{"id":5412,"date":"2015-09-23T11:56:27","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T11:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/?p=5412"},"modified":"2022-11-23T13:15:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-23T13:15:23","slug":"most-impressive-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/most-impressive-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"9 of The World’s Most Impressive Structures"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to architecture and buildings, it\u2019s easy to overlook and forget about just how impressive some structures actually are.<\/span><\/h2>\n

From skyscrapers that stand thousands of feet in the air, to buildings that showcase intricate details that look like they\u2019ve been hand-drawn, a building can sometimes be one of the most impressive things to look at. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the heart of every structure are robust materials, quality workmanship and a lot of hard work and effort throughout the entire process. Although the external appearance will take the accolades and be admired internationally, it’s the work that goes into creating and fabricating the parts that remain unseen that take our interest; from the welding that fuses and holds the metal in place, to the cutting that shapes and gives the metal structures their distinctive appearance.<\/p>\n

Every once in awhile something is made that makes people sit up and take note, so we thought we\u2019d take a look at at some of the world\u2019s most impressive structures and see how much material, effort and cost went into making them.<\/p>\n

\"buildings<\/a>Europe<\/h2>\n

The Shard<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: London, England
\n<\/span>Date Opened: February 2013
\n<\/span>Build time: 3 years 4 months
\n<\/span>Amount of metal: 12,000 tonnes used to form the steel frame.
\n<\/span>Cost: \u00a3435m<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that 95% of the construction materials used to make The Shard are recycled? Many different types of welding processes including SMAW, MIG, SAW (tandem and tractor) welding were used in the fabrication of The Shard to ensure that the structure stays in tact and solid. <\/span><\/p>\n

Guggenheim Museum<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Bilao, Spain
\n<\/span>Date opened: October 1997
\n<\/span>Build time: 4 years
\n<\/span>Amount of metal: 33,000 pieces of titanium
\n<\/span>Cost: $100m<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that the Guggenheim has been hailed as the greatest building of our time by architect Philip Johnson?<\/span><\/p>\n

Allianz Arena<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Munich, Germany
\n<\/span>Date opened: October 2005
\n<\/span>Build time: 3 years
\n<\/span>Amount of metal: 22,000 tons of steel
\n<\/span>Cost: 340m Euros<\/span><\/p>\n

The Allianz Arena is home to one of the most famous football teams in the world, Bayern Munich, and holds 71,000 people. The arena lights up and night making it one of the most beautiful landmarks in Germany – not bad for a football stadium!<\/span><\/p>\n

Asia<\/h2>\n

Burj Khalifa<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
\n<\/span>Date Opened: January 2010
\n<\/span>Build time: 5 years 11 months
\n<\/span>Amount of Metal: 39,000 tonnes of rebar
\n<\/span>Cost: $1.5bn<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that the Burj Khalifa is the world\u2019s tallest building and construction took 22 million man-hours? <\/span><\/p>\n

Hangzhou Bay Bridge<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Location: Shanghai, China
\n<\/span>Date Open: May 2008
\n<\/span>Build time: 4 years
\n<\/span>Metal used: Steel
\n<\/span>Cost: $1.5bn<\/span><\/p>\n

The Hangzhou Bay Bridge is 32,500m in length and is one of the 10 longest bridges in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

Petronas Towers<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
\n<\/span>Date opened: March 1996
\n<\/span>Build time: 3 years
\n<\/span>Amount of metal: 36,910 tonnes of steel
\n<\/span>Cost: $1.6bn<\/span><\/p>\n

The Petronas towers are so big and feature so much glass that it takes 2 months to clean the windows. Once they\u2019re done, the cleaners have to start again!<\/span><\/p>\n

America<\/h2>\n

The Cadet Chapel<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Colorado, USA
\n<\/span>Date opened: 1962
\n<\/span>Build time: 3 years
\n<\/span>Metal used: undisclosed
\n<\/span>Cost: $3.5m<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that the Cadet Chapel is one of the largest religious buildings in the world and contains five types of chapels for several different religions?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chrysler Building<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: New York, USA
\n<\/span>Date opened: 1930
\n<\/span>Build time: 2 years
\n<\/span>Amount of metal: 20,961 tonnes of steel
\n<\/span>Cost: $15m ($850m in today\u2019s money)<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chrysler Building is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Did you know that it\u00a0was the tallest building in the world from May 1930 \u2013 April 1931?<\/span><\/p>\n

Africa<\/h2>\n

Portside Tower<\/a><\/h3>\n

Location: Cape Town, South Africa
\n<\/span>Date opened: 2014
\n<\/span>Build time: 3 years
\n<\/span>Material used: concrete
\n<\/span>Cost: $138<\/span><\/p>\n

Did you know that the Portside Tower is the fourth most expensive construction in Africa?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to architecture and buildings, it\u2019s easy to overlook and forget about just how impressive some structures actually are. From skyscrapers that stand thousands of feet in the air, to buildings that showcase intricate details that look like … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-westermans-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/allianz-arena-bayern-munich-colours-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Ygth-1pi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5412"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10451,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5412\/revisions\/10451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westermans.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}