title: Daniel Lubetzky

text: In April 2020, Lubetzky's Kind Foundation launched the Frontline Impact Project in consultation with Project N95. The project is a platform for healthcare and other frontline responders to request resources needed in the fight against COVID-19.  As of May 14, Frontline Impact Project has partnered with more than 40 brands like Unilever, Nestle, and Mars Incorporated, reaching more than 180,000 people working mostly in hospitals, nursing homes, and outpatient medical practices.


title: Righteous Kill

text: Righteous Kill is a 2008 American action thriller film directed by Jon Avnet and written by Russell Gewirtz. The film stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino as New York City Police Department detectives on the hunt for a serial killer. It is the third film in which both De Niro and Pacino appear in starring roles (after "The Godfather Part II" and "Heat"), and also stars John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy, and Curtis Jackson.


title: Righteous Kill

text: "Righteous Kill" was released in the United States on September 12, 2008. The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $74 million against a $60 million budget.


title: Righteous Kill

text: Police psychologists review recordings of a man (Robert De Niro), who states his name as Detective David Fisk, the "Poetry Boy" killer. The Poetry Boy earned the moniker for his modus operandi of murdering criminals and leaving short poems with their bodies. Fisk reveals that he looks up to his partner of almost 30 years, Detective Tom Cowan (whom the audience is led to believe is the character portrayed by Al Pacino), and considers him to be his role model of how a cop should be. Pacino's character is known by the nickname "Rooster" and De Niro's by "Turk", and they are referred to as such outside of the recordings.


title: Righteous Kill

text: These recordings provide a narrative, and the film opens with the tenth victim, a pimp named Robert "Rambo" Brady (Rob Dyrdek). Turk and Rooster investigate the murder with the less-experienced detectives Karen Corelli (Carla Gugino), Simon Perez (John Leguizamo), and Ted Riley (Donnie Wahlberg). When they find a poem on the body, the cops link it to Poetry Boy.


title: Righteous Kill

text: As Poetry Boy murders acquitted rapist Jonathan Van Luytens and Father Connell, a Catholic priest and child molester (whose victims included Poetry Boy himself), tensions escalate between Turk, Corelli, and Perez. Turk is now living with Corelli, who happens to be Perez's ex-girlfriend. Poetry Boy assaults an intended fourteenth victim, Russian mobster Yevgeny Magulat (who survives), and goes on to shoot at Perez's house and rape Corelli. Perez and Riley suspect Turk of being Poetry Boy due to his marksmanship skills and psych evaluations, so they arrange a secretly supervised meeting between Turk and suspected drug dealer Marcus "Spider" Smith (Curtis Jackson), during which Turk supposedly must kill him. Turk proves his innocence during an encounter with this drug dealer as he has the "wrong" gun and humiliating but obviously inappropriate poem. After Perez and Riley leave the scene unsatisfied, Rooster kills Spider. During this scrape, Rooster inadvertently drops his journal.


title: Righteous Kill

text: Turk stumbles upon and reads Rooster's journal; Rooster claims Spider as Poetry Boy's fourteenth victim. Rooster puts Turk in front of a video camera and forces him to read the journal. At this point, it is revealed that the narration set Turk up as a red herring, and Rooster is the actual Poetry Boy. Turk's name is actually Tom Cowan, and Rooster's is David Fisk. Rooster lost his faith in the justice system when Turk planted a gun at the house of acquitted child molester and murderer Charles Randall (Frank John Hughes), convicting him. This leads Rooster to take the law into his own hands as the vigilante serial killer known as Poetry Boy.


title: Righteous Kill

text: When Turk finishes, he chases Rooster to a construction site. Rooster fires aimlessly to convince Turk to report that the Poetry Boy is assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and fleeing, but Turk resists. When Rooster takes aim at Turk, Turk fires, striking Rooster in the chest. Turk calls for an ambulance, but Rooster begs Turk to let him die. After some hesitation, Turk calls off the paramedics, allowing Rooster to succumb to his wounds. He is last shown coaching a Police Athletic League baseball team as Corelli looks on.


title: Righteous Kill

text: On Rotten Tomatoes reported that 18% of 147 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Al Pacino and Robert De Niro do their best to elevate this dowdy genre exercise, but even these two greats can't resuscitate the film's hackneyed script." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".


title: Righteous Kill

text: "The Times" included "Righteous Kill" on its 100 Worst Films of 2008 list. Keith Phipps of "The Onion"'s "A.V. Club" said, "The novelty of watching De Niro and Pacino team up wears off pretty quickly, [with them] trudging through a thriller that would have felt warmed over in 1988. Director Jon Avnet doesn't offer much compensation for the absent suspense." James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" gave the film two stars (out of four), saying: "This isn't just generic material; it's generic material with a dumb ending, and the director is a journeyman, not a craftsman. ... Its failure to live up to even modest expectations is a blow. There's nothing righteous to be found here."


title: Righteous Kill

text: Ken Fox of "TV Guide" also gave "Righteous Kill" a score of two stars out of four, saying: "The entire movie is one big build-up to a twist that, while not exactly cheating, plays an awfully cheap trick. To get there, writer Russel Gewirtz and director John Avnet sacrifice mystery, suspense, sensible editing and everything else one expects to find in a police thriller just to keep the audience off-guard. It's not worth it, and the first real pairing of De Niro and Pacino is utterly wasted." (The two actors had co-starred in "The Godfather Part II" without appearing on screen together and in "Heat", sharing the screen in just two scenes.)


title: Righteous Kill

text: Claudia Puig of "USA Today" gave the film one and a half stars out of four, saying: "By the time the movie reaches its protracted conclusion, it feels like a slog. Pacino has a few funny lines, as does Leguizamo, but not nearly enough to save the film from collapsing under the weight of its own self-righteous tedium." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" gave "Righteous Kill" one star out of four, saying: "Some people think Robert De Niro and Al Pacino would be a kick to watch just reading a phone book. Well, bring on that phone book. "Righteous Kill", a.k.a. "The Al and Bob Show", is a cop flick with all the drama of "Law & Order: AARP"." However, Richard Roeper gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and Tim Evans for "Sky Movies" remarked that the film was "... an effective whodunnit but—more importantly—it poses refined, complex questions about how the law operates in a so-called civilised society."


title: Righteous Kill

text: Al Pacino earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actor for his performance in the film (and for "88 Minutes", also directed by Jon Avnet), but "lost" the award to Mike Myers for "The Love Guru".


title: Righteous Kill

text: "Righteous Kill" grossed $40.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $38.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $78.5 million.


title: Righteous Kill

text: In its opening weekend, "Righteous Kill" opened at #3, grossing $16.3 million, behind "The Family That Preys" and "Burn After Reading". It made $7.4 million in its second weekend and $3.7 million the following two weekends. Overture Films paid $12 million to acquire the film, and stated that they would be happy if this film could gross $25 million in the United States theatrically. By comparison, "Heat", which starred Pacino and De Niro in 1995, grossed over $180 million worldwide.


title: Righteous Kill

text: The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 6, 2009. As of February 2009, 778,760 DVD units had been sold, gathering $16.9 million in revenue.


title: Annette Haven

text: Annette Haven (born December 1, 1954) is an American former pornographic actress popular during the 1970s and 1980s.


title: Annette Haven

text: Haven was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, and raised in a Mormon family. Haven later claimed that part of her reason for entering porn was that she wanted to show that "sex is not sinful" and could be pleasurable. When she was 17 years old, she married her boyfriend, but they were divorced two years later. Following the dissolution of her marriage, Haven moved to San Francisco, where she began dancing in erotic shows, and she eventually worked as a stripper. While working in one of the strip clubs, she met porn star Bonnie Holiday and moved in with her and Holiday's boyfriend.


title: Annette Haven

text: She was introduced to the sex industry through a role in a film called "Lady Freaks" in 1973 starring Holiday. Annette Haven went on to work in nearly 100 porn movies, including "Desires Within Young Girls" (1977), "Barbara Broadcast" (1977), "A Coming of Angels" (1977), "Obsessed" (1977), "Sex World" (1977), "Dracula Sucks" (aka "Lust At First Bite") (1978), "Maraschino Cherry" (1978), "Charli" (1981) and "The Grafenberg Spot" (1985).


title: Annette Haven

text: Haven had a mainstream cameo role in Blake Edwards's "10". Subsequently, she was considered to play the lead female role in "Body Double", but it was eventually given to Melanie Griffith, who, according to director Brian De Palma, got the role because she gave a better dramatic screen test than Haven. Afterwards she became one of the director's consultants for the film and as a coach for Griffith. Before filming "Body Double" De Palma commented, "I'm already thinking of casting. I don't know if there's any good young porno stars out here, but the older ones—Annette Haven, Seka—some of them can really act. And Annette Haven has a terrific body."


title: Lee Sang-yi (actor)

text: Lee Sang-yi (; born November 27, 1991) is a South Korean actor, musical actor and singer. He is best known for his roles in "Once Again" (2020), "Youth of May" (2021), and "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" (2021). As a singer, he is best known for being a member of the vocal group MSG Wannabe.


title: Lee Sang-yi (actor)

text: Lee Sang-yi first came across acting when he did an English play in 6th grade in elementary school. In 2008, when he was student at Anyang Arts High School, he covered Rain's Rainism dance and won 1st place in the UCC contest. He went on to study acting at Korea National University of Arts.


title: Lee Sang-yi (actor)

text: Lee Sang-yi made his debut in 2014 with the musical "Grease". Later in 2017, he made his first television appearance when he joined the cast of the drama "Manhole" and portrayed Oh Dal-soo. In November of the same year he featured in the "Prison Playbook" series.


title: Lee Sang-yi (actor)

text: On March 28, 2020, he starred in the weekend drama "Once Again", in which he played dentist Yoon Jae-suk. With the drama's success, he gained tremendous popularity among viewers and received a lot of love for his role that became known as the national in-law.


title: Lee Sang-yi (actor)

text: In May 2021, he joined the cast of the "Youth of May". And also on May, 2021, Lee was revealed as one of the MSG Wannabe members who passed on variety show program Hangout with Yoo and debuted as a member of MSG Wannabe and was part of the sub-unit JSDK. In June 2021, he was confirmed to star in the tvN drama "Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha" in which he portrayed Ji Sung-hyun, a workaholic variety show director who has a bright personality. At the end of 2021, Lee became an MC for the 2021 MBC Entertainment Awards with Jun Hyun-moo and Kim Se-jeong.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Shipping Forecast is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The forecasts sent over the Navtex system use a similar format and the same sea areas. The waters around the British Isles are divided into 31 sea areas, also known as weather areas (see map below). There are currently four broadcasts per day at the following (UK local) times:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The 00:48, 12:01 and 17:54 forecasts are read by the duty announcer, but the 05:20 forecast is read by the weather forecaster (there being no separate Radio 4 continuity operation at that time). The unique and distinctive presentation style of these broadcasts has led to their attracting an audience much wider than that directly interested in maritime weather conditions.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In October 1859, the steam clipper "Royal Charter" was wrecked in a strong storm off Anglesey; 450 people lost their lives. Due to this loss, Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy introduced a warning service for shipping in February 1861, using telegraph communications. This remained the United Kingdom's Met Office primary responsibility for some time afterwards. In 1911, the Met Office began issuing marine weather forecasts which included gale and storm warnings via radio transmission for areas around Great Britain. This service was discontinued during and following the First World War, between 1914 and June 1921, and again during the Second World War between 1939 and 1945.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Today, although most ships have onboard technology to provide the Forecast's information, they still use it to check their data.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: On Friday 30 May 2014, for the first time in more than 90 years, BBC Radio 4 failed to broadcast the Shipping Forecast at 0520. Staff at Broadcasting House were reading out the report but it was not transmitted. Listeners instead heard BBC World Service.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: On 30 March 2020, as a result of emergency rescheduling because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of bulletins a day was reduced to three as follows:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The previous pattern of four forecasts a day was reinstated on 6 July 2020, but with the early morning forecast still at 05:33 instead of 05:20. On 13 July 2020, the early morning forecast reverted to 05:20 and "News Briefing" was reinstated.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The 31 sea areas deemed, officially, of relevance to the British Isles are as shown in this list (and map):


title: Shipping Forecast

text: These areas still largely follow the format of the chart adopted in 1949. In 1955, meteorologists from countries bordering the North Sea met and recommended the following changes: that the area Heligoland be renamed German Bight, to conform with the name generally used by other countries; that a new area, Fisher, be split off from the north-eastern half of Dogger; that a new area, Viking, be split off from the northern half of Forties; and that the area Iceland be renamed Southeast Iceland to clarify its position. After international consultation, these were adopted in 1956. In August 1984, to conform with common North Sea area boundaries agreed upon by neighbouring countries, the areas North Utsire and South Utsire were created. The area Finisterre was renamed FitzRoy in 2002 to conform with the name used by France and Spain. Some names differ elsewhere; notably the Dutch KNMI and Norwegian counterpart names Forties the Fladen Ground, while uses for Dover, for Wight, for Portland and for Plymouth.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The forecast follows the order above, going clockwise around the British Isles, with each area except Irish Sea and Fair Isle bordering the previous. Trafalgar is only included in the 00:48 forecast, except when gales or more are due there.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Shipping Forecast includes a "general situation" update for the British Isles, followed by a forecast for inshore waters of the United Kingdom, divided by area. These areas are:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The forecast, excluding the header line, has a limit of 350 words—except for the 0048 broadcast, where it is increased to 380 to accommodate Trafalgar's inclusion—and has a very strict format. It begins with "And now the Shipping Forecast, issued by the Met Office on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency at xxxx today." This format is followed quite strictly, although some continuity announcers read out the actual date of issue as opposed to the word "today". This is followed by gale warnings (winds of force 8 or more on the Beaufort scale), if any (e.g., "There are warnings of gales in Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, and Fair Isle"). This sometimes follows the opposite format (e.g., "There are warnings of gales in all areas except Biscay, Trafalgar and FitzRoy").


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The "General Synopsis" follows, giving the position, pressure (in millibars) and track of pressure areas (e.g., "Low, Rockall, 987, deepening rapidly, expected Fair Isle 964 by 0700 tomorrow"). Each area's forecast is then read out. Several areas may be combined into a single forecast where the conditions are expected to be similar. Wind direction is given first, then strength (on the Beaufort scale), followed by precipitation, if any, and (usually) lastly visibility. Forecast times are spelled out as digits on the 24-hour clock, for example "two-three-double-O", and barometric pressures are pronounced as whole numbers, for example "a thousand and five".


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Change in wind direction is indicated by "veering" (clockwise change) or "backing" (anti-clockwise change). Winds at or above force 8 are also described by name for emphasis, i.e., Gale 8, Severe Gale 9, Storm 10, Violent Storm 11 and Hurricane force 12. The word "force" is only officially used when announcing force 12 winds. Visibility is given in the format "Good", meaning that the visibility is greater than ; "Moderate", where visibility is between nautical miles; "Poor", where visibility is between 1,000 metres and two nautical miles and "Fog", where visibility is less than . When severe winter cold combines with strong winds and a cold sea, icing can occur, normally only in sea area Southeast Iceland; if expected, icing warnings (light, moderate or severe) are given as the last item of each sea area forecast.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: With regard to the timing of weather events, the words "Imminent", "Soon" and "Later" are used and are tightly defined. "Imminent" means within 6 hours, "Soon" means within 6 to 12 hours and "Later" means within 12 to 24 hours.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: On 10 January 1993, during the Braer Storm, a record North Atlantic low pressure of 914 mb was recorded. The shipping forecast was:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: With the information provided in the Shipping Forecast it is possible to compile a pressure chart for the coasts of northwestern Europe. Extended shipping forecasts (0520 and 0048) also include weather reports from a list of additional coastal stations and automatic weather logging stations, which are known by their names, such as "Channel Light Vessel Automatic"; these are the Coastal Weather Stations. This additional information does not fall within the 350/380-word restriction. (RTÉ Radio 1 broadcasts similar coastal reports for Ireland).


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Shipping Forecast is broadcast on BBC Radio 4 because its longwave signal can be received clearly at sea all around the British Isles regardless of time of day or radio conditions. For the same reason, the Shipping Forecast was broadcast in the BBC National Programme until September 1939, and then after the Second World War on the BBC Light Programme (later BBC Radio 2) until November 1978: these services were all broadcast on longwave. When BBC Radio 4 took over the longwave frequency from Radio 2 on 23 November 1978, the Shipping Forecast was moved to Radio 4 to keep it broadcasting on longwave.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The last broadcast of the Shipping Forecast at 0048 each day is traditionally preceded by the playing of "Sailing By", a light orchestral piece by Ronald Binge. This is only very rarely omitted, generally when the schedule is running late. Though occasionally played in full, it is common for only a section of the piece to be broadcast; that section being the length required to fill the gap between the previous programme's ending and the start of the forecast at precisely 0048. "Sailing By" serves as an identification tool – it is distinctive and as such assists anyone attempting to tune in. The forecast is then followed by the national anthem "God Save the King" and the closedown of the station for the day, with the BBC World Service taking over the frequencies after the pips of the Greenwich Time Signal at 0100.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Shipping Forecast should not be confused with similar broadcasts given by HM Coastguard to vessels at sea tuned into marine VHF and MF radio frequencies.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: HM Coastguard's broadcasts can only be heard by vessels or persons using or tuned into marine VHF and MF radio frequencies, whereas the Shipping Forecast can be heard by anyone tuned into BBC Radio 4.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Coastguard's broadcasts follow the same format as the shipping forecast using the same terminology and style, but the information only normally applies to the area sector or region covered by that particular Coastguard Co-ordination Centre (such as the Bristol Channel, for instance).


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Announcements of pending broadcasts by HMCG are given on marine channel 16 VHF and is announced with "Securite. All stations. This is Milford Haven Coastguard... For the Maritime Safety Information, list on Channel 62. This is Milford Haven Coastguard."


title: Shipping Forecast

text: A similar broadcast on MF is initially announced on 2182 kHz, with a further frequency specified, e.g., 1770 kHz. VHF optimum range is approximately 30 nautical miles (nmi), effectively line of sight, whereas MF range is much greater at approximately 150nmi, allowing ships in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea to receive the broadcast.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: On 18 December 1993, as part of the Arena Radio Night, BBC Radio 4 and BBC 2 collaborated on a one off simulcast so the shipping forecast – read that night by Laurie Macmillan – could be seen as well as heard. To date, it is the only time that it has been broadcast on television.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In addition, a limited shipping forecast concerning the Lundy, Portland and Plymouth sea areas was included as part of the closing down routines of the former ITV companies for South West England, Westward Television and latterly Television South West, until the late 1980s.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The Shipping Forecast is immensely popular with the British public; it attracts listeners in the hundreds of thousands daily – far more than actually require it. In 1995, a plan to move the late night broadcast by 12 minutes triggered angry newspaper editorials and debates in the UK Parliament and was ultimately scrapped. Similar outcry greeted the Met Office's decision to rename Finisterre to FitzRoy, but in that case, the decision was carried through. Peter Jefferson, who read the Forecast for 40 years until 2009, says that he received letters from listeners across the UK saying that the 0048 broadcast helped them get to sleep after a long day. The Controller of BBC Radio 4, Mark Damazer, attempted to explain its popularity:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Soanes also wrote the foreword to "The Shipping Forecast Puzzle Book" (BBC Books, 2020), in which he explains:The forecast gives the wind direction and force, atmospheric pressure, visibility and the state of the sea. It is a nightly litany with a rhythm and indefinable poetry that have made it popular with millions of people who never have cause to put to sea and have little idea what it actually means; a reminder that whilst you're tucked-up safely under the bedclothes, far out over the waves it's a wilder and more dangerous picture, one that captures the imagination and leads it into uncharted waters whilst you sleep. Dependable, reassuring and never hurried, in these especially uncertain times The Shipping Forecast is a still small voice of calm across the airwaves.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Frank Muir and Denis Norden parodied the Shipping Forecast in a song written for an episode of "Take It From Here":


title: Shipping Forecast

text: "Dead Ringers" parodied the Shipping Forecast using Brian Perkins rapping the forecast ("Dogger, Fisher, German Bight – becoming quite cyclonic. Occasional showers making you feel cat-atatatatatata-tonic..."). Many other versions have been used including a "Dale Warning" to warn where Dale Winton could be found over the coming period, and a spoof in which sailors are warned of ghostly galleons and other nightmarish apparitions.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Stephen Fry, in his 1988 radio programme "Saturday Night Fry", issued the following "Shipping Forecast" in the first episode of the programme:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The BBC Radio 4 monologue sketch show "One" features a number of Shipping Forecast parodies, written by David Quantick and Daniel Maier, such as the following, originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 21 February 2008:


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In an episode of the BBC Radio 4 series "Live on Arrival", Steve Punt reads the Shopping Forecast, in which the regions are replaced with supermarket names, e.g. "Tesco, Fine Fare, Sainsbury". The sketch ends with the information, "joke mileage decreasing, end of show imminent".


title: Shipping Forecast

text: On the broadcast at 0048 on Saturday 19 March 2011, the area forecasts were delivered by John Prescott to raise awareness of Red Nose Day 2011, a charity event organised by Comic Relief. The format then reverted to the BBC continuity announcer Alice Arnold for the reports on coastal areas. On delivering the area forecast for Humber, Prescott (who had represented the parliamentary constituency of Kingston upon Hull East for almost 40 years before retiring) slipped deliberately into his distinctive East Yorkshire accent – "'Umber – without the 'H', as we say it up there".


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The comedian Marti Caine listed the Shipping Forecast as one of her eight records when she made her second appearance on "Desert Island Discs" on 24 March 1991.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The BBC Radio 1 "That's What He Said" podcast by Greg James featured the shipping forecast being read out by Grace Hopper. This was done to make light of her inability to pronounce certain words.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Terence Davies' film "Distant Voices, Still Lives", a largely autobiographical account of growing up in Liverpool during the 1940s and 1950s, opens with a shipping forecast from this period.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In an episode of the BBC sitcom "Keeping Up Appearances", a soon-to-be-sailing Hyacinth Bucket calls over the telephone for an advance shipping forecast, even though the yacht she and her husband Richard are to visit is moored on the Thames near Oxford. Names mentioned (in scene sequence) are: Fisher, German Bight and Cromarty, Dogger and Heligoland (also known as German Bight).


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In an episode of the BBC sitcom "Ever Decreasing Circles", Howard and Hilda leave their neighbour Paul's house party early, explaining that they must get back to listen to the Shipping Forecast. Paul asks why, seeing as they have never owned a boat. Howard explains, "Well, it takes us nicely into the news."


title: Shipping Forecast

text: A recording of part of the forecast is played over the opening and closing credits of Rick Stein's 2000 TV series "Rick Stein's Seafood Lover's Guide".


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In an episode of the Channel 4 television series "Black Books", the character Fran Katzenjammer listens to the shipping forecast because a friend from her college is reading it. She finds his voice arousing.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In the BBC sitcom "As Time Goes By", the character Mrs Bale is obsessed by and constantly mentions The Shipping Forecast much to the befuddlement of the other characters.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Many characters in the 1983 children's cartoon, "The Adventures of Portland Bill" are named after features mentioned in the Shipping Forecast.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In the 2011 movie "Page Eight", the Shipping Forecast plays as the main protagonist Jonnie Worricker drives his car through London late at night.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In the movie "I, Daniel Blake", the titular character's late wife is said to have been a listener of the Shipping Forecast, with Daniel playing "Sailing By" on a cassette. The song is played at the end of the film at Daniel's funeral.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: The actress Olivia Colman has said that listening to the Shipping Forecast through an earpiece helps her keep her emotions in check while filming some of the more emotional scenes on "The Crown", to accurately portray the cool and collected character of the monarch Elizabeth II.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In Funcom's massively multiplayer online role-playing game "The Secret World", the shipping forecast plays over the radio in a London Underground station, adding to the British flavour distinguishing the setting from other worldwide locations featured in the game.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: A number of minor characters in Jasper Fforde's first novel, "The Eyre Affair", are named after Sea Areas in the shipping forecast.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: Charlie Connelly's 2004 book "Attention All Shipping" (Little Brown: ) describes a project to visit every sea area with any land, and to travel by air or sea over the others.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: For his project "The Shipping Forecast – an Artist's Journey", which began in 2015, the Troon-based artist Ian Rawnsley plans to travel by sea through each of the sea areas and create a painting inspired by each, to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support.


title: Shipping Forecast

text: In March 2017, Peter Jefferson recorded a reinvented version of the Shipping Forecast as "a bedtime story for grown-ups".


title: Ed Quinn

text: Arthur Edward Quinn (born February 26, 1968) is an American actor, model and musician. He played recurring roles in a number of television series, including "2 Broke Girls", "Mistresses", and "One Day at a Time". From 2006 to 2012 he starred in the Syfy fantasy series "Eureka", and in 2019 began starring as President Hunter Franklin in the BET prime time soap opera "The Oval".


title: Ed Quinn

text: Quinn was born in Berkeley, California, where he attended St. Mary's College High School and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991. While in Berkeley, Quinn was a brother of Alpha Delta Phi (California Chapter). He also played rugby for California.


title: Ed Quinn

text: After graduating, Quinn worked as a model in Paris, Barcelona, and Milan, landing parts in more than 35 international television commercials. When he returned to the United States, Quinn landed the starring role of Finn in The WB summer series "Young Americans" (2000). Later he had a recurring roles on "Jack & Jill" and "". He made his film debut in the 2002 low-budget film "Beeper" starring Harvey Keitel and later appeared in direct-to-video "" (2004). From 2006 through 2008, he played Nathan Stark in the Syfy series "Eureka", reprising this role once during 2010.


title: Ed Quinn

text: In 2015 Quinn joined the cast of the ABC series "Mistresses". From 2016 to 2017, Quinn had a recurring role in last two seasons of CBS sitcom "2 Broke Girls". In 2018, Quinn had a recurring role in the Netflix series "One Day at a Time". Quinn's role as Max Ferraro on "One Day at a Time" continued as the show transitioned to Pop (also shown on TV Land and Logo) for the fourth season in 2020. In 2019, Quinn landed the starring role of fictitious President Hunter Franklin in the Tyler Perry prime time soap opera "The Oval".


title: Ed Quinn

text: Quinn studied with Joe Satriani and played in the Los Angeles-based bands Mad Theory and Scattergood, which led to a recording contract. He handled lead/rhythm guitar and vocals for the band ScatterGood, which has taken a hiatus. Quinn recently did his first solo demo CD, entitled "Quinn", with three songs produced by his friend Chris Lloyd: "Because of You", "Cause I Do" and "We Had It Made". Another 5 song EP was released in 2013.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Kelly Jayne Smith (born 29 October 1978) is an English former football forward who spent three spells with FA WSL club Arsenal Ladies. After moving to the United States, Smith broke records with Seton Hall University then played professionally with Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) franchise Philadelphia Charge. After returning to Arsenal for a period which included a 2007 UEFA Women's Cup win, Smith was tempted back to America with another professional contract, this time with Boston Breakers in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). She accumulated 117 caps for the England national team after making her debut in 1995. Despite being hit by serious injury during her career, Smith is England's second-highest goalscorer with 46 goals. She played for Great Britain at the 2012 London Olympics.


title: Kelly Smith

text: While growing up in the Garston area of Watford, Smith regularly played football on boys' teams until, at the age of seven, she was kicked out of Garston Boys Club – despite being the top goalscorer – when the parents of her male opponents complained. After continuing at Pinner Girls, a team formed by Smith's father, she developed her skills at Wembley Ladies and made her senior debut in the 1994–95 season. In August 1995, Pete Davies wrote in "The Independent" that the "lethally quick, bountifully gifted" Smith was: "the outstanding prospect in the women's game today." After moving to Arsenal Ladies during 1996–97, she scored two goals and assisted on the third in a 3–0 win over Liverpool which secured the Premier League title that season. She spent that year at West Herts College, but transferred to Seton Hall University in the United States in 1997.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith enrolled at Seton Hall as a student-athlete. She played for the Seton Hall Pirates from 1997 through 1999. In her first year at Seton Hall in 1997, Smith set scoring records for the Big East Conference and became the first athlete in any sport to be the conference's (Offensive) Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in the same season. In the following two seasons, she was the leading scorer not only in the Big East, but in the whole of NCAA Division I, and was named Big East Offensive Player of the Year in both years. At the end of her university career, the school retired her number 6 shirt, she became the first Seton Hall athlete in any sport other than basketball to have a number retired. In her three years at Seton Hall, she set school records with 76 goals and 174 points while playing in just 51 matches.


title: Kelly Smith

text: At the culmination of her studies, Smith remained in the United States, remarking: "women's football in England is a joke." Smith's first professional club was New Jersey Lady Stallions of W-League, for which she played on from 1999 to 2000. However, a new top-flight women's league was about to start in the United States and Smith stayed in the country to participate in the project.


title: Kelly Smith

text: The Women's United Soccer Association was formed in early 2000. Smith was drafted second overall in the 2001 WUSA Foreign Allocation Draft by Philadelphia Charge. Smith played all three seasons with Philadelphia and was named to the 2001 WUSA Global 11 All-Star Team. 2001 was her only full season in the league; in 2002, Smith missed most of the season after tearing her ACL in her right knee, and missed much of 2003 after re-injuring the same knee. Following the 2003 season, the WUSA ceased operations.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith decided to keep playing in the United States following the collapse of the WUSA. In 2004, she played for the New Jersey Wildcats in the W-League, but she was injured yet again, breaking her leg. She ended up appearing in eight games for the club (563 minutes) and tallied eight goals and six assists.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith returned to England and Arsenal in the autumn of 2004. She officially rejoined in 2005 after being treated at the Sporting Chance clinic. However, she was yet again hampered by injury, this time by a stress fracture in her foot. She returned to action at the end of the 2004–05 season, scoring a goal from 30 metres out against Charlton Athletic L.F.C. which clinched the Premier League title for Arsenal.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In Arsenal's "Quadruple" winning season of 2006–07, Smith scored 30 goals in 34 games across the four competitions. However, she missed both legs of the 2006–07 UEFA Women's Cup final through suspension, after being sent off for giving the finger to opposition fans in the semi-final.


title: Kelly Smith

text: During Smith's Arsenal career since rejoining in 2005, she appeared in 66 Premier League games scoring 73 goals, 16 FA Cup games scoring 13 goals, 10 League Cup games scoring four goals, 18 UEFA Women's Cup games scoring nine goals, and two Community Shield games scoring one goal for a total of 112 appearances and 100 goals. In her last competitive game for Arsenal, Smith scored a hat-trick to help Arsenal to a 5–0 win over Doncaster Belles in the FA Women's Premier League Cup final. She won the FA Women's Players' Player of the year in 2006 and 2007.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Upon the creation of a new women's league in the United States, Women's Professional Soccer, many teams were interested in Smith's services. She was chosen by the Boston Breakers second overall in the 2008 WPS International Draft, above Marta and under only Formiga.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Despite being drafted by Boston, she was still under contract with Arsenal. However, Smith decided to leave Arsenal to join Boston Breakers on 18 February 2009, one of a number of English players to join the new Women's Professional Soccer League.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In the inaugural 2009 Women's Professional Soccer season, Smith appeared in 15 games (13 starts, 1170 total minutes) and scored six goals with two assists. She was named to the WPS All-Star ballot, but was unavailable for the match due to England's participation at the European Championships. In 2010 Smith started all her 21 appearances, leading the team with 11 goals and five assists. She played in that season's All-Star game. 2011 saw Smith again afflicted by injury; she posted one goal and four assists in 10 appearances (nine starts, 850 minutes). When the WPS went on hiatus ahead of the 2012 season, Smith was left "devastated" and without a club.


title: Kelly Smith

text: On leaving Boston Breakers, Smith resisted offers from clubs in Sweden and Germany to join Arsenal for a third time. However, she arrived with a stress fracture acquired at the 2012 Cyprus Cup and then aggravated the injury when kicking a ball during a promotional video shoot, without the protective footwear she had been instructed to wear.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith debuted for the England national team on 1 November 1995, three days after turning 17. The 1–1 draw against Italy was played at Roker Park and Smith won Player of the Match from her position on the left wing. She had been unable to accept a call-up to England's 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup squad that summer due to sitting her GCSE exams. Her first international goal came on the occasion of her second cap, against Croatia on 19 November 1995. Smith scored a stoppage-time penalty in England's 5–0 win at the Valley. During the following years, the English Football Association (FA) complained to FIFA when Smith's American college team refused to release her for national team duty.


title: Kelly Smith

text: When healthy, Smith has generally been considered one of the world's top female players; former United States head coach April Heinrichs asserted that Smith would be an automatic choice for the United States Women's National Team if she had been eligible, and Vera Pauw, the Dutch coach, called Kelly "the best player in the World" after she scored a hat-trick against the Netherlands in a 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup qualifier. During the 2011 World Cup, Mia Hamm said of Smith: "I remember the first time I saw Kelly play. She'd just graduated from Seton Hall. She's incredibly technical, with great speed of thought and play. Her touch is different class – everything's clean, everything's with a purpose. The pace of her passes is always perfect and she can score at will too." Smith's former England teammate and later coach, Hope Powell, went further than Hamm: "Kelly is one of those players who come along only once or twice in a lifetime. In the men's game you'd think of Diego Maradona or Messi, players with a unique talent, and that’s what Kelly has."


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith has competed in the 2001, 2005, and 2009 editions of the UEFA Women's Championship, as well as the 2007 and 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup with England. She also played in the 2007 China Cup against the United States, Germany and China where she was named the player of the tournament. Smith was voted third in the 2009 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year, fourth in 2007 and fifth in 2006 and 2008.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith reportedly became England's all-time record goalscorer in September 2010, when she scored her 41st international goal against Switzerland.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In 2011, Smith competed in the FIFA World Cup, where she scored from the spot in England's quarterfinal match with France, to give England a 1–0 lead in the penalty shootout (England would go on to lose the shootout 4–3). Smith, hindered by an achilles injury, was dissatisfied with her own performances at the tournament: "I have to acknowledge that I didn't play well and I have to live with that." She returned to the England squad for a UEFA Women's Euro 2013 qualifying tie with Serbia after missing the first three matches of the campaign.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In June 2012 Smith was named in the 18–player Great Britain squad for the 2012 London Olympics. Smith incurred a minor injury in the 1–0 group stage win over Brazil at Wembley Stadium, and was unable to join Team GB in their quarter final defeat by Canada.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith made her television debut on FOX Sports in December 2014, and provided commentary for 2018 FIFA World Cup.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In April 2021, Smith joined fellow British Olympians Nicola Adams and Greg Rutherford, and fitness instructor Mr Motivator in launching the ‘Energy Fit for the Future’ campaign by Smart Energy GB, which aimed at encouraging people to install smart meters in their homes.


title: Kelly Smith

text: She has spoken about her previous alcohol addiction which included treatment at The Priory and Sporting Chance Clinic.


title: Kelly Smith

text: Smith used to share a house with England, Arsenal and Boston Breakers teammate Alex Scott. In Scott's 2022 autobiography, she revealed that she and Smith had previously been in a romantic relationship.


title: Kelly Smith

text: In June 2016 she married management consultant DeAnna Dobosz. She gave birth to their son, Rocco Jude, in May 2017. On 1 August 2019, Smith gave birth to their second child, daughter Lucia, via c-section.


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: A pantheon is the particular set of all gods of any individual polytheistic religion, mythology, or tradition.


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: The word, "pantheon" derives from Greek πάνθεον "pantheon", literally "(a temple) of all gods", "of or common to all gods" from πᾶν "pan-" "all" and θεός "theos" "god". A pantheon of gods is a common element of polytheistic societies, and the nature of a society's pantheon can be considered a reflection of that society:


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, and many others. Today, most historical polytheistic religions are referred to as "mythology".


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: Scholars such as Jaan Puhvel, J. P. Mallory, and Douglas Q. Adams have reconstructed aspects of the ancient Proto-Indo-European religion, from which the religions of the various Indo-European peoples derive, and that this religion was an essentially naturalist numenistic religion. An example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of "*dyēus", which is attested in several distinct religious systems.


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time. Deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder culture's pantheon to a newer one, as in the Greek Titanomachy, and possibly also the case of the Æsir and Vanir in the Norse mythos. Cultural exchange could lead to "the same" deity being renowned in two places under different names, as seen with the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, and also to the cultural transmission of elements of an extraneous religion into a local cult, as with worship of the ancient Egyptian deity Osiris, which was later followed in ancient Greece. Max Weber's 1922 opus "Economy and Society" discusses a tendency of the ancient Greek philosophers to interpret gods worshiped in the pantheons of other cultures as "equivalent to and so identical with the deities of the moderately organized Greek pantheon".


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: In other instances, however, national pantheons were consolidated or simplified into fewer gods, or into a single god with power over all of the areas originally assigned to a pantheon. For example, in the ancient Near East during the first millennium BCE, Syrian and Palestinian tribes worshiped much smaller pantheons than had been developed in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Weber also identified the link between a pantheon of gods and the development of monotheism, proposing that the domination of a pantheon by a particular god within that pantheon was a step towards followers of the pantheon seeing that god as "an international or universal deity, a transnational god of the entire world". The first known instance of a pantheon being consolidated into a single god, or discarded in favor of a single god, was with the development of the short-lived practice of Atenism in ancient Egypt, with that role being accorded to the sun god. A similar process is thought to have taken place with respect to the Israelite deity Yahweh, who, "as a typical West Semitic deity... would have four or five compatriot gods in attendance as he became the national high god".


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: The concept of a pantheon of gods has been widely imitated in Twentieth-century fantasy literature and role-playing games like "Dungeons & Dragons". These uses tend to borrow heavily from historical patterns. In these contexts, it is considered important for the writer to construct pantheon of gods that fits the genre, where the characteristics of the gods are in balance so that none of them is able to overwhelm the story, and so that the actions of the characters are not overwhelmed by the machinations of the gods.


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: In order to avoid the difficulty of giving an exhaustive list of deities when devoting a temple or sacred building, a structure explicitly dedicated to "all deities" also came to be referred to as a "Pantheon". The best known of such structures is the Pantheon of Rome, first built by Marcus Agrippa as part of a complex created by him on his own property in the Campus Martius in 29–19 BC. The building standing today was constructed on the same site around 126 CE. It was dedicated to "all gods" as a gesture embracing the religious syncretism in the increasingly multicultural Roman Empire, with subjects worshipping gods from many cultures and traditions. The building was later renovated for use as a Christian church in 609 under Pope Boniface IV.


title: Pantheon (religion)

text: Since the 16th century, "pantheon" has also been used in a secular sense to refer to the set of a society's exalted persons—initially including heroic figures, and later extending to celebrities, generally. Lord Byron drew this connection after viewing the busts of famous historical figures in the Roman Pantheon, writing in "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" of how he wished to be at the center of an English Pantheon, and thereby associated with divinity. The Pantheon "thus imbues the modern with the aura of the divine", and "models the interplay of ancient and modern forms of fame". This trend continued into modern times, with the word "pantheon" 'of or for the gods' being reflected in the journalistic meme that refers to financial titans as "Masters of the Universe". For example: Francis Ford Coppola has been described as a member of "that revered pantheon of independent movie directors, which broke the standard Hollywood studio mold as the 1960s expired".


title: JioSaavn

text: JioSaavn is an Indian online music streaming service and a digital distributor of Hindi, English, Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bhojpuri and other regional Indian music around the world. Since it was founded in 2007 as Saavn, the company has acquired rights to over 8.0 crore (80 million) music tracks in 15 languages. JioSaavn is a freemium service; basic features are free with advertisements or limitations, while additional features, such as improved streaming quality and music downloads for offline listening, are offered via paid subscriptions.


title: JioSaavn

text: On 23 March 2018, Saavn announced merger with JioMusic in a deal worth more than $1 billion. The merger was completed in December 2018, with Saavn being rebranded JioSaavn.,


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn was founded in 2006 as BODVOD Network and initially distributed Bollywood content in North America in a B2B offering. Saavn later shifted its core focus to become a music destination for fans of Bollywood and other Indic music in 2009, re-launching its flagship product, Saavn.com, to become a B2C product. As of today, Saavn is one of the largest distributors of Bollywood and other Indian entertainment in the world.


title: JioSaavn

text: On March 23, 2018, Reliance Industries Ltd acquired a majority stake in Saavn. Reliance executed definitive agreements for combination of Saavn with its digital music service, JioMusic. The combined entity is valued at over US$1 billion and renamed as JioSaavn.


title: JioSaavn

text: JioSaavn's products are JioSaavn Pro, its music service that offers offline listening without advertisements, with improved music quality and its mobile apps, JioSaavn for Android and iOS.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn also integrated a social networking feature with its music streaming service in April 2015. Saavn Social allows users to follow the profiles and playlists of their friends as well as celebrities. Users can share any song, album or playlist with their friends and chat about music in real time.


title: JioSaavn

text: JioSaavn's business model is based on digital advertising services (offers service with advertisements) and a subscription-based business model (JioSaavn Pro, offers ad-free and offline streaming).


title: JioSaavn

text: JioSaavn was one of the first music streaming services in India to be made available on Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, which shipped nationwide in October 2017.


title: JioSaavn

text: In 2013, Shazam, a media engagement company, entered into an exclusive partnership with Saavn. As a part of this, Saavn's music library was incorporated in Shazam's music database. Saavn aims to provide its users with an enhanced listening experience with Shazam's music engagement tools especially in popular genres like bhangra, devotional, ghazals, Carnatic, Indipop and regional language music like Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, and Bhojpuri.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn launched its radio model in 2013 and later partnered with Twitter to crowd-source song requests via the custom handle @SaavnRadio.


title: JioSaavn

text: In 2010, Saavn introduced its first mobile app - Saavn Music for Android. This was followed up with Saavn Music for iPhone. Saavn for iOS has received 9,000+ ratings with an average rating of 4.5 Stars. In mid-2011, Saavn added its latest app, Saavn Music for Chrome, to the Chrome Web Store and later on Microsoft Store running Windows 10.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn was selected in December, 2011 to be Facebook's first global partner and Indian partner on the Open Graph platform. This integration with Facebook allows users to stream any of Saavn's millions of tracks using their Facebook logins and to listen to music from Facebook. In the first three days of launch, Open Graph doubled the total number of visitors to Saavn.com, and increased the number of visitors from Facebook to Saavn by 15 times. Nearly half of Saavn's user base uses Facebook Connect.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn has 900+ label partnerships including Universal Music, Sony Music, T-Series, Tips, YRF, Saregama, Eros Music and Warner Music. Saavn's brand partners include global names like AT&T, Bose, Lays, General Motors, Nokia, Samsung, and Western Union.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn teamed up with popular Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor in 2014. He joined Saavn to collaborate on consumer marketing ideas and business development. The actor was reportedly interested in working at a more business-oriented level at Saavn. He has expressed his desire to help "guide the brand, influence programming, connect with the next generation of music listeners and ultimately help build the best music product in India and potentially the world." The partnership led to a number of ad campaigns that were launched in India and select international networks and generated more than 7 million combined YouTube views. Ranbir Kapoor is also co-owner / part-owner of Saavn.


title: JioSaavn

text: In February 2015, Saavn partnered with philanthropy non-profit Akshaya Patra Foundation for the launch of #MusicForMeals. For every hour of music streamed on Saavn, the company helps provide mid-day meals to school-going children through Akshaya Patra's network of schools.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn also works with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), a not-for-profit industry body that represents the interests of mobile and online value added services in India. In May 2015, Saavn co-founder and president Vinodh Bhat was named as vice-chairman of IAMAI.


title: JioSaavn

text: Beginning November 2016, Saavn started moving to a paid-only model (except India), initially offering listening for free for 30 days and after that a monthly subscription fee of $4.99.


title: JioSaavn

text: Saavn later expanded its content offering into Saavn Original Programming, a slate of original, non-music audio programs that range from Bollywood to comedy and storytelling to cricket. Saavn's audio shows include "No Filter Neha", "Qisson ka Kona with Neelesh Misra", "Trial by Error: The Aarushi Files", and "Kahaani Express".


title: JioSaavn

text: In early 2017, JioSaavn introduced Artist Originals (AO), an original music program releasing and marketing tracks and albums by South Asian artists, songwriters and producers from around the world. JioSaavn was the first streaming app to offer original audio programming in India. Indian hip-hop star Naezy, Toronto-based DJ Sickick, singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad, U.K.-based independent artists Zack Knight and Jasmin Walia, electronic artist Sandunes, Canadian artist The PropheC, contemporary classical duo Shadow and Light and UK musician Raxstar have also launched songs under the Artist Originals program.


title: JioSaavn

text: Warner Music India and JioSaavn announced the launch of ‘Spotted’- an artist discovery program. The program is designed to bring together the ecosystem that enables artists to reach their optimum potential. JioSaavn will collaborate with Warner Music India, to be able to release audio and video content. This partnership will create a stimulating environment for creators.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significant economic growth after the Civil War and increasingly intensive use of urban land encouraged the development of taller buildings beginning in the 1870s. Technological improvements enabled the construction of fireproofed iron-framed structures with deep foundations, equipped with new inventions such as the elevator and electric lighting. These made it both technically and commercially viable to build a new class of taller buildings, the first of which, Chicago's tall Home Insurance Building, opened in 1885. Their numbers grew rapidly, and by 1888 they were being labelled "skyscrapers".


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Chicago initially led the way in skyscraper design, with many constructed in the center of the financial district during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Sometimes termed the products of the Chicago school of architecture, these skyscrapers attempted to balance aesthetic concerns with practical commercial design, producing large, square "palazzo"-styled buildings hosting shops and restaurants on the ground level and containing rentable offices on the upper floors. In contrast, New York's skyscrapers were frequently narrower towers which, more eclectic in style, were often criticized for their lack of elegance. In 1892, Chicago banned the construction of new skyscrapers taller than , leaving the development of taller buildings to New York.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: A new wave of skyscraper construction emerged in the first decade of the 20th century. The demand for new office space to hold the expanding workforce of white-collar staff in the U.S continued to grow. Engineering developments made it easier to build and live in yet taller buildings. Chicago built new skyscrapers in its existing style, while New York experimented further with tower design. Iconic buildings such as the Flatiron were followed by the tall Singer Tower, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, and the Woolworth Building. Though these skyscrapers were commercial successes, criticism mounted as they broke up the ordered city skyline and plunged neighboring streets and buildings into perpetual shadow. Combined with an economic downturn, this led to the introduction of zoning restraints in New York in 1916.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: In the interwar years, skyscrapers spread to nearly all major U.S. cities, while a handful were built in other Western countries. The economic boom of the 1920s and extensive real estate speculation encouraged a wave of new skyscraper projects in New York and Chicago. New York City's 1916 Zoning Resolution helped shape the Art Deco or "set-back" style of skyscrapers, leading to structures that focused on volume and striking silhouettes, often richly decorated. Skyscraper heights continued to grow, with the Chrysler and the Empire State Building each claiming new records, reaching and respectively. With the onset of the Great Depression, the real estate market collapsed, and new builds stuttered to a halt. Popular and academic culture embraced the skyscraper through films, photography, literature, and ballet, seeing the buildings as either positive symbols of modernity and science, or alternatively examples of the ills of modern life and society. Skyscraper projects after World War II typically rejected the designs of the early skyscrapers, instead embracing the international style; many older skyscrapers were redesigned to suit contemporary tastes or even demolished—such as the Singer Tower, once the world's tallest skyscraper.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Early skyscrapers emerged in the U.S. as a result of economic growth, the financial organization of American businesses, and the intensive use of land. New York was one of the centers of early skyscraper construction and had a history as a key seaport located on the small island of Manhattan, on the east coast of the U.S. As a consequence of its colonial history and city planning, New York real estate was broken up into many small parcels of land, with few large sites. During the first half of the 19th century it became the national center of American finance, and the banks in the financial district of Manhattan competed fiercely with English institutions for international dominance.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The Great Fire of 1835 destroyed most of the old financial buildings, and in their place a wide variety of new buildings were erected and demolished in quick succession during the 1840s and 1850s; traveler Philip Hone suggested that the entire city was being rebuilt every decade. Most buildings adopted the Italian Renaissance inspired "palazzo"-style of architecture popular in England, and rose no more than five or six stories. New York did not have any restrictions on the height of buildings, but in practice low-rise buildings were the norm, at least until 1865, with the tallest buildings being the city's churches. New York's population tripled between 1840 and 1870, and property values soared, increasing by more than 90 percent between 1860 and 1875.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Further west, the city of Chicago became the other major site in the development of early skyscrapers. In contrast to New York, Chicago emerged as a major metropolis only in the mid-19th century, growing from a village of around fifty inhabitants in 1830, to a city of 30,000 in 1850 and nearly 300,000 by 1870. Chicago became the railroad hub for the American West and the primary trading city for the emerging territories, famous for its commercial culture. It saw itself as different from the cities on the east coast and was immensely proud of its status as a growing, vibrant center.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: By the 1870s, Chicago had become the main financial center for the West, but in October 1871 the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the majority of the wooden structures within the city. The city was rebuilt on large plots of land in a new grid network and followed new city ordinances that prohibited construction in wood. These factors encouraged the building of taller properties in new innovative designs, which, like New York, saw a range of businesses and services being packed into single buildings.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The construction of taller buildings during the 1870s was hindered by the financial Panic of 1873 and the ensuing economic depression, which lasted until around 1879. Construction slowed, and property values slumped. By 1880, however, the recovery was well underway, with new construction in New York returning to the pace of 1871, and the economic upturn making the construction of taller buildings an attractive financial option again, establishing many of the preconditions for the development of the skyscraper.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The emergence of skyscrapers was made possible by technological improvements during the middle of the 19th century. One of these developments was the iron framed building. Masonry buildings supported their internal floors through their walls, but the taller the building, the thicker the walls had to become, particularly at the base. In the 1860s, French engineers experimented with using built-up plate girders made of wrought iron to construct buildings supported by internal metal frames. These frames were stronger than traditional masonry and permitted much thinner walls. The methodology was extensively described in engineering journals and was initially used to build warehouses.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Using these metal frames for taller buildings, however, meant exposing them to increased wind pressure. As a consequence, protective wind bracing had to be introduced, enabled by the work of Augustin-Jean Fresnel who produced equations for calculating the loads and moments on larger buildings. Metal-framed buildings were also vulnerable to fire and required special fireproofing. French engineers had made advances in this area in the early 19th century, and major breakthroughs came with the work of architect Peter Wight in the 1860s. Spurred on by the catastrophic fires in Chicago in 1871 and Boston in 1872, his findings were turned into a wide variety of patented fireproofing products during the 1870s.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Taller, heavier buildings such as skyscrapers also required stronger foundations than smaller buildings. Earlier buildings had typically rested their foundations on rubble, which was in turn laid down on the soft top layer of the ground called the overburden. As buildings became taller and heavier, the overburden could not support their weight, and foundations increasingly needed to rest directly on the bedrock below. In both New York and Chicago this required digging down a considerable distance through soft soil and often below the water table, risking the hole filling up with water before the foundations were complete. The deeper the foundations needed to be, the greater the challenge. Special water-tight boxes called caissons were invented to deal with this problem in England in 1830 and adopted in the U.S. during the 1850s and 1860s.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The development of the elevator was also essential to the emergence of the early skyscrapers, as office buildings taller than around six stories would have been impractical without them. Powered elevators were first installed in England during the 1830s and spread to U.S. factories and hotels by the 1840s. Elevators using hoist ropes, however, could only function effectively in low-rise buildings, and this limitation encouraged the introduction of the hydraulic elevator in 1870, even though early models contained dangerous design flaws. By 1876 these problems had been resolved, providing a solution for servicing the early skyscrapers.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: New environmental technologies in heating, lighting, ventilation and sanitation were also critical to creating taller buildings that were attractive to work in. Central heating could not be easily extended to serve larger buildings; in the 1850s, a system using low-pressure steam and steam-operated fans became adopted in the construction of the later skyscrapers. Many U.S. buildings were lit by gas, but this carried safety risks and was difficult to install in taller buildings. As an alternative, electric lights were installed from 1878 onwards, powered by basement generators. Ventilation was also a challenge, as smoke drifting into offices from the streets and the fumes from the gas lighting made air quality a major health issue. A steam-driven, forced-draft ventilation system was invented in 1860 and became widely used in taller buildings by the 1870s, overcoming much of the problem. Improvements in iron piping permitted running hot and cold water and sanitation facilities to be installed throughout taller buildings for the first time.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: There is academic disagreement over which building should be considered the first skyscraper. The term was first used in the 1780s to describe a particularly tall horse, before later being applied to the sail at the top of a ship's mast, tall hats and bonnets, tall men, and a ball that was hit high into the air. In the 1880s it began to be applied to buildings, first in 1883 to describe large public monuments and then in 1889 as a label for tall office blocks, coming into widespread use over the next decade. Identifying the first "true skyscraper" is not straightforward, and various candidates exist depending on the criteria applied. George Post's New York Equitable Life Building of 1870, for example, was the first tall office building to use the elevator, while his Produce Exchange building of 1884 made substantial structural advances in metal frame design. The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, opened in 1885, is, however, most often labelled the first skyscraper because of its innovative use of structural steel in a metal frame design.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The Home Insurance Building was a tall, 10-story skyscraper designed by William Le Baron Jenney, who had been trained as an engineer in France and was a leading architect in Chicago. Jenney's design was unusual in that it incorporated structural steel into the building's internal metal frame alongside the traditional wrought iron. This frame took the weight of the floors of the building and helped to support the weight of the external walls as well, proving an important step towards creating the genuine non-structural curtain walls that became a feature of later skyscrapers. The design was not perfect – some of the weight was still carried by masonry walls, and the metal frame was bolted, rather than riveted, together – but it was clearly a significant advance in tall building construction.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The approach quickly caught on in Chicago. In 1889 the Tacoma Building replaced the bolted metal design with a stronger riveted approach, and Chicago's Chamber of Commerce Building introduced interior light courts to the structural design of skyscrapers. The 1890 Rand McNally Building became the first entirely self-supporting, steel-framed skyscraper. Some buildings, such as The Rookery and the Monadnock Building, combined elements of both the newer and older styles, but generally Chicago rapidly adopted steel structures as a flexible and effective way to produce a range of tall buildings. Structural engineers specializing in the steel frame design began to establish practices in Chicago.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: There was a boom in skyscraper construction in Chicago from 1888 onwards. By 1893, Chicago had built 12 skyscrapers between 16 and 20 stories tall, tightly clustered in the center of the financial district. Chicago's skyscrapers, however, were constrained by the contemporary limits of steel-frame design and the muddy sub-soil in the city, which together limited most of their skyscrapers to around 16 or 17 stories. Chicago's skyscrapers rapidly became tourist destinations for the views of the wider city they provided from their upper floors and as attractive sites in their own right. Tourists were advised to hire cabs for street tours of the skyscrapers – by lying back in the cab, they would be able to safely take in the tops of the tall buildings.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The Masonic Temple was the most prominent of these skyscrapers. Built by the Freemasons of Chicago in 1892, at a time when the Masons was a fast-growing social community, the lavish tall skyscraper had 19 stories, the bottom ten holding shops and the higher levels containing the Masons' private suites and meeting halls, some able to hold up to 1,300 people. At the top was a roof garden and observation gallery. The Freemasons were competing with their local rivals the Odd Fellows, who intended to build a much higher skyscraper, tall, that they announced would be the tallest building in the world. Newspapers picked up the story, circulating facts about the size of the Temple and making comparison to historical buildings such as the Capitol or the Statue of Liberty. The Odd Fellows project failed, but the Masonic Temple capitalized on the publicity, being declared the "tallest commercial building in the world".


title: Early skyscrapers

text: In comparison, New York trailed behind Chicago, having only four buildings over 16 stories tall by 1893. Part of the delay was caused by the slowness of the city authorities to authorize metal-frame construction techniques; it was not until 1889 that they relented and allowed Bradford Gilbert to construct the Tower Building, an 11-story iron-framed skyscraper. This encouraged the building of more skyscrapers in New York, although the city remained cautious about the technology for some years. Finally, in 1895 a breakthrough was made with the construction of the American Surety Building, a twenty-story, high-steel development that broke Chicago's height record. From then on, New York thoroughly embraced skeleton frame construction. In particular, New York newspaper companies adopted the skyscraper, building several along Park Row, sometimes termed "Newspaper Row", in the 1880s and 1890s. A few early skyscrapers were also constructed in Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Rochester, and Buffalo, such as the Wainwright Building, Wilder Building, and Guaranty Building. Early examples on the West Coast include the Old Chronicle Building and the Call Building in San Francisco, as well as the Luzon Building in Tacoma, Washington. Early skyscrapers outside the United States include the APA Building (1889) in Melbourne, Australia, the Ryōunkaku (1890) in Tokyo, Japan and the Witte Huis (1898) in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The architects of early skyscrapers faced a number of challenges. The most fashionable architectural style in the late 19th century was the French Beaux-Arts movement, sometimes termed the Italian Renaissance style, which applied Classical aesthetic principles to modern buildings. American architects trained in the Beaux-Arts style at the Parisian Académie des Beaux-Arts began to return home in the 1880s, bringing these ideals and standards with them. Applying contemporary Beaux-Arts standards to early skyscrapers, however, was not straightforward. The buildings that the Beaux-Arts movement influenced were typically much shorter and broader than any skyscraper, as it was difficult to accurately reproduce the style in a tall, narrow building.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Skyscrapers were also primarily commercial buildings, and economics as well as aesthetics had to play an important part in their design. The architectural writer Barr Ferree noted in 1893 that "current American architecture is not a matter of art, but of business. A building must pay, or there will be no investor ready with the money to meet its cost. This is at once the curse and the glory of American architecture." George Hill echoed the theme, condemning unnecessary features on the basis that "every cubic foot that is used for purely ornamental purposes beyond that needed to express its use and to make it harmonize with others of its class, is a waste".


title: Early skyscrapers

text: By the 1890s, Chicago architects were producing a solution to this problem, creating a new architectural style, often termed the "Chicago school of architecture". The school included architects such as Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler, Jenney, John Root, and William Holabird and Martin Roche, whose designs combined architectural aesthetic theory with practical commercial sense. They favoured placing rich, ornate designs on the outside of skyscrapers at the ground level and simpler, plainer ornamentation on the upper levels, with strong vertical lines. The roofs of their skyscrapers typically formed a comprehensible outline and structure when seen at a distance as part of the city skyline. The intent was to draw the observer's eye upwards, celebrating what Sullivan termed the "lofty" nature of the skyscraper, but not wasting resources on intricate detailing unlikely to appeal to a busy businessman. At the same time, the more lavish ground floor designs would make the building stand out to passers-by and pull in the necessary business for a successful commercial building.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: This community also saw close collaboration between architects, specialist structural engineers, and building contractors emerge on the new skyscraper projects. Historically the industry had been dominated by individuals and small firms who combined the roles of architect and engineer, but this broke down in Chicago during the period, being replaced by a partnership between specialist architects who focused on the appearance of the skyscraper, and specialist engineers who focused on the structures that enabled it to be built. Chicago architectural firms grew to be large, hierarchical and with numerous specialist staff; the D. H. Burnham & Company, for example, felt like a small factory to visitors, and ultimately expanded to employ 180 staff.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The resulting Chicago school produced large, solid-looking skyscrapers, built with a common appearance and to a common height. The result was usually a box-like "palazzo", illuminated with a large light court, ideally, if space allowed, in the center. The outside of the building was commonly divided into three parts: a base, middle section and the roof line. This tripartite design was intended both to emulate classical columns, and reflect the functions of the different parts of the skyscraper. The central court could form a simple courtyard, but many companies preferred to roof over the courtyard with glass to produce an atrium for shops and restaurants. Rents for these shops were up to five or six times that for office space, and made an important difference to the income from a property. Chicago skyscraper windows were also a feature of the style; these were large, fixed windows flanked by smaller sash windows on either side, which provided access to sunlight and adequate ventilation. Sometimes these protruded from the building to form a slight bay.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Although the exterior of the Chicago skyscrapers buildings were relatively plain, the entrance ways and lobbies were fitted out in a grand style. The Unity Building, for example, was reported as including "Numidian, Alps, Green and Sienna marbles ... an artistic screen of glass and bronze ... a marble balcony" alongside "Corinthian columns with finely carved capitals, gold-leaf and silver chandeliers, and silver-plated latticework" on the elevators. The aim was to project a sense of prosperity and solid financial credentials, which in turn would attract tenants willing to pay high rents. For the tenants, such surroundings were good for their own business credibility and affirmed their own social status as professionals.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: New York faced similar architectural challenges, but in comparison to Chicago, skyscraper architects worked less closely with engineers and other specialists, and instead held strong backgrounds in the Beaux Arts movement and perceived their role to be primarily artistic rather than a partnership with the mechanical arts. Their practices tended to be smaller, resembling "atelier" style workshops. Structural engineers in New York took longer to build up a strong professional role there, a trend reflected in the lower engineering quality of many early skyscrapers in the city. The New York style emphasized stunning height and a somewhat eclectic use of architectural features from other periods, creating an energetic, flamboyant appearance. Towers were common, making best use of the relatively small plots of land in New York. Some New York skyscrapers emulated the tripartite style of Chicago, but others broke their exterior down into many different layers, each with its own style. Proponents argued that this reintroduced a sense of human proportion to these tall buildings; critics felt that the results were confusing and ungainly.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Early skyscrapers were mainly made up of small office cubicles, commonly only across, which were placed adjacent to one another along long corridors, following a pattern first invented in the Oriel Chambers building in England in 1864. This allowed the average small company to rent a small amount of space using one or two offices, but held out the option for future expansion by renting additional office cubicles if required at a later date. A skyscraper office relied on natural sunlight from the windows but if necessary was dimly lit from electric desk-top lamps. By the standards of the day, these offices were very modern, with radiators, air vents, and the latest fixtures and fittings, and modern communication systems, including telephone and pneumatic tubes were often installed. As a result, many businesses chose to move out of their older, low-rise offices in Chicago to take up tenancy in the new skyscrapers, which were felt to be more convenient and healthier.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The first skyscrapers were mainly occupied by male workers, but this changed during the 1890s, with female employees becoming more common. The percentage of female clerical workers in Chicago, for example, increased from 11 percent in 1880 to 21 percent by 1890, reaching 30 percent by 1900. Various moral concerns were raised about men and women mixing in such offices, which were characterized as being masculine spaces, full of tobacco smoke and profanity and therefore unsuitable for women. The new female workers typically worked as typists or stenographers, using the recently invented typewriter, which grew in number in U.S. offices from 146 in 1879 to 65,000 by 1890.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Skyscrapers provided a wide range of in-house services for their tenants, including shops, restaurants, barbers, tobacconists, newsagents, tailors, professional specialists and libraries. Skyscrapers also employed a substantial number of service staff to maintain and support them; a building such as the Chicago Board of Trade spent 20 percent of its rental revenue on service staff, employing 41 people, including janitors, elevator operators, engineers, and an electrician. With this collection of services and facilities, skyscrapers of the period were often referred to as small cities in their own right.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Opposition to Chicago's skyscrapers began to grow during the late 1880s and early 1890s. Even before the development of the skyscraper, some criticized large buildings in Chicago for dominating churches and private houses, and this sentiment strengthened. Critics complained that the concentration of tall buildings in the center of the city was causing huge congestion, and each new skyscraper was also burning additional coal to power its facilities, together consuming a total of over one million tons each year, leaving smoke and stagnant air hanging over Chicago. Many were concerned over the risk of a major fire breaking out and spreading, uncontrolled, from building to building.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Chicago was not alone in having concerns over the growth of the skyscraper. In Boston, the Fiske and the Ames Buildings were built in the late 1880s, and tall respectively, but protests by local civic campaigners and the real estate industry resulted in the city passing a law to limit new buildings to a maximum of , effectively banning the construction of skyscrapers. The cities of Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. similarly introduced height restriction laws to limit skyscraper construction.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The decisive factor in favor of change in Chicago, however, was the economic slowdown in the early 1890s, which gave way to the financial panic of 1893. The recession, combined with the frantic building of the previous few years, meant that Chicago suddenly had a significant surplus of office space, threatening occupancy levels and rents. Regulation was introduced by the city council to control the problem in 1892, with support from the real estate industry who hoped to slow the construction of additional office space and shore up their diminishing profit margins. The height of new buildings was limited to , with lower height levels on narrower streets, effectively curtailing the construction of any taller skyscrapers.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The early years of the 20th century saw a range of technically sophisticated, architecturally confident skyscrapers built in New York; academics Sarah Landau and Carl Condit term this "the first great age" of skyscraper building. Some were relatively conservative buildings in a classical style, such as the Mutual Life, Atlantic Mutual, and Broad Exchange Buildings, all designed by Clinton and Russell. Others broke new ground, including the Flatiron Building which opened in 1903 near Madison Square. The Chicago firm of Daniel Hudsdon Burnham designed the high, 21 story structure; the unusually shaped, narrow building needed particularly strong wind bracing, while the facade was richly textured and incorporated stylistic features more common in Chicago. A critical and popular success, the Flatiron was likened to the Parthenon of Ancient Greece and became a New York icon.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The construction of the Singer Tower was announced by the company in 1906, who intended to produce the tallest skyscraper in the world. The company already had several low-rise buildings in New York that the tower would be incorporated into and planned to rent out the bottom half of the tower to tenants to subsidize their use of the upper half. The skyscraper was designed by Ernest Flagg, a Beaux-Arts advocate and noted critic of existing skyscrapers, who justified taking on the project as a way of generating support for skyscraper reform. The design was technically challenging: the tall, narrow tower needed special wind bracing, and the deep bedrock on the site required particularly deep foundations. The tower was faced in dark brick and followed the Beaux-Arts style used by the rest of the complex, with a galleried lobby fitted out in Italian marble. When it opened in 1908, it had 41 stories and was tall; visitors paid $0.50 ($14 in 2020 terms) each to use the observation area at the top of the building.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower was opened in 1909, the culmination of a long building project by N. LeBrun and Sons to hold Metropolitan Life's growing headquarters staff, 2,800 strong by 1909. At high and with 50 stories, it became the world's new tallest building. Metropolitan Life intended the skyscraper to promote the company's image, and the building was surrounded by publicity. The tower was featured on the front of prominent magazines such as "Scientific American", as well as on the sides of corn flake boxes, coffee packets, and cars. The tower was loosely modeled on the Venician St Mark's Campanile, and featured extensive Early Renaissance-style detailing, with the more modern additions of huge clock faces, electric floodlights for night-time illumination, and an observation deck at the top. The design won critical acclaim within the American architectural profession.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The construction of the Woolworth Building was announced in 1910 by Frank Woolworth, who wanted to create the largest income-producing property in the U.S. The project grew, and Woolworth finally opted for a 55-story, high skyscraper, the latest tallest building in the world, at a cost of $13.5 million ($5.1 billion in 2010 terms). Architect Cass Gilbert designs included a very high proportion of usable – and thus rentable – floor space, with a great deal of light and a flexible floor plan that could be subdivided for different tenants. Up-to-date fittings were installed to encourage a high-class of tenants, including the world's fastest elevators, safety features, and a swimming pool. Gilbert adopted the Beaux-Arts style, using accented terracotta and glass to emphasis vertical lines, elegantly echoing the structural frame underneath and incorporating 15th and 16th century Flamboyant Gothic-styled features. It was capped by a gilded tower that blended into the sky behind it to produce an illusion of even greater height. The building was illuminated with floodlights at night, topped with red and white flashing lights. It was famously dubbed the "Cathedral of Commerce", rather to Gilbert's displeasure as he had attempted to avoid copying ecclesiastical architecture.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Meanwhile, Chicago's skyscraper industry also boomed during the decade before World War I. The city's elevated train network was operating by 1910, allowing more workers to come into the centre. In 1910 alone of new offices were opened and by the end of the decade, Chicago had the second largest number of headquarters offices in the U.S. Chicago architectural firms such as Daniel H. Burnham and then Graham, Anderson, Probst & White continued to design skyscrapers in the "palazzo" style made popular in the previous decade. Chicago had hosted the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, a massive international event which had excited interest in the themes of classical architecture and well-designed city landscapes. Chicago also had extensive discussions in 1909 about the potential for designing large parts of the city, the Burnham Plan of Chicago.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The resulting skyscrapers reflected these debates: the Railway Exchange, the Peoples Gas and the Illinois Continental and Commercial Bank Buildings were each substantial, quarter-block wide "palazzo" cubes of common height, their facades divided into a classical tripartite design, and sporting classical columns and other features. Despite the apparent uniformity of design, individual buildings varied considerably in the detail of their designs in effort to express their particular identities, the Peoples Gas Building using texture and the Railway Exchange Building's white terracotta, for example.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: The process of building skyscrapers became more sophisticated, starting with the acquisition of the real estate needed for the site. Brokers working on commission would secretly acquire the individual lots of land required for a project, operating under a variety of names to avoid having the price increase once a planned build became known. The properties at the front of the site would typically be bought first, so if news broke of the skyscraper then those owning property at the back of the plot would have little choice but to sell anyway. The funding for skyscraper developments was normally lent by banks, insurance companies, or raised through bonds sold through a specialised bond house, with the latter becoming increasingly popular after World War I.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Efforts were made to improve the processes for erecting skyscrapers, largely through the work of general contractors such as Louis Horowitz and Frank Gilbreth, who in turn drew on recent work by efficiency specialist Frederick Taylor. Time schedules were devised for all the work to be undertaken, with costs carefully monitored and reports produced each day. The results were demonstrated on the Woolworth Building construction project, where of steel were assembled in only six days, a record for the period. Improved windbracing techniques were introduced. The use of pneumatic caissons in skyscraper foundations grew more advanced; in the construction of the 1908 Manhattan Municipal Building they were successfully sunk below the surface, with specially conditioned workers operating in shifts with constant medical support.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: New technologies were also introduced within the buildings. Fast Otis elevators, powered by electricity rather than steam-driven hydraulics, began to be installed in skyscrapers, with Ellithorpe safety air cushions protecting the passengers in the case of failure. Lighting improved, with the recommended levels in 1916 being around twice the level of the 1890s. Nonetheless, skyscrapers still relied primarily on natural sunlight, which required installing large windows and having tall ceilings to allow the sunlight to penetrate the back of the offices; an office deeper than was not considered a practical design.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: One of the reasons for the increase in the numbers of skyscrapers during the period was the growth in demand for office workers. In part this demand was fuelled by many U.S. firms becoming larger and more complex, and white-collar sectors such as insurance and banking grew in scale. It was also driven by changing technology. The typewriter was joined in the office by the adding machine, the telephone and filing cabinets, all adding to the demand for office space and requiring increasingly specialised workers.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Tenants and rental income were essential to the financial success of any skyscraper, as even the largest skyscrapers and those founded by prominent companies rented out much of their office space. Owners could charge significantly more for office space close to the main windows, making it most efficient to build skyscrapers with as much premium office space as possible, even if this cost slightly more to construct in the first instance. As a result, a standard pattern for office units in both New York and Chicago emerged, with either a single rectangular office adjoining an exterior wall, or a "T" shaped design, with a reception room giving way to two windowed offices, separated by glass partitions. Skyscrapers usually took on large numbers of relatively small companies as their tenants. A skyscraper such as the Woolworth Tower had around 600 different tenants in 1913, for example, while a typical tenant might rent four or five office units in a skyscraper.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Skyscrapers, particularly those in New York, attracted considerable comment, much of it negative. On his return to New York, writer Henry James condemned the buildings in "The American Scene" as simply "giants of the mere market", "mercenary monsters" doomed to be torn down in turn as other, even larger, buildings took their place. In Chicago the combination of the environmental pollution and skyscrapers meant that, as Charles Warner complained, "one can scarcely see across the streets on a damp day, and the huge buildings loom up in the black sky in ghostly dimness".


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Wider artistic sentiments varied. Many, like Alfred Stieglitz, harboured mixed feelings over New York's skyscrapers, reflected in his famous 1903 portrait of the Flatiron Building, and his 1910 work "Old and New New York" that contrasts the growing steel frame of the emerging Vanderbilt Hotel with the old low-rise blocks of the street below. Poets also wrote about the issues, the early Modernist Sadakichi Hartmann describing how "from the city's stir and madd'ning roar" the Flatiron's "monstrous shape soars in massive flight". Artists such as Alvin Coburn and John Marin experimented with producing portraits of New York's skyscrapers, capturing the positive and negative aspects of the modern structures. In 1908 artist Harry Pettit produced a romantic interpretation of a future New York, filled with giant skyscrapers supporting aerial bridges and receiving dirigibles from around the globe.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Amongst the architectural community, the Exposition in Chicago inspired many Americans to champion planning cities that had a unified design, in which each building had unique features but elegantly complemented its neighbours, typically by being built to a common height: "horizontal visual unity". In the aftermath of the Exposition, many of these advocates joined with the Beaux-Arts movement to form the City Beautiful movement, proposing low-rise cities with wide boulevards, built in a classical style. These critics condemned New York's skyscrapers, Montgomery Schuyler describing how they had produced a "horribly jagged sierra" of a city skyline and complaining that no modern skyscraper had turned out to be an architectural success. Charles Lamb argued that the skyscraper impinged on the rights of the rest of the city by destroying the collective appearance of an urban area. Some architects, such as Charles McKim and Stanford White refused to work on such projects altogether.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Calls were made in New York for legislation to prevent the growth of skyscrapers, citing their effect on the city skylines, but these attempts faced legal obstacles. The United States Constitution did not give local government authority to prevent the buildings on the grounds of aesthetics alone, and any such law in New York was considered likely to face judicial challenge.


title: Early skyscrapers

text: Others argued that legal reform of skyscraper construction was needed for public health and safety reasons, an area in which U.S. law was normally more supportive of state intervention. The risk of fire was one concern; while skyscrapers might be relatively fireproof, their height made conventional fire-fighting difficult. Architect Charles Bragdon considered a large scale, devastating high-rise fire to be inevitable if regulation was not forthcoming. The Baltimore fire of 1904 was widely cited as an example of this risk and, although Baltimore had few high rise buildings, city lawyers argued that the taller buildings had caused the flames to spread through the city during the blaze. Baltimore subsequently passed a law in 1904, banning buildings higher than . Other campaigners argued that skyscrapers were compromising access to light and air, noting that when tall buildings rose straight up from the sidewalk, they cast long shadows across the street, preventing healthy sunlight from reaching smaller buildings below.