[PW] Tallest and most impossible building question

[Fuller, Thomas (US - Washington D.C.)]

James Gleick, in his book <Faster>, has an extensive discussion of the practical limits of building heights, including a proposal by Frank Lloyd Wright to build a mile-high building.  He reports that those who have examined these issues have concluded that the problem is not structural integrity -- a very tall building could easily be made secure -- but (of all things) elevators.  At a certain point, the volume of the building would become equal to the volume of the elevators required to transport people to the highest floors (because the taller the building, the more people in it), and after that you just can't build any taller unless people are willing to climb 300 flights of stairs every day.  (Even that impractical plan might ultimately be limited by staircase volume.)  And the speed of the elevators would be limited, too, unless you want people to get a version of the bends when they ascend.
 
-- Tom 

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