ithout it, there would be no towering skylines automatic roll forming machine unique to each large city. Steel is the only construction material, strong yet lightweight, that makes multi-story buildings feasible. (Well, that and the invention of the elevator.)
However, famous American steel buildings are not all skyscrapers. Because steel is a versatile metal as well as strong, it can be used to create flights of fancy as well.
Let's take a closer look at five of America's most famous steel buildings.
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WALT DISNEY CONCERT HALL
Walt Disney was truly an imagineer and his way of seeing the world of the future is encapsulated in the design of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. Built in 1987, this soaring masterpiece of architecture is nearly 100% steel.
Designed by Frank Gehry, the first view of the exterior of the concert hall is a curving stainless steel skin. Shaped like billowing sails, the exterior is matched to the interior auditorium. The shape links it to the cornice of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion next door.
The lobby is filled with light and opens onto the sidewalk, creating a welcoming environment for all who enter. Inside, the auditorium is lined with Douglas fir. It seats 2,265 in a steeply raked semicircle surrounding the stage, bringing the orchestra into the midst of the audience for a unique musical experience. There are no balconies or boxes; all seating is egalitarian.
A public garden is just past the billowing sails. At the center is “A Rose for Lilly,” a rose fountain dedicated to Lillian Disney, the initial donor for the concert hall.
SEAGRAM BUILDING
The Manhattan skyline contains a number Z purlin machine of famous buildings, one of which is the Seagram Building. Built in 1958, it contains numerous businesses and a restaurant.
The design is minimalist, created by German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was his goal to create a building that embodied functionality and simplicity. Van der Rohe had served as a director of the Bauhaus, a school teaching early modernist architectural design and reflected in the avant-garde design for the Seagram Building that has been copied endlessly.
The frame is a combination of a steel skeleton of symmetrical steel girders and a concrete core to maintain vertical and horizontal strength. Lacking the heavy ornamental facades of architecture from earlier in the century, the Seagram Building was the first in a long line of skyscrapers that mirrored its simple lines.
In front of the building is an empty space, and the building is set back from Park Avenue, unlike its neighbors. Now plazas are popular to the point of being overdone, but van der Rohe did it first.
This type of building seems common now, but for its time it was a radical masterpiece.
WILLIS (SEARS) TOWER
The Sears Tower opened in 1973 in a city known for its wind. To stabilize the structure, the frame is designed as several smaller structures held together with steel beams and supports.
In its simplest form, the building is created using nine steel tubes and based on steel columns supporting the tower. At the top, viewing boxes and huge windows allow spectators to look in all directions as though Chicago was spread out at their feet. In the center of it all is a pendulum so visitors can actually see the amount of sway the building experiences as the winds blow off the Great Lakes nearby.
