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  #21  
Old Posted Feb 8, 2010, 8:29 PM
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Originally Posted by Dralcoffin View Post
Yeah, every year in the late 20s and early 30s, New York was adding the equivalent of most other major skylines to its own. One "what if" I wonder about is if the GD had never happened, what would have happened to skylines? ....
There are probably similar tales from other cities but in Detroit in particular two notable projects were canceled because of the Great Depression:

1. Fisher Building, Phase 2 and 3: This would have added a 60 story central tower and another 28 story mirror image of the existing building on the other side. When the project was canceled, enough materials had been procured that were instead used to build a wide 10 story building that is now called "The Albert Kahn Building".

From www.criticaldetroit.org

The existing Fisher Building is the section on the right. The entire complex, if completed would have been reminiscent of some of Hugh Ferriss' drawings from his book "Metropolis of Tomorrow".


2. Book Tower, Phase 2: This would have added an 81 story tower on the south side of the existing 13 story Book Building and 36 story Book Tower. Postcards showing the proposed building were published.

Image posted on atdetroit.net

The smaller tower in the background and the connecting section still exist but are currently emtpy, so perhaps it is just as well that the addition office space was not added to the oversupply.
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  #22  
Old Posted Feb 8, 2010, 9:10 PM
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here are a couple chicago projects that were killed of by the great depression.

Apparel Mart - 75 floors - 845'

it would have been the tallest building in chicago at the time.







and there was this wild rockefeller center style mega development titled "terminal city" that would have occupied what is now illinois center and lakeshore east. this one was really just more of a visions and may not have ever seen the light of day even without the GD.

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  #23  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2010, 3:39 AM
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AWESOME thread! But can we PLEASE get a picture of the worlds greatest sky-scraper?? Cleveland's Terminal Tower deserves a better pictoral representation. I mean Stalin thought it was so legit he modeled his grand University building in Moscow after it.
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  #24  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2010, 3:51 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DecoJim View Post
2. Book Tower, Phase 2: This would have added an 81 story tower on the south side of the existing 13 story Book Building and 36 story Book Tower. Postcards showing the proposed building were published.
I actually have an actual sketch copy of the tower, and it was actually to be 85 stories.

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  #25  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2010, 4:13 AM
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Originally Posted by FerrariEnzo View Post
AWESOME thread! But can we PLEASE get a picture of the worlds greatest sky-scraper?? Cleveland's Terminal Tower deserves a better pictoral representation. I mean Stalin thought it was so legit he modeled his grand University building in Moscow after it.
The reason I chose the current pic is the bright building at night towers over its surroundings in a way similar to the Depression era, when it was over twice the height of anything else in Cleveland.

I can put a better picture up, since the Terminal's definitely a stand-out.
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  #26  
Old Posted Feb 9, 2010, 8:11 PM
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Originally Posted by LMich View Post
I actually have an actual sketch copy of the tower, and it was actually to be 85 stories.
LMich, was your drawing produced later than the postcard?
I have not seen that image before. The design looks more refined than the one on the postcard image that I posted. It is possible that the story count went through some revisions during the planning of the structure (there are certainly cases like than in New York such as the Chrysler Building). The postcard states 81 floors at its the top edge.

Thanks for posting the drawing.
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  #27  
Old Posted Feb 17, 2010, 3:19 AM
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Dralcoffin, if you don't mind I would like to perform a hijacking... thank you.

THE WORLDS GREATEST (not R. Kelly)

Photos by me, steal them if you want....





Nice contrasting geometry:


How you doin up there???


HIJACKING COMPLETE
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  #28  
Old Posted Feb 17, 2010, 3:27 AM
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Ooh, I took the last one. I like the "look way up" perspective with these buildings.

I'm also working on a Canadian edition of this thread.
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  #29  
Old Posted Feb 18, 2010, 4:54 AM
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^Sweet. Interesting fact, the number 2 building for Cleveland, was Schuster and Siegel's inspiration for the Daily Planet building. They created Superman when they were pretty young growing up in Cleveland... (Siegel is a native and I think Schuster immigrated when he was 10 from Canada to Cleveland)

Looking forward to you Canada thread, this was a legit and thorough compilation.
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  #30  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 2:45 AM
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Newark

Newark's two 400 footers built in 1930 and 1931 respectively:
1180 Raymond Blv.- 448 ft.
Newark National Building -465 ft.



Newark should get some respect
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  #31  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 3:05 AM
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^It does, I will never leave my car unattended there.
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  #32  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 4:24 PM
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Originally Posted by axlman5 View Post
Newark's two 400 footers built in 1930 and 1931 respectively:
1180 Raymond Blv.- 448 ft.
Newark National Building -465 ft.



Newark should get some respect
Newark did. It's #21 on Part Two of this list, which is right here. Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, Columbus, etc. are all on part two, and I'll go bold the link to make it more visible.

And welcome aboard!
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  #33  
Old Posted Feb 20, 2010, 11:17 PM
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Whoops... Note to self: Read ENTIRE thread description before scurrying for pictures.

but anyway, yay Newark!
and thanks.
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  #34  
Old Posted Feb 21, 2010, 2:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by axlman5 View Post
Whoops... Note to self: Read ENTIRE thread description before scurrying for pictures.

but anyway, yay Newark!
and thanks.

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  #35  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2011, 1:08 AM
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A few more Texas buildings

You're missing a few.

San Antonio - Tower Life Building - 404 feet - 30 floors - 1928
Austin - Texas Capitol - 311 feet - 4 floors - 1888
Austin - University of Texas Tower - 307 feet - 29 floors - 1930
Fort Worth - 714 Main - 307 feet - 16 - 1922

Other than the Capitol and UT Tower, Austin did not have a building over 200 feet tall until 1965. And our first building over 400 feet was the Frost Bank Tower (515 feet) in 2004.
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  #36  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2011, 1:17 AM
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You're missing a few.

San Antonio - Tower Life Building - 404 feet - 30 floors - 1928
Austin - Texas Capitol - 311 feet - 4 floors - 1888
Austin - University of Texas Tower - 307 feet - 29 floors - 1930
Fort Worth - 714 Main - 307 feet - 16 - 1922

Other than the Capitol and UT Tower, Austin did not have a building over 200 feet tall until 1965. And our first building over 400 feet was the Frost Bank Tower (515 feet) in 2004.
The reason those are missing is because I ordered my list strictly by population, and the Texas cities just weren't big enough to make it onto my population sorted list. However, San Antonio makes it onto the sequel list at #23 and whenever I update that list Fort Worth (#38) will make it.
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  #37  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2011, 3:02 AM
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Great list... and additions by everyone else. I love these old buildings.



Growing up in San Antonio I may be biased, but the Tower Life building is one of my favorites anywhere.


rossflah


renffahcs


With its new flag and waaaay too much HDR.


brianmoranhdr.blogspot.com
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  #38  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2011, 3:58 AM
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The Tower Life is a damn fine building. It looks just like a skyscraper should to me.
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  #39  
Old Posted Mar 11, 2011, 4:31 AM
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Of course it's debatable whether or not the Washington Monument counts as a "building", it's at least worth nothing that it was finished in 1880s and at 555 feet tall was the tallest structure in the world at that time.
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  #40  
Old Posted Mar 14, 2011, 2:50 PM
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Nice to see this thread revived, with its collection of beauties.
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