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Now, I'm not against glass. It's an ancient and versatile material.
我并不是反對使用玻璃。玻璃畢竟是一種古老且通用性強的材料。
It's easy to manufacture and transport and install and replace and clean.
它們易于大量生產、運輸、安裝、替換和清潔。
It comes in everything from enormous, ultraclear sheets to translucent bricks.
無論是巨大的超潔凈面板還是簡單的透明磚，都有玻璃的存在。
New coatings make it change mood in the shifting light.
新式涂層能夠讓它們在光照的變化中變換色調。
In expensive cities like New York, it has the magical power of being able to multiply real estate values by allowing views,
在像紐約這樣的高消費城市，玻璃擁有神奇的能力，通過擴大視覺空間使房地產價格輕松翻倍，
which is really the only commodity that developers have to offer to justify those surreal prices.
而玻璃也是開發商唯一能夠用來對離奇高的地產價格做出解釋的理由。
In the middle of the 19th century, with the construction of the Crystal Palace in London,
在19世紀中期，伴隨著倫敦水晶宮的建成，
glass leapt to the top of the list of quintessentially modern substances.
玻璃一躍到了標準現代化材料清單的榜首。
By the mid-20th century, it had come to dominate the downtowns of some American cities,
到了20世紀中期，玻璃主導了美國部分城市的市中心，
largely through some really spectacular office buildings like Lever House in midtown Manhattan,
主要通過這些壯觀的寫字樓，像是在曼哈頓的利華大廈，
designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Eventually, the technology advanced to the point
由Skidmore、Owings和Merrill三人設計的。直到最后，科技進步到達了一種
where architects could design structures so transparent they practically disappear.
使建筑師們能夠讓設計結構透明到看不見的地步。
And along the way, glass became the default material of the high-rise city, and there's a very powerful reason for that.
在這個過程中，玻璃成為了高樓聳立的城市中的默認材料，其實這些改變的背后有著強大的理由來支持。
Because as the world's populations converge on cities, the least fortunate pack into jerry-built shantytowns.
因為世界人口都聚集于城市之中，最窮的那批人會住進偷工減料建造的棚戶區當中。
But hundreds of millions of people need apartments and places to work in ever-larger buildings,
而數以億計的人還是會需要越來越高大的公寓和辦公樓，
so it makes economic sense to put up towers and wrap them in cheap and practical curtain walls.
所以從經濟角度考慮，建立高塔并用便宜且實用的玻璃簾幕作為墻壁的舉措，是完全合理的。
