 First edition | |
| Author | Richard Martin Stern |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publisher | David McKay |
Publication date | 1973 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 343 |
| ISBN | 0-679-50363-3 |
The Tower is a 1973 novel by Richard Martin Stern. It is one of the two books drawn upon for the screenplay Stirling Silliphant wrote for the 1974 movie The Towering Inferno, the other being the 1974 novel The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. [1]
The story unfolds on the day of the grand opening of the "World Tower Building" skyscraper in Lower Manhattan, New York City, situated several blocks to the north of the former World Trade Center Towers, in a plaza of its own, a building which is 1,527 feet high, with 125 stories. The building has a stainless steel facade, with tinted green windows.
In the morning mail, Will Giddings, "Clerk Of The Works," or on-site representative of the owner, "The World Tower Corporation," receives an anonymous envelope containing electrical-design change authorizations that no one in the offices of Caldwell Associates, Supervising Architects (represented on-site by Nathan Hale "Nat" Wilson) or Bertrand McGraw And Company, General Contractor, has seen before. These changes, as it proves, call for lower-quality material, simplified circuitry, or both; this would reduce costs for the electrical subcontractor, Paul Simmons, son-in-law of Bert McGraw, the general contractor, while eliminating the electrical-safety elements in the wiring of the building and rendering it sub-standard. The various characters start to track things down, involving the electrical engineer's office and the Fire Department, represented by Assistant Fire Commissioner Timothy O'Reilly Brown. The reader is told that Simmons's company, having been on the verge of financial ruin because of a poorly-bid electrical contract for the World Tower Building, reversed its fortunes beginning with the first of the change orders. His secretary proves not to have destroyed the originals, enabling her to copy them for Giddings.
In the afternoon, the grand-opening celebration for the building commences and the 125th-floor Tower Room is filled with high-profile guests from Congress, the U.N., Hollywood, and the Mayor's office. During the affair, while various authorities are arguing over the change orders and the possibility of evacuating the Tower Room, a disgruntled sheet-metal worker named John Connors, who has no idea of the thimble-rigging of the electrical system that had made it fall short of minimum safety standards, detonates a stolen bomb in the sub-basement transformer room of the giant building in order to disrupt the event and discredit the building and its owners. Connors, it is revealed, had gone over the edge mentally three years before, when his diabetic wife, in the throes of diabetic ketoacidosis, was thrown into the police station "drunk tank," where she was deprived of medication, killing her. The incident had been poorly investigated, and Connors, who had done sheet-metal work on the Tower months before the day of the grand opening, which work had been his last real job, but had been dismissed from it, had sought revenge. He actually got in by bluffing his way past the two police officers guarding the site, who had not received orders to keep people out of it.
While Connors had masqueraded as an electrician to bluff his way inside, and most likely did not actually intend to kill anyone in the "Tower Room," he is ignorant of the truly high voltages that power the huge building: 13,800 volts from the Consolidated Edison substation. The explosion his stolen bomb triggers not only electrocutes him "like a piece of bacon," but also cripples the transformers designed to reduce the voltage to usable levels and causes fires to erupt throughout the building, disabling the elevators and trapping the guests in the Tower Room on the top floor of the skyscraper. When the doors to the fire stairs are found to be blocked by heavy crates containing radio and television equipment for the antenna mast, a rescue attempt is made by rigging auxiliary power to an express elevator. But this fails as the elevator's single occupant (who sneaked into it prematurely) is killed by the tremendous heat generated by the "flue effect" in the building's central core. A breeches buoy line is then shot from a helicopter and rigged to the adjacent World Trade Center's north tower. But the chair device is only partially successful, rescuing all 49 women but only 28 of the 54 men still in the Tower Room; in the end, many of the people trapped in the World Tower Building die from the effects of the fires.
The Bank of China Tower is a skyscraper located in Central, Hong Kong. Located at 1 Garden Road on Hong Kong Island, the tower houses the headquarters of the Bank of China Limited. One of the most recognisable landmarks in Hong Kong, the building is notable for its distinct shape and design, consisting of triangular frameworks covered by glass curtain walls.
The Willis Tower, originally the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations.
In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core, which induces a varying electromotive force (EMF) across any other coils wound around the same core. Electrical energy can be transferred between separate coils without a metallic (conductive) connection between the two circuits. Faraday's law of induction, discovered in 1831, describes the induced voltage effect in any coil due to a changing magnetic flux encircled by the coil.
The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot super tall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018.
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. In addition to McQueen and Newman, the cast includes William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, O. J. Simpson, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra, Dabney Coleman and Jennifer Jones in her final role.
The Singer Building was an office building and early skyscraper in Manhattan, New York City. The headquarters of the Singer Manufacturing Company, was at the northwestern corner of Liberty Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. Frederick Gilbert Bourne, leader of the Singer Company, commissioned the building, which architect Ernest Flagg designed in multiple phases from 1897 to 1908. The building's architecture contained elements of the Beaux-Arts and French Second Empire styles.
A substation is a part of an electrical generation, transmission, and distribution system. Substations transform voltage from high to low, or the reverse, or perform any of several other important functions. Between the generating station and consumer, electric power may flow through several substations at different voltage levels. A substation may include transformers to change voltage levels between high transmission voltages and lower distribution voltages, or at the interconnection of two different transmission voltages. They are a common component of the infrastructure. There are 55,000 substations in the United States.
555 California Street, formerly Bank of America Center, is a 52-story 779 ft (237 m) skyscraper in San Francisco, California. It is the fourth tallest building in the city as of February 2021, and in 2013 was the largest by floor area. Completed in 1969, the tower was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until the completion of the Transamerica Pyramid in 1972, and the world headquarters of Bank of America until the 1998 merger with NationsBank, when the company moved its headquarters to the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is currently owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization.
Bank of America Plaza, formerly Security Pacific Plaza, is a 55-story, 224.03 m (735.0 ft) class-A office skyscraper on Bunker Hill, Los Angeles, California. It was completed in 1974 with the headquarters of Security Pacific National Bank, Capital Group Companies and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as its main tenants. The tower is the fifth tallest building in Los Angeles, and the 92nd-tallest building in the United States. In 2009 it had the highest assessed value of any office building in Los Angeles County. When it was constructed, Security Pacific Plaza was unique for Downtown Los Angeles, in that its four sides each faced true north, south, east and west. It has a total of 64 floors, 55 above ground and 9 basements, served by 30 elevators.
The Torre Mayor is a skyscraper in Mexico City, Mexico. With a height of 225 meters to the top floor and 55 stories, it is the eighth tallest building in Mexico. It was surpassed in height by Torre BBVA Bancomer in 2015, which in turn was surpassed by Torre Reforma. From its completion in 2003 until 2010 it was also the tallest building in Latin America. The Torre Mayor was developed by Canadian businessman Paul Reichmann, who also maintained part ownership until his death in 2013. It is also part-owned by a group of institutional investors. The building was designed by the architectural firms of Zeidler Partnership Architects and Executive Architects Adamson Associates Architects, both of Toronto. The structural engineers and designers were The Cantor Seinuk Group from New York City in association with Enrique Martínez Romero S.A. in Mexico City.
Skyscrapers are frequently featured in films for their impressive appearance and potent symbolism. They convey an impression of power – an old movie and TV cliché starts with the outside view of a skyscraper with a voice-over conversation, continuing inside the luxurious office of a tycoon or crime boss.
Transformers: Energon, known in Japan as Transformer: Superlink, is a Japanese anime series which debuted on January 9, 2004. It is a direct sequel to Transformers: Armada. It is also the first Japanese Transformers show where the Transformers are computer-generated (CG), in a cel-shaded technique similar to the Zoids anime, which was a trend that would continue into the next series, Transformers: Cybertron. In the United States, KidsClick started airing reruns of the show from August 27, 2018, until November 3, 2018. Along with Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Cybertron, Transformers: Energon is a part of a saga in the Transformers series known as the "Unicron Trilogy". In this series, the Transformers' primary gimmicks are the Autobots' ability to combine with partners of the same size, the Decepticons' ability to use powered up forms, and the addition of Energon weapons and stars that can be placed on any Transformer. Mini-Cons, from the previous line, are still present, but all Mini-Con pegs are "dummy" pegs as they do not activate a function on the toy.
The Glass Inferno is a 1974 novel by American writer Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. It is one of the two books that was used to create the movie The Towering Inferno, the other being the 1973 novel The Tower by Richard Martin Stern.
Case Closed: Countdown to Heaven, known as Detective Conan: Countdown to Heaven in Japan, is a 2001 Japanese animated feature film based on the Case Closed manga series, featuring detective Shinichi Kudo, also known as Conan Edogawa. It made 2.9 billion yen.
Shanghai Tower is a 128-story, 632-meter-tall (2,073 ft) megatall skyscraper in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. It is the tallest building in China and the world's third-tallest building by height to architectural top. It is the tallest and largest LEED Platinum certified building in the world since 2015. It shares the record of having the world's highest observation deck within a building or structure at 562 m. It had the world's second-fastest elevators at a top speed of 20.5 meters per second until 2017, when it was surpassed by the Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, with its top speed of 21 meters per second. Designed by international design firm Gensler and owned by the Shanghai Municipal Government, it is the tallest of the world's first triple-adjacent supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Its tiered construction, designed for high energy efficiency, provides nine separate zones divided between office, retail and leisure use.
1322 Golden Empire Tower is a 57-storey residential skyscraper in Manila, Philippines. It is owned by Moldex Land, Inc., part of the Moldex Group of Companies. Standing at 203 meters, it is the tallest building in the City of Manila, and is the 12th-tallest building in the country and Metro Manila as well. The building has 55 floors above ground, and 2 basement levels for parking.
The Beacon – Arnaiz Tower is a residential condominium skyscraper in Makati, Philippines. It is the second of three towers, and part of The Beacon complex. The Beacon was developed by Geo Estate Estate Development Corporation in cooperation with New Pacific Resources Management, Inc. Groundbreaking for the project was on January 28, 2008, while actual construction works for Arnaiz Tower started on May 14, 2008. The building was expected to be opened by 2011. The building was topped-off on June 15, 2012, and has started turn-over of units to its residents by August 2013.
Wilshire Grand Center is a 1,100-foot (335.3 m) skyscraper in the financial district of downtown Los Angeles, California, occupying the entire city block between Wilshire Boulevard and 7th, Figueroa, and Francisco streets. Completed in 2017, it is the tallest building west of Chicago. Though the structural top of the Wilshire Grand surpasses L.A.'s U.S. Bank Tower by 82 ft (25 m), the roof of the U.S. Bank Tower is still 90 ft above the Wilshire Grand's. The Skyscraper Center lists the Wilshire Grand Center as the 15th-tallest building in the U.S. and the 95th-tallest in the world. It won the Structural Engineering Award 2019 Award of Excellence from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Skyscraper is a 2018 American action thriller film written and directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber. Produced by Legendary Pictures, Seven Bucks Productions and Flynn Picture Company, the film stars Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, with Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pablo Schreiber, and Hannah Quinlivan in supporting roles. In the film, Will Sawyer, a former FBI agent, must rescue his family from a newly built Hong Kong skyscraper, the tallest in the world, after terrorists set the building on fire in an attempt to extort the property developer. The first non-comedy of Thurber's career, it also marks his second collaboration with Johnson, following Central Intelligence (2016).