DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51509#0310
258 THE STORY OF ARCHITECTURE
the most ambitious work of their best architects.
The destruction of San Francisco by earthquake
and subsequent fire, in 1906, testified to the
good qualities of the steel-frame building, by
proving in a practical manner its better
resistance to earth-shocks than edifices more
entirely constructed of brick and stone. The
rebuilding of this important city took place
with remarkable rapidity, and it is to be noted
that the style most in favour with the banks
and public buildings is classical renaissance.
In the United States the architect is not
hampered by restrictions such as exist in our
large cities, and the characteristic outcome of
the utilitarian requirements of the day is the
“ sky-scraper ”■—“ a steel bridge standing on
end, with passenger cars running up and down
within it ”—which has become a familiar
feature in almost every great American city.
These gigantic structures were at first regarded
merely as engineering problems, without due
consideration of their architectural possibilities,
but the enterprising American architects with
sound prevision quickly realised that even the
sky-scraper had possibilities. The problem was
an attractive one, and the successful way in
which it has been solved may be appreciated
by comparison of the earlier structures with
the more recent great Woolworth Building in
New York, 765 feet in height, with 60 storeys
and 26 lifts (pl. xxx., p. 256); or with the
selected designs in the international competition
for the Chicago Tribune Building. In every other
the most ambitious work of their best architects.
The destruction of San Francisco by earthquake
and subsequent fire, in 1906, testified to the
good qualities of the steel-frame building, by
proving in a practical manner its better
resistance to earth-shocks than edifices more
entirely constructed of brick and stone. The
rebuilding of this important city took place
with remarkable rapidity, and it is to be noted
that the style most in favour with the banks
and public buildings is classical renaissance.
In the United States the architect is not
hampered by restrictions such as exist in our
large cities, and the characteristic outcome of
the utilitarian requirements of the day is the
“ sky-scraper ”■—“ a steel bridge standing on
end, with passenger cars running up and down
within it ”—which has become a familiar
feature in almost every great American city.
These gigantic structures were at first regarded
merely as engineering problems, without due
consideration of their architectural possibilities,
but the enterprising American architects with
sound prevision quickly realised that even the
sky-scraper had possibilities. The problem was
an attractive one, and the successful way in
which it has been solved may be appreciated
by comparison of the earlier structures with
the more recent great Woolworth Building in
New York, 765 feet in height, with 60 storeys
and 26 lifts (pl. xxx., p. 256); or with the
selected designs in the international competition
for the Chicago Tribune Building. In every other