Taipei 101 9

[Lutfi]

All,

I read the news about the tallest building in the world, of course that is Taipei 101. The following is the link to the news article in Yahoo.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041231/wl_afp/taiwanbuilding

I am excited for the Taiwanese people and at same time I am full with envy since we are not the leaders of skyscrapers in America! These buildings were an American invention and were our signature for many years. I recall the words and advise of my structures professor, Go for the record if you can!

I hold hope for the WTC replacements to fill this void.

I like to hear my colleague's thoughts and opinions on why we are lacking in this arena. Why aren’t we going for the records? I think projects like that polish and elevate National Pride. We are definitely are not short of building designers, engineers and money. What is going on?

I like to hear from everyone.

Happy New Year to All.

Regards,



Lutfi

http://www.cdeco.com

 

[UcfSE]

LOL @ "might have been offended". You either are or you are not. Either redflag it or don't but don't cry about it. That's enough in itself to tell us what kind of person you are regardless of where you are from.

If the man (or woman) takes pride in his or her country or ability, by all means let him do so. I did not read anything that suggested something offensive. If it did offend you, keep in mind that you don't have to read it. Close the window and move on with your life. I see no reason to get on the PC war path here. We're engineers not politicians. As far as anyone being "second rate", the proof is in the pudding so to speak, it is not in anyone's post. We are supposed to remember that we all work together on this planet as engineers to learn from each other and improve. Euler was not American for instance, but Otis was. Otis made the elevator practical to use for people moving and made sky scrapers practical instead of theoretical. IMHO I think we deserve credit as professional engineers, citizens of the world, for advances that we work together to use that culminate in such grand designs such as sky scrapers. With that said, there will always be leaders and followers, in engineering as in anything else. It isn't where you are from that matters, USA or third-world, it matters what kind of engineer you are.

Why should we build taller buildings? Because we can! That's what people say when you ask why do they climb mountains. Because it is there.

 

[quark]

Pennpont,

No offence taken(pl. check my second sentence) and I hope you do too. Infact I enjoy your posts a lot in our common forums.

Though you might have worded it casually, the intent of my post is to know, what it actually means by reverse engineering a building. Perhaps, I have to improve my English and writing skills.

Freedom is not worth having, if it doesn't include the freedom of making mistakes - Mahatma Gandhi

Regards,




Regards,

 

[flamby]

quark,

You don't even know what is reverse engineering? God help you.

Here it is. Once upon a time there were tall buildings- Pyramids in Egypt and Qutub Minar in India. Those were copied with higher builings in west- that;s reverse engineering. Now those American towers are being copies in our Asia with even higher towers - that is reverse engineering.

So you see there in only one direction in engineering -Reverse!!.

Ciao.

 

[HgTX]

Reverse engineering is where you look at a finished product to figure out how it was done. Term seems to be most commonly used in the software biz where source code is secret but one can reverse-engineer from the application to figure out something pretty close to what the source code must have been.

Hg

 

[Lutfi]

I must agree with HgTX's definition.

Regards,


Lutfi

http://www.cdeco.com

 

[jb66]

I think that engineers are not sportsmen and engineering is not sportground. It means - to own some record in this branch is very good but it musn´t be the first impulse I want to achieve. Maybe I´m too much conservative but I´m sure that the first should be to design the construction which is needed and it is not important what kind the demand is.

Regards

 

[JayMaechtlen]

One aspect of building a "biggest/tallest" structure is (are?) bragging rights. There is prestige in having such a building, which can lead to other advantages.
Of course, these can also become "white elephants" as well, draining a local economy rather than enhancing it.
As a USAmerican myself, I would love to have the bragging rights to "world's tallest building". I'd rather not see tax money wasted on white elephants, though.

The discussion of engineering leadership throughout the years kind of skipped over the Germans, who were the leaders in engineering and education for many years. Also the Soviets (Russians, etc., etc.) were leaders in certain areas. The French still lead in some areas of Nuclear energy, right? Leadership requires many years of commitment and discipline on the national and/or cultural level.

regards
Jay

Jay Maechtlen

 

[flamby]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1065071.cms

Ciao.

 

[quark]

oh.nooooo....not again

 

[HgTX]

If the competition is now for "world's tallest building in conception", then I think the Dubai building still has it:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6781

They're planning 800m to Delhi's 710.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[pennpoint]

I regurgitate this thread only because I just now found this site and can see the wonder in the design in these magnificent structures regardless of who designed/built them. (words escape me). Can we (USA) take any credit for their boldness? I hope so.

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2004/tallbuildings/index_f.html

Best to all

pennpoint