Expanding Skyscraper: Presentation Drawing, Elevation Study

Reginald Malcolmson came to Chicago in 1947 from Ireland to study with Mies van der Rohe at Illinois Institute of Technology. He subsequently worked in the Office of Mies van der Rohe from 1948 through 1955. He also was known throughout his career as a teacher and an architect of visionary and experimental projects.

His proposal for an expanding skyscraper is a theoretical project which would have allowed the creation of a larger and larger building formed by enclosing parts of the main structural skeleton. The main vertical axis is a megastructure containing the elevators and services for the whole tower. Enclosed volumes may be expanded and extended according to needs and demands. Parts of the whole may grow independently, but all parts are related to one another by the transportation and services at the core. The skyscraper could expand so much it becomes a vertical city.