• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Firsts / Are Apartment Buildings New Inventions?

Are Apartment Buildings New Inventions?

February 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

We think of apartment buildings as modern inventions. But there were many apartment buildings in ancient Rome, more than 2,000 years ago! Roman apartment buildings often rose to a height of five or six stories.

The Romans called these buildings “islands.” Perhaps the Romans could have built their apartments higher, but the Emperor Augustus declared that no building could be more than 70 feet high, for he feared that a higher building might collapse.

Today, apartments on higher floors are usually considered the most desirable. But in Roman times, the best apartments were on the ground floor, because water pipes usually did not reach any higher than that!

The tallest apartment building is Chicago’s Lake Point Towers, which has 70 stories and is 645 feet high!

Related Facts

  • History of Elevators
  • What City In The US Has Three of the Five Tallest Buildings in the World?
  • Which Explorers First Explored the Continents of the World?
  • How did architects and engineers decide how tall to make the Empire State Building?
  • How do engineers and construction crews make tall buildings perfectly straight and vertical?
  • Where Are the World’s Tallest Buildings and How Tall Is the Burj Khalifa In Dubai, United Arab Emirates?

Filed Under: Firsts

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Was the Meter Invented as a System of Measurement?
Next Post: Was the First Skyscraper Built in New York? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy