National Skyscraper Day
Next: September 3, 2027
Look up.
The story
Where it comes from
National Skyscraper Day falls on 3 September, the birthday of Louis Sullivan (1856–1924), the Chicago architect called the 'father of skyscrapers'. Sullivan gave the tall steel-frame building its first coherent language ('form ever follows function' is his phrase) and mentored a young draughtsman named Frank Lloyd Wright. The observance is informal and American, kept by architecture and engineering communities.
How it's celebrated
Observation-deck visits, architecture walks in Chicago and New York, and a lot of photographs looking straight up. Schools and museums use the day to teach how steel frames, elevators and wind engineering made tall buildings possible.
Did you know
- The first building generally called a skyscraper, Chicago's Home Insurance Building of 1885, was ten storeys high.
- The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, at 828 metres, has held the title of tallest building since 2010; Kuala Lumpur's Merdeka 118, at 679 metres, is the second tallest.
- Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 and are still the tallest twin towers.
Coming up next
- World Sexual Health Day · September 4, 2027
- International Day of Charity · September 5, 2027
- Teachers' Day · September 5, 2027
- The First Voyage Around the World · September 6, 2027
- Labor Day · September 6, 2027
- International Day of Clean Air for blue skies · September 7, 2027