Los rascacielos son un fenómeno moderno que apareció a finales del siglo XIX. Desde entonces, los avances en tecnología y materiales han redibujado el perfil de las grandes capitales mundiales.

Conor Gleeson

What exactly is a skyscraper? Many buildings are tall … but when can you call them ‘skyscrapers’? The generally-accepted rule is a minimum of forty storeys and a height of one hundred and fity metres. The expression ‘skyscraper’ was first used in the 1880s, in the USA, to talk about buildings of more than ten storeys. The Home Insurance Building, in Chicago, completed in 1885, and forty-two metres high, is considered the world’s first skyscraper. 

COMPETITIVE SPIRIT

Chicago and New York then spent decades in a battle to construct the highest building. The high price of land obliged constructors to build vertically and not horizontally. New York had the world’s tallest building from 1908 to 1974: the Empire State Building. From the 1930s, however, the concept of skyscrapers started to spread around the world.

CONDITIONS FOR SKYSCRAPERS

Skyscrapers were made possible thanks to industrialisation and the incredible growth of cities. The world now had cheap energy, raw materials such as steel and concrete, and cheap, abundant labour. These tall buildings, however, created specific problems. They have to support incredible weights, resist strong winds and even earthquakes, protect people from fire and transport them to enormous heights. The invention of the modern elevator in 1852 was a pre-condition for skyscrapers.

HOW DO YOU SAY…

Apuntar alto.

To reach for the sky.

Top 5: Reshaping the Skyline

The following skyscrapers are certainly not the tallest, but they are definitely among the most iconic.

1. Lakhta Center

Completed in 2019 in Saint Petersburg, more than three thousand people worked to make the building the tallest in Europe at 462 metres. There is a free observation deck at 357 metres. There are 62 normal lifts and also special firefighter lifts.

2. Empire State Building

The most famous skyscraper in the world, it was built in 1930-31 at a floor a day!  Fourteen years later, it was hit in bad fog by a plane. The building has an annual race from the ground to the 86th floor.

3. One World Trade Center

At 541 metres, this is the tallest building not just in New York but in the entire Western Hemisphere! It was built as a commemoration after the 9/11 attacks. People can still visit the last remaining piece of the Twin Towers.

4. Chrysler Building

This iconic New York art-deco masterpiece was described as “hot jazz in stone and steel” by the architect Le Corbusier. Walter Chrysler built it and paid for it so that his sons would have “something to be responsible for.”

5. Shard

The “Shard of Glass”, now an emblematic part of London, is the tallest building in the United Kingdom at 309.7 metres. It has eleven thousand panes of glass. People have abseiled from the building for charity.   

Glossary

El que seguramente sea el letrero más fotografiado del mundo lleva más de cien años sobre las colinas de Hollywood. Pero lo que muchos de los turistas que acuden atraídos por el glamur que inspira no saben es que su origen no tiene que ver con el cine.

Nothing says Hollywood better than the Hollywood sign. This iconic landmark is a symbol of fame and glamour. But believe it or not, the concept behind the Hollywood sign wasn’t to represent the Los Angeles film industry.

REAL ESTATE

The original sign was erected in 1923 to promote a new housing development in the Hollywood Hills. It said ‘Hollywoodland’ – the name of the housing development – in gigantic letters. The letters were fifty feet high and thirty feet wide, and had more than four thousand light bulbs that illuminated the sign at night.

THE END OF H

The developers wanted to remove the sign after eighteen months, but people loved it so much that they left it there. The letters soon began to deteriorate, and in the early 1940s, the sign’s custodian, Albert Kothe, got drunk one night and drove his car into the letter H, destroying it.

saved by the people

This could have been the beginning of the end of the sign. The city then bought the land it was on and planned to remove it. But because of public pressure to save it, they only removed the ‘land’ section, so it now read simply ‘Hollywood’, and restored the remaining letters.

PLAYBOY CAMPAIGN

And then history repeated itself! The sign again deteriorated, and by the 1970s, the first O was damaged, so it looked like a U, and the last  O had fallen over – so the sign now said ‘Hullywo d’! This time, it was celebrities who saved the day, in particular the founder of Playboy magazine, Hugh Hefner, who organized a campaign to save it. 

ONE LETTER EACH

Nine celebrities, including Hefner, rock star Alice Cooper and Italian movie producer Gianni Mazza, donated nearly $28,000 to replace one letter each. And in 1978, the city revealed the sign that we see today, which has white metal letters on a concrete foundation.

SIGN OF THE TIMES

Today, the sign is protected by an advanced security system, but it’s often been vandalised over the years. You can see the Hollywood Sign from various places in Los Angeles, and if you’re feeling energetic, you can hike almost two miles and stand near it, for the perfect Hollywood selfie!

GLOSSARY

EXPLAINS

El presidente más famoso de la historia de Estados Unidos es omnipresente, desde el nombre hasta la imagen, está en todas partes. Su cumpleaños es incluso una fiesta federal, otra forma de reforzar el sentimiento patriótico.

He was the first president of the United States and he is still the most famous. George Washington remains one of the most popular of all US presidents. He is everywhere. His portrait is on one dollar bills. His face is carved on Mount Rushmore. His name is used for universities, forts, bridges, mountains, parks and even the capital city. He is considered the ‘father of his country’. It is no surprise, therefore, that his birthday is a federal holiday called ‘Washington’s Birthday’. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT

George Washington was born on February the 22nd, 1732. For years, the holiday was celebrated on that day. However, it was moved to the third Monday of February in 1971. The Uniform Holiday Act was passed in Congress to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. Memorial Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day and Veterans’ Day were also moved to a Monday.

MISSED DATES

Nowadays, ‘Washington’s Birthday’ is better known as ‘Presidents’ Day’. Many people like to think it honours all US presidents – and particularly another beloved president: Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln’s birthday was on February the 12th. Strangely enough, the Uniform Holiday Act means that it now always misses the birth dates of Washington, Lincoln and any president in US history!

SUDDENLY OLDER

What is even stranger is that Washington’s actual birthday was on February the 11th, 1731. The United States changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1752. People who were born before that year had to add eleven days to their birth date. People born between January and March also had to add one year. By the time Washington became president, he listed February the 22th, 1732, as his birthday.

A TIME FOR REFLECTION

This year, it falls on February 19th. Many businesses stay open. Shops hold Presidents’ Day sales and there are parades in some cities. The largest Presidents’ Day Parade is in Alexandria, Virginia, alongthe historic streets where George Washington himself once walked. 

Schools close for a mid-winter break. American schoolchildren get special lessons about the presidents of their country – particularly George Washington and Abraham Lincoln – in the weeks before the holiday. 

AMERICAN VALUES

Above all else, Presidents’ Day is seen as a patriotic holiday. It is an opportunity for Americans to reflect on the values of their nation. The highlight every year is the reading of George Washington’s ‘Farewell Address’ in Senate. As Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey said in 1956: “It gives one a renewed sense of pride in our republic.”

GLOSSARY

EXPLAINS