1.
San Francisco
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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
2.
California
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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
3.
The Trump Organization
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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
4.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
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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
5.
Skyscraper
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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
6.
Financial District, San Francisco
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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
7.
One Worldwide Plaza
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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
8.
New York City
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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
9.
Bank of America
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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
10.
Houston
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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
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