I would like to know whether the commerical character of Newyork city has been expressed through architecture? how?

• ID# 179.2 (reply to #179.1) - 23 October 2000
  Well, in short, this site is around exactly because of the City's commercially-bound nature, expressed expressly by -- you guessed it -- the skyscraper.
  The one-liner "form follows finance" puts it succintly (although I'd still personally prefer the statement "form follows zoning"...): the need to maximize the return for the expensive land in downtown areas of major cities -- especially NYC -- has led to high-rise construction.
  As the large companies also need lots of bunched floor space for the operations, occupying spaces in a single building was the solution. Before the days of air-conditioning and proper artificial lighting, the need to provide light and air for office spaces was met with relatively small floors, partly also "helped" by the city zoning that let the tower occupy only a quarter of the plot area. That also inevitably led to the scattering of the operations of larger companies to different floors -- situation improved by the later, large-floored office buildings like the Pan Am, and even more by the ever-present exodus of corporations to the suburbs...
  Also the exteriors have reflected the commercial nature of these buildings: from the eclectic grandness of the early skyscrapers to the soaring verticality of the set-back Deco towers (following the zoning with their form, stepping along the outer line of the regulated envelope) to the glassy simplicity of the International skyscrapers (also utilizing the regulations with their bonus-giving plazas and other amenities).
  

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  Introduction - The Beginning
  

  Office building design
  

  Building Equipment development

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