4 ms·
In terms of complexity the two projects are not comparable. Modern buildings have more bits and more of those bits need to work with other bits. And, for the
by bborud 10y ago
In terms of complexity the two projects are not comparable. Modern buildings have more bits and more of those bits need to work with other bits. And, for the two projects to be comparable, you have to compare them at the time of completion. (Empire state building has enjoyed 86 years of upgrades and retrofits).
And that is before we look at things like worker safety, bureaucratic demands etc.
We do harder things now.
- three14 10y agoPerhaps I should have given a different example, but I don't think that your objection affects the substance of what I wrote. Sure, the projects are totally different. Still, an extremely advanced building at the time cost a tiny fraction of what an extremely advanced building costs now, and the tenants still just get office space. It is not clear that we get a steady improvement in productivity across all areas of the economy.
- icebraining 10y agoI think you've chosen a bad example, because the One WTC is a special case, with all the legacy it represents. The Bank of America Tower, for example, has about the same floor space as the Empire State Building, and "is considered a worldwide model for green architecture in skyscrapers", yet cost $1B.
- three14 10y agoOK, so use your example. The Empire State Building was 2/3 the price, took 1/3 the time, and hilariously, from Wikipedia: "The magazine Time found out in August 2013 that the Bank of America Tower used twice as much energy overall as the Empire State Building did, due to the large energy usage in the Bank of America Tower and the comparatively small occupancy rate of the Empire State Building." Even if you want to throw in the $120 million for fixing the Empire State Building's energy efficiency in 2009, it still doesn't say great things for modern productivity.
- WillPostForFood 10y agoIt might be more interesting to compare to the speed of skyscrapers being built China, that are of similar size and complexity. Shanghai Tower took ~7 years, so not substantially faster. Perhaps what makes the Freedom Tower construction seem slow wasn't the 8 year build time, but that plus 5 years of planning, permitting, financing, and review before it even started.