Anything Goes?

When Cole Porter wrote the song "Anything Goes" in 1934, he did not include skyscraper examples. The recently completed Chrysler and Empire State buildings followed decades of tall building development in a logical and predictable line. Today, dramatic improvements in materials and methods of analysis, design and fabrication have given architects and engineers freedom to imagine, and contractors to build, towers in configurations never seen before. If writing now, Porter would surely have mentioned such designs to demonstrate anything goes. Or does it? This article explores the possibilities and challenges of tall building structural design through current and proposed projects. Examples include engineering buildings with outward forms that appear structurally unfavorable and taking advantage of load reduction through shaping opportunities.