When it comes to skyscrapers, upcoming lecture asks ‘How High Can We Go?’

While Frank Lloyd Wright’s 60-year-old sketch of a mile-high skyscraper may still be a pie-in-the-sky fantasy, the age of the megatall (2,000-foot) building has firmly arrived. And with the world’s first so-called hypertall (3,000-foot) skyscraper under construction in Saudi Arabia, is the sky really the limit when it comes to the height of future buildings? An upcoming lecture series hosted by the Chicago Architectural Foundation aims to explore that very question and will discuss realities and limitations ranging “from physics to finances.”

Titled Building Tall: How High Can We Go?, the CAF event will be presented in partnership with the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and is to be moderated by CTBUH executive director Antony Wood. Expert panelists signed up to speak include Gordon Gill of architectural firm AS+GG, Ian Smith of thyssenkrupp Elevator Technology, and structural engineer Richard L. Tomasetti of New York-based Thornton Tomasetti.

Scheduled for March 16th at CAF’s lecture hall at 224 S. Michigan Ave at 6:00, the event will cost $20 per ticket for the general public and $12 for CAF and CTBUH members. Admission includes complimentary beer, wine, or soft drinks. Click here to learn more about the featured panelists and to register for the event.

Building Tall is the first of four planned engagements comprising CAF’s 2017 Skyscraper Lecture Series. Upcoming topics, dates, and speaker line-ups are expected to be announced soon.

• Building Tall: How High Can We Go? [Chicago Architecture Foundation]
• Is Plan for World's Tallest Tower Outgrowing Commercial Possibilities? [Curbed]
• What It Will Take to Finally Build the Mile-High Skyscraper? [Curbed]