 I'm delighted to have you back for this, our show, which is Think A Weiss Human Humane Architecture. This is our 254th show, and you're likely to be around around 13,600 viewer, which we appreciate. We are broadcasting live physically from only one place in the world, with me, you're always smart in this bank, you're in Germany, but spiritually with the sort of Brown as well, who's always back in his Bishop Museum, back in Honolulu, where he unfortunately about a year ago, what feels like he broke his wrist by doing maintenance on his two-slip re-roof at his Bishop Museum, and he's getting surgery to improve the aftermath of that. So all the best for that is so that we have our fingers and wrists crossed. And if we can get the first slide up here to have me just give you sort of an introduction to the framework of multiple shows we're gonna air from this week, which is basically building upon the past shows where we keep you updated about the newest developments in our Honolulu, Hawaii, which is as we have extreme sparsity of land has to be that we are very conservative and precise with that land. And so not sprawl anymore, but build high versus horizontal. And that leads to buildings that we can call high rises, or there's another name for that, or certain species of high rises we call skyscrapers. And this is quoting the solo from the preparation for this show. That again is our show, but I delivered it on our behalf of today. And he was investigating in the terminology of skyscrapers and skyscrapers. Of course, he didn't waste time as he sat there. He spent time very wisely on figuring out what that is. Because we're initially looking at skylines. This is where we're going. And then when you Google where our skyline stands compared to competitively in the world with the other skylines, you get confused because there are multiple rankings of multiple sorts of different qualitative and quantitative measurements. So that's why the solo dip this year. And first of all, the definition of skyscraper, he shows here, it has to be at least 100 meters tall, which is that metric thing that we Europeans have roughly 300 feet is that what it translates to. And also a minimum of two meters floor height that you can occupy. That is more generous because in Europe, it's 2.5 meters. A little below that is the minimum you can do for housing. But anyways, that's pretty much what it is. And obviously we're not where America was at its best in the century where it was leading the world and it had things that no one else had in the world, including skylines. Ever since many cultures have surpassed the United States of America in many things, also in terms of high rises, especially in Asia. Actually the tallest high rise in the world happens to be in the Arab world, the Borsch Khalifa as I find we called it. But it is designed by American expertise by the pioneers in this typology because Americans were the first ones to build it. So the Arabs, especially back then until these days, they're trusting Americans to do that. So in the firm that designed that tower, we will revisit soon in the following weeks of the show here. Our show quotes to the right show us a little bit, I guess a dilemma of when we talk about skylines because a skyline is nothing else or nothing more than an accumulation of individual buildings. And they all together then form what we might call a silhouette. But that's silhouette, you can mainly see when you are on the ground and you see that silhouette basically distinguishing itself against the sky. That's where the term skyline comes from. In cases when you are a bird or a big bird that carries human beings as airplanes, as the predominant way as we get to our islands of Hawaii, you will not have the view of a skyline, you will have the view of, there's not a term for that, but we can say a landline, right? Because you see a bunch of dots, they're kind of spotting the ground, but you don't see, our particular islands have a natural skyline and these are the mountains, as we see them in the show quote in the middle there. And these mountains are a natural skyline and that's what's when the Polynesians and later on Cook first came via boat, they saw that natural skyline. It was a line, the top of the mountains clearly distinguishing itself from the otherwise flat horizontal line of the Pacific Ocean in that case. So ever since, especially since Hawaii joined and had to join, had little choice as some say and complain rightly. So it joined the United States of America. Then this very American invention of high rises created another skyline that is sort of juxtaposed with the natural skyline of the Maoka. And one could argue or raise the question, are they in contradiction with each other? And we make that case often that we say the natural Maoka Hawaiian for mountain skyline is a biochromatic system that in fact it creates our paradise as far as lushness and all the splendoriness of water and fruits and all of that wouldn't be there at least not to that extent if it wouldn't be for the mountains, the Maoka because that's where the clouds get stuck and then starts to rain. So very biochromatic, it doesn't take anything from the earth that it doesn't and can't get back. That is different with the high rises of at least these days. It used to be different mid century, the pioneering days when architects came to the island, they thought, oh my gosh, I'm so privileged to be here at that 50th state that is so different and so much more paradoxal than all the other states. Sorry for that for the other locations that we're listing some here that we're getting to in a second. And they truly try to lift up to that as much as they could. And the short quote at the top right is us polemically proposing to be that again and basically plant and grow so to speak, high rises that are of different ages. These are all primitives that we think are more in line with the natural skyline of the mountains. So that ranking at the very bottom left is obviously then taking the isolated view only to the United States because again, the highest, all these high rises in the world are in Asia. And but here we're concentrating on the United States of America. And we can say probably no surprise to you, this ranking probably even for everyone not familiar with this subject matter is probably not too much of a surprise that New York city has the most high rises. And then we have the cities in Chicago, Miami, Houston, San Francisco. But surprise, surprise, we score number six. We're just before Los Angeles. And that's pretty amazing because again, we're pretty small island. But again, given that we have scarcity of land, it makes sense to build high and not horizontal. And that makes us having take that position here. We should keep in mind though that if we would have a collection of postcards of all these skylines here, we would find them rather alive or not that unsimilar. That is a problem. Again, if we would have compared them from its century, likely they would be different amongst each other because mid-century one-one was more sensitive of living with the environment versus against it in the later decades, especially ever since our favorite president of the United States, Jimmy Carter, had to pass on the baton to Ronald Reagan who was absolutely embracing the fossil of fuel age. And we're thinking we're still in there. Although Vladimir Pope and Putin gave us a pretty brutal break on that one, is giving it currently to us. He's been bombarding again his troops dwellings, high rises, buildings where people live. That's the worst civilians get killed. That's the worst. So this is a wake-up call for all of us to get off that fossil train and get back to the pioneering of the mid-century, our heroes in that area. So that's why we're on this fossil we have been so far and have to get up and fast. But that's why these skylines are highly sort of infested by that fossil mindset and high rises in Miami look like in Chicago and like in Houston, San Francisco. However, the climates in the United States, the continent of the United States is comprised of a multitude of climate zones. Different than in Germany, we're currently experiencing a heat wave here. I'm precedent that costs, some will still argue. We don't. Our climate change Southern Europe, especially is in the hundreds and the hundred tens. And there's a drought series. We're getting a kiss of that as well, as we've been in the hundred here today, part of stay on record. But people in Arizona, Phoenix is not on the list. Its skyline is further down. I've just been talking to our previous and future guests. They are meddling who lives in Tucson, Arizona. And he will laugh about us because it always has 120 degrees in the desert. Most of the days, but architecture for that has been adapting to that accordingly, using thermal mask because it's in deserts, the nights get cool, which we're lucky to have as well. And we will later in the show, show you a building that American architects have been building in the desert and show you another one that will be built there soon and the Burj Khalifa is, they're all by the same architect, SOM, Skidmore, Orange, Merrill. So again, we should keep that in mind that again, the circumstances, the climatic circumstances, climate, what informs culture at least used to and should again should make these skylines all different, which they aren't. So as to broaden our horizon above and beyond our most remote list from our landmass, we will visit in the coming weeks and we start today one of these cities. And that is the number second on that list. And that is Chicago. Chicago is to give us an idea to position that is part of the Midwest, although when you look at the map, it's kind of a little weird because it seems to gravitate towards the East, but technically it's part of the Midwest, it's the very Eastern part of the Midwest. And the Midwest, I'm an expert in because I spent on the invitation of the University of Nebraska and its president, they gave me a scholarship in the early 90s that made me to spend a year to study in the Midwest and in the early 2000, 2005, they invited me to come back to coach for half of a decade there. So I'm very familiar with its climate and with its culture. And it's pretty much the same as in Chicago and Lincoln, Nebraska, where I've been is share something, but in the opposite way to Honolulu, Hawaii, while Honolulu is the most remote from all landmasses, Lincoln, Nebraska is the most remote from all water body of oceans. Chicago, and we can get to the next slide, to the second slide for that, takes a little different position because that's why the show name, the four S's has one of the words is shoreline and it borders water as we do, but not the ocean, but a lake, and that is Lake Michigan. And from Lake Michigan or into Lake Michigan as it originally was, but for pollution, the river was actually reversed technically as an enormous undertaking. That is the Chicago River that we see at the very bottom right. So with this compilation of images, we wanna encourage you through us to think about when was the last time when you had been in the city of our investigation of the coming weeks in Chicago or if not, let the show inspire you for you getting to know Chicago. And this way here is sharing us with you when we were there the last times or the first times. And you see at the very bottom right a handsome young man is our co-host to Soto Brown in the mid 80s where both he and I had stuff on our heads that we don't have anymore, which is here. And he is standing in front of to the big building to the left. The historic building is 35 Wecker Drive, which if you're into the Batman movies, just before the Dark Knight series started that movie before that one started on that building there on these columns there. And it is also called the Jewelers Building because this is where the most of the Jewelers in Chicago had their headquarters. For that reason, there are goofy things like elevators that take cars up. There's a cupola up there in that cupola is where one of the main architects in Chicago who unfortunately passed away not that long ago, he got hit and killed by two cars when he was on his bicycle. And that's my fellow German born architect Helmut Jan that our other co-host and mentor of the show series here is the gentleman we see on the picture at the top left. The one on the right is my best American buddy, Dan Kubrick who ever since graduating from the University of Nebraska works for Helmut Jan and continues to work for him. And is currently having the office of Jan who is in 35 Wecket Drive to move to what is in front of the Soto, which is the Wrigley building. And he's in the process of facilitating moving the office to that location there. So what was different in the mid 80s down there with what the Soto spotted there, you see a river but there was really no embracing the river as a waterfront, as a waterfront walk. And that's one of the recent developments and improvements in Chicago that happened over the last couple of years as in many American cities as back then when it was more, it's still car centric but there was the beginning of car centricity. So people just basically drove and they didn't care for the waterfront. That has changed recently. This is a really beautiful waterfront walk now that you can enjoy the river. There's restaurants and bars down there and a lot of landscaping. And you also see just behind the Soto's head, you see another line, another city line that's an elevated one because the whole city of Chicago is sort of elevated on that sort of continuous plinth that line that you see there. So what the buildings seem to stand on is the street level but their foundations go further down. And then there is this cavity space in between the water line, the water level and the street level. And that's where all the facilitation all the garbage trucks, all the technicians all the maintenance facility people basically access and maintain and keep the city running without clogging it on the streets where the main traffic basically goes. So again, the Soto was there in the 80s, mid 80s as this picture tells you. The other building next to the regular building on the right that we give you the name, the data is at the very bottom there is from the 60s, from the early 60s. And that's what the Soto told me he first witnessed and was in Chicago the first time. As far as myself, again, when I was a student there I mobility wise, we, Chicago was the city that was the closest to us as to do field trips. And that's something we're missing the most out on with our emerging generation in Honolulu but it always takes a flight over to any other place of significance of cities that we can study. Talking car-centric in the Midwest, you can drive to other cities, which Soto always is writing so keen on pointing out nevermind from Lincoln, Nebraska in the Heartland which indicates there's a lot of on Loa and it is I can confirm that you can theoretically get yourself into a car, put it on cruise control, go on IAD and another eight, nine hours later you're gonna end up in Chicago. And that's how I basically saw and witnessed Chicago the first time when I was in studio there together with Dan and our professor basically who was the best ever who basically told us to have a field trip there and meet there. And his name is Alex Miller, so hi Alex. Hope you're doing well and thanks again for everything. What was so great about him that he didn't babysit us. He basically said, okay, let's meet in Chicago that day that hour, see you there. So no bus rented or anything. We had to get there. A show quotes at the very bottom left. Don't get yourself maybe too excited because Dan was a proud owner of his 1960s Pontiac GTO, the embodiment of a muscle car. Myself a little bit on the more average side also shown in my 72-blended fury that Dan kept running as we will further explain when we reconvene our automobile shows. We didn't take any of these. These are obviously gas guzzlers, although that wasn't an issue because the gallon was a dollar to make him jealous of what is now five bucks. And that's a good thing because it's a wakeup call. We were rather innocent back then. So what did we do? Dan went there with a couple of classmates by himself in a car and I went with Jeff Chetwick, so hi Jeff. Jeff was a proud owner of, it's not his car, but alike. I Googled it and credit the source there. You see that rusted out car, which is a Honda Civic, first generation Honda Civic. And that car literally had more rust than anything. And the four of us drove there. And by the point we were reaching back to our show title, the Skyline. We saw something that you also see at the very right on the picture with DeSoto. In the very distance there, you see the top of a high rise that has two antennas on top of it. And that is the most iconic building in Chicago that used to be the tallest high rise for quite some time. And that is the originally called Sears Tower. I'm holding it up, a Lego model of it as of now. That a couple of shows ago, I was telling you that I gave it to our son, Yoni. And he basically said, hey, did you keep the packaging with it, the box? And I said, no, I didn't. And he said, well, stupid you because otherwise it would be worth some money now. So I learned that. So this is according to Yoni, the Lego expert, obviously a vintage Lego version of the Sears Tower, which is now not the Sears Tower anymore, but called the Willys Tower, which they even had to print on there. So that building, when we were in that rest of dots, Honda Civic, and you saw these two antennas, my classmates stopped the car, pulled over, and basically said, well, you got to drive. And I said, well, okay, but why is that? Said, well, because that is a big city and you are from Europe and you know cities, and we don't. And I basically said, come on guys, we have Lincoln, Nebraska, which is the capital, but the smaller city. And we have Omaha, Nebraska, which is a multi-million inhabited city. And so they were familiar with that, they just needed to get that. So they took over driving soon after that, once they understood it wasn't really much different to drive in Chicago than in Omaha, Nebraska. So that's how we basically then approached the city. We saw the skyline first, next slide. And that's how I, after a decade now, thanks to the hospitality of Dan, was able to revisit Chicago again. No, basically accused, but explanation because of our remoteness in Honolulu that we have to work on, open ourselves up more. CVCD more, it used to be my hub in and out, even in my desert days in Arizona, I always took my other stuff over, fly through Chicago, but I hadn't been doing this for almost a decade. So I revisited it again. So at the very bottom, you see me revisiting that way of approaching a skyline, which the solo says, we hardly have that, right? We can't come from another state. And all of a sudden we see our skyline, that is not happening. You can obviously live out west and you have to drive on H1. At some point there's a very scenic situation where you see the skyline unfolding, but you cannot see that from any other state coming here. So this is it. And the bottom picture you see at the third left, once again, these two antennas popping up, so that is the Sears Tower, but also you see another couple of other buildings basically sticking out and popping out of different heights. And that also is a difference to Honolulu, which we will continue to talk about. But the position of where the soda was standing in the previous slide, if we recall that, he was right where basically the boat tour where the Vendellas are. And that is at the top right is my ticket upon the recommendation of Dan. He said, take the Vendella and the Vendella, give you a really great view of the skyline because that Vendella boat goes out into the lake and the picture at the top left is one of the many that I took from out on the boat. This is still in the dock there on the river, but it actually goes out into the river and looks at the skyline. And so this is the, as of now, current skyline of Chicago. For various reasons, we won't show that much to the building that you see in the very center there because this is the Trump Tower. And for some several reasons, we're not so keen about talking the former client or the still the owner of the building we don't know as we don't quite agree with his way of doing politics. But we will talk about many of the other buildings here that you see here that were all new to me and then have basically popped up ever since I was there a decade ago. And so we're almost at the end of this little appetizer for exciting show volumes to do the Soto and I. And so we will compare our skylines and how much they share and how much they differ and should differ. Because again, there's nothing, my final word, talking climate, there's nothing colder than walking in the winters through the canyons of Chicago where I first heard the term wind chill and that is chilly in Chicago. That's colder that you could get it. And it's in the summer as hot as it is right now here very, very humid. That we know from Honolulu, but not the cold. So we leave it with that for today. Please see us again next week. Please all stay well and get well, especially the Soto and everyone else. I have recovered from COVID, thankfully, hopefully everyone else too. And so see you next week for kicking off our comparison of our shorelines, skyline cities of Honolulu and Chicago. Bye-bye. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. 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