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The figured out the problems associated with doing this on the large scale awhile ago. http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0212/building _2-1.html I assume that these big ones are not using too much air pressure since they are only using hotair balloons. On the smaller scale I'm forsure it doesn't take much air pressure at all. I know it doesn't make sense, but clearly this methods works.

domes have been built with the help of inflatables since 1930's... read here http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/0122/building _1-1.html

You want ugly? Here's ugly.

So grass on the roof is the latest rage in architecture? There's a house in my neighborhood that has grass growing on the roof, but my roommate and I just figured it was because no one lived there for a a few years. We thought it was an abandoned dump, but apparently the grassy-knoll-on-the-roof feature has made it too expensive for prospective buyers.

Another famous New York Landmark also suffered an airplane collision. Now granted the airplane that hit the side of the Empire State Building was not the same size as the two that hit the World Trade Center, the B25 did quite a bit of structural damage. Enough damage in fact, that if simply the collision caused the Trade Center collapse, then the Empire STate (the plane did hit somewhere between the 78th and 79th floors)building should have also collapsed. In actuality the reason that the Trade Center collapsed and the Empire State building did not, is one of metallurgy. The thousands of gallons of jet fuel that were burning in the Trade Centers got hot enough to anneal the structural steel. When that happened the sheer mass of the floors above the impact zone collapsed triggering the chain reaction. Had the Jets that hit the Trade centers been nearly empty of fuel (ie. getting ready to land, instead of just taking off) the buildings would have survived the impact.



The following excerpt is from "Empire: A Tale of Obsession, Betrayal, and the Battle for an American Icon", copyright © 2001, available from John Wiley & Sons. It describes the impact of the B25 that hit the Empire State Building in 1945.

"Army Lieutenant Colonel William Smith Jr., a 27-year-old veteran of 34 bombing missions over Germany, had been flying a twin-engine B-25 bomber from Bedford, Massachusetts, to New York's LaGuardia Airport, and had secured permission to continue to Newark, New Jersey.

The fog was blinding. When he dropped down out of the clouds, he found himself approaching a forest of skyscrapers. In a panic, he banked away from the Grand Central Building, then from another tower on Fifth Avenue, only to find himself bearing down on the biggest one of all.

In desperation, he pulled up hard, twisting. The 10-ton (9-tonne) bomber plowed into the office of War Relief Services of the National Catholic Welfare Conference on the 78th and 79th floors, 913 feet (278 meters) off the street, tearing a gaping hole in the Empire State Building's north side."

The full article describing the impact in 1945 can be found here: Empire State Building Collision.