Figure: The Evolution of Skyscraper Design, 1870 to 2016

In the 1870s, building height was limited to nine or ten stories. Styles of the day tended to be heavy on ornamentation and have masonry or cast iron facades. The Tower Building, completed in 1889, was the city’s first “skyscraper,” in that it partly used iron-skeletal construction. The first generation of skyscrapers generally had a tripartite style of base, shaft and capital. After 1916, buildings tended to use the set-back style to be in conformity with the 1916 zoning regulations. The use of glass facades began in earnest in the 1950s. The 1960s zoning regulations encouraged the glass box, tower-in-the-park style. By the 1980s, architects were experimenting with more playful forms. The 1990s also saw a return to Art Deco-like styles popular in the 1920s. Today, a new form of skyscraper has emerged, the super-tall super-slims, which can rise higher than 1,000 feet.

Figure: Total Height and the Skyscraper Profit Index, 1963-2013.

The Skyscraper Profit Index is created by dividing average midtown asking office rents by the Turner Construction Cost Index. It is a measure of the relative profitability of office construction in Manhattan. The figure shows a two-year moving average of the value for two years prior. The reason is that there are long lags between when a project is started and when it’s completed. Also presented is the total height of all skyscrapers completed each year (of all types, not just offices). As the graph shows, total height is strongly correlated with the Profit Index, suggesting that builders begin construction when the economic environment is favorable.

 

Figure: Tall Buildings by Decade, 1900 to 2014.

These graphs show the location of tall buildings (10 stories or higher) in Manhattan as of 2014 by the decade in which they were constructed. They suggest the evolution of tall building locations across the 20th century. In the early decades of the skyscraper, tall buildings were mostly concentrated in lower Manhattan and along Broadway from Union to Madison Squares. Subsequently they were constructed northward toward 42nd Street. The graphs also show that taller apartment buildings began to be constructed in the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side during the second decade of the 20th century. After World War II we see a “filling in” of much of Midtown and the Upper East Side. From the mid-1930s to 1970s, we can see many large housing projects built mostly on the outer parts of the island. Source: NYC PLUTO Shapefile.