High Rise Buildings
24 episodes
#6077: Jerusalem's Shuk Is Getting 10 New Towers
The stalls stay put. Everything around them is going up — and a lot of it is going down seven floors first.
#5932: What the 1964 White Paper on the Twin Towers Actually Said
Three pages from 1964 concluded a 707 impact would cause only local damage. Fire was never in the analysis.
#5931: What the Council on Vertical Urbanism Actually Decides
The body that rules on the world's tallest buildings just dropped "tall buildings" from its name. What does that mean for Jerusalem's Marom Tower?
#5757: Why the Grid Still Runs on AC When DC Won
Every reason AC beat DC has been overturned by power electronics. So why is your wall socket still AC?
#5664: Rack Dreams: Getting Display and USB Across the Room
Display over fiber is the easy part. USB is where it gets annoying — and the single-UPS dream doesn't quite close.
#5332: The Real Story Behind Lunch Atop a Skyscraper
That famous photo wasn't the Empire State Building, wasn't a candid moment, and the "fearless Mohawk" legend is false. Here's what really happened.
#4847: Buildings That Never Close: Perpetual Architecture
How do you clean, maintain, and renovate a building that has been continuously occupied for over a century?
#4236: What Actually Changes at 300 and 600 Meters
The three engineering thresholds that separate ordinary high-rises from supertalls and megatalls — and why you can't just scale up.
#4018: Vertical Cities: The Hidden Science of Skyscraper Neighborhoods
How architects, sociologists, and urban planners are reimagining tall buildings as livable neighborhoods in the sky.
#3985: How Your Floor Stays Up: The Hidden Skeleton Inside Every Building
The invisible chain that carries every pound from your apartment to the bedrock.
#3912: Elevators at 46 MPH: Speed, Safety & Algorithms
How do elevators rocket up skyscrapers at 46 mph, and what happens when cables aren't enough?
#3903: Can We Really Live in the Sky? The Reality of Sky Cities
Skybridges and vertical streets sound futuristic, but the economics and engineering are brutal.
#3887: The Science Behind a Boring 25-Story Building
How tuned mass dampers, self-healing concrete, and vortex shedding make tall buildings feel boringly ordinary.
#3873: Loving Skyscrapers Without Selling Out Your City
Can you love tall buildings and still fight the inequality they often create?
#3798: How High Can We Really Build?
Six questions on high-rise engineering, from steel breakthroughs to whether cities sink under their own weight.
#3353: How a 30-Story Tower Sounds Next Door
A stage-by-stage breakdown of high-rise construction noise, from pile driving to topping out — and what actually works to quiet it down.
#3328: Can You Customize a 30th-Floor Apartment?
High-rises get a bad rap. But do they actually have real advantages—and can you ever customize a unit?
#3302: Why High-Rises Are So Expensive to Build
Stacking floors sounds cheap, but high-rises cost 60-70% more per square foot than mid-rises. Here's why.
#3187: Why Six Stories Became the Global Default
How human legs, fire ladders, and elevator economics all converged on the same building height.
#3179: Counting Lights to Measure Empty Skyscrapers
How researchers and citizens use window light counts to estimate real building occupancy.
#3177: Why Jerusalem Towers Are Empty While Blocks Thrive
Towers aren't fixing Israel's housing crisis. Here's why traditional blocks actually work better — and how to prove it.
#413: The Skyscraper Lie: Density, Cost, and Jerusalem’s Future
Are luxury towers solving the housing crisis? Explore the "rocket equation" of architecture and why height doesn't always equal density.
#408: Why Can't We Build a Mile Into the Sky?
From vortex shedding to the elevator paradox, Herman and Corn explore the physical and economic limits of building the world's tallest towers.
#316: The Broken Chain of Design
Why do we love old neighborhoods but feel uneasy in modern towers? We explore the "cult" of architecture and the quest for a human-scale city.