Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 February 1918 — The Life of the Skyscraper. [ARTICLE]

The Life of the Skyscraper.

Builders and men of allied interest are discussing again the question of the lifetime of the modern skyscraper. When a symposium on this subject was published along in 1905 there still were in the foreground some “ifs” of corrosion, vibration and electrolysis as affecting steel frames. Nevertheless, estimates of durability ranged from 5,000 years to a vague “forever.” Today sees the old “ifs” happily disposed of, says a writer. Tall structures torn down after a decade or more of service have revealed their protected steel work as good as nfew. But the very act through which this reassuring condition has been made known has shown forth the real, lurking enemy of the towering city edifice. The foe of the modern skyscraper Is the more modern skyscraper. And the prophet is justified who, in the 1905 symposium, merely said for the manystoried structure that it would last “as long as we want it to.”