Daily English Lesson #29

Reading

The slender skyscrapers changing New York’s skyline

The Empire State Building, the Art Deco Chrysler Building, the super-tall One World Trade Center. New York City is home to some of the world’s most iconic skyscrapers. But the buildings entering its famous skyline today are doing something unusual. They’re getting skinnier. Complex zoning laws in the city were a motivating factor. While such regulations restrict the amount of land that can be built on within an area, a loophole allows for the transference of “air rights” from one plot to another. So developers could buy a small parcel of land, then buy air rights from adjacent plots and stack these to gain permission to build a tall tower. For example, if an existing building is shorter than its maximum allowed height then the developer of a new adjacent property could purchase the unused air rights, and stack them to the air rights of their existing plot — such a transaction is called a “zoning lot merger.” 

Reading Vocabulary

loophole – an ambiguity or inadequacy in the law or a set of rules

Writing 

Question: Do you like the skinny skyscrapers? What is your favorite type of architecture? Do you have a favorite building?

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Video

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Video Vocabulary

breach – make a gap in and break through (a wall, barrier, or defence)

Picture Vocabulary 

HARNESS – a set of straps and fittings by which a horse or other draught animal is fastened to a cart, plough, etc. and is controlled by its driver.

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