h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: World's Tallest Buildings - A 20th Century Timeline - A864650
Author: Trout Montague - U188966

This is almost a Flea Market rescue.

I like it. It's a good idea for an entry, and one fo those things that's incredibly useful in a pub quiz situation

Good Entry, Dr Trout. I feel it needs a little fleshing out. Some of the descriptions are rather brief. Notwithstanding the September 2001 destruction of the twin-towers -- "Notwithstanding" isn't the right word here. It means "in spite of".

In particular, you need to say more about the Bank of Manhattan and the Chrysler. Since the Chrysler is arguably the most beautiful skycraper in the world, it needs a description.

You also need to give the height of the Empire State Building.

Some details:

named for its owners --> named after its owners

was designed by architect, Ernest Flagg, and was -- remove the commas

F.W. Woolworth --> FW Woolworth

11 September 11 2001 --> 11 September, 2001

This definitely fills a gap in the Guide

A few corrections:

<> --> and quickly

<> --> Chicago was *a* booming industrial city

<> ->> The result, in 1885, was

ereceted --> erected

1368ft --> 1,368ft

409,000 gross square metres --> delete gross

fotnotes 1 and 2 should start with a capital letter

footnotes 4 and 5 need a fullstop at the end

could you change all the occurrences of (in bold) to (no caps, not bold)

Nice entry, but the opening sentence sounds very odd. Surely this was the beginning of skyscraper construction, rather than 'the first real boom'.

Furthermore...

Icy

I think it's already out of date...

http://www.burjdubai.com/

This one's already 75+ metres (and 50 storeys) higher than the 101 and it's still growing.

The title implies it should stop at the end of the 20th Century (but a couple of more recent ones have crept in)

I suppose I should have noticed that!

Traveller in Time looking round
"Also concidered oil rigs should be included as well ?

Man made constructions standing on the seabed towering some 600 meter just surfacing above the water by less then 20 meters. (not concidering the drill tower of nearly 100m on top)"

Oil Rigs aside, I think I've corrected everthing.

For the time being I've capped it at the end of the 20th century and the Petrona Towers. The text for the Taipei Noodle Box is here for future use:


Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan, 2003-Present

101 stories high, the Taipei Financial Center is 509 m (1,671 ft) tall. Designed by C. Y. Lee and Partners, the steel-and-glass skyscraper is known by some as the noodle-box on account of its resemblance to a pile of cardboard take-away cartons. The inspiration is in fact a traditional Chinese pagoda with eight tiers of eight stories each8 is a lucky number. and a narrow pinnacle tower with spire.

Title of the entry notwithstanding, for the sake of continuity between the previous and current century, perhaps you could put in a little closing section, Onwards and Upwards. Something along the lines of the race for the skies being fully expected to continue for the next 100 years, with 101 (insert a few relevant details here) and the Burj ( the stories so far?) already competing for honours.

vp

Good entry!

Perhaps it could do with some discussion of the difference between a "building" and a "tower"/"structure"? I assume the reason the CN Tower doesn't make the list is because it's not strictly a "building"? - its highest point, not including the antenna, is higher (just) than your quoted height for the Sears Tower (which, confusingly, isn't really a "tower").

I notice that the first big phase of skyscraper-building peaked after the boom of late 1920s America and stopped abruptly with the depression. I presume the two are related, and if that is the case it would be worth a mention. I think you could mention a couple the films that made the Empire State so iconic; certainly King Kong and perhaps Andy Warhol's film of it? It appears in plenty more, but I think you should mention these two briefly at least.

Nice stuff

Any comments on those last few comments Trout?

This shouldn't be hanging around at the bottom of PR, it's a great entry if you could get those last tweaks dealt with.

*waves from the top of a tall building*

Done.

*waves from the top of the CN Tower, 1,815 feet high*

http://www.cntower.ca/portal/

Whoops, forgot to mention ... waving after having done the touristy thing of sight-seeing, and then dinner at that lovely rotating restaurant. Both aspects that seem quite commercial.

Nice. Like it. Good ending.

I found myself wondering what has become of many of these buildings, what purpose they serve now if they are no longer owned or operated by the original owners, or when they were destroyed if they no longer exist. Are many of them open to the public as tourist attractions? (I know Sears Tower and Empire State Building are, are the others?)