Above It All

Each day, as I drive home from work, I have the pleasure of looking off in the distance, and eyeing the odd beauty that is the New York City skyline. Anchoring it in the middle of it all is the venerable Empire State Building, rising to the clouds, holding down the fort as the tallest structure in the city -- at least until the Freedom Tower is completed within the next decade. Ever since the Woolworth and Flatiron Buildings ushered in the age of the skyscraper, other cities have followed suit to use height as a way to define their image and power on the world stage. The Sears Tower wrestled the reins of the world's tallest from New York in the '70's. Although a coup, it was really the current wave of skyscraper construction, started in the '90's with the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, that shifted the epicenter out of America, and towards other places that are seeking to define themselves in the global marketplace with attention-grabbing megastructures.

For instance, in South Korea, cities are battling each other for supremacy in the race to build ever higher. Incheon, better known as an important landing spot during the Korean War, is now seeking to put itself on the map in a bigger way with the Songdo Incheon Towers, a double-towered complex planned to rise over 2,000 feet into the air. Seoul, the capital, is seeking to answer its less illustrious neighbor with a ridiculous 3,200-foot behemoth. The Empire State Building would stand in their shadows, rising a mere 1,250 feet. Currently, the tallest building in the world lies in Taiwan, the Taipei 101, at 1,667 feet. Sure, the tallest man-made structure is an American radio tower, but it's in North Dakota. Generally, tall structures are meant to be located in the context of a growing, optimistic place. The recent rash of building is no different, as most of the new buildings have, or will rise in cities in Asia and the Middle East. As one observer has noted, "Chinese cities that I've never heard of are building skylines that rival New York's."

Despite the massive scale of these projects, which tend to dwarf the pedestrian-scale communities so often sought after by modern land use planners, places still see the value in building high. Even New York and Chicago have planned tall buildings for their near future. The answer not only lies in the original motivation to build up -- rising urban land prices -- and the modern technological advances that have enabled engineers and developers to propel ever higher. The deeper reason lies in the psychology of place, and the need for inhabitants of a certain town to feel as if they belong in the "big time." If they can build these technological marvels, the argument goes, then they are capable of anything. The same motivation that drove the likes of Chicago to escape its image as the world's slaughterhouse on the heartland's prairie drives Dubai to rise above the desert floor and foster its place as the financial center of the Middle East.

Take a moment to scan SkyscraperPage.com, and it's hard to not be taken in by the flashiness that tall buildings bring. Lined up one against the other, it becomes even clearer the power that they produce for a place. You can even look at the inventory of each major city, to see how each stacks up against one other. It is the simple awe that these structures produce that keeps city leaders and engineers seeking to build the next greatest building. Interestingly, this weekend, TCM will begin running a series of films under the banner of "Celuloid Skyline," that capture the majesty of New York City. Not surprisingly, skyscrapers will play an important role. It is the fascination in our imaginations that make skyscrapers so powerful, and why they are so important for a place -- especially when they are no longer there. Every evening I peer out over the New York skyline, it is hard to ignore the thoughts of the missing Twin Towers, standing with the Empire State Building, anchoring lower Manhattan. Tall buildings are erected with the belief they will stand forever. Even if no longer there, they will not be forgotten.