From Kivas to Skyscrapers

To address technological advances made in architecture, this essay will examine two architectural phenomenons that graced the American scene, both, before and after the 1800s. The first architectural structure that will be outlined throughout this essay is the kiva, a ceremonial domain designed by and for Native Americans. To embark upon new technologies in architecture after 1800, skyscrapers will be the topic of discussion to follow.
During the 16th century, Native Americans that populated what is present day New Mexico and Eastern Arizona, were referred to as Pueblos. These indigenous race of people co-existed in a society where women and men both shared the task of running the communities. However, men controlled a large portion of ceremonial life in Pueblo society; while there was an all-female society that headed celebratory ceremonies for [female] sexuality, fertility, and reproduction.

The ritual associations for men were concerned with rain-making, warfare, curing, and hunting. Each one of these ritual associations were assigned to its own specific kiva. The ceremonial structure is often located at the center of the pueblo (village). The "Inside Chief" was the primary chief who summoned men from the other associations for momentous ceremonies. Kivas were often fashioned with a shallow hollow space the middle of the floor, called a shaipapu (the place that signified how people came from the underworld and would return).
The Anasazi ruins are most hailed because the Anasazi built their dwellings into a canyon floor. Chaco Canyon in NW New Mexico displays the beginning of many of the complexities correlated to native peoples' villages or towns. The area was noted to have flourished between 900 and 1150 CE, and contained several great kivas, as well as thirteen towns. The site at Chaco Canyon was very significant because of its intricate network of more than 250 miles of roads that splay out from (and to) all directions.
As Pueblo architecture advanced, more plazas replaced kivas. However, the earlier era of Pueblos were credited with building entire villages on cliffs. This unique change from pitched tents on level grounds suggested that the native peoples incurred some enemies that they hadn't had before. The new dwelling structures were built of adobe (or a mixture of mud and straw), stones, and other material local to the area. An updated technology which the Pueblo had to employ was a method of stacking the adobe bricks so that they did not crackunder the pressure of all of the weight.

Most kivas from Eastern pueblos were rounded in shape; while western pueblos utilized a rectangular shape. The roofs were constructed of wooden beams and the kivas from both pueblo regions were located underground. One gained access to enter through a hole in the roof and descended down a pine ladder.
The construction of the kiva was closely aligned to ritualistic practices Pueblos believed and participated in. The central kiva was not only at the nucleus of the town, but it also was at the center of a spatial scheme inclusive of the four cardinal directions, the four skies above, and the underworld. The kivas contained ceremonial objects such as prayer sticks and masks, and it also bore murals. The Pueblo used furs in a non-wearable manner, and perched skins atop the benches or ledges that ran around the interior of the kiva. They also included stone altars and covered the walls with a type of plaster, and these advanced methods of building practices not only paid homage to their Gods (or fore-mothers and fore-fathers); they enabled some of the structures to be preserved and educate future generations.
Subsequent generations brought very tall buildings that are supported by an internal frame constructed of iron and steel, instead being held up by the walls themselves. Skyscrapers are an innovative design intent up on saving ground space where land is limited. The first skyscraper was completed in Chicago, IL in 1885. It was a 10-story Home Insurance Company Building designed by William Le Baron Jenney.
Architects during the 1800s gained a more thorough understanding, from engineering and designing bridges, of how materials behaved under stress and weight. Making use of steel or iron to erect a structure, as a novel idea, and how to 'hang' the materials on this steel or iron frame proved to be yet another technological development that made the construction of skyscrapers possible.
In the wake of utilizing a small expensive piece of land that had been previously destroyed by fire, Jenney crafted a building that extended upwards, as opposed to outwards. Similar to the Pueblos, Jenney had to team up with engineers to discover how to erect a structure out of (new) materials that could support the building's weight. The employment of Bessmer steel as a new invention, as well as the telephone and passenger elevator expressed the industrial advancements America was making at the time.

The innovation of the overall design was set up so that the faces of the building were mostly undecorated--which served to show the function of the building. The towering height of the skyscrapers illustrated the rise to economic power that America, as a nation, was experiencing. The fact that skyscrapers are located in business districts also point to the fact that America was intent upon coming an economic powerhouse--to tower above other nations.
To conclude, one can ascertain the commonality between the two structures is that they both paid homage to previous forces of civilization. Both relied on the use of new materials for construction, and created first-time edifices. The meanings of the two structures are different for each population, but the attitude of regionalism that is portrayed through each of the designs (square, round, underground, vertical) speaks to a desire for future prosperity, all the same.

References:

"Architecture: Urbanization, Philosophical Debate." 1920's Fashion. Gale Cengage, 1996. eNotes.com. 2006. 2 Dec, 2010 http://www.enotes.com/1920-fashion-american-decades/
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"Pueblo Cultures." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Ed. Timothy Darville. Oxford University Press, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 30 Nov, 2010 http://www.enotes.com/arch-encyclopedia/pueblo-cultures.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum. More About Kivas. Ed. Cliff Dwellings Museum. Manitou Cliff Dwellings Museum, 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010. http://www.cliffdwellingsmuseum.com/arch3.htm.

Pohl, Frances. Framing America: A Social History of American Art. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2002. 24-27; 288-290. Print.

Vess, Deborah. Anasazi ruins of the Southwest. Ed. Dr. Deborah Vess. N.p., 2000. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/amtours/anawciv.htm.