| VERTICAL
UPDATE
High-Rise News & Updates
for Las Vegas
| Old & New: Juxtaposition
of High-Rise Eras |
by: Brenda Calvin,
The Calvin Group, LLC
|
 We
are currently experiencing an unprecedented renaissance of
high-rise construction in most major cities of the world.
According to an article in the Council on Tall Buildings and
Urban Habitat’s 2008 Spring Journal, from the 1990s
to 2000s there has been a 140 percent increase in the number
of high-rise structures that are over 150 meters/492 feet
tall. Overwhelmingly, the emerging high-rise markets are in
Asia and the Middle East.
A prior precedent was set
for increased high-rise construction in the 1930s, predominantly
in the United States. This was mainly in response to the advent
of elevator safeguards and the invention of structural steel.
This was an era of glamorous architecture with such icons
as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building in
New York. There was yet another high-rise boom in the 1970s;
also predominantly in the United States.
Do you think multi-leveled
construction is the exclusive domain of the modern era? Think
again. The evidence left behind for those who have eyes to
see it is quite compelling. The structures of bygone eras
may not be 100 stories tall, but considering the lack of elevators,
they definitely pushed the envelope for the tallest of their
time.
 Built
in 491 A.D. is China’s Hengshan Hanging Monastery, built
almost entirely of wood. Literally hanging precariously on
the side of a sheer cliff, 50 meters above the ground, this
is one of the most dramatic and oldest examples of multi-level
construction. The wooden beams deeply embedded into the rock
and cantilevered outward serve as the foundation for each
of the four floor levels. Amazingly, there are over forty
additional halls—within the mountain—with many
bronze, stone, iron and clay carved sculptures. According
to CIBT (China International Tourist Service), Hanging Monastery’s
location was quite practical; it prevented it from being swept
away in the river below during floods.
 Nearly
10,000 miles away and deep in the jungles of Peru lay the
ruins of Machu Picchu. Here remains the footprints of a thriving
city—a citadel, to be more exact. Built around the year
1460, this compound was built terraced on the side of a mountain
at an elevation of 8,000 feet, and was constructed at the
height of the Incan Empire. Much like the mystery of the Egyptian
Pyramids, no one really knows logistically how man, without
cranes or heavy equipment, could move the enormous stones
and set them in place to create the structures. In most cases,
the stones were polished dry stone, intricately cut to fit
tightly together. No mortar was used. Machu Picchu is considered
sacred by many and was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage
Site in 1983. It is described as "an absolute masterpiece
of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization."
In yet another part of
the world, in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, there are
the largely unexcavated Mayan ruins of Coba. One may say that
Coba was not made up of multi-level structures, per se. I
say anyone who has climbed the steps to the Nohuch Mal Pyramid,
the highest pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula at 42 meters
or 138 feet, will beg to differ! From my personal experience,
climbing up was not as big of a concern as coming down the
steep pyramid steps. Coba, built between 600 and 900 A.D.,
was once quite the urban metropolis with over 80 square kilometers
and 50,000 inhabitants.
 In
current times, there have been many advances and changes which
have occurred recently from the high-rise paradigm established
in the 1930s and 1970s. Deviating from the perfectly straight
up and down structure, we now are creating twisting, tapering
or slightly tilted buildings, such as Las Vegas CityCenter’s
Veer Towers. We are capable of building such interesting-looking
buildings due to advances in fabrication, construction and
design techniques. David Scott, principal of the structural
engineering firm Arup New York says, “The materials
have been largely unchanged but the way we use them and the
industry’s ability to build individual elements has
developed enormously. Steel sections come directly from engineer’s
drawings, into automated cutting, drilling and punching machines
so that the cost of a single element is the same as a standard
element. This change in fabrication techniques and development
of new design techniques allows architects, engineers and
builders to create buildings never before imagined.”
As of late, there has been
a significant increase in the height of our buildings. Structural
engineers have been working overtime with this as well. Additionally,
elevator firms have seen the need to create new ways to service
the many extra floors without passengers having to experience
long wait times and without the need to take five elevators
to get to floor 152. The paradigm has shifted from a predominance
of high-rise commercial towers to mixed-use and residential
properties. And thankfully, we are now focused worldwide on
creating green, sustainable buildings to take us into the
future.
So, what does the future
hold for the high-rise structure? Earlier this year, the World
Future Energy Summit was held in Abu Dhabi to discuss just
this and many other related topics. According to the publication,
24dash.com, architect William McDonough was recently commissioned
by Fortune Magazine to come up with a design for a building
of the future. “What we came up with was a building
for the present, something that would be possible today that
accommodates the idea of a building that emulates a tree—a
building that receives its energy from the sun, that grows
food, that builds soil, that provides a habitat for hundreds
of species, that changes colours with the seasons, that creates
micro-climates, that would purify water…a building that
would do just about everything a tree would do except self-replicate.”
How extraordinary! I look
forward to selling that building!
Until next time,
here’s wishing you “elevated” sales!
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Brenda
Calvin is the Broker of The Calvin Group, LLC, and has
a 20-year successful track record of selling high-rise
and mid-rise condominiums in multiple states. The Calvin
Group is a boutique brokerage specializing the innovative
sales, marketing and developer consulting of residential
high-rise properties. To contact Brenda, you may phone
(702) 939-5638 or e-mail Brenda@TheCalvinGroup.com.
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