"World Trade Center One" – fourth tallest in the world
"World Trade Center One" in the United States is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and fourth tallest in the world. This modern skyscraper opened in Manhattan in November and now rises 541 meters above downtown New York. The building's height is a symbolic reminder of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776. Its original text – including the famous words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" – was written by Thomas Jefferson, a founding father of the United States, its third president, and one of the best architects of his time.
This building, designed by David Childs of the American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), was originally to be called "Freedom Tower." The monumental skyscraper, whose first sketches were made by American deconstructivist architect Daniel Libeskind, was erected on the site of the Twin Towers, destroyed in the terrorist attack in New York on September 11, 2001 by people who believe neither in life, nor liberty, nor happiness.
The new Center was renamed to reinforce the idea of New York as one of the main centers of world trade, because, as then-U.S. President Calvin Coolidge said in January 1925 while speaking to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, "the chief business of the American people is business." To this he added: "Of course, the accumulation of wealth cannot be regarded as the chief end of existence. But it must be admitted that it is the means to almost every desired end."
It was this combination of accumulated wealth and belief in something beyond material existence that gave rise to the world's first tall structures. As far as we know, these were the Sumerian ziggurats, built from fired bricks in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where Mesopotamia once stood (today this territory belongs to the southern reaches of Iraq).
The urge to reach up to the sky, glorifying wealth and gods (or God), combined with the indomitable ambition of masons and architects, led to the creation of the ancient Egyptian pyramids, medieval cathedrals with spires, and skyscrapers that sprang up like mushrooms after rain on the streets of Chicago and New York in the late 19th century. It was then, thanks to the development of steel structures and safe elevators, that a truly real and profitable opportunity arose to live and work at heights of more than 300 meters above the ground.
Today, the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa, is in the Middle East – it is like the quintessence of a society that worships one god and excels in trade. The height of this modern Tower of Babel is 828 meters. From its observation decks, dizzying views open up of the great trading city spread out below and the endless dunes of the "Empty Quarter" – a shifting sea of sand reminiscent of the times when there were no ziggurats in the world.
Incidentally, here is further proof that towers and trade unite people: the Burj Khalifa skyscraper was designed by the architectural firm SOM – the same firm whose blueprints were used to build the "World Trade Center One."
However, there are other reasons for building such tall structures, and the main one is perhaps competition. In 1971, when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, designed by Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki, were completed, they became the tallest buildings in the United States. However, they held the lead for only a short time: in 1973, SOM completed the Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower) in Chicago – its height is 442 meters, a good 30 meters taller than the Manhattan twins. New York and Chicago had long been rivals for the title of the main commercial center: attempts to outdo each other in building height had not ceased since the mid-19th century.
For many decades, the tallest building not only in the United States but also in the world was the Empire State Building. Rising above downtown New York during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it instilled hope that the economic crisis would end and better times would come. The building stood firm even when in July 1945 an American B-25 Mitchell bomber, lost in fog, crashed into it. At a press conference in Chicago in October 1956, American innovative architect Frank Lloyd Wright revealed his plans to build the "Illinois" skyscraper a full one and a half kilometers tall, which would once and for all put New York in its place. But even the most overconfident Chicago banks and developers did not dare to undertake such a crazy venture, and Wright's audacious plan never materialized.
And yet, despite all the talk that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, interest in skyscrapers would wane and gradually fade, countries around the world are demonstrating their economic power by investing in the construction of even taller buildings. Today, the People's Republic of China already has hundreds of skyscrapers (skyscrapers are generally considered buildings taller than 152 meters). The silhouette of Shanghai's new commercial center, Pudong, is a forest of unusual skyscrapers, the tallest of which after its opening in 2015 is to be the twisted Shanghai Tower, designed by the American company Gensler under the direction of chief architect Jun Xia. Rising to a height of 632 meters, it will take second place among the world's tallest structures. And, in all likelihood, the Chinese will not stop there.
Oil-rich Middle Eastern states, kingdoms, and emirates are competing with China – moreover, other countries wishing to flaunt their newly acquired wealth have joined this rather meaningless race for meters. How will it all end? Perhaps it is no coincidence that the tallest of the new buildings built in Russia is named after a spacecraft (the Vostok tower, 373 meters high, is to be completed in Moscow in 2015)?
The third tallest building in the world after the Burj Khalifa and the Shanghai Tower is the Royal Clock Tower Hotel in Mecca – a multifunctional skyscraper crowned by a huge four-faced tower with clocks on each side. The building offers views of the Sacred Mosque (al-Haram) and one of the greatest Islamic shrines, the Kaaba. The 601-meter clock tower was designed by the international architectural firm Dar Al-Handasah.
Obviously, the main driving force behind the race for height, which will clearly continue into the 21st century and beyond, remains the desire to reach the heavens combined with ambition, competition, and the growth of trade.