The tallest skyscraper. The deepest tunnel. The largest building. 2013 was a year of extremes for the construction industry, with new buildings, bridges, tunnels, and even the odd steel sarcophagus reaching completion all over the world.
Below, you’ll find some of our favourite building stories of year — ranging from architecture to infrastructure — listed in no particular order.
Watch the World Trade Center’s Spire Rise 104 Storeys into the Air
In April, the spire that will made One World Trade Center the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere was raised to the top of the structure, like a giant candle on a towering cake. We were at the construction site to watch the magic unfold.
World’s Deepest Undersea Tunnel Weaves Together Two Continents
Istanbul opened the deepest undersea tunnel on earth this year, amidst accusations of unsafe conditions and sub-par emergency systems by engineers who point out that the tunnel runs through volatile seismic territory. Nonetheless, the tunnel now carries thousands of commuters across the Bosphorus every day.
Can We Please Stop Drawing Trees on Top of Skyscrapers?
Tim De Chant weighed in with a definitive op-ed arguing about the infuriatingly ubiquitous trend amongst architects (and renderers): Drawing totally unrealistic gardens atop planned structures. De Chant’s takedown — both technical and cultural — was one of our favourite posts of the year.
Can China Really Build the World’s Tallest Building in 90 Days?
We delved into a Chinese plan to build the world’s tallest building this year, questioning the practicality of the design, and discovered the political and economic currents lurking behind the plan.
How Living Infrastructure Will Save Our Cities from Nature’s Wrath
In a year defined by questions about climate change and intensifying storms, this post was a great explainer on emerging ideas about the “living infrastructure” that could save cities from the rising tides.
How the Tech Industry Is Quietly Changing the Face of American Cities
When Steve Jobs presented the initial design for his doughnut-like headquarters to the Cupertino City Council, in 2011, he described the building as a reaction against suburban office parks. “We’ve come up with a design that puts 12,000 people in one building; which sounds a bit odd,” he said. “But we’ve seen these office parks with a lot of buildings, and they get pretty boring pretty fast. We’d like to do something better.” The question, though, is better for whom?
The Lost Cow Tunnels of New York City
Nicola Twilley pointed us in the direction of a long-lost piece of “mythical subterranean meat infrastructure”. The forgotten cow tunnels beneath Manhattan were once used to transport cows (and uh, steak) below the city’s Meatpacking district.
It’s Official: The WTC Is the Tallest Building In the US
At joint press conferences in New York and Chicago earlier this year, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat — a Chicago-based nonprofit — announced its decision to crown the One World Trade Center as the tallest building in the United States, beating out the Windy City’s Willis Tower by mere feet of spire.
In An Artificial Cave 200-Feet Beneath Central Park with Michael Bloomberg
Geoff Manaugh and Michael Hession went deep underground this summer to visit the first complete Manhattan section of City Water Tunnel No. 3, after 43 years of work. The event was feted by Bloomberg himself.
The AIA Finally Gave a Medal To a Female Architect. She Died In 1957.
Alissa Walker reported on a long — embarrassingly long — overdue event in the architecture world: The American Institute of Architects, the largest and most influential architecture organisation in the country, finally awarded its first Gold Medal to a woman.
This Massive Steel Structure Will Entomb Chernobyl’s Reactor 4
A $US2 billion project to build a gigantic steel sarcophagus over the decaying remains of Reactor 4 took shape this year, with hundreds of workers risking their lives to disassemble an extremely radioactive smokestack to make way for the archway. The project is due to be completed in 2015, but is only expected to last for 30 years. After that, it’s up to the next generation. Picture: AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky
/”Death Ray” Architect Blames His Car-Melting Skyscraper on Sunny Days
Surely the most tragicomic architectural event of the year, a new London skyscraper began reflecting sun into an insanely powerful “death ray” that melted nearby cars and fried eggs. Architect Rafael Viñoly’s explanation: “We made a lot of mistakes with this building, and we will take care of it.”
The Largest Building Ever Constructed Has Opened in China
At 1.7 million square metres and 18 storeys, this Chengdu shopping complex — the New Century Global Center — became the largest building ever constructed this year.
Inside the NYC Super-Factory Building America’s Tallest Prefab Tower
The tallest prefab building in the country — and maybe the world — took shape in a nondescript warehouse in Brooklyn this year — Gizmodo had the chance to visit the space and watch it come together.
Four of America’s Tallest Towers Will Rise Within Blocks of Each Other
We kept a close eye on a supertall building boom happening a few dozen blocks uptown from us this year: At least four 300m-plus skyscrapers are rising along (or adjacent to) West 57th St in midtown Manhattan, sparking debates about the divide between the city’s super-rich and the rest of New York.
Take a Tour of California’s Insane Solar Thermal Energy Plant
One marker of California’s small but booming solar industry? The opening of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the largest thermal energy system of its kind. This 377-megawatt, 3500-acre site is located in California’s Mojave Desert, and it’s ridiculously big.
The UN Is Building an Emergency Back-Up Tower Next to Its Headquarters
As the United Nations wrapped up its 68th General Assembly this year, designs for a new building called the UN Consolidation Tower were also revealed: The 36-storey tower will house almost 3000 employees, offer much-needed emergency overflow space, and make the UN more secure as a whole.
8 Unrealised Buildings That Could Have Transformed American Cities
Finally, amidst so many stories about the future of cities, we also had the change to look back at the megastructures that were one slated to be built — but, like so many grand plans, were abandoned when reality set in. Here’s to a 2014 filled with new supertalls, new discoveries about what’s underneath our cities, and of course plenty of new tunnels.