1.
44 Montgomery
–
44 Montgomery is a 43-story,172 m office skyscraper in the heart of San Franciscos Financial District. When completed in 1967, it was the tallest building west of Dallas until 555 California Street was erected in 1969, the building was once the world headquarters for Wells Fargo Bank. It was sold by AT&T in 1997 for US$111 million, the building contains direct underground access to the Montgomery Street Station. List of tallest buildings in San Francisco 44 Montgomery Street official website
44 Montgomery
–
44 Montgomery Street (left), overshadowing the neighboring
Hobart Building.
2.
Transamerica Pyramid
–
The Transamerica Pyramid is the tallest skyscraper in the San Francisco skyline. Its height is surpassed by Salesforce Tower, currently under construction, designed by architect William Pereira and built by Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company, at 853 ft, on completion in 1972 it was the eighth tallest building in the world. The Transamerica building was commissioned by Transamerica CEO John R. Beckett, built on the site of the historic Montgomery Block, it has a structural height of 853 ft and has 48 floors of retail and office space. Construction began in 1969 and finished in 1972, and was overseen by San Francisco-based contractor Dinwiddie Construction, Transamerica moved its headquarters to the new building from across the street, where it had been based in a flatiron-shaped building now occupied by the Church of Scientology of San Francisco. Although the tower is no longer Transamerica Corporation headquarters, it is associated with the company and is depicted in the companys logo. The building is evocative of San Francisco and has one of the many symbols of the city. Designed by architect William Pereira, it faced opposition during planning, John King of the San Francisco Chronicle summed up the improved opinion of the building in 2009 as an architectural icon of the best sort - one that fits its location and gets better with age. The Transamerica Pyramid was the tallest skyscraper west of Chicago from 1972 to 1974 surpassing the then Bank of America Center and it was surpassed by the Aon Center in Los Angeles. The building is thought to have been the target of a foiled terrorist attack, involving the hijacking of airplanes as part of the Bojinka plot. In 1999, Transamerica was acquired by Dutch insurance company Aegon, when the non-insurance operations of Transamerica were later sold to GE Capital, Aegon retained the building as an investment. The Transamerica Pyramid has been the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco since 1972, the land use and zoning restrictions for the parcel limited the number of square feet of office that could be built upon the lot, which sits at the north boundary of the financial district. The building is a tall, four-sided pyramid with two wings to accommodate an elevator shaft on the east and a stairwell and a tower on the west. The top 212 feet of the building is the spire, there are four cameras pointed in the four cardinal directions at the top of this spire forming a virtual observation deck. Four monitors in the lobby, whose direction and zoom can be controlled by visitors, an observation deck on the 27th floor was closed after the September 11,2001 attacks, and replaced by the virtual observation deck. The top of the Transamerica Pyramid is covered with aluminum panels, the buildings façade is covered in crushed quartz, giving the building its light color. The four-story base contains 16,000 cu yd of concrete, the buildings foundation is 9 feet thick, the result of a 3-day, 24-hour continuous concrete pour. Several thousand dollars in quarters and change were thrown into the pit by observers surrounding the site at street level during the pouring, only two of the buildings 18 elevators reach the top floor. The original proposal was for a 1,150 ft building, the proposal was rejected by the city planning commission, saying it would interfere with views of San Francisco Bay from Nob Hill
Transamerica Pyramid
–
Transamerica Pyramid
3.
California Street (San Francisco)
–
California Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. California Street is one of the longest streets in San Francisco and it runs in an approximately straight 5.2 mi east-west line from the Financial District to Lincoln Park in the far Northwest corner of the City. The route has four to six lanes for its length. JB Monaco Market Street Photo Gallery
California Street (San Francisco)
–
View from the top of California Street Looking towards the financial district with the Bay Bridge in the background
California Street (San Francisco)
–
California Street to
Oakland Bay Bridge.
California Street (San Francisco)
–
Numbered streets
4.
San Francisco
–
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
San Francisco
–
San Francisco and the
Golden Gate Bridge from
Marin Headlands
San Francisco
–
Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)
San Francisco
–
1853
United States Coast Survey Map
San Francisco
–
Francis Samuel Marryat, Hilltop of San Francisco, California, Looking toward the Bay, 1849. M.& N. Hanhart Chromolithograph
5.
California
–
California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
California
–
A forest of redwood trees in
Redwood National Park
California
–
Flag
California
–
Mount Shasta
California
–
Aerial view of the
California Central Valley
6.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
Geographic coordinate system
–
Longitude lines are perpendicular and latitude lines are parallel to the equator.
7.
Vornado Realty Trust
–
Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust based in New York City. Vornado Realty Trusts origins can be traced back to a discount store chain called Two Guys, founded in 1946 by brothers Sidney. In 1959, the company acquired O. A. Sutton Corporation, manufacturers of the Vornado line of fans, air conditioners. The merged company was renamed Vornado, Inc, at its retail peak in the early 1970s, Vornado operated 53 Two Guys stores,65 supermarkets,240 Fosters Freeze restaurants, and other retail operations. Vornado began divesting its retail operations, and by the late 1970s owned only 60 Two Guys stores, the next year Interstate Properties took control of the firm after winning a proxy struggle. He liquidated Two Guys and, by 1985, real estate outstripped merchandising as the source of sales. In 1988, they raised their stakes to 27% but Trump pledged his interest as collateral for a personal loan from Citicorp and in 1991. In 1992, Roth and Alexanders creditors forced Alexanders into bankruptcy, Alexanders emerged from bankruptcy in 1993 as a real estate investment trust. That same year, Vornado Inc. was converted into a REIT, in 1995, Vornado bought Citicorps interest in Alexanders. In 1989, the Vornado name was licensed to a new company in the Wichita area currently known as Vornado Air, outside of the brand licensing agreement, the Trust has no relation to Vornado Air, LLC. In April 1997, Bernard H. Mendik folded his company into Vornado Realty Trust becoming Vornados co-chairman for $654 million in stock, in October 1998, he resigned from Vornado. On February 15,2001, the Port Authority announced that Vornado Realty Trust had won the bid for a 99-year lease for the World Trade Center, silverstein Properties was outbid by $30 million by Vornado. However, Vornado balked over lease terms and possible tax liabilities, silverstein signed a lease for the World Trade Center in April 2001. In 2001, the company acquired Charles E. Smith Commercial Realty, owner of a portfolio of assets primarily in Arlington, Virginia, Robert E. Smith and Robert P. Kogod were added to the board of directors of Vornado. In 2005, the company bought a 32. 5% interest in Toys R Us, in 2013, Steven Roth replaced Michael D. Fascitelli as Vornados CEO. Fascitelli had been CEO since 2009, in 2015, the company spun off its interest in Urban Edge Properties to its shareholders
Vornado Realty Trust
–
1999 K Street, NW in
Washington, D.C. is being developed by Vornado Realty Trust. It was designed by architect
Helmut Jahn.
8.
The Trump Organization
–
The Trump Organization is an American privately owned international conglomerate based in Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It comprises the business ventures and investments of Donald Trump, the company was founded in 1923 by Trumps grandmother and father as Elizabeth Trump & Son. From 1971 to 2017, Trump ran the company as chairman, although he is no longer involved with its day-to-day management, the company remains under Trumps ownership. Daughter Ivanka Trump is also, in March 2017, listed as a vice president of the next generation management of the organization. The Trump Organization has interests in real estate development, investing, brokerage, sales and marketing and it lists involvement in 515 subsidiaries and entities with 264 of them bearing Trumps name and another 54 including his initials. It owns a New York television production company that produces television programs including the reality television program, the Trump Organization has divested a number of properties that continue to bear the Trump name even though Trump no longer owns them. For example, in February 2016, it sold its stake in Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the Trump Taj Mahal, the Trump Plaza, and the Trump Marina casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Since October 2016, The Trump Organization has also developed properties under the name Scion Hotels, the Trump Organization is the collective name of approximately 500 business entities of which Donald Trump is the sole or principal owner. Until his inauguration as President of the United States, Trump served as chairman and his three adult children and three unrelated employees served as key executives. Trump will retain his stake in the business. His attorney Sheri Dillon said that before the January 20 inauguration Trump will put the assets into a trust, which will hire an ethics advisor. She added that the Trump Organization will not pursue any new business deals. Elizabeth Christ Trump, grandmother of Donald Trump, founded Elizabeth Trump & Son in 1923 with her son Fred Trump who was 18 at the time, Elizabeth and her husband Frederick Trump had moved to the borough of Queens in 1906 where her husband began developing real estate. In 1918, however, he died of influenza leaving an estate valued at $31,359 Elizabeth had a talent for keeping the real estate business going after her husbands death. She had a local contractor build houses on an empty piece of property owned, sold the houses. Her vision was to have her three children continue the business when they finished school, but her middle son Fred, wanted to start earlier. She founded the company Elizabeth Trump & Son to give him his start, since he was under age, she signed all legal documents. Fred eventually became a real estate developer himself but Elizabeth would remain involved throughout her life
The Trump Organization
–
The Trump Organization LLC
The Trump Organization
–
Trump Tower, headquarters of the Trump Organization
The Trump Organization
–
Trump World Tower (NY) at
United Nations Plaza
9.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
–
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP is an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings, with a portfolio spanning thousands of projects across 50 countries, SOM is one of the largest architectural firms in the world. Their primary expertise is in commercial buildings, as it was SOM that led the way to the widespread use of the modern international-style or glass box skyscraper. They have designed several of the tallest buildings in the world, including the John Hancock Center, Willis Tower, due to their faithful following of Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohes ideas, Frank Lloyd Wright nicknamed them The Three Blind Mies. Notable SOM architects include, Edward Charles Bassett, Natalie de Blois, Gordon Bunshaft, David Childs, Myron Goldsmith, Bruce Graham, Gertrude Kerbis, Fazlur Rahman Khan. Lucien Lagrange, Walter Netsch, Larry Oltmanns, Brigitte Peterhans, Adrian Smith, indeed, Khan is responsible for developing the algorithms that made the Hancock building and many subsequent skyscrapers possible. Another notable SOM engineer is Bill Baker, who is best known as the engineer of Burj Khalifa, to support the towers record heights and slim footprint, he developed the buttressed core structural system, consisting of a hexagonal core reinforced by three buttresses that form a Y shape. Davis Allen, a pioneer in corporate interior design, had a tenure at SOM. Throughout its history, SOM has been recognized more than 1,700 awards for quality. More than 900 of these awards have received since 1998. In 1996 and 1962, SOM received the Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, SOM is the only firm to have received this honor twic13 R+D Awards from Architect Magazine. In addition, a collaboration between SOM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology, was honored with a fifth award. SOM has completed over 10,000 projects around the United States and in more than 50 other countries around the world, london, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Abu Dhabi. Smaller field offices supplement these in such as the Philippines. Burj Khalifa is the tallest man-made structure ever built, at 829.8 m, construction began on 21 September 2004, and the building officially opened on 4 January 2010. The towers architect and engineer was Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, george J. Efstathiou was the Managing Partner for the project. Bill Baker, the Chief Structural Engineer for the project, invented the buttressed core structural system in order to enable the tower to achieve such heights economically, Adrian Smith, who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill until 2006, was the Consulting Design Partner. The primary builder is a joint venture of South Korean Samsung C&T, one World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower, is located in Manhattan, New York City, and is 1,776 ft high, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
–
SOM's original three partners —
Louis Skidmore,
Nathaniel Owings and
John O. Merrill.
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
–
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
–
Lever House, 390
Park Avenue,
Manhattan
Skidmore, Owings and Merrill
–
Manufacturers Trust Company Building at 510
Fifth Avenue, Manhattan
10.
Storey
–
A storey is any level part of a building that could be used by people. The plurals are storeys and stories respectively, the terms floor, level, or deck can also be used in this sense, except that one may use ground floor and ground level for the floor closer to what is considered the ground or street level. The words storey and floor also generally exclude levels of the building that have no roof, houses commonly have only one or two floors. Buildings are often classified as low-rise, mid-rise and high-rise according to how many levels they contain, the tallest skyscraper in the world, Burj Khalifa, has 163 floors. As of 2013, the tallest planned skyscraper, Sky City, is planned to have 202 floors, the height of each storey is based on the ceiling height of the rooms plus the thickness of the floors between each pane. Generally this is around 10 feet total, however, it varies widely from just under this figure to well over it, storeys within a building need not be all the same height — often the lobby is more spacious, for example. Additionally, higher levels may be smaller in volume than the ones beneath them, in English, the principal floor or main floor of a house is the floor that contains the chief apartments, it is usually the ground floor, or the floor above. In Italy the main floor of a home is usually above the ground level, the attic or loft is a storey just below the buildings roof, its ceiling is often pitched and/or at a different height than that of other floors. A penthouse is an apartment on the topmost storey of a building. A basement is a storey below the main or ground floor, split-level homes have floors that offset from each other by less than the height of a full storey. A mezzanine, in particular, is typically a floor halfway between the floor and the next higher floor. Homes with a split-level entry have the main floor raised half a storey height above the street entrance level. In Macys Herald Square, there is a one and a floor between the first and second, this can be considered a split level floor. There are also car parks, also known as parking garages. Floor numbering is the scheme used for a buildings floors. There are two major schemes in use across the world, in one system, used in the majority of European countries, the ground floor is the floor literally on the ground and often has no number or is assigned the number 0. Therefore, the floor up is assigned the number 1 and is the first floor. The other system, used primarily in the United States and Canada, counts the bottom floor as the first floor, the existence of two incompatible conventions is a common source of confusion in international communication, sometimes even between communities who speak the same language
Storey
–
Unusual floor numbering that reads B (basement floor), LG (lower ground floor), G, (ground floor), UG (upper ground floor), 1 (first floor), L2 (lower 2nd floor) and 2 (second floor).
Storey
–
A storey plan
Storey
–
A large elevator panel in a North American high-rise omits several floors as well as designating three separate levels as penthouse floors.
Storey
–
An elevator control panel in an apartment building in
Shanghai. Floors 4, 13 and 14 are missing.
11.
Skyscraper
–
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. When the term was used in the 1880s it described a building of 10 to 20 floors. Mostly designed for office, commercial and residential uses, a skyscraper can also be called a high-rise, for buildings above a height of 300 m, the term supertall can be used, while skyscrapers reaching beyond 600 m are classified as megatall. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls and these curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterized by surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic. To appear more slender, allow less wind exposure, and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, a relatively big building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. The maximum height of structures has progressed historically with building methods and technologies, the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. High-rise buildings are considered shorter than skyscrapers, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Even the scholars making the argument find it to be purely academic and this definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicagos Monadnock Building. What is the characteristic of the tall office building. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a significant load factor than earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion fits not only high-rises but some other tall structures, the word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. A loose convention of some in the United States and Europe draws the limit of a skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 m Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years, the 14th century AD Lincoln Cathedral being conjectured by many to have exceeded it
Skyscraper
–
The
Burj Khalifa, in
Dubai (
United Arab Emirates), has been the
tallest skyscraper in the world since 2009, with a height of 829.8 m.
Skyscraper
–
The 16th-century city of
Shibam consisted entirely of over 500 high-rise tower houses.
Skyscraper
–
The
Two Towers of Bologna in the 12th century reached 97.2 m (319 ft) in height.
Skyscraper
–
Oriel Chambers, Liverpool. The world's first glass curtain walled building. The stone
mullions are decorative.
12.
Financial District (San Francisco)
–
The Financial District is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, that serves as its main central business district. It is home to the citys largest concentration of headquarters, law firms, insurance companies, real estate firms, banks, savings and loans. All six San Francisco Fortune 500 companies—McKesson, Wells Fargo, PG&E, Gap, Charles Schwab, the citys tallest buildings, including 555 California Street and the Transamerica Pyramid, and many other tall buildings, such as 101 California Street and 345 California Street are located there. Montgomery Street is the heart of the district. Since the 1980s, restrictions on high rise construction have shifted new development to the adjacent South of Market area surrounding the Transbay Transit Center and this area is sometimes called the South Financial District by real estate developers, or simply included as part of the Financial District itself. It was not until 1835 that the first settlers established themselves on the shore of Yerba Buena Cove, Yerba Buenas potential as a seaport made it the eventual center for European and American settlement. Gold Rush wealth and business made it the capital of the west coast as many banks. The west coasts first and only skyscrapers, were built in the area along Market Street, the neighborhood was completely destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. By 1910, the area was rebuilt with low-rise, masonry-clad buildings ranging from six to twelve stories in height. Due to new building and earthquake retrofitting technologies, the restrictions were lifted. This boom accelerated under mayor Dianne Feinstein during the 1980s, something her critics labelled as Manhattanization and this caused widespread opposition citywide leading to the skyscraper revolt similar to the freeway revolt in the city years earlier. The skyscraper revolt led to the city imposing extremely strict, European-style height restrictions on building construction citywide. Due to these restrictions, lack of buildable lots, and changes in the local real estate market. To encourage new development south of Market, and to fund the replacement for the Transbay Terminal. As a result, nearly all new high rise construction since the 1980s has taken place South of Market, notable examples include the JPMorgan Chase Building,555 Mission Street,101 Second Street, the Four Seasons Hotel, The Paramount, and the Millennium Tower. Adjacent to the Financial District to the west is the Union Square shopping district, to the northwest is Chinatown, and to the north is North Beach and Jackson Square. To the east lies the Embarcadero waterfront and the Ferry Building, to the south lies Market Street and the South of Market district. The Financial District is served by more than two dozen Muni bus and rail lines, including one cable car line, as well as Montgomery Street Station, the nickname FiDi is occasionally employed, analogous to nearby SoMa
Financial District (San Francisco)
–
Looking south down
Montgomery Street from Telegraph Hill
Financial District (San Francisco)
–
The Financial District, looking east down
California Street.
Financial District (San Francisco)
–
The former
Pacific Stock Exchange on Pine Street in the Financial District.
13.
Tallest buildings in the United States
–
The worlds first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Since that time, the United States has been home and still is home to some of the worlds tallest skyscrapers, New York City, specifically the borough of Manhattan, notably has the tallest skyline in the country. Eleven American buildings have held the title of tallest building in the world, New York City and Chicago have always been the centers of American skyscraper building. As of 2013, One World Trade Center, also referred by the name of Freedom Tower. Prior to the September 11,2001 attacks in New York City, the North Tower stood at 1,368 feet, while the South Tower was 1, 362-foot-tall. If they were standing today, they would occupy the fourth and fifth positions on the list below. There are numerous supertall buildings both proposed and under construction throughout the country, concentrated in New York City and Chicago and this list ranks completed and topped out buildings in the United States that stand at least 700 feet tall, based on standard height measurement. This includes spires and architectural details, as well as antenna masts, an equal sign following a rank indicates the same height between two or more buildings. The Year column indicates the year in which a building was completed and this lists ranks completed and topped out buildings in the United States that stand at least 800 feet tall based on pinnacle height measurement, which includes antenna masts. Standard architectural height measurement, which excludes antennas in building height, is included for comparative purposes, * Indicates building is still under construction, but has been topped out. American cities with at least 15 completed skyscrapers over 400 feet high and this lists buildings that are under construction in the United States and are planned to rise at least 700 feet. Buildings that have already topped out are excluded. * Table entries with dashes indicate that information regarding building dates of completion has not yet been released and this lists buildings that are proposed for construction in the United States and are planned to rise at least 700 feet. A floor count of 50 stories is used as the cutoff for buildings whose heights have not yet released by their developers. * Table entries with dashes indicate that information regarding building heights and this table lists the 10 tallest buildings in the United States that have been demolished, destroyed, or are undergoing demolition. This is a list of the history of the tallest buildings in the United States and this lists buildings that once held the title of tallest building in the United States. ^ According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, freestanding observation towers are not considered to be buildings and this structure is included for comparative purposes. Diagram of United States skyscrapers on SkyscraperPage
Tallest buildings in the United States
Tallest buildings in the United States
–
Tallest Buildings in the United States.
Tallest buildings in the United States
Tallest buildings in the United States
14.
One Worldwide Plaza
–
One Worldwide Plaza is a commercial office tower on Eighth Avenue. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was the designer for the complex. The complex, whose component skyscrapers are among the list of tallest buildings in New York City, occupies a city block, bounded by Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue, 49th Street. Located on the west side of Eighth Avenue, One Worldwide Plaza is built on the site of New York Citys third Madison Square Garden. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Worldwide Plaza complex was developed by William Zeckendorf, Jr. and Victor Elmaleh of the World Wide Group. The building of One Worldwide Plaza was documented in a Channel 4 / PBS mini-series, One Worldwide Plaza is a 50-story,1,500,000 square feet, 778-foot office skyscraper. The base of the building is made of granite and precast concrete, the tower facade is made of brick. The building is crowned by a roof and glass pyramid known as Davids Diamond after the architect. A mid-block public plaza separates One Worldwide Plaza from the buildings of Two Worldwide Plaza. The public plaza is a bonus space granted under New York City Department of City Planning, the creation and maintenance of the public plaza resulted in permission to build additional floors in the office tower. The landscaping of the plaza contains over 40 trees and numerous plantings, public seating is available year round. The center of the plaza is highlighted by a fountain created by Sidney Simon called The Four Seasons, Four female statues, each modelled by Molly Ackerman and representing a season, hold up a globe. A theater space lies beneath the plaza, it was originally a six-screen movie theatre but is now occupied by five Off-Broadway theatres known as New World Stages. Access is gained by two buildings, one on 49th Street and the other on 50th Street. The 50th Street New York City Subway station is underneath, the southbound platform was renovated when One Worldwide Plaza was built. In July 2009, Deutsche Bank agreed to sell Worldwide Plaza for a paltry $600 million after a sale of US$1.7 billion in February 2007. Developer George Comfort & Sons was the buyer, and the purchase was the biggest after the NYC downturn, macklowe lost the building to Deutsche in 2008
One Worldwide Plaza
–
One Worldwide Plaza
One Worldwide Plaza
–
Escalator to the complex from the platform of the
50th Street station
One Worldwide Plaza
–
Public plaza with the fountain in the foreground and Two and Three Worldwide Plaza in the background
One Worldwide Plaza
–
Looking east across
9th Avenue and
49th Street, foreground; 1 & 2 WWP in background
15.
New York City
–
The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
New York City
–
Clockwise, from top:
Midtown Manhattan,
Times Square, the
Unisphere in
Queens, the
Brooklyn Bridge,
Lower Manhattan with
One World Trade Center,
Central Park, the
headquarters of the United Nations, and the
Statue of Liberty
New York City
–
New Amsterdam, centered in the eventual
Lower Manhattan, in 1664, the year
England took control and renamed it "New York".
New York City
–
The
Battle of Long Island, the largest battle of the
American Revolution, took place in
Brooklyn in 1776.
New York City
–
Broadway follows the Native American Wickquasgeck Trail through Manhattan.
16.
Bank of America
–
Bank of America is a multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is ranked 2nd on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets, as of 2016, Bank of America was the 26th largest company in the United States by total revenue. In 2016, it was ranked #11 on the Forbes Magazine Global 2000 list of largest companies in the world and its acquisition of Merrill Lynch in 2008 made it the worlds largest wealth management corporation and a major player in the investment banking market. As of December 31,2016, it had US$886.148 billion in assets under management, as of December 31,2016, the company held 10. 73% of all bank deposits in the United States. It is one of the Big Four banks in the United States, along with Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America operates—but does not necessarily maintain retail branches—in all 50 states of the United States, the District of Columbia and more than 40 other countries. It has a retail banking footprint that serves approximately 46 million consumer, Bank of America provides its products and services through 4,600 retail financial centers, approximately 15,900 automated teller machines, call centers, and online and mobile banking platforms. The history of Bank of America dates back to October 17,1904, Giannini was raised by his mother and stepfather Lorenzo Scatena, as his father was fatally shot over a pay dispute with an employee. When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to all deposits out of the bank building. Because San Franciscos banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults, from a makeshift desk consisting of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to those who wished to rebuild. In 1922, Giannini established Bank of America and Italy, in 1918 another corporation, Bancitaly Corporation, was organized by A. P. Giannini, the largest stockholder of which was Stockholders Auxiliary Corporation. Monnette and consolidated it with other holdings to create what would become the largest banking institution in the country. Bank of Italy was renamed on November 3,1930 to Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, Giannini and Monnette headed the resulting company, serving as co-chairs. Branch banking was introduced by Giannini shortly after 1909 legislation in California that allowed for branch banking in the state and its first branch outside San Francisco was established in 1909 in San Jose. By 1929, the bank had 453 banking offices in California with aggregate resources of over US$1.4 billion. There is a replica of the 1909 Bank of Italy branch bank in History Park in San Jose, and the 1925 Bank of Italy Building is an important downtown landmark. Giannini sought to build a bank, expanding into most of the western states as well as into the insurance industry, under the aegis of his holding company. In 1953, regulators succeeded in forcing the separation of Transamerica Corporation, the passage of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibited banks from owning non-banking subsidiaries such as insurance companies. Bank of America and Transamerica were separated, with the company continuing in the insurance business
Bank of America
–
The
Bank of America Tower in New York City.
Bank of America
–
Pyramid-shaped Bank of America building towers over
Interstate 410 in
San Antonio,
Texas.
Bank of America
–
Typical Bank of America local office in Los Angeles
Bank of America
–
Bank of America branch in Washington, D.C.
17.
Bank of America Center (Houston)
–
The Bank of America Center is a highrise representing one of the first significant examples of postmodern architecture construction in downtown Houston, Texas. It has three segmented tower setbacks, each with a steeply pitched gabled roofline that is topped off with spires, the tower was developed by Hines Interests and is owned by a joint venture of M-M Properties and an affiliate of the General Electric Pension Trust. The banking center is housed in a building, due to construction problems. There are 32 passenger elevators each finished with wood panels that include Birdseye Maple, Macassar Ebony, Italian Willow, Tamo, the building contains an art gallery in the lobby and plans to host curated exhibitions. At 56 stories the Bank of America Center is the 55th tallest building in the United States and is the seventh tallest building in Texas, the northeast corner of the structure houses a building within a building. On June 9,2001, the building was the site of an accident that took place during Tropical Storm Allison. Building security warned individuals that the below grade parking levels were in danger of flooding and instructed persons working late in the building to move vehicles to upper levels of the garage. Kristie Tautenhahn, an employee of the law firm Mayer, Brown & Platt and she drowned in an elevator car when it filled with water as it descended to the lower floor of the garage. Mayer Brown has its Houston office in Suite 3400
Bank of America Center (Houston)
–
Bank of America Center
Bank of America Center (Houston)
Bank of America Center (Houston)
–
Divisions
18.
Houston
–
Houston is the most populous city in the state of Texas and the fourth-most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million within an area of 667 square miles, it also is the largest city in the southern United States and the seat of Harris County. Located in Southeast Texas near the Gulf of Mexico, it is the city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land. Houston was founded on August 28,1836, near the banks of Buffalo Bayou and incorporated as a city on June 5,1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded, the burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the citys population. Houstons economy has an industrial base in energy, manufacturing, aeronautics. Leading in health care sectors and building equipment, Houston has more Fortune 500 headquarters within its city limits than any city except for New York City. The Port of Houston ranks first in the United States in international waterborne tonnage handled, the city has a population from various ethnic and religious backgrounds and a large and growing international community. Houston is the most diverse city in Texas and has described as the most diverse in the United States. It is home to cultural institutions and exhibits, which attract more than 7 million visitors a year to the Museum District. Houston has a visual and performing arts scene in the Theater District. In August 1836, two real estate entrepreneurs from New York, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, purchased 6,642 acres of land along Buffalo Bayou with the intent of founding a city. The Allen brothers decided to name the city after Sam Houston, the general at the Battle of San Jacinto. The great majority of slaves in Texas came with their owners from the slave states. Sizable numbers, however, came through the slave trade. New Orleans was the center of trade in the Deep South. Thousands of enslaved African Americans lived near the city before the Civil War, many of them near the city worked on sugar and cotton plantations, while most of those in the city limits had domestic and artisan jobs. Houston was granted incorporation on June 5,1837, with James S. Holman becoming its first mayor, in the same year, Houston became the county seat of Harrisburg County and the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas
Houston
–
Clockwise from top: Sam Houston monument,
Downtown Houston,
Houston Ship Channel,
The Galleria,
University of Houston, and the
Christopher C. Kraft Jr. Mission Control Center.
Houston
–
Sam Houston
Houston
–
Houston, c. 1873
Houston
–
Union Station, Houston, Texas (postcard, c. 1911)
19.
Texas
–
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by both area and population. Other major cities include Austin, the second most populous state capital in the U. S. Texas is nicknamed the Lone Star State to signify its former status as an independent republic, and as a reminder of the states struggle for independence from Mexico. The Lone Star can be found on the Texan state flag, the origin of Texass name is from the word Tejas, which means friends in the Caddo language. Due to its size and geologic features such as the Balcones Fault, although Texas is popularly associated with the U. S. southwestern deserts, less than 10 percent of Texas land area is desert. Most of the centers are located in areas of former prairies, grasslands, forests. Traveling from east to west, one can observe terrain that ranges from coastal swamps and piney woods, to rolling plains and rugged hills, the term six flags over Texas refers to several nations that have ruled over the territory. Spain was the first European country to claim the area of Texas, Mexico controlled the territory until 1836 when Texas won its independence, becoming an independent Republic. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as the 28th state, the states annexation set off a chain of events that caused the Mexican–American War in 1846. A slave state before the American Civil War, Texas declared its secession from the U. S. in early 1861, after the Civil War and the restoration of its representation in the federal government, Texas entered a long period of economic stagnation. One Texan industry that thrived after the Civil War was cattle, due to its long history as a center of the industry, Texas is associated with the image of the cowboy. The states economic fortunes changed in the early 20th century, when oil discoveries initiated a boom in the state. With strong investments in universities, Texas developed a diversified economy, as of 2010 it shares the top of the list of the most Fortune 500 companies with California at 57. With a growing base of industry, the leads in many industries, including agriculture, petrochemicals, energy, computers and electronics, aerospace. Texas has led the nation in export revenue since 2002 and has the second-highest gross state product. The name Texas, based on the Caddo word tejas meaning friends or allies, was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves, during Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas, La Provincia de Texas. Texas is the second largest U. S. state, behind Alaska, though 10 percent larger than France and almost twice as large as Germany or Japan, it ranks only 27th worldwide amongst country subdivisions by size. If it were an independent country, Texas would be the 40th largest behind Chile, Texas is in the south central part of the United States of America. Three of its borders are defined by rivers, the Rio Grande forms a natural border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south
Texas
–
Sam Rayburn Reservoir
Texas
–
Flag
Texas
–
Texas Hill Country
Texas
–
Big Bend National Park.
20.
30 Hudson Street
–
30 Hudson Street, also known as Goldman Sachs Tower, is a 238 m, 42-story building in Jersey City, New Jersey. It is the tallest building in New Jersey, completed in 2004, the tower was designed by Walter Choi. It houses offices, a cafeteria, a unit. Provident Bank of New Jersey and Così outlets are located on the ground level. The building is in the Exchange Place area close to a PATH station and is accessible by the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail at the Essex Street, the tower sits on the waterfront overlooking the Hudson River and Lower Manhattan and is visible from all five of the New York City boroughs. On a clear day, the building may be visible from as far away as Highlands, New Jersey 40 miles south and Bear Mountain, royal Bank of Canada currently shares the space, with plans for other professional service firms to take occupancy as well in the near future. Originally the tower was meant to be the centerpiece of an entire Goldman Sachs campus at Exchange Place, which was to include a center, a university. Many of the companys Manhattan-based equity traders refused to move away from Wall Street, delaying the occupation of the buildings top 13 floors, economic development in the 2000s spurred large-scale residential, commercial, and office development along the waterfront. The building is certified under LEED-NC Version 2.0 of the U. S. Green Building Council. The building has been surrounded by pedestrian protective scaffolding since 2010, the company completed construction of another tower in 2010 to house the bulk of their sales and trading departments. It is located at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan just north of Brookfield Place, under their Venice strategy, Goldman Sachs works in conjunction with NY Waterway to shuttle workers between the two buildings on private ferries. The building was used in 2016 by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign to symbolize Goldman Sachs, list of tallest buildings by U. S
30 Hudson Street
–
from
Liberty State Park (2009)
30 Hudson Street
–
From below
30 Hudson Street
–
In context, the Jersey City skyline seen from lower Manhattan
30 Hudson Street
–
At night
21.
Jersey City, New Jersey
–
Jersey City is the second-most-populous city in the U. S. state of New Jersey after Newark. It is the seat of Hudson County as well as the countys largest city. 7% from the 2010 United States Census, when the citys population was at 247,597, ranking the city the 75th-largest in the nation. Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City is bounded on the east by the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay and on the west by the Hackensack River and Newark Bay. After a peak population of 316,715 measured in the 1930 Census, the land comprising what is now Jersey City was inhabited by the Lenape, a collection of tribes. After spending nine days surveying the area and meeting its inhabitants, by 1621, the Dutch West India Company was organized to manage this new territory and in June 1623, New Netherland became a Dutch province, with headquarters in New Amsterdam. Michael Reyniersz Pauw received a grant as patroon on the condition that he would establish a settlement of not fewer than fifty persons within four years. He chose the west bank of the North River and purchased the land from the Lenape and this grant is dated November 22,1630 and is the earliest known conveyance for what are now Hoboken and Jersey City. Pauw, however, was a landlord who neglected to populate the area and was obliged to sell his holdings back to the Company in 1633. That year, a house was built at Communipaw for Jan Evertsen Bout, superintendent of the colony, during Kiefts War, approximately eighty Lenapes were killed by the Dutch in a massacre at Pavonia on the night of February 25,1643. Scattered communities of farmsteads characterized the Dutch settlements at Pavonia, Communipaw, Harsimus, Paulus Hook, Hoebuck, Awiehaken, and other lands behind Kil van Kull. The first village established on what is now Bergen Square in 1660, among the oldest surviving houses in Jersey City are the Newkirk House, the Van Vorst Farmhouse, and the Van Wagenen House. During the American Revolutionary War, the area was in the hands of the British who controlled New York, in the Battle of Paulus Hook Major Light Horse Harry Lee attacked a British fortification on August 19,1779. During the 19th century, former slaves reached Jersey City on one of the four routes of the Underground Railroad that led to the city. The City of Jersey was incorporated by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on January 28,1820, from portions of Bergen Township, while the area was still a part of Bergen County. The city was reincorporated on January 23,1829, and again on February 22,1838, on February 22,1840, it became part of the newly created Hudson County. Soon after the Civil War, the idea arose of uniting all of the towns of Hudson County east of the Hackensack River into one municipality. A bill was approved by the legislature on April 2,1869. An element of the bill provide that only contiguous towns could be consolidated, while a majority of the voters across the county approved the merger, the only municipalities that had approved the consolidation plan and that adjoined Jersey City were Hudson City and Bergen City
Jersey City, New Jersey
–
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
–
Jersey City at the end of the 19th century
Jersey City, New Jersey
–
The ferry docks at the
Communipaw Terminal in Liberty State Park in 1893
22.
Mississippi River
–
The Mississippi River is the chief river of the largest drainage system on the North American continent. Flowing entirely in the United States, it rises in northern Minnesota, with its many tributaries, the Mississippis watershed drains all or parts of 31 U. S. states and 2 Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains. The Mississippi ranks as the fourth longest and fifteenth largest river in the world by discharge, the river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Native Americans long lived along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies. The arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the way of life as first explorers, then settlers. The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, and the early United States, and then as a vital transportation artery and communications link. Formed from thick layers of the silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of the country. In recent years, the river has shown a shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel in the Delta. The word itself comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, see below in the History section for additional information. In addition to historical traditions shown by names, there are at least two measures of a rivers identity, one being the largest branch, and the other being the longest branch. Using the largest-branch criterion, the Ohio would be the branch of the Lower Mississippi. Using the longest-branch criterion, the Middle Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson-Beaverhead-Red Rock-Hellroaring Creek River would be the main branch and its length of at least 3,745 mi is exceeded only by the Nile, the Amazon, and perhaps the Yangtze River among the longest rivers in the world. The source of this waterway is at Browers Spring,8,800 feet above sea level in southwestern Montana and this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase Trans-Mississippi as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. It is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, the New Madrid Seismic Zone along the river is also noteworthy. These various basic geographical aspects of the river in turn underlie its human history and present uses of the waterway, the Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca,1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, however, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river
Mississippi River
–
Mississippi River near Fire Point in
Effigy Mounds National Monument, Iowa
Mississippi River
–
Detailed map of Mississippi River tributary structure
Mississippi River
–
The beginning of the Mississippi River at
Lake Itasca (2004)
Mississippi River
–
Mississippi head of navigation, Coon Rapids Dam
23.
NationsBank
–
NationsBank was one of the largest banking corporations in the United States, based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company named NationsBank was formed through the merger of other banks in 1991. Its oldest predecessor companies had been Commercial National Bank, formed in 1874, in 1998, NationsBank acquired BankAmerica, and modified that better-known name to become Bank of America. NationsBank traced its roots to two banks in Charlotte, Commercial National Bank, the earliest forerunner of NationsBank, was formed in 1874. American Trust Company was founded a few blocks down Tryon Street in 1909, in 1957, American Trust merged with Commercial National to form American Commercial Bank. American Trust was the survivor, and its president, Addison Reese. Only four years later, in 1960, American Commercial merged with Greensboro-based Security National Bank to form North Carolina National Bank, although American Commercial was the nominal survivor, it gave up its North Carolina state charter and took over Securitys national charter. In the early 1970s, it reorganized as the subsidiary of NCNB Corporation. Reese turned over the presidency of NCNB to then 39-year-old Hugh McColl and this was initially a defensive move. At the time, it was feared that the New York City money center banks might devour local Southern banks and it was believed that the only way to prevent this was if the stronger banks in the region became too rich to be taken over. NCNB expanded beyond North Carolina for the first time in 1982, McColl became CEO of NCNB the following year. In 1988, NCNBs assets grew to $60 billion after it bought the failed First RepublicBank Corporation of Dallas, Texas from the FDIC. FirstRepublic, the largest bank in Texas, had entered FDIC receivership after filing bankruptcy in March, by that time, NCNB had become associated with mergers, acquisitions, expansion, integration. From 1989 to 1992, NCNB acquired over 200 thrifts and community banks, favorable terms, with the FDIC assuming most of the loan portfolios and absorbing mark-to-market losses, allowed NCNB to expand profitably, and a cost-cutting culture improved margins. Eventually, NCNB built a network stretching from Virginia to Florida. Partly as a measure, C&S merged with Sovran Financial Corporation of Norfolk. Only two years later, however, C&S/Sovran was nearly brought down by problem loans in the Washington, D. C. /Northern Virginia market and this created the largest bank in the Southeast, with assets of $118 billion. The merger allowed NCNB/NationsBank to enter Tennessee and Maryland for the first time and it also made the bank a major player in Georgia and Virginia, where the bank had only had a minimal presence
NationsBank
–
Divisions
24.
Headquarters
–
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility for managing all business activities, in the UK, the term head office is most commonly used for the HQs of large corporations. The term is also used regarding military organizations, a headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation that takes full responsibility for the overall success of the corporation, and ensures corporate governance. Many companies have an office at a different address to their corporate office. A headquarters normally includes the leader of business unit and his or her staff as well as all functions to manage the business unit, the head of the business unit is responsible for overall result of the business unit. Military headquarters take many forms depending on the size and nature of the unit or formation they command, typically, they are split into the forward, main and rear components, both within NATO nations, and those following the organization and doctrine of the former Soviet Union. The forward or tactical HQs is a group of staff. The main HQs is less mobile and is involved in both the planning and execution of operations, there are a number of staff assembled here from various staff branches to advise the commander, and to control the various aspects of planning and the conduct of discrete operations. A main HQ for a large formation will have a chief of staff who coordinates the staff effort, the rear or logistic HQs is some distance from the battle or front line in conventional operations. The headquarters of the Catholic Church is Vatican City, the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church is in Danilov Monastery, Moscow. The World Council of Churches, including Orthodox Churches, has its headquarters in Geneva, the headquarters of Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is located in Istanbul, Turkey. The headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Anglican Communion Office is in London. In Japanese budō martial arts such as karate, judo, aikido, kendo, there is usually a headquarters for each organization or region. The Japanese word honbu is generally used for that, also outside Japan, sometimes they refer to this headquarters as honbu dojo in which dojo is a facility provided for practicing discipline, the training ground. Sometimes honbu is written as hombu, the way it is pronounced, but according to the Hepburn transcription, weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army Janes, London,516 pp. Wanner, Herbert Global and regional corporate headquarters in, Kählin, Christian, H. Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook, Orell Füssli and Wiley, Wanner, Herbert, LeClef, Xavier, & Shimizu, Hiroshi Global Headquarters on the Move, From Administrators to Facilitators Prims Second Semester 2004, Arthur D. Little
Headquarters
–
The
United Nations Headquarters in
New York City.
Headquarters
–
KBR Tower, the headquarters of
KBR and a part of
Cullen Center, in
Downtown Houston
Headquarters
–
Randall's Food Markets headquarters in
Westchase,
Houston; Randall's is a subsidiary of
Safeway Inc.
25.
Bank of America Corporate Center
–
The Bank of America Corporate Center is an 871 ft skyscraper in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. When completed in 1992, it became and still is the tallest building in North Carolina as well as the tallest building in the Southeastern United States and it is the 174th-tallest building in the world. Designed by Argentine architect César Pelli and HKS Architects, it is the 31st-tallest building in the United States and is the most widely known building in the Charlotte skyline and it is best known as the world headquarters for Bank of America. It is among the tallest buildings on the East Coast behind buildings in New York City, Philadelphia, on Wednesday, December 10,1986, NCNB announced that it would be constructing what would become the Corporate Center. The initial design for the 50 story tower was created by Charlotte-based Odell Associates and its design featured a circular tower complete with a Greek cross lying flat on top to pay homage to the intersection of Trade and Tryon. Additionally, its construction resulted in the demolition of a city block bound by North Tryon, East Trade, North College. The most notable buildings lost in its construction were the Belk department store, constructed in 1908, along East Trade, on Monday, July 20,1987, NCNB announced Lincoln Property as a general partner for the project. With the development team set, the process of hiring an architect of the project commenced in August 1987, the architectural firms that competed for the job included, I. M. Additionally at the conference it was revealed that the tower would be between 55-60 stories tall, sheathed in granite and be officially named the NCNB Corporate Center. After winning the contract, its design was unveiled eight months later to the public on Tuesday, the final design was the 60 floor tower seen today. It features a 30-foot granite base along North Tryon Street followed by a facade of rosy beige granite, on Tuesday, January 3,1989, demolition commenced on the block where the tower would eventually rise. The demolition work would take just over seven months to complete before excavation could commence, site preparation would continue from August through November. During the excavation for the foundation, contractors found threads and flakes of gold embedded within pieces of granite removed from the site, the discovery was not unexpected as Charlotte was the center of Americas first gold rush during the 1830s. On November 19,1989, the concrete pour was completed signaling the beginning of actual construction. The mat foundation consists of a slab containing 3,500 cubic yards of concrete and 150 tons of reinforcing steel at the center of the tower. The foundation reaches 38 feet below Tryon Street at its deepest point with the tower being supported by 36 concrete and these piers are able to withstand the 150,000 pounds of pressure per square foot placed upon them by the 300 million pound structure. After only a couple of months, construction was halted after Hurricane Hugo slammed Charlotte with 90 mph winds causing some damage on-site on Friday. By November 1990, the tower had reached its 30th floor, the tower was officially topped-out on Wednesday, October 2,1991 with the final concrete pour completed
Bank of America Corporate Center
–
Bank of America Corporate Center is located in the center of
Uptown Charlotte
Bank of America Corporate Center
–
Bank Of America Corporate Center Architectural Model At
Levine Museum of the New South
Bank of America Corporate Center
–
The Bank of America Corporate Center, with its crown lit in blue for a Carolina Panthers home night game.
Bank of America Corporate Center
–
Bank of America Corporate Center, the tallest skyscraper between Philadelphia and Atlanta.
26.
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Charlotte /ˈʃɑːrlət/ is the largest city in the state of North Carolina. It is the county seat of Mecklenburg County and the second-largest city in the southeastern United States, just behind Jacksonville, Charlotte is the third-fastest growing major city in the United States. In 2014 the estimated population of Charlotte according to the U. S. Census Bureau was 809,958, the Charlotte metropolitan area ranks 22nd-largest in the U. S. and had a 2014 population of 2,380,314. The Charlotte metropolitan area is part of a sixteen-county market region or combined statistical area with a 2014 U. S. Census population estimate of 2,537,990, residents of Charlotte are referred to as Charlotteans. It is listed as a global city by the Globalization. Charlotte Douglas International Airport is an international hub, and was ranked the 23rd-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic in 2013. Charlotte has a subtropical climate. The city is located several miles east of the Catawba River and southeast of Lake Norman, Lake Wylie and Mountain Island Lake are two smaller man-made lakes located near the city. The Catawba Native Americans were the first to settle Mecklenburg County and were first recorded in European records around 1567, by 1759 half the Catawba tribe had been killed by smallpox. At the time of their largest population, Catawba people numbered 10,000, Mecklenburg County was initially part of Bath County of New Hanover Precinct, which became New Hanover County in 1729. The western portion of New Hanover split into Bladen County in 1734, Mecklenburg County formed from Anson County in 1762. Further apportionment was made in 1792, with Cabarrus County formed from Mecklenburg and these areas were all part of one of the original six judicial/military districts of North Carolina known as the Salisbury District. The area that is now Charlotte was settled by people of European descent around 1755, Thomas Polk, who later married Thomas Spratts daughter, built his house by the intersection of two Native American trading paths between the Yadkin and Catawba rivers. One path ran north–south and was part of the Great Wagon Road, within decades of Polks settling, the area grew to become Charlotte Town, incorporating in 1768. The crossroads, perched atop the Piedmont landscape, became the heart of Uptown Charlotte, in 1770, surveyors marked the streets in a grid pattern for future development. The east–west trading path became Trade Street, and the Great Wagon Road became Tryon Street, in honor of William Tryon, the intersection of Trade and Tryon—commonly known today as Trade & Tryon, or simply The Square—is more properly called Independence Square. While surveying the boundary between the Carolinas in 1772, William Moultrie stopped in Charlotte Town, whose five or six houses were very ordinary built of logs, local leaders came together in 1775 and signed the Mecklenburg Resolves, more popularly known as the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. While not a declaration of independence from British rule, it is among the first such declarations that eventually led to the American Revolution
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Clockwise:
UNC Charlotte,
Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture,
Duke Energy Center, Charlotte's skyline, First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, Charlotte Main Library and
NASCAR Hall of Fame building
Charlotte, North Carolina
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View of the Old Court House, Charlotte, 1888.
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Uptown Charlotte's skyline
Charlotte, North Carolina
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Little Sugar Creek Greenway in winter
27.
Donald Trump
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Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Prior to entering politics he was a businessman and television personality, Trump was born and raised in Queens, New York City, and earned an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He then took charge of The Trump Organization, the estate and construction firm founded by his paternal grandmother, which he ran for four. During his real career, Trump has built, renovated, and managed numerous office towers, hotels, casinos. Besides real estate, he started several ventures and has lent the use of his name for the branding of various products. He owned the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants from 1996 to 2015, and he hosted The Apprentice, as of 2017, Forbes listed him as the 544th wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $3.5 billion. Trump first publicly expressed interest in running for office in 1987. He won two Reform Party presidential primaries in 2000, but withdrew his candidacy early on, in June 2015, he launched his campaign for the 2016 presidential election and quickly emerged as the front-runner among 17 candidates in the Republican primaries. His final opponents suspended their campaigns in May 2016, and in July he was nominated at the Republican National Convention along with Indiana governor Mike Pence as his running mate. His campaign received unprecedented media coverage and international attention, many of the statements he made at rallies, in interviews, or on social media were controversial or false. Trump won the election on November 8,2016, in a surprise victory against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. His political positions have been described by scholars and commentators as populist, protectionist, Trump was born on June 14,1946 at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, Queens, New York City. He was the fourth of five born to Frederick Christ Fred Trump. His siblings are Maryanne, Fred Jr. Elizabeth, and Robert, Trumps ancestors originated from the village of Kallstadt, Palatinate, Germany on his fathers side, and from the Outer Hebrides isles of Scotland on his mothers side. All his grandparents, and his mother, were born in Europe and his mothers grandfather was also christened Donald. On a visit to his village, he met Elisabeth Christ. He died from the flu pandemic of 1918 and Elizabeth incorporated the family real estate business, Elizabeth Trump and Son, which would later become The Trump Organization. Trumps father Fred was born in the Bronx, and worked with his mother since he was 15 as a real estate developer, primarily in the New York boroughs of Queens and he eventually built and sold thousands of houses, barracks and apartments
Donald Trump
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Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald Trump
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The Trump Organization owns, operates, develops and invests in real estate around the world such as
Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago.
Donald Trump
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Trump Tower, at 725
Fifth Avenue, in
Midtown Manhattan
28.
William Wurster
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William Wilson Wurster was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley, and at MIT, best known for his residential designs in California. Wurster was born on 20 October 1895 in Stockton, California and his family encouraged him to observe, read and draw but Wurster often admitted later in life, to holding more of an intellectual gift, rather than a drawing gift. As a child, he held a relationship with his father. This, Wurster later reflected, was to him the workings. During his years at Stockton Public High School, Wurster worked in the office of Edgar B, brown, an Englishman known for designing the Stockton Hotel and the Childrens Home of Stockton, who was often regarded as one of Stocktons most influential architects. While there, he acted as a boy, drawing plans, making measured drawings. Wurster enrolled at the university in 1913, receiving a classical Beaux Arts education from notable Berkeley teachers such as Warren Perry, while there, Wurster joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, where he was taught both to get on with people and express himself. When a physical ailment kept Wurster from voluntary military service in World War I, he studied engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1919, once he had completed a tour of duty in the South Pacific. For the next two years, he worked designing the city of Sacramentos water filtration plant, during this time, he also worked independently, designing several small residences. In April 1922, he became an architect within California. Rockefeller Estate at Pocantico Hills and Otto Kahns château at Cold Spring Harbor, in 1924 William Adams Delano lent Wurster money to open his own office and he returned to the Bay Area to open it in the Hotel Whitecotton in Berkeley. Wurster designed hundreds of California houses in the 1920s through the 1940s using indigenous materials, in 1940, Wurster married Catherine Bauer, an influential figure in her own right in the field of public housing. He met Bauer attending the Harvard Graduate School of Design, both taking classes from the German Socialist city planner Martin Wagner, both Bauer and Wurster withstood accusations of disloyalty from the California Tenney Committee during the Red Scare of the late 1940s. Also in 1945, Wurster co-founded the firm Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons with Theodore Bernardi, in 1950, he was named dean of the UC Berkeley Architecture school. He served as its dean until his retirement in 1963 for health reasons, Wurster Hall is named in his and his wifes honor. Among Wursters students was the award-winning architect John Desmond in Baton Rouge, jim Webb, who taught at the University of North Carolina and was an influential architect in Chapel Hill, worked with Wurster for a while. Many 1930s homes in the Pasatiempo community just outside Santa Cruz, Wurster, Toward a Simpler Way of Life, The Arts & Crafts Architects of California Norfleet Press Book/University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles London,1997, pp. 245–254
William Wurster
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Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco
29.
Pietro Belluschi
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Pietro Belluschi was an Italian-born American architect, a leader of the Modern Movement in architecture, and was responsible for the design of over 1,000 buildings. Born in Italy, Belluschis architectural career began as a draftsman in a Portland, Oregon and he achieved a national reputation within about 20 years, largely for his 1947 aluminum-clad Equitable Building. He won the 1972 AIA Gold Medal, pietro Belluschi was born in Ancona, Italy, in 1899. He grew up in Italy and served in the Italian armed forces during World War I when Italy was allied with Great Britain, France, serving in the army he fought against the Austrians at the battles of Caporetto and Vittorio Veneto. After the war, Belluschi studied at the University of Rome and he moved to the United States in 1923, despite speaking no English, and finished his education—as an exchange student on a scholarship—at Cornell University with a second degree in civil engineering. Instead of returning to Italy, he worked briefly as an engineer in Idaho earning $5 per day. He remained in the U. S. as friends in Italy had cautioned him to not return home because of the rise to power of Benito Mussolini, at Doyles office, Belluschi rose rapidly, soon becoming chief designer. After Doyle died in 1928, the firm took him into partnership in 1933, by 1943, Belluschi had assumed control of the firm by buying out all the other partners and was practicing under his own name. In 1951, Belluschi became Dean of the architecture and planning school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, when he accepted the position of dean and moved to Massachusetts, he transferred his office in Portland to the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The move reduced his income from $150,000 to a salary of $15,000. Belluschis churches and residences differed from his commercial works, Belluschi was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1952. In 1953, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and he served as a presidential appointee on the U. S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1950 to 1955 and he was a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects, and was awarded the AIA Gold Medal, the highest award given by the institute, in 1972. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1991 for his lifetime achievements, Belluschi was on the jury that selected the winning design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. After leaving MIT in 1965, he continued to work, Belluschi would design and consult on both buildings and issues surrounding urban planning. Pietro Belluschi was married first to Helen Hemmila on December 1,1934, after her death in 1962, he married in 1965 Marjorie or Margaret. Pietro Belluschi died in Portland on February 14,1994
Pietro Belluschi
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Pietro Belluschi
Pietro Belluschi
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Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption in
San Francisco
Pietro Belluschi
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Belluschi resided in the
Aloha Farmhouse from 1973 until his death in 1994.
Pietro Belluschi
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Commonwealth Building in Portland.
30.
Bay window
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A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Bay window is a term for all protruding window constructions. The most common inside angles are 90,135 and 150 degrees, a bay window with a flat front and angled sides is called canted. A bay window supported by a corbel, bracket or similar is called an oriel window, most medieval bay windows and up to the baroque era are oriel windows. They frequently appear as a highly ornamented addition to the rather than an organic part of it. Particularly during the Gothic period they frequently contain small house chapels, with the oriel window containing an altar, especially in Nuremberg these are even called Chörlein with the most famous example being the one from the parsonage of St. Sebaldus Church. Oriental oriel windows such as the Arab Mashrabiya are frequently made of wood, because there is a close similarity to the use of a balcony, it is difficult to define if they are indeed oriel windows or a special type of balcony. Bay windows became a popular feature of residential Victorian architecture in the British Isles from about the 1870s. They can be found in terraced houses, semis and detached houses as well as in blocks of flats, based on British models, their use spread to other English speaking countries like the USA, Canada and Australia. Bretèche Bay window caboose Oriel window Bow window Gagnon, Jerome, gaining bonus space and light with bay windows
Bay window
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Typical residential canted bay window, rising from the ground
Bay window
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Interior of a multi-story bay window in
Chicago,
Illinois
Bay window
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Chörlein at the parsonage of
St. Sebaldus Church,
Nuremberg, before 1361
Bay window
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A bay window in
Turl Street belonging to
Exeter College, Oxford
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