I participated this fall in the Skyscraper Museum’s “Fall Semester” lecture series. This was a series of virtual lectures and virtual discussion planned so that the museum could keep programming going while physically closed because of the Covid pandemic. The fact that I was doing this just as The Structure of Skyscrapers was released is a coincidence, but a happy one. I’m not mentioned a recently-completed lecture series just to tease people: the lectures are all available on line at the museum’s web site.
Carol Willis, the director of the museum, made an interesting point: all of the recent record-holders for tallest building have been hybrid structures of reinforced concrete and steel, rather than the steel structure used for the record-holders in almost all of the twentieth century. Since I don’t design or investigate modern buildings, I had not given that topic much thought, but it occurs to me that hybrid structures are as old as the introduction of modern materials into buildings. In the US, that started in the late 1830s, with cast iron as the first structural material used here other than traditional wood and masonry.
The picture above shows a hybrid structure: brick bearing walls, wood joist floors, steel girders and steel columns. This mixture was not used to achieve great height, it was to provide industrial loft space that complied with the building code at the least cost. And 100 years after construction, it’s still functioning and still in use.
