Vertical City

Skyscrapers arouse more controversy than any other building form - love or hate them, you can’t ignore them.

Vertical City takes a high rise hike around the globe’s most iconic skyscrapers, seeing these potent symbols of ambition and wealth from a fresh perspective.

Scaling the tallest towers across the world from New York to Sweden, from Chicago to Melbourne, architect experts Charlie Luxton, Keith Keaveney and Matt Berman get high and see these bold buildings on a grand scale and at great heights from a unique perspective, as well as uncovering the stories of power, politics and daring design that lie behind them.

From interviewing the world’s leading architects – including Santiago Calatrava and Cesar Pelli – to taking a breathtaking ride down the side of each building to touch and view these awesome skyscrapers up close and personal, the presenters reveal every hidden secret of ten supertowers.

Vertical City also paints an intimate portrait of each tower by meeting the people who have a special relationship with it – from office workers and residents, to the window washers and those who carry out repairs on top of the world’s most instantly recognizable icons.

In each programme the host welcomes us to a destination we may already know – be it New York, Chicago or Melbourne. From street level we are introduced to an iconic addition to that city’s skyline – and our journey begins. Aside from providing a biography of the building, the host gives us the low down on the social climate in which it was built, the materials used, the engineering headaches, how these were overcome, the number of man-hours it took to build and the spiralling budget.
Our host then gets to see the city, and the building, from a perspective usually the domain of only a chosen few, scaling the dizzying heights alongside someone for whom this is an average day - the window cleaner, for whom life at over a thousand feet is the norm. The window cleaner lets us in on lesser-known secrets of the building, stories of life within, tips on overcoming vertigo and an insight on how the city’s landscape has changed over the years. Capturing both the icon and the city from a fresh perspective, Vertigo City leaves no detail left unnoticed.

Destinations:
The Sears Tower, Chicago
Still the tallest tower in the US – as well as the tallest building in the world for 25 years – the $175million Sears Tower broke boundaries in not only height but design and construction when it was completed in 1973.  But building the tallest building in the world brings its own logistical headaches – and the crippling cost of funding an iconic tower can take its toll…

The Turning Torso, Sweden
Every major city has a symbolic piece of architecture that projects its image to the world.  But what happens when a city loses not only its trademark industry but its trademark icon?  This is exactly the problem that faced the city of Malmo in Sweden – but it came up with the perfect way to reinvent itself.  It went and built a radical skyscraper.

But daring design always courts controversy – and the whole project nearly ended in disaster…

7 World Trade Center, New York
Skyscrapers have transformed cities across the globe – most notably the famous skyline of Manhattan.  But on 11 September 2001, this historic cityscape became forever linked with one event that forced architects to rethink.  7 World Trade Center, the first building to be constructed on Ground Zero, has taken skyscraper safety to new levels – but overlooking a plot of land that symbolises the risk of building tall, do those who work in it really feel safe?

Commerzbank, Frankfurt
The skyscraper is a symbol of aspiration and power – and an environmentally unsound energy guzzling monster.  But in 1997 British superarchitect Norman Foster created a contradiction in terms – the world’s first ecological tower and in doing so, The Commerzbank in Frankfurt has changed the construction of office buildings forever.  But was going green the result of the corporate world being responsible – or just a big fat PR exercise?

Eureka Tower, Melbourne
Vertical City goes up top Down Under to the tallest residential building in the world – the 300m Eureka Tower, the most exclusive address in the Southern Hemisphere.  But is living the high life destroying our traditional city communities?  Are these Vertical Villages changing the way we live forever?

Torre Mayor, Mexico City
The strongest building on Earth, Torre Mayor is constructed to withstand earthquakes that would obliterate the average skyscraper.  Built in the wake of Mexico City’s most devastating earthquake in 1985, this monument to engineering has become a haven of safety in one of the world’s most active seismic zones.  But can the ever growing height of skyscrapers compete with typhoons and earthquakes?   Can man’s high rise addiction really conquer nature?

Q1, Australian Gold Coast
From a trendy beachbum dropout to the Miami of the Southern Hemisphere, Surfer's Paradise has come a long way from a small town with great waves perched on the west coast of Australia.  Surfer's has a growing reputation as the resort of choice for the rich and famous, and the skyline is growing too with the massive Q1 Tower dominating the landscape.  But how has this uber-skyscraper effected the paradise that is Surfer's?  Is it the jewel in the crown of one of the world's most exclusive resorts - or the nail in the coffin of the chilled vibe and community spirit that makes the Gold Coast unique?
 
Cira Center, Philadelphia
You’re a new developer, you want to build a tower in a bleak part of town and you’ve got to fill half the building before you get planning permission.  What do you do?  Get in a Superstar Architect to ensure your skyscraper gets noticed and gets headlines.  Cesar Pelli, creator of the Petronas Towers and Canary Wharf, waved his magic design wand over the Cira Center and made it stand apart from any other high rise in the area.  But are celebrity architects over paid and over hyped? And does their huge pay cheque pay back?

Cologne Cathedral
Even before the modern skyscraper, the super tall building has been a source of innovation and fierce competition – and no time was the fight for height fiercer than in the late 18th century when cathedrals across Europe competed to make their spires the tallest.  Cologne was the tallest building in the world for 4 years – but where did the money for these religious super spires come from?  And just how fierce – and dirty - did the fight become?

One Canada Square, London
In 1991 One Canada Square, the UK's tallest skyscraper, changed the London skyline. But the Cesar Pelli designed icon wasn't in the heart of the capital. Instead the developers had taken a billion dollar gamble on creating an international financial center, symbolized by this obelisk-shaped tower, in the desolate docklands of the City's East End. But when the world property market collapsed just after the complex was completed, the developers went bankrupt and a large part of the tower lay in darkness…

Triumph Palace, Moscow
In2003, Moscow's Triumph Palace became Europe's tallest building.  What is striking about this luxury residential block is not so much it's height but the fact that it resurrects an architectural style closely linked with the city's turbulent political past.  In the 1940s Josef Stalin commissioned a series of seven tall towers that would compete with the skyscrapers of New York.  Known as the Seven Sisters, the towers were created to inspire Russian citizens to celebrate the strength and glory of the communist state.  Matt Berman investigates the design and political genesis of these towers and examines why an eighth sister, the Triumph Palace, has been added in 21st century capitalist Moscow.
 
Naberezhnaya Tower, Moscow
Moscow has become Europe’s skyscraper capital, with the Naberezhnaya Tower holding the title of the continent’s tallest building. It represents a new era for the city, one in which Moscow can finally compete with the other major financial centres of the world.  Further skyscrapers, such as Norman Foster's 500 metre tall Russia Tower, are currently being built - pushing the parameters of both height and skyscraper design in Europe.  These extraordinary towers represent the final realisation of a modern high rise Moscow- one that was once dreamt of decades ago by the city's early 20th century undiscovered skyscraper visionary.  
 
John Hancock Center, Chicago
The John Hancock Center in Chicago is one of the most influential skyscrapers of the twentieth century. When completed in 1969 this was the tallest tower in the world outside New York City and is still the most famous structural expressionist style building in high rise architecture.  By using new technologies like the computer and developments in steel, the tower’s designers revolutionised the way skyscrapers were built and created a true masterpiece of engineering.  But cutting edge construction always courts controversy – and despite being the birthplace of skyscrapers, Chicago wasn’t convinced it wanted this enormous dark hulk on its skyline.

1180 Peachtree, Atlanta
1180Peachtree is a striking icon on the Atlanta skyline, its huge fins making it distinct from other skyscrapers in the city.  But it’s not all about good looks - 1180 is creating a new era for the city’s towers.  Back in the 1980s, when crime and racial tension were rife in the city, architects designed skyscrapers that existed independently of street life, connecting to parking and shopping malls with skybridges that made sidewalks completely redundant.  1180 is opening its doors to the streets and the public, helping to breathe life back into the street culture of this once lifeless city.  

Bank of China, Hong Kong
Created in 1990 by world renowned architect IM Pei, the Bank of China in Hong Kong put Asia on the skyscraper map and stands like a diamond amongst the island’s forest of towers.  But behind the architecture lies a tall political tale – one of a global superpower marking its territory.  China wanted the world to know that Hong Kong would soon be under its rule – and used this skyscraper to prove it.  But with only a small budget to make a big statement, building this tower wasn’t easy –especially when its fiercest rival had built the most expensive tower in the world literally next door.

375 Park Avenue, New York
There are a lot of skyscrapers out there - but just a handful have truly shaped architecture.  The iconic 375 Park Avenue in New York, built in 1958 by the king of Modernist design Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, changed skyscraper design forever.  As the world’s most influential and copied tower, it has inspired the square glass blocks of every global skyline.  But behind its revolutionary glass façade lies a story of how a skyscraper that couldn’t afford to be built, got built – and how its creator finally managed to realise his 40 year architectural dream.  

Beetham Tower, Manchester
As the tallest residential skyscraper in the UK, Manchester’s distinctive Beetham Tower is turning heads – and dividing opinion.  Heading up a new generation of skyscrapers that are regenerating Britain’s post-industrial cities, Beetham is at the heart of a battle between traditionalists and modernists - because despite producing some of the world’s leading high-rise architects like Richard Rogers and Norman Foster, Britain isn’t exactly enamoured with skyscrapers – including its future king, Prince Charles.  

Taipei 101, Taiwan
Taiwan, China’s renegade province, wanted to make the world sit up and notice it – so it built the planet’s tallest skyscraper, Taipei 101, in its capital city.  An architectural meeting of East meets West, Taiwan’s biggest global advertising board and symbol of achievement was a defiant gesture towards its neighbouring superpower, and a calculated quest for Taiwanese commercial attention proving that in modern times, the supertall building is more than just the corporation HQ of the past.  But does having the tag of the tallest guarantee success? And why isn’t there a host of other skyscrapers in this city like its competitor over the water, Shanghai?  

Shanghai World Finance Center, China
With the highest roof on earth, the sleek Shanghai World Finance Center stands in the city that has overtaken New York and Chicago as skyscraper capital of the world.  Setting the standard for a new generation of supertall skyscrapers, this Japanese-developed tower, built on Chinese land, also symbolises a new era in relations between the two previously hostile countries after Japan's violent invasion of China in the 1930s.  This troubled history meant that every step of the skyscraper’s symbolism and design had to be handled with immense sensitivity - but that didn’t stop anti-Japanese sentiment threatening its completion.  

Petronas Towers, Malaysia
In the late 1980s the Malaysian government decided to build a skyscraper so unprecedented in size and so ambitious that it sought to overtake Chicago’s Sears Tower as the tallest building in the world.  The result – the elaborately curved Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur – achieved both goals.  But for Cesar Pelli, the Western architect charged with the task of creating this national symbol that both respected the past and looked forward to the 21st century, it would be an enormous design challenge on a rocky and unchartered road – and getting the towers built in Malaysia would prove almost impossible.

John Hancock Tower, Boston
Behind the glistening façade of Boston’s John Hancock Tower lies one of the most embarrassing moments in architectural history.  The insurance company wanted to express their corporate might by building a modernist skyscraper in the heart of Boston’s historic core, threatening to pull their financial weight out of the city if they faced opposition. Little did they know that this act of arrogance would haunt them forever.  Their dream tower turned into their worst nightmare and what followed is one of the most unbelievable tales in architectural history, involving collapsing foundations, windows falling out and a skyscraper that was likely to topple over.  

2 International Finance Center, Hong Kong
Stunning skylines are fuelled by money – and Hong Kong has one of the most stunning in the world.  With a lack of land on the island, the only way is up. The most prized – and expensive - plot is the financial district of Central where one skyscraper towers above the rest, star of Batman movies and gleaming white pillar of capitalism, 2 International Finance Center.  To ensure the developers made a healthy return on their investment, 2IFC’s architects had to not just make the tower look good to lure high paying tenants – but ensure that literally every inch of the skyscraper’s design paid back.
 

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