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Now, I'm not against glass. It's an ancient and versatile material.
我并不是反对使用玻璃。玻璃毕竟是一种古老且通用性强的材料。
It's easy to manufacture and transport and install and replace and clean.
它们易于大量生产、运输、安装、替换和清洁。
It comes in everything from enormous, ultraclear sheets to translucent bricks.
无论是巨大的超洁净面板还是简单的透明砖，都有玻璃的存在。
New coatings make it change mood in the shifting light.
新式涂层能够让它们在光照的变化中变换色调。
In expensive cities like New York, it has the magical power of being able to multiply real estate values by allowing views,
在像纽约这样的高消费城市，玻璃拥有神奇的能力，通过扩大视觉空间使房地产价格轻松翻倍，
which is really the only commodity that developers have to offer to justify those surreal prices.
而玻璃也是开发商唯一能够用来对离奇高的地产价格做出解释的理由。
In the middle of the 19th century, with the construction of the Crystal Palace in London,
在19世纪中期，伴随着伦敦水晶宫的建成，
glass leapt to the top of the list of quintessentially modern substances.
玻璃一跃到了标准现代化材料清单的榜首。
By the mid-20th century, it had come to dominate the downtowns of some American cities,
到了20世纪中期，玻璃主导了美国部分城市的市中心，
largely through some really spectacular office buildings like Lever House in midtown Manhattan,
主要通过这些壮观的写字楼，像是在曼哈顿的利华大厦，
designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Eventually, the technology advanced to the point
由Skidmore、Owings和Merrill三人设计的。直到最后，科技进步到达了一种
where architects could design structures so transparent they practically disappear.
使建筑师们能够让设计结构透明到看不见的地步。
And along the way, glass became the default material of the high-rise city, and there's a very powerful reason for that.
在这个过程中，玻璃成为了高楼耸立的城市中的默认材料，其实这些改变的背后有着强大的理由来支持。
Because as the world's populations converge on cities, the least fortunate pack into jerry-built shantytowns.
因为世界人口都聚集于城市之中，最穷的那批人会住进偷工减料建造的棚户区当中。
But hundreds of millions of people need apartments and places to work in ever-larger buildings,
而数以亿计的人还是会需要越来越高大的公寓和办公楼，
so it makes economic sense to put up towers and wrap them in cheap and practical curtain walls.
所以从经济角度考虑，建立高塔并用便宜且实用的玻璃帘幕作为墙壁的举措，是完全合理的。
