In 1974, I was totally overawed by the skyscraper technology in the Movie The Towering Inferno. Having a building that stood 138 stories from the ground, seemed totally fantastic and almost unbelievable to a 12 year old geek like me, and ever since then, I have always harboured a boyish fascination in the beauty and scale of the skyscraper.(which may sound a little odd given the fact that I am terrified of heights!)Over the years I have made secret Towering Inferno pilgrimages to the likes of The World Trade Centre, The Empire State, The Chrysler Building, The Rockefeller Centre, The Hyatt Regency in San Francisco and even the Space Needle in Seattle, and at each one, I have experienced the white knuckle, shaky anxiety-filled excitement at the sense of being literally "trapped" thousands of feet above the ground
Now that the huge Burj Khalifa has been topped out at an amazing 168 stories in the city of Dubai, where do we stop in our amazing technological race for bigger and better?
In 1974, I could hardly comprehend a building over 100 stories, let alone understand the modern day norms such as the Internet. Gawd, If you told me as a boy that every person on earth would have their own tiny mobile phone by the year 2000, I would have laughed until I cried.....
Anyhow enough of this urban dreaming, am off to work tonight. The weather remains terribly cold
I can't say I was awed by all the skyscrapers of the world, or even the U.S. The WTC was a fascination of mine, however. The fact that there were "twin" towers amazed me. As a very small boy I wondered if one was a boy and one a girl or were they both of the same sex. My heart was broken 9-11-01. I had just unloaded a truckload of hand grenades with a soldier named Private James Minoya. There's a bit of irony there, but those towers will always have a place in my heart (as far as buildings go, I suppose) but if there was a second fave it would be the Empire State Building. (I spent a lot of time in NYC as a child.)
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yes Randy it is weird that you can be actually "attached" to a building.
ReplyDeleteMy Favourite must be the main building in the Rockefeller Centre, an art deco classic..
thanks for the memories
Definately the Empire State Building will always be special to me. When I was a little kid it was a thrill to go to the tallest building in the world.(Even had a small metal replica of it with a story all its own.) I remember after the Twin Towers were built (WTC)looking at the Empire State Building and thinking how small it then looked. The new Dubai tower is frighteningly high...I can't imagine going to the top of that.Was just reading on Sunday all the engineering that went into it for high winds consideration, etc. Too much.
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