American Architecture and the Skyscraper: Wright On So Many Levels

In South Carolina, the rural countryside resembles much of where architecture was about 300 years ago. Colonial plantation homes, victorian houses, most of which are the basis of architecture in American history. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, architecture was being pioneered into new and unthinkable areas that continues today.

Falling Water. Mill Run, PA. Built in
1935

Frank Lloyd Wright, a notorious American architect, was a true pioneer in this field with his interesting take on modern architecture. His ideas were that nature should not be tampered with, so a building should seem to blend eloquently into the landscape:"form and function are one." This concept lead america, as well as the world, into a new age of modern architecture: organic. Frank Lloyd Wright is well known for Falling Water(pictured to the left), a house that he built upon a stream that runs directly through the structure, and Taliesin West, another piece of organic architecture that blends into in the desert in Arizona. Organic Architecture became a breakthrough in the way in which architectects, and humans saw the purpose of buildings. 

Modern skyscrapers were pioneered by American Architects. One of the most famous being the man Frank Lloyd wright apprenticed under named Louis H. Sullivan. Sullivan was nicknamed the 'father of skyscrapers,' for his buildings in the late 19th, early 20th century that led to the advancements of how big a building could be.

The beginning of Modern Skyscrapers can be traced by the tallest building record holders, which began in New York City. The Singer Building (1908),Woolworth Building (1913), the Chrysler Building (1931), and finally the Empire State Building which was the tallest building for 39 years. The installation of buildings that really scrapped the sky, redefined what cities across the world looked like.

Burj Khalifa (pictured left and middle)
Mile High Building Concept (Pictured right)

The influence of American architecture can definitely be felt in the Burj Khalifa (pictured right), which used Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile high building concept (Far left of the picture) as the inspiration for it's modern structure.This demonstrates the long lived influence of architecture in America, combined with the desire for the American skyscraper.

The newest form of American architecture formed from Wright's organic architecture concept: Green architecture. As stated in a keynote speech, Eric Corey Freed, a green architect, believes that the state in which architecture is set simply is not enough. The environment is at risk as for "half of our carbon emissions come from buildings." The new era of Architecture, as well as human thought could create a better, safer, and more maintainable world. Creating buildings with the idea of biomimicry, which is, essentially, just copying the shapes in which nature has been creating for billions of years, in order to pollute less and conserve more. This futuristic thought of equaling nature's "buildings" and creating self sustaining structures with organic energy, is American architectural frontier of tomorrow.