Some of the Most Important Skyscrapers in the World Essay Example for Free

Some of the Most Important Skyscrapers in the World Essay The following discussion analyzes some of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, highlighting their striking features in terms of their architectural design and construction materials that have made some to stand the test of time and consequently revealing how they have evolved from 19th to 21st century. Such skyscraper included here are Chrysler Building in New York of early 1900s, World Trade Center(Twin Towers), Kingdom Center, Taipei 101 and lastly the ongoing construction of the tallest world-to-be skyscraper-Burj Dubai. The Chrysler Building in New York was the first tallest building to be completed in early 1930s and it is even considered to be one of the classical skyscrapers up-to-date in the New York City. In 2005 The Chrysler Building was ranked among top ten building out of twenty five favorite New York Towers. It stood to be tallest building from1930 to 1931 when its record was broken by Empire State Building. However it is still the tallest building in the world which is made of bricks. The Chrysler Building is said to be an Art Desco architecture and presently the architects find it to be the most finest buildings in the New York City located on the east side of Manhattan. It is 319 meters tall (1,047ft). The distinctive ornamentation of the building was not less in comparison of the features of Chrysler automobiles. At the comer of the sixty first floor is punctuated with eagles replicas of 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments. On its thirty first floor corner ornamentation are those of replicas of Chrysler radiator caps. Due to these features among many others it was made to be National Historic Landmark in 1976 (Haverstock et al, 2000 pp. 214-222). When it was competed and the building first opened it did have on its 71st floor a public viewing gulley which was later closed to the public in 1945. Its recognition and significance increased during early times due to its cultural depictions. It featured severally in films, arts, advertisement, art work, music, literature and fashions to mention but a few due to the vicinity at which such works were being performed. To date Chrysler Building is the third tallest building after the Bank of America Building in New York City. Another significant skyscraper in world’s history is World Trade Center which also sometimes is referred to as Twin Towers that was an outstanding landmark just before it was shattered in September 11, 2001 attack. It design was such innovatory that it was done to look like futuristic sculpture. The building itself was sophisticated in that it consisted of two towers, the North tower and the South tower which were at different heights 1368 ft (417M) and 1362 ft ( 415M) respectively, together with five other complex buildings. These towers were identical in the design that why it was given the name Twin Towers. Twin Towers by the time of its completion it was the tallest building in the world until the construction of Chicago’s Shears and Petronas in Malaysia. The World Trade Center building was situated at Lower Manhattan. The tower construction started in mid-1960s and completed in 1973. Its design adopted new innovations and structural systems with technological advancements that employed lightweight and modular construction. Its design was meant to resist strong wind of load of 2kpa. It is recorded that each tower was sixty four meters square standing at 411 M above the street level. Its existence came in to being as a result of David Rockfeller’s dream who was the chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank and Nelson Rockfeller, the former Governor of New York. He owned the original idea of the center construction. In 1962 Minoru Yamasaki was contracted as a lead architect and it presented World Trade Center design to the public in1964 (Haverstock et al, 2000 pp 245-260). Its structural design employed tube-frame design that allowed open floors instead of using columns to support building loads as it was normally done in previous construction making it a totally new approach . It used high strength, load bearing perimeter steel columns. In short the building itself portrayed a state –of –art when it was completed. The construction of World Trade Center took eight years. However, construction of the World Trade Center was not without controversy because its site saw the relocation of many commercial and industrial tenants and residents as the complex occupied sixteen acres of land. Even its design faced a lot of criticism due to its aesthetic aspects. The urban planners and architects described the Tower as ‘just glass and metal filling cabinets’. Its narrows office windows about 460 mm wide were disliked because of obscurity in view they gave onto looking outside from the building. When Twin Towers was completed, it was such a spectacle in that it attracted about one hundred tourists each day. It had observation deck at height of 420 M and at this point one was at ‘world’s highest outdoor viewing platform’ as it was referred. This view was in the South Tower. On a clear day one could see as far as 78 km in any direction. From about twenty miles away the tower could easily been seen. One may wonder of what significance did the Twin Tower played. It was found that about 50,000 people worked in it. Since 1973 every United States of America president had to visit this spectacle. Several events have taken place in this skyscraper. Many mountain climbers have scaled the building. It has featured in many TV shows, magazines, movies and merchandise that gave it so much popularity. The World Trade Center Building has encountered two attacks where the second attack was so severe that it caused the collapse of the North and South towers. The bombing attack of February 26, 1993 caused 30M hollow through five concrete sublevels in the North Tower that was detonated at underground garage. The second attack of September 11, 2001 resulted to a total collapse of World Trade Center . The North Tower was the first to crumble after it was crushed by airliner hijackers and barely after twenty minutes the second airliner hijackers crushed the South Tower. Three of the seven building of World Trade Center collapsed on the same day of attacks. Nevertheless; plans are underway to rebuild World Trade Center Towers that will lead to completion of Freedom Towers which will be one of the future skyscrapers. Before this skyscraper, the Empire State Building was the tallest building in the New York City and again it has taken this prestige Twin Tower collapse. As evolution of skyscraper continues, currently the United State of America no longer enjoy credits of the tallest skyscrapers in the world any more; but this now is ascribe to Asian nation such as Malaysia and Dubai. The Kingdom Tower in Riyadh is also one of the world tallest skyscrapers and but the only tallest skyscraper in Saudi Arabia. It was completed in the year 2001. Though it is not even among top ten world’s skyscrapers it is worth mentioning because of its state-of –art that has made it to win the Emproris Skyscraper award. Before its construction was done, major competitive architectural firms were consulted and about a hundred submissions made taking the final architectural design to three years time. At its completion, it was twenty fifth world’s tallest building with a height of 302 M (991) tall. Because Saudi does not have many Skyscrapers like some of the cities of the world, it is renowned for its tourist attraction both locally and internationally. Amazingly, the building has entrance in each of its four sides. The lighting fixtures in the drive way imitate tower’s shape and its inverted centenary arch at the top was described as the ‘necklaces for the Riyadh city by its designer. It has the ninety-ninth floor, which is a sky bridge that has triangular opening of fifty six meters with public observation deck. This sky bridge rises at nine hundred and eighteen above see level. This gave it unique aspects of being a point of tourist attraction as it is used as viewpoint of the entire city of Riyadh. It hosts the highest mosque in the world with forty one floors. The Kingdom centre is owned by a prince of Saudi royal family Alwaleed bin Talal bins Abdulziz Al Saud. It is also his Kingdom Royal Company’s headquarters. In fact, Kingdom Centre was selected as the best skyscraper of the world for its design and this made it to win Emproris Skyscaper Award. The centre has state -of –art apartments with Four Seasons Hotel. Besides this it has a three-level shopping center in its east wing which made it also win award of design. Its large opening is lit at night in continuous changing color lights. In the same building it has a big shopping mall with a hundred and seventy prestigious stores in the service floor consisting of eighty ground floor stores, and forty ladies floors. Ladies floor has been exclusively designed for women only (Terranova, 2003 pp. 44-49). Taipei 101 also known as the Taipei Financial Center is currently the world’s tallest building in Taiwan and also believed to be the largest construction engineering project in that region that was designed by world class architect C. Y Lee. It stands at the height of 1,671ft (509M) with a hundred and one stories. Taipei 101 building where it rests covers 81,072 square meters (Ali Moon, 2007 pp 8-10). This skyscraper has been designed using the most latest and sophisticated structural system technological advancements. Its design has used what is referred to as Mega Structure System. It is designed is in such a way that after every eighth floor there is space to check wind effects as commonly observed in high-rise. This system also helps prevent disaster. Surprisingly the building increases in its size as it rises up taking a pagoda shape. The design is said to be based on traditional Chinese culture on lucky number eight . Consequently its looks like eight in its upwards flaring section with a support of eight super columns . In its 89th floor it has public indoor observation while at 91st floor it has an outdoor observation deck . Being the world’s tallest building, it has attracted visitors all over the world. To broadcasters, firework coverage is a common phenomenon particularly in the New Years Eve from this building. Also most of yearly festivals are also held here. Its elevators are the fastest in the world rising at 60. 48 Km/hr and descending at 36. 6 km/hr. The building has won several international awards due to the technology employed (Ali Moon, 2007 pp. 11-13) The Shanghai World Financial Center is the second world’s tallest building after Taipei 101. It has a hundred and one storeys and stands at height of 492M. Although after its foundation was laid, the construction encountered financial setback and it almost took ten years to be completed, this skyscraper is the second in the world as for now. However by the time of its planning in the year 1997, it was to be the world tallest building surpassing Petronas Towers of Malaysia. It has three floors of underground parking, shops, offices, conference centers, exhibition and observation floors. In fact its observation bridge is the highest in the world. Also Shanghai World Financial Center portrays real evolution of the skyscrapers both in terms of structural system and design. It has two tuned mass dampers below observation floors to minimize any sway from windstorms and earthquakes. Also after the incident that occurred at World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was redesigning of the structure so as to withstand occurrence of any plane crush or any other form of disaster if it ever happens by including 12 fire proof refugee areas and two elevators. Shanghai World Financial Trade Center is the latest to be inaugurated on August 28, this year. However, evolution of skyscrapers to the present age would not be inclusive without mentioning of the Burj Dubai. It will be the tallest ever built skyscrapers in the world once it will be completed. Its construction started on September 22, 2004. In September 26 this year the building was at 707 M (2320ft). Presently even before its completion it has outdone Taipei 101 which has been the only skyscraper slightly half a kilometer in height. So far it is the structure with the many floors- one hundred and sixty floors after Shear Towers in Chicago, USA. This tower employs Islamic architecture where when viewed either from the base or above, it assumes onion shape. Structurally the tower is made of reinforced concrete and steel foundation (Ali Moon, 2007 pp. 16-18)

Standardized Testing Is Inaccurate For Teacher Evaluation Essay

The United States of America is ranked 15th in the world for it’s quality of education. Improvement in our education system is necessary if we want to keep up with the best nations in the world. Over the past ten years, a new push has been made to improve education in America through programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. States across the country are assessing teachers and schools by using standardized test scores. By using standardized test scores, states link high stakes to the results such as grant money, salary, and jobs as incentive to improve the scores for the following year. In Wisconsin and other states, 50% of these evaluations are based solely on how students score on these tests making the results have a critical impact, affecting not only the futures of the students, but also the futures of their teachers. Although it is important to give schools and teachers feedback so that they can better educate students, high-stakes testing should be used mi nimally for this purpose because of the lack of conclusive results they produce, and the detrimental effects that they can have on students, teachers, and even the whole schooling community. The first problem with evaluating schools and teachers with standardized testing is that the scores are so heavily correlated with factors other than intelligence. Background factors like like their family’s socioeconomic status or disabilities that a student may have all affect a students ability on a standardized test. Proponents of the use of standardized testing to evaluate schools and teachers argue that standardized tests are a fair and objective way of evaluating students because it is a common standard for everyone. The problem in their argument is that not all s... ... Student Test Scores to Evaluate Teachers. Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper #278. 2010 , Economic Policy Institute, 13 November 2014. http://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/ Kohn, Alfie. "The Real Threat to American Schools." Tikkun. March/April 2001: 25+. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 18 Nov 2014. Teachers Need Real Feedback. Perf. Bill Gates. TED. The Sapling Foundation, May 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. . Strauss, Valerie. "Massachusetts Professors Protest High-Stakes Standardized Tests." Washington Post. 22 Feb 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher.Web. 17 Nov 2014. "What the Research Says on Teacher Evaluations." Learn More About Teacher Evaluations. New York State United Teachers, Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. .

IHRM and HRM Difference

In a highly competitive global economy, where the other factors of production—capital, technology, raw materials, and information—are increasingly able to be duplicated, â€Å"the caliber of the people in an organization will be the only source of sustainable competitive advantage available to companies. Domestic HRM and international HRM are both concentrate on human resource management, but there are many differences also. No mater domestic HRM or international HRM an organization’s HRM activities are also include these 6 parts. The first part is human resource planning, before the company employs the employees the company should know what kind of employees their need. Then the second part is staffing (recruitment, selection, placement), the company select the employees what they need from the HR market. The third part is compensation (remuneration) and benefits. The company should set the employees’ wages. Then, the forth part is deal with the industrial relations. It is common in every company that there are many troubles in employees or in employees and the company, so the company should set a department which is especial deal with the problem. The fifth part is performance management. The company’s main project is to make profits, so at the end of the year the company will reward or punish according to the employee’s performance. The last part is training and development. And these parts are completed one by one. There are also many differences between domestic HRM and IHRM. IHRM complexity can be attributed to six factors. The first is more HR activities such as international taxation; international relocation and orientation; host-government relations; language translation services. For example, to a domestic company it is only concerned with the tax rates in his country, but for a international company it is not only focus on his PCN’s tax rates but also focus on his TCN’s tax rates. The second is need for a broader perspective such as program design and administration for several employee groups; long term consequences on key decisions made. For example, to a domestic company it pays all attention to his program design and administration in his country, but for a international company it is not only focus on his PCN’s program design and administration but also pays attention to his TCN’s program design and administration. The third one is more involvement in employees’ personal lives. One obvious difference between domestic and international HRM is that staff are moved across ational boundaries into various roles within the international firms foreign operations—these employees have traditionally been called expatriates. An expatriate is an employee who is transferred out of their home base into some other area of the firm’s international operations. There are many factors will determine the assignment succeed or failed such as level of support to handle for PCNs and TCNs, banking, investments, home rental while on assignment, coordinating home visits , final repatriation, level of explanations particularly on the comp. ackage components , marital status during selection process. The forth one is variations in the mix of expatriates and locals, for example if the company want maturity evolves, the company need to support expat and virtual team. All these such as foreign subsidiary increased autonomy, high potential selection and development, long term succession planning necessitates flexibility and focus fluctuation within the HR department, not needed for domestic HR to the same degree. The fifth one is risk exposure, the IHRM will face heavier financial and human consequences in case of assignment failure. The last one is broader external influences such as the type of government; the state of the economy ; generally accepted practices of doing business in host countries. We can conclude that HRM is important to every company no matter it is domestic company or international company, so the manager should pay more attention to the HRM or the company will fail.

Postmodernist Features in Vonneguts Cats Cradle

Postmodernist Features in Vonneguts Cats Cradle Cats Cradle is a book, which enables many points for literary discussions. One possible topic of them could be the postmodernist features in this book. In this examination Ihab Hassans essay Toward a Concept of Postmodernism was used as a source of secondary literature for defining of postmodernist features. The most visible and prevalent features are postmodernist metonymy, treatment of the character, dynamic tension, anarchy and a postmodernist look at religion as a whole. To put Vonneguts Cradle into a definite time span, let me start with a bit of personal data about the author. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was born on November†¦show more content†¦ In fact, in each of his novels there is at least one character from his native region. This can be compared to director Alfred Hitchcocks practice of self cameos on screen. It is true, that we can find some parallels between Vonneguts books and his life. The book Cats Cradle is no exception. The Hoenikker family of the novel, consists of an elder son, middle daughter and the youngest child is a boy, just the same as in Vonneguts own family. Another parallel can be seen in connection with Vonneguts mother. His mother committed suicide, when he was twenty-two years old and in many of his novels the character of the mother is dead. But lets focus on the book Cats Cradle itself. This book was written in 1963. The second title of the book, which is, The Day the World Ended can attract the reader immediately. John, a writer, is the fictional author of a book, which he calls The Day the World Ended. He decides to write about Felix Hoenikker, one of the creators of the atomic bomb and his family on the day when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. In his research, John gets in touch with Newt Hoenikker, the youngest, midget son of Felix Hoenikker. Newt writes letters to John and tells him about his brother Frank and sister Angela. Newt also describes the day when the bomb was dropped, the day when his father went toShow MoreRelatedPostmodernism in Literature5514 Words   |  23 PagesEnlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. However, unifying features often coincide with Jean-Franà §ois Lyotards concept of the meta-narrative and little narrative, Jacques Derridas concept of play, and Jean Baudrillards simulacra. For example, instead of the modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world