19th Century Humanities
Photography.
Grand 50 Tower was the tallest skyscraper in Taiwan before the Shin Kong Life Tower in Taipei that was built to be one story higher than Chang-Gu World Trade Center (Grand 50 Tower). I decided to take a visit to this building, because just like the Manhattan's twin towers targeted on September 11, Grand 50 Tower is also a world trade center. My objective is to find out how such skyscrapers are structured in a way so I can unearth the facts of how and why the Manhattan's twin towers collapsed in the event of 911. Furthermore, it will allow me to analyze what is going inside the building and not just the exterior.
First of all, Grand 50 Tower has followed a Chinese style of feng shui, structuring with its octagonal base soiled firmly onto the ground. Overall, it stabilizes the building from strong winds. Moreover, as you can see from the picture, the building is constructed with layers and layers of blocks on top of each other that slowly thrust towards the outside. This favorably supports the building from being shook by strong wind speeds that can exceed to more then 300 miles per hour in the higher levels of the building. In addition, the round corners formed on the side of the building can likewise cancel out wind resistance.
Due to excessive rainfall during the days of May 19th and 20th, the staffs had placed sandbags on the ground to prevent the rain from overflowing the basement. The use of sandbags is simple and effective in preventing or reducing flood water damage; it may not guarantee a water-tight seal, but is satisfactory for uses in most situations. The obvious reason of why they are using sandbags to prevent flooding is to reduce the mess that it might cause; nonetheless, there are more explanations than just reducing the mess. Under the basement locate security systems that control the whole buildings programs, including air conditioning and fire preventions. With such important systems constructed under the basement, it is essential that the staffs must be aware of how natural disasters might destroy the building in a matter of seconds if not oblivious of what is happening.
To resist the impact of an earthquake or any movements that might cause the building to shake, a structure must possess flexibility consisted of stretchable strength. The lighter the building material, the less chance of injuries of anyone inside, because if the material is hard, it will collapse if there is only one single crack. Nowadays, builders' attention to design such buildings required knowledge about the materials needed. In Grand 50 Tower, steel is fabricated into the building due to its flexibility and firmness. Principal areas of usage include layers between the walls and escalators like that of the picture. Steel has the capacity to hold heavy objects and large numbers of people in a building, therefore with this reinforcement built, the structure with tensile steel will be able to support the skyscraper itself through the solid walls of cement to alleviate the severity of damage.
During rush hours, it is expected that the building will be swarmed with crowds of office people who work inside the building. To solve this puzzling circumstance, Grand 50 Tower has built the elevators in a way so that two can proceed at the same time from the same floor. "This system is especially only installed in Grand 50 Tower, not even Taipei 101 has this installed," says the chairman of the Grand 50 Tower building.
With each floor being loaned out to different individuals, office, and corporations, the building is able to run in a busy district in Kaohsiung City. This particular floor is located on the 22nd floor of the building, loaned out to Buddhist groups who are searching for a place to recite bibles and scriptures out loud. Inside the interior of these rooms are massive areas that look like a conference room, but without tables and chairs.
It is said that buildings should have the exact same acres as what they have signed on the contract when they are constructing the skyscraper. Some buildings are built with the acres of the side of the building being reduced to fit the number of acres signed previously. Other buildings like the Grand 50 Tower chose to make its center hollow. The majority of the skyscrapers have hollow centers as a part of their designs.
On the day when I visited the Grand 50 Tower, there were commercial filming going on, and I fortunately had the opportunity to visit the 7th floor, where the filming was taking place. As you can see in the pictures, the people are very focused in getting the right angle of where the light and camera should be so it turns out right. Fame does not always come by luck, it takes up effort and time and all the perspiration to achieve goals with fruitful results. Therefore, in this picture, you can how hard it takes to just film only one scene out of a hundred.
FM broadcasting is a worldwide radio station that broadcasts music and news and weather reports for either people sitting in their car driving their way home, or at work cramming on the assignments they have to finish before their due date. Specifically, the 98.3 radio station office is located the 43rd floor of the Grand 50 Tower. 98.3 radio station is one of the most well-known radio stations in Taiwan, as it came to be known as the one with best music and was also ranked as the top three. As I walked in the office, there was only two people sitting in front of a desks, both slouching over their own computer. Outside, I could still hear a song going on, and as it was approaching the end, a guy got up and walked into the studio room, sitting behind the computer and typing things in the computer as he swayed his head around, just as shown in the two pictures above. When the song ended, the guy spoke up, and in that instant, the most beautified sound flowed into my ears like a river. His voice was nothing like his appearance. The voice was appealing and mature, so soft that it attracts the tiniest organisms in the air, but on the outside, you should still see the 11-year-old looking guy swaying his head around as if he's having fun with his gadgets. From then on, it vividly showed how a person should not be judged by his or her own looks. It was both a great experience for me and also an amazing way to understand how stereotypes could change everything about a person's perspective.
Looking out from the window of the 43rd floor, the scene ranges from mountains to ocean, one side to the other. Being the second tallest building in Kaohsiung, it is able to have a wide range of view of the whole city, including the tiny apartments surrounding the Grand 50 Tower. Some offices in the building itself are still left empty with no rents yet. The location of where the two pictures were taken used to belong to an electricity company, and it is said that they used to be the "tallest electricity company".
----- This is the restaurant located on the 50th floor of the building.
