Why are skyscrapers built thin, instead of stacking 100 arenas on top of each other?
In: Engineering
The entire point of skyscrapers is to wring out the maximum amount of available square footage in a given plot of land. Since the cost of the land is generally based on the two dimensional footprint, the more floors you add the more you offset an otherwise prohibitive land cost. Taxes might also play a factor here as well.
An arena sized skyscraper would kind of be the worst of both worlds; expensive in both land cost and prohibitive in terms of engineering since it would be immensely heavy. Usually a big wide building such as a warehouse or factory are built in places where land is cheap in which case it’s more cost effective to make the building longer/wider than taller. Tall thin buildings are constructed in high density areas where commercial/office real estate is very expensive and so will be tower shaped to get as much usable space available.
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