Skyscrapers in Christmas In The City
The term "skyscraper" was first applied to buildings of steel-framed construction of at least 10 stories in the late 19th century, a result of public amazement at the tall buildings being built in major American cities like New York, Chicago, Detroit and Boston. The first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building, originally 10 stories with a height of 138 ft. built in Chicago, not New York, in 1885. Two additional stories were added later. .
The construction of skyscrapers was made possible thanks to Henry Bessmer, a Brit who invented the first method to mass-produce steel inexpensively. This breakthrough in the production of steel opened the door for builders to start making taller and taller structures. Modern steel today is still made using technology based on Bessemer's original process. Skyscrapers gained more and more popularity as real estate in large urban areas became harder to find and more expensive. When cities started to become more crowded, the best and only way to build was up – and we’ve been building skyscrapers ever since.
“Christmas in the City” was first introduced by Department 56 in 1987 and the Times Tower (56.55510) was our first attempt at a true skyscraper (introduced in 1999, to celebrate the new millennium). The original building was constructed at 1475 Broadway in 1903/1904 in New York City and is known as the “New York Times Building”. It has 25 stories which is relatively small for a skyscraper. While many of the Department 56 designs are inspired by actual buildings, we most often embrace amalgamations from a variety of sources to create our designs.
The new Griffith Tower is no exception. Inspired by a variety of different buildings around the globe, the Griffith Tower is our first fictional tower, as well as our first brown sandstone design. As you will note, the Griffith Tower also features gold accents on the top, a tiny metal bell in the tower and four clocks for telling time, one of each side of the tower. As is tradition at Department 56, the clocks are set at 5 minutes to 6 – 56.
Some of you have wondered how the artists determine the size. Tom Bates designs most of the “Christmas in the City” keeping in mind the “Empire State Building,” the tallest piece ever produced for this collection. “When you’re designing multiple tall pieces for the same collection, you need to bring perspective to the design so that when it is placed within the Village display the whole thing makes sense.” Tom explained. This is one important reason the artists usually build a paper model to “test” in the Village. They need to determine if the scale and size will work with existing pieces.
Here are the top six skyscrapers designed for “Christmas in the City” in order of height:
- Empire State Building
- Griffith Tower
- Woolworth Building
- Singer Building
- Chrysler Building
- Times Tower
Another challenge when designing the porcelain skyscrapers for Christmas in the City is rendering the feeling and look of the building into a much smaller scale and material. According to Tom, “You have to scale back the number of stories a building has and alter the size of the windows, to make the design work and to retain the feeling.” It has to have the right look, the right feel and be appropriately scaled to fit into a Village series that has been around for almost forty years.
These tall porcelain pieces really add to a Village display. What type of structure would you like to see created next? We can’t promise to do every piece you suggest but love to hear your ideas – we’re scraping the sky with possibilities!