First Principles: Initial Thoughts on Paradox

Anxiety: A Peek at the Now

On a dry Nevada plateau, a shimmer of light leaps from the simmering desert floor.  When viewed from the wrong angles, it is a glaring mess of steel and glass that scorches the eyes.  As analyzed along a financial or environmental perspective, even greater concerns arise from concepts of longevity, or integrated use patterns.    

This gleam is Las Vegas' new mega-project, CityCenter, and it remains as a glazed tower of paradox. 

At 16 million square feet, 76 acres, half a dozen skyscrapers and 9.2 billion dollar cost, the Vegas City Center development remains the largest single development occurring within the United States in the 2010's (Gordon, Alastair).  Each separate skyscraper and gambling structure was undertaken by a 'who's who' in the starchitecture world, being a bold effort to energize Vegas downtown core with stylized designs.  Though the glazed towers are rising in the middle of a desert environ, they are listed as some of the most 'energy and materials resource efficient' in the world.  Five of the six buildings are now LEED certified Gold, one of the most difficult, challenging, and expensive building titles to capture (USGBC).  Such standards often require a minimum of 20%-40% energy, water, waste reductions from standards set by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers.  Each was judged by independent organizations, based on a slew of data collected both on and off site.  Emphasis was placed on LEED Gold, as receiving LEED certification can qualify for government incentives, increased rent premiums, and have higher occupancy than their non-LEED counterparts (Miller, Norman). 

Yet among this triumph of skyscrapers design is a tragic tale: the twenty-seven story Harmon Tower, designed by the prestigious Norman Foster Group, has been discovered to have several structural defects.  This has caused the tower to first be reduced in scope, then halted, and now centers around talks of demolition from investors trying to recoup heavy losses (Powers, Ashley 2011).  This ‘green’ tower now sits empty collecting mold, when by all other expectations it should have been another marvel of energy reduction and architectural ingenuity.  It, like the rest of the development, remains part of a growing paradox of our time. 

    Figure 1: Harmon Tower - Las Vegas City Center photos

Yet it is not alone.  Though many countries seek to maintain the forefront of ‘sustainable’ developments, they often comes in contradictive form.  American skyscrapers continue to be built ever taller or in such desert environs such as Vegas, even as many city cores shrink in both human population and physical density (Shrinking Cities Book).  Many ‘rust belt’ cities, such as Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh each built their tallest skyscrapers alongside massive decentralization of their urban cores.  This has been attributed to the growing height of buildings around the world, as the Middle East and Asian Rim dominate tall building development admidst massive influxes of population.  Yet rather than building ‘smarter’, architects have often copied historical precedents and speculative assumptions rather than follow physical realities or offer unique regional solutions.  A fear of diminished ‘American Exceptionalism’ has blinded architects from the reality that bigger is not always better (Ferguson, Niall).  Since the World Trade Center terrorist attack, skyscraper concerns have shifted towards internal programmatic functions rather than stratospheric heights.  In this 'post-9/11 world', every tall building has been re-thought of as a potential target, requiring additional design elements to increase life safety and public health (Brew, J.).  In addition, several ‘environmental’ skyscrapers have recently been completed, as rising worldwide energy prices have necessitated rethinking of wasteful design.

This design shift can be considered part of a larger movement that can create quality environments in skyscrapers.

Possibility: a View of the (Near) Future

The year is 2020, and for the 4th time in its history, New York City is plunged into total blackness from a series of electrical transformer errors at a facility upstate.  Yet while near panic envelops much of Manhattan, police and fire safety experts meet in an unlikely location: a newly christened skyscraper in the heart of Downtown.  While true night has descended upon rest of the city, this building glows as an island of light in a sea of darkness, drawing all revelers to gape and awe.  Though unplugged, it glows, heedless to the weary calls and sirens around it.  The quick leadership of a major corporation has allowed city officials to temporarily shifted base to this structure, creating a new command center by which to organize and execute operations.  Thousands stop by each day for offered amenities, to visit the indoor park for a firsthand experience of ongoing efforts, and to take advantage of clean utilities that can now be found nowhere else.  The building brims like a hive.  Architects and designers have finally succeeded in creating a building that is genuinely transformation.

Three days later, as power slowly returns to the metropolis, news reports cycle around the globe of this new ‘Miracle on the Hudson’.  Each discusses how the entire island is indebted to such forward thinking, environmental planning and self sacrifice.  Officials begin talking amongst themselves on how City Hall has something to learn from this 'bright' experience.  In the wake of overwhelming near-catastrophe, the city taking the first steps toward metropolitan self-sufficiency.

This is our future, if we so choose it.  

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