How skyscrapers are built
A skyscraper's glass walls carry no weight at all. The frame inside holds everything up.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 88
- raw sources
- 29
- steps from the ground
- 10
The short version
A skyscraper is built from the ground up in this order: deep foundations, a steel or reinforced-concrete frame, then a non-structural curtain wall hung on the outside. Elevators and mass dampers go in last. The frame carries the weight, and the wind is usually the largest force that engineers must design against.
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Sink deep foundations
Drilled shafts are bored and filled with concrete and steel reinforcement. Other foundations use piles of wood, reinforced concrete or steel driven by a pile driver. A deep foundation carries the building loads down to firm ground.
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Raise the frame
Modern skyscrapers are built on steel or reinforced concrete frameworks. A steel frame is joined from beams, riveted in the old days, while concrete floors and cores are poured in place.
Goes in -
Tie it into a tube
Since the early 1960s, tall buildings have used a tube design, with closely spaced perimeter columns and braced frames acting like a hollow tube against wind. This lets towers rise higher using less steel.
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Hang the glass skin
Curtain walls are non-structural exterior walls that carry only their own weight. Aluminum extrusions form the frame, glass is the usual infill, and unitized panels are built in a factory and craned into place.
Goes in -
Install the elevators
Elevators are characteristic of skyscrapers. Elisha Otis introduced the safety elevator in 1852, which made upper floors practical to reach.
Goes in -
Add the dampers
Mass dampers reduce vibration and swaying in the wind. Gaps in the structure also let air pass through, reducing wind shear.
Worth repeating
- The 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, completed in 1885 at 42 m, is widely considered the first steel-frame skyscraper.
- The Willis Tower uses a third less steel than the Empire State Building.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and skyscraper starts as these 29 raw sources.
Everything it is made of See it on the map
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Sources
Cite this page: "How skyscrapers are built." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/skyscraper