard charging young Saudi.
Also there were two German engineers who represented the German fims doing the design and procuremnet.
The American manufacturing company provided several applications and customer engineers to host and oversee the meeting.
Three languages were being spoken but the common tie was English, Windows , Word and Adobe PDF. All the computers, and everyone had a laptop always on and in action spoke windows, word and Adobe PDF. These three are the babel fish, the universal language translators that enabled the diverse technical language to be used by all.
Moreover, the plant had wireless internet so the computers were also connected to home by instant e mail. As an old timer remembering telex, fax and DHL, the ability to communicate fantastic volumes of data with e mail and USB drives with those gathered from all over allowed speed unthinkable just a few years ago.