From Survey to Skyline

This reading sits behind one of the Chain panels: a process traced trade by trade from its first step to its last. The chain is the museum's argument that nothing in a city is made by one person.

The panel text

A tower is a relay race run by trades. Follow one building from the ground up.

1. Survey. The surveyor recovers the lot lines and sets the control points. Everything else is measured from here. 2. Excavation. Heavy-equipment operators dig to bedrock; drillers set the piles. 3. Foundation. Ironworkers tie the rebar mat; carpenters build the forms; the concrete crew pours the 3 a.m. slab. 4. Structure. Ironworkers raise the steel or the crews jump the concrete core, a floor every four days. 5. Skin. Glaziers hang the curtain wall unit by unit from the tower crane. 6. Systems. Plumbers, electricians, HVAC and fire-sprinkler fitters run the risers; elevator mechanics build the vertical railway. 7. Finish. Drywall, painters, tile, millwork, flooring. 8. Commission. Inspectors, commissioning agents, the fire marshal. 9. Occupancy. The hotel opens; the cleaners, the front desk and the dry cleaner's linen run begin.

Every step is a program in this school. Count the trades on the wall: nineteen.

Reading further

The panel's series (The Chain) hangs together in Gallery G1, the Chain of Trades. Each panel in the series is printed at 48 inches on aluminum composite, lent to schools and libraries, and archived here with its reading.