The Seven Sisters are a group of seven skyscrapers in Moscow designed in the Stalinist style. They were built from 1947 to 1953. At the time of construction, they were the tallest buildings in Europe, and the main building of Moscow State University remained the tallest building in Europe until 1990.
The main building of Moscow State University, one of the Seven Sisters
Moscow skyscrapers plan 1 — Moscow State University 2 — Hotel Ukraina 3 — Kudrinskaya Square Building 4 — Ministry of Foreign Affairs 5 — Palace of the Soviets (never built) 6 — Zaryadye Administrative Building (never built) 7 — Leningradskaya Hotel 8 — Red Gates Administrative Building 9 — Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building
Miniature sheet of the First Congress of Soviet Architects showing the Palace of the Soviets, 1937.
Moscow State University
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least 100 meters (330 ft) or 150 meters (490 ft) in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise buildings. Historically, the term first referred to buildings with between 10 and 20 stories when these types of buildings began to be constructed in the 1880s. Skyscrapers may host offices, hotels, residential spaces, and retail spaces.
Completed in 2009, the Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is currently[update] the tallest building in the world, with a height of 829.8 meters (2,722 ft). The setbacks at various heights are a typical skyscraper feature.
By some measures, what came to be known as a "skyscraper" first appeared in Chicago with the 1885 completion of the world's first largely steel-frame structure, the Home Insurance Building. It was demolished in 1931.
Built in 1864, Oriel Chambers in Liverpool is the world's first metal framed glass curtain walled building. The stone mullions are decorative.
Wainwright Building (1891) in St. Louis