The Illinois - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Not to be confused with Kingdom Tower, previously known as Mile-High Tower

The Mile High Illinois, Illinois Sky-City, or simply The Illinois was a proposed skyscraper

Skyscraper

A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...

that would have been 1 miles (1,609.3 m) high, envisioned by Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...

in 1956. The design, intended to be built in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, would have included 528 stories, with a gross area of 18460000 square feet (1,714,990.1 m²). Had it been built, it would have been the tallest building in the world by far, being more than four times the height of the then tallest building in the world, the Empire State Building

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...

, and it would be nearly twice as tall as the world's current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.

This is arguably the most famous of the semi-serious visionary buildings meant to be an alternative to the increasing urban sprawl

Urban sprawl

Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

occurring in most cities. None of these has ever been viewed as financially feasible.

The design of the Burj Khalifa tower is said to have been inspired by that of The Illinois.

Technical feasibility

Wright believed that it would have been technically possible to construct such a building even at the time it was proposed. At the time, the tallest skyscraper

Skyscraper

in the world was New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

's Empire State Building

Empire State Building

, at less than a quarter the height suggested for the Illinois. It probably would have been possible to erect a self-supporting steel structure of the required height, but there are a number of problems which occur when a building is that tall.

The material used for towers at the time, steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

, is quite flexible. This causes the tower to sway substantially in the wind, causing discomfort for occupants of the higher floors. Though Wright acknowledged this problem in his original proposal, he claimed the tripod design of this tower (similar to that of the CN Tower

CN Tower

The CN Tower is a communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Standing tall, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of the Burj...

, which was not designed until a decade after Wright's death) combined with its tensioned steel frame and the integral character of its structural components would counteract any oscillation

Oscillation

Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value or between two or more different states. Familiar examples include a swinging pendulum and AC power. The term vibration is sometimes used more narrowly to mean a mechanical oscillation but sometimes...

. It is also possible this could have been solved by placing a tuned mass damper

Tuned mass damper

A tuned mass damper, also known as an active mass damper or harmonic absorber, is a device mounted in structures to reduce the amplitude of mechanical vibrations. Their application can prevent discomfort, damage, or outright structural failure...

somewhere within the tower as was done in the Citigroup Center

Citigroup Center

The Citigroup Center is one of the ten tallest skyscrapers in New York City, United States, located at 53rd Street between Lexington Avenue and Third Avenue in midtown Manhattan...

and Taipei 101

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 , formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a landmark skyscraper located in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010...

, although this design innovation was not well known until decades later.

Also, the late 1990s and early 2000s have seen substantial increases in the load-bearing strength of concrete

Concrete

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...

, making it a possibility to build entirely in this less flexible material.

The space needed to service the elevator

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

s (needed to reach the higher levels) would occupy all of the space available on the upper floors, thus defeating the purpose of the building's height. This was complicated by Wright's slender design. This problem has also been addressed in smaller buildings, such as in the Taipei 101

Taipei 101

, by using double-deck elevator

Double-deck elevator

Double-deck elevators are designed with two elevator cars that are attached, one on top of the other. This allows passengers on two consecutive floors to be able to use the elevator simultaneously, significantly increasing the passenger capacity of an elevator shaft...

s. In the World Trade Center

World Trade Center

The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...

, the building was divided into three sectors, each with its own sky-lobby, where occupants changed between large express elevators and smaller local elevators. However, even with both of these measures implemented, the problem would still exist. Wright's solution was five-story elevators, running on ratchet interfaces located on the outside of the building (presumably on the unseen side in his painting) to conserve building space.

Another concern was fire safety. The need for emergency stairwells would bind much of the available space in the upper floors in a similar fashion as the elevators. This could be overcome by designing elevators to remain operational during a fire.

Albeit at a smaller scale, the same problem as with the elevators is encountered with water and sewage. A possible solution would be to recycle the water used in the upper floors; this is easier today than it would have been in the 1950s.

External links

Illinois°N date=July 2009°W

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Technical feasibility

See also

External links