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Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology

Search Brown

 

 

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Ancient World
Brown University
Box 1837 / 60 George Street
Providence, RI 02912
Telephone: (401) 863-3188
Fax: (401) 863-9423
[email protected]

"You expect the corners of a skyscraper to be square and those acute angles make it seem like it's standing on point shoes" (1).

"...the building's wind dance was an assault on comfort." (2)


As skyscrapers become taller and taller, the literal movement of skyscrapers must be engineered to a minimum, as a skyscraper's motion can lead to motion-sickness and the potential for collapse under heavy wind loads. A famous example of this is the John Hancock Tower in Boston (construction 1968-1976, architect: I.M. Pei), which had to be extensively redesigned and renovated in order to prevent the skyscraper's motion, which was dangerous and uncomfortable for workers inside. In another design flaw, many windows blew out of the lower floors because of a faulty window seal system. Basically, this skyscraper had serious problems.

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Two new things were gathered into this skyscraper-network, so as to minimize motion.

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(4)


Footnotes:

1. Turner, Alan. "Hancock Place, Boston: The Perfect Skyscraper." 2000. 12 Dec 2008 <http://www.well.com/user/arturner/hancock.html>.

2. Farraghar. Thomas. "60 stories and countless tales," The Boston Globe 24 Sep 2006. 12 Dec 2008 <http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/09/24/60_stories_and_countless_tales/?page=3ml>

3. "The Tuned Mass Dampers." Boston.com. 2004. The Boston Globe. 12 Dec 2008 <http://graphics.boston.com/news/special/audio_slideshows/hancock/mass_tune_damper/>.

4. Wikipedia User, "Anarchemitis". "File: Tuned Mass Damper.gif." Wikipedia. 10 Jan 2008. Wikipedia. 12 Dec 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tuned_mass_damper.gif>.


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