• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

The evolution in the use of the elevator and the iron frame to build ever-taller buildings that would eventually be called "skyscrapers" is still somewhat shrouded in the mist of history. This two-part paper is an attempt to document the significant persons and events in that evolution, showing that these had a greater continuity than that previously recorded. In this first part, I discuss how the exploitation of the elevator in the design of buildings allowed "skyscrapers" to be built taller than the five-six story limit imposed by stairways, so that their owners could include more and more rental square footage needed to offset the increasing cost of Manhattan real estate. The use of iron framing for the interior framing in these taller buildings would reduce the amount of square footage lost to construction, thereby also increasing the rental return from the building. By the start of the Great Depression of the 1870s in 1873, New York architects had erected two ten-storied skyscrapers.