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A little bit unrelated to the article, but why has the US quit building skyscrapers for the most part? I know there's a few in the works (Salesforce tower) but

A little bit unrelated to the article, but why has the US quit building skyscrapers for the most part? I know there's a few in the works (Salesforce tower) but generally speaking, it seems like the skyscrapers that exist in most major cities were built long ago and they don't plan on adding any more.

mlinksva 10y ago
Has it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_the_United_States#Tallest_under_construction.2C_approved_and_proposed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_t...
mtalantikite 10y ago
No hard data here, but it seems like most of the skyscrapers I see going up in Manhattan are luxury residential [1]. I'd assume it's a combination of scarcity of land, zoning, and project costs. Lately there seems to be a lot of new construction in downtown Brooklyn and many are definitely skyscrapers [2]. Same in LIC. [1] http://www.amny.com/real-estate/nyc-skyscrapers-tallest-buildings-that-will-change-nyc-s-skyline-1.10427086 http://www.amny.com/real-estate/nyc-skyscrapers-tallest-buil... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/nyregion/developers-plan-supertall-1066-foot-tower-brooklyn.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/nyregion/developers-plan-s...
ghaff 10y ago
There are some, but building very tall skyscrapers has always been a rather risky investment. (The Empire State Building was basically a financial failure.) It is difficult to get projects approved in many cities. But there's probably also just been a decline in companies and developers interested in playing the mine-is-bigger game. See also for some discussion http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wilshire-grand-is-las-newest-skyscraper/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wilshire-grand-is-las-newest-sky... ADDED: As others have said, there are plenty of skyscrapers going up in cities like New York. What you don't have going on as much in the US these days are the very tall iconic prestige/vanity projects that get all the press.
- Xcelerate 10y ago
  > What you don't have going on as much in the US these days are the very tall iconic prestige/vanity projects that get all the press. Perhaps that's what I'm thinking of then. Also, I don't live in Manhattan or SF (the cities I'm familiar with include Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, etc.)
CPLX 10y ago
Presumably you don't live in NYC. There are dozens of 50+ story buildings under construction or recently completed in nearly every section of Manhattan and the East River waterfront areas. If you get a good vantage point for a view it's like a forest of cranes out there. Maybe you just mean San Francisco?
- mikeyouse 10y ago
  San Francisco actually has several skyscrapers under construction right now too.. The skyline is covered in construction cranes. Not sure where OP is that they're not building. This random list is a bit dated (2013) but many of these buildings are nearing completion and many more have started planning or construction: http://sf.curbed.com/maps/26-high-rise-projects-changing-san-franciscos-skyline http://sf.curbed.com/maps/26-high-rise-projects-changing-san...
  - mpwoz 10y ago
    Seattle reporting in, downtown is absolutely full of cranes and large-building construction sites. https://www.seattleinprogress.com/ https://www.seattleinprogress.com/
    - boxy310 10y ago
      Indianapolis reporting in -- we're not building super-large skyscrapers, but we're backfilling the old parking lots that replaced urban blight bulldozed in the 70's and 80's with 10-15 story apartments and office buildings. Salesforce also announced they're taking over Chase Tower, the 48-story tallest building in Indiana, which has historically struggled to push their occupancy rate over 68%. I think why you don't hear about many cities in America building super-large skyscrapers is threefold: 1) The U.S. is still a very large country with lots of room, especially away from the coasts 2) Construction costs of super-tall buildings scale nonlinearly, so buildings taller than 55 stories tend to not pay off per the square footage value of renting/selling, so mid-scale buildings are generally more profitable 3) Geographic agglomerations mean that creative class folks (like developers) tend to be attracted to existing large cities like SF, Seattle, and NYC
hoorayimhelping 10y ago
There are dozens of skyscrapers being built in Manhattan right now. The third tallest building in the US (and the tallets apartment building in the world) was recently completed there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/432_Park_Avenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/432_Park_Avenue
akgerber 10y ago
A lot of very tall residential buildings for the ultra-rich are going up right now: http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys-20-supertall-towers http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys...
johngalt 10y ago
1. Buildings last a long time. Inherently you will see a lot of old buildings compared to new. Specifically when those buildings are designed to last and have full time engineering/maintenance staff. 2. Density has become less important over the years. Inexpensive worldwide transportation, and instant communication means you don't need some huge office building HQ. Instead you can have a collection of cheaper office parks distributed over several cities. 3. Skyscrapers are still built regularly, but only where demand justifies their construction.
- galdosdi 10y ago
  And yet often one of those office parks will be the one that executive management works in, and everyone who wants to get ahead in their career will prefer to work in that one. And everyone who wants to do business with your company will want to go visit that office. Etc. There is still a huge value to proximity. Sure, you can replace talking formally about a work problem in person with teleconference. You know what you can't replace with teleconference? Going out for lunch. Going out for drinks. Running into someone. The "vague" social schmoozing which is officially not important but in practice can be when all kinds of things get done, informally.
krschultz 10y ago
That's definitely not true in NYC & Jersey City. New York is currently having the biggest boom in sky scraper building since the 1930s. My brother is a construction manager on a 70 story building that's going up right now, and it's not even in the top 25 building projects currently happening in NYC. Only 3 of the top 22 buildings in NYC existed 10 years ago, and I'm considering the WTC to be one building. If you count rebuilding the WTC as a new building, then the only two older sky scrappers in the top 22 are the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. Everything else is less than 10 years old or currently under construction. http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys-20-supertall-towers http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys...
Xcelerate 10y ago
EDIT: I stand corrected. The U.S. has not stopped building skyscrapers.
- potatolicious 10y ago
  Your impression does come from somewhere though - I think the key point is that the US has (mostly) stopped building record-busting skyscrapers. We are building lots of skyscrapers, but they are mundane in comparison to the vanity/PR/pride projects that are going up in other countries that are setting records for height, space, etc. So if you're reading the news you're much more likely to read about projects in the UAE or China than here. IMO this is perfectly fine - I for one like it when buildings can economically justify themselves rather than be subsidized in the name of national/regional pride.
mturmon 10y ago
Not wanting to pile on, but even a non-highrise city like LA has had a skyscraper boom recently due to the conversion of downtown into an upscale residential area: http://skyscrapercenter.com/city/los-angeles http://skyscrapercenter.com/city/los-angeles

mlinksva 10y ago

Has it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_the_United_States#Tallest_under_construction.2C_approved_and_proposed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_t...

mtalantikite 10y ago

No hard data here, but it seems like most of the skyscrapers I see going up in Manhattan are luxury residential [1]. I'd assume it's a combination of scarcity of land, zoning, and project costs. Lately there seems to be a lot of new construction in downtown Brooklyn and many are definitely skyscrapers [2]. Same in LIC. [1] http://www.amny.com/real-estate/nyc-skyscrapers-tallest-buildings-that-will-change-nyc-s-skyline-1.10427086 http://www.amny.com/real-estate/nyc-skyscrapers-tallest-buil... [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/nyregion/developers-plan-supertall-1066-foot-tower-brooklyn.html http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/nyregion/developers-plan-s...

ghaff 10y ago

There are some, but building very tall skyscrapers has always been a rather risky investment. (The Empire State Building was basically a financial failure.) It is difficult to get projects approved in many cities. But there's probably also just been a decline in companies and developers interested in playing the mine-is-bigger game. See also for some discussion http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wilshire-grand-is-las-newest-skyscraper/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wilshire-grand-is-las-newest-sky... ADDED: As others have said, there are plenty of skyscrapers going up in cities like New York. What you don't have going on as much in the US these days are the very tall iconic prestige/vanity projects that get all the press.

Xcelerate 10y ago
> What you don't have going on as much in the US these days are the very tall iconic prestige/vanity projects that get all the press. Perhaps that's what I'm thinking of then. Also, I don't live in Manhattan or SF (the cities I'm familiar with include Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, etc.)

CPLX 10y ago

Presumably you don't live in NYC. There are dozens of 50+ story buildings under construction or recently completed in nearly every section of Manhattan and the East River waterfront areas. If you get a good vantage point for a view it's like a forest of cranes out there. Maybe you just mean San Francisco?

mikeyouse 10y ago
San Francisco actually has several skyscrapers under construction right now too.. The skyline is covered in construction cranes. Not sure where OP is that they're not building. This random list is a bit dated (2013) but many of these buildings are nearing completion and many more have started planning or construction: http://sf.curbed.com/maps/26-high-rise-projects-changing-san-franciscos-skyline http://sf.curbed.com/maps/26-high-rise-projects-changing-san...
- mpwoz 10y ago
  Seattle reporting in, downtown is absolutely full of cranes and large-building construction sites. https://www.seattleinprogress.com/ https://www.seattleinprogress.com/
  - boxy310 10y ago
    Indianapolis reporting in -- we're not building super-large skyscrapers, but we're backfilling the old parking lots that replaced urban blight bulldozed in the 70's and 80's with 10-15 story apartments and office buildings. Salesforce also announced they're taking over Chase Tower, the 48-story tallest building in Indiana, which has historically struggled to push their occupancy rate over 68%. I think why you don't hear about many cities in America building super-large skyscrapers is threefold: 1) The U.S. is still a very large country with lots of room, especially away from the coasts 2) Construction costs of super-tall buildings scale nonlinearly, so buildings taller than 55 stories tend to not pay off per the square footage value of renting/selling, so mid-scale buildings are generally more profitable 3) Geographic agglomerations mean that creative class folks (like developers) tend to be attracted to existing large cities like SF, Seattle, and NYC

hoorayimhelping 10y ago

There are dozens of skyscrapers being built in Manhattan right now. The third tallest building in the US (and the tallets apartment building in the world) was recently completed there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/432_Park_Avenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/432_Park_Avenue

akgerber 10y ago

A lot of very tall residential buildings for the ultra-rich are going up right now: http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys-20-supertall-towers http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys...

johngalt 10y ago

1. Buildings last a long time. Inherently you will see a lot of old buildings compared to new. Specifically when those buildings are designed to last and have full time engineering/maintenance staff. 2. Density has become less important over the years. Inexpensive worldwide transportation, and instant communication means you don't need some huge office building HQ. Instead you can have a collection of cheaper office parks distributed over several cities. 3. Skyscrapers are still built regularly, but only where demand justifies their construction.

galdosdi 10y ago
And yet often one of those office parks will be the one that executive management works in, and everyone who wants to get ahead in their career will prefer to work in that one. And everyone who wants to do business with your company will want to go visit that office. Etc. There is still a huge value to proximity. Sure, you can replace talking formally about a work problem in person with teleconference. You know what you can't replace with teleconference? Going out for lunch. Going out for drinks. Running into someone. The "vague" social schmoozing which is officially not important but in practice can be when all kinds of things get done, informally.

krschultz 10y ago

That's definitely not true in NYC & Jersey City. New York is currently having the biggest boom in sky scraper building since the 1930s. My brother is a construction manager on a 70 story building that's going up right now, and it's not even in the top 25 building projects currently happening in NYC. Only 3 of the top 22 buildings in NYC existed 10 years ago, and I'm considering the WTC to be one building. If you count rebuilding the WTC as a new building, then the only two older sky scrappers in the top 22 are the Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. Everything else is less than 10 years old or currently under construction. http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys-20-supertall-towers http://ny.curbed.com/maps/mapping-the-rise-of-new-york-citys...

Xcelerate 10y ago

EDIT: I stand corrected. The U.S. has not stopped building skyscrapers.

potatolicious 10y ago
Your impression does come from somewhere though - I think the key point is that the US has (mostly) stopped building record-busting skyscrapers. We are building lots of skyscrapers, but they are mundane in comparison to the vanity/PR/pride projects that are going up in other countries that are setting records for height, space, etc. So if you're reading the news you're much more likely to read about projects in the UAE or China than here. IMO this is perfectly fine - I for one like it when buildings can economically justify themselves rather than be subsidized in the name of national/regional pride.

mturmon 10y ago

Not wanting to pile on, but even a non-highrise city like LA has had a skyscraper boom recently due to the conversion of downtown into an upscale residential area: http://skyscrapercenter.com/city/los-angeles http://skyscrapercenter.com/city/los-angeles