taap pang workers use
bamboo poles and ties
to rig scaffolding into
place. It’s believed
they’ve been doing it
that way for 1,500 years.3
After the Great
Chicago Fire of
1871, the Home
Insurance Company
hired architect William
Le Baron Jenney to
design a tall, fireproof
headquarters. Accord-
ing to legend, Jenney
was inspired to design
the building’s steel
skeleton after his wife
placed a heavy book on
a small birdcage—and
found that the cage
supported the weight.
Today, that revolution-
ary structure is widely
considered to be the
first skyscraper.4
Since then, the
competition to
erect the world’s
tallest building has
been as sharp as the
top of the Empire State
Building. In the late
1920s, auto magnate
Walter Chrysler and his
architect arranged for
the secret constructionof a spire that added
125 feet of height to the
new Chrysler Building,
making it 1,046 feet tall.
The plan allowed them
to eclipse the 927-foot
Bank of Manhattan
Trust Building (now
known as the Trump
Building).5
however, only
11 months after the
Chrysler Building
was crowned the
world’s tallest, it was
overshadowed by
a new neighbor—the
Empire State Building.
Yet when it opened in
1931, less than 25 per-
cent of the building was
occupied. Big Apple
wags called it the
“Empty State Building.”6
The Empire
State Building
was also home to
another spectacular
achievement: the
Guinness World Record
for the longest elevator-
fall survivor. During a
thick fog in July 1945,
a B-25 bomber crashed
into the building.
Fourteen people died,
but a 20-year-oldelevator operator
named Betty Lou Oliver
plunged from the 75th
floor and lived.7
For almost a cen-
tury, there was an
unwritten rule in
Philadelphia: No build-
ing should be taller
than the William Penn
statue on top of City
Hall. That changed in
1987, with the comple-
tion of the 945-foot One
Liberty Place. Shortly
thereafter, when none
of Philly’s powerhouse
sports teams brought
home a championship,
locals blamed the high-
rise for the so-called
Curse of Billy Penn. In
2007, ironworkers
placed a William Penn
figurine on the highest
beam of the new
974-foot Comcast Cen-
ter. The curse wasn’t
broken until a year
later, when the Phillies
won the World Series.8
why is the Detroit
Marriott at the Re-
naissance Center
727 feet tall and 72 sto-
ries while 200 Claren-
don in Boston is 790 feetrd.com 29