The Reliance Building was completed in 1894 and still stands today. At 200 feet (61 meters), it’s still a pretty impressive building for being built in 1894. The way its windows were made was one of the first of its kind, because the design gave excellent heating in the winter  months. When it was built (in 1894) was the mid to end of the building boom for Chicago. But after the great fire in Chicago (which I’ve previously mentioned), they realized that wood and flammable material should not be used, or at least not on the outside of the buildings. The Reliance Building was just another step in the project to help make buildings safer.

The Home Insurance Building was basically the first building made with steel. And at 180 feet (55 meters) it still was nothing like some of the buildings of today, but for the 1880′s it was a magnificent structure. The main reason it was built was because of a huge fire that destroyed over 17,000 buildings in Chicago, but after less than six weeks following the fire, over 300 buildings were already under construction. After a few years, buildings had risen up everywhere until there was almost nowhere to build…but up. At the time there were almost no buildings made out of steel, as I said earlier. That’s why most people refer to the Home Insurance Building as “the first skyscraper” – because most buildings before had been masonry buildings. But now the steel frame helps to build to amazing heights and the Home Insurance Building was the first one. However, the Home Insurance Building no longer stands; it was demolished in 1931 because it was getting weak. But now Sears Tower is almost in its backyard, so it went from the first skyscraper to one of the tallest buildings in the world!

My Mom has been wanting me to build some buildings out of Legos, so I decided to try it with the Sears Tower. Although I didn’t make it all in black, it’s almost to scale. Here are some pictures:

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The Washington Monument is the tallest building in Washington D.C. at 555 feet (169 meters), and also the tallest masonry tower in the world (masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar). This marble building has a very fascinating history. The idea for the monument was first proposed in 1783 by Congress, but some fifty years later it became apparent that if left to congressional action, a monument would not be built. Headed by a man named George Watterson, the Washington National Monument Society was organized in 1883 to collect money for the monument. A man named Robert Mills had the winning design for the monument depicted here. After 12 years, the society had only raised $87,000 of the $1 million needed to build the monument. In order to reduce costs, the society decided to build only the obelisk. So the construction began in 1848.

You can see the color change about 1/3 up; that's where construction started in 1878 when they used a different color of marble.

Although it’s not a building, the Eiffel Tower was the tallest man-made structure until 1930 (when the Chrysler Building was built.) The Eiffel Tower was constructed from 1887-1889 and held the record for tallest structure for 41 years. The Eiffel Tower is 986 feet (300 meters) tall, and 1,063 feet (324 meters) tall to the top of the antenna.

The Eiffel Tower is probably what Paris is best known for – that’s certainly the case for me! The Eiffel Tower is one of my favorite high rises, just because it was built so many years before anything else even came close to its height. It is truly a magnificent structure, especially at night with all the lights on.

The Two International Finance Centre ( TIFC ) is the tallest building in Hong Kong. It’s mostly offices, but also has retail and a parking garage. You may be wondering why it’s called two International Finance Centre; that’s because it’s the second IFC building in this complex – Two IFC being the taller at 1,335 feet (407 meters) tall and 1,364 feet (415 meters) tall to the top of the antenna. Construction started in 1997 and ended in 2003. The outer materials  for this building are glass and steel, the kind of materials that most buildings use these days. The building has 62 elevators and 90 floors

The Citigroup Center, which used to be called 444 Flower Building, is an office building rising 625 feet (191 meters). This is equivalent to 48 floors. It was built in 1977 and is the 42nd tallest building in the world. The 83,000 square meters in area is used for offices. It’s positioned right next to the US Bank Tower, which somewhat dwarfs the Citigroup Center. Its style is late-modernist, which you can tell that by the photos; it is very much a modern building.

Resources used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citigroup_Center_(Los_Angeles)                                                    http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2798                   http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=116519                   http://www.you-are-here.com/los_angeles/citigroup.html

Marina City is a 61 story mixed-use facility. The buildings are each 587 feet (179 meters) tall. The bottom 19 floors are a parking garage; there are 896 parking spaces per building and the 21st through 60th floors are apartments. You may be wondering why I didn’t say what the 20th floor was – that’s because the 20th floor isn’t apartments or parking spaces. It’s laundry rooms with an awesome view of the Chicago river and other places!

The architect of these magnificent buildings was Bertrand Goldberg, who lived from 1913 to 1997. Coincidentally, I was born the same year he died.

http://www.marina-city.com/

The Woolworth Building (which is no longer owned by Woolworth – who owned it for 85 years, but went out of business in 1998) was the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930 at 792 feet (241 meters) tall. It is located in New York City, and has 57 floors and 32 elevators. When Frank Woolworth bought the building, he bought it straight with cash – no loans or anything. Construction began in 1910 and finished in 1913. The architect, Cass Gilbert, spent two years drawing 30 different proposals for the office building, and decided to go with this Gothic style. The building materials are copper, steel, and terracotta. The final building cost was $13,500,000.

I also found some interesting facts at: http://www.orbwar.com/woolworth/

Resources used: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworth_Building

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=832

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SCC/SCC019.htm

http://architecture.about.com/library/blwoolworth.htm

This video is of Rodger Federer & Andre Aggassi playing tennis on the Burj Al Arab Hotel’s HELICOPTER PAD! It’s pretty funny.