Popular Buildings You Didn’t Know Are Made Of Steel
Steel does not come to mind as the most representative building material for classic and popular edifices. People tend to think more of brick and mortar, glass and marble as building material combinations for iconic feats of architecture. Metal building providers like CanAm Steel Building Corporation of Denver are known for their quality metal buildings, and have a great success in the construction field.
However, some of the best known buildings in the world are actually made of steel, proving the versatility and endurance of this material.
- The Eiffel Tower
The best known landmark in Paris (and the entire France, for that matter) is made 100% of steel. The engineer Gustave Eiffel created this daring piece of architecture for the 1899 World’s Fair and has stood the test of time, both in terms of design and of the endurance of the building material used.
- The Sydney Opera House
A beautiful example of daring modern architecture, the Sydney Opera House is mainly made of concrete blocks, shaped to look like sails under high winds. However, the entire structure is literally held together by steel – more precisely by a total of 350 km of tensioned steel cables. These unseen building elements make possible the graceful look of the roof in the absence of heavy and ungainly concrete pillars.
- The Chrysler Building
Competing in grace and style with the previous two examples, the Chrysler Building is still one of the best examples of 1930s skyscraper style of building. The entire structure of the building is made of steel, but the most spectacular steel element is the spire at the top – added by the architect to make sure that the Chrysler building exceed the tallest skyscraper of the time, 40 Wall Street.
