Hanging From The Skies

The buildings where they work are equipped with a built-in ‘suspended scaffold platforms’, commonly known as a ‘swing stage’.

Hanging from the skies – A chat with the window cleaners of Kuwait’s skyscrapers: If you suffer from vertigo, window-cleaning is not the job for you. But for some some, it’s an everyday task. The job is challenging considering the safety risks for the cleaners, especially in Kuwait where safety precautions are not always implemented or enforced.

Kuwait Times spoke to several window cleaners who work in Kuwait City skyscrapers and was amazed by their bravery. “Yes we are insured and our salary is better than regular cleaners,” said Yousef Mazumder, a Bangladeshi supervisor. He told Kuwait Times that in the event of an accident, the worker’s family can claim monetary compensation from the company.

“This job is quite dangerous but every worker undergoes a series of training and workshops; we have safety briefings every time they ascend and descend for the job; we prepare them mentally and I always tell them to relax and not have any worries whilst up there,” he noted. Muzumder’s job is to ensure each and every member of his team is safe at the end of the day. “My job is to keep them safe on the job site and make sure that they are all at ease with each other. Personal problems should be left on the ground,” asserted Mazumder.

The buildings where they work are equipped with a built-in ‘suspended scaffold platforms’, commonly known as a ‘swing stage’. These machine is regularly maintained and also have locally-based engineers and technicians to help in case of a breakdown. “We have regular checks regardless whether we have a problem or not. The good thing is that they are just a call away. When I call for help, within minutes they are here. My objective every day is to finish the job with zero accidents,” Mazumder said.

It can take up to a month to clean the façade windows of a 30-storey glass building. While cleaning glass faced skyscrapers, a team must have at least 10 people plus a supervisor to oversee the process. The suspended scaffold is permitted to carry two to three workers to perform the cleaning job. An operator is usually stationed in the control room to communicate with the cleaners on the swing stage. “We work as a team. It needs coordination. The cleaners can only swing sideways; but lowering or moving the platform is done by the operator in the control room,” Mazumder explained.

The swing stage is also equipped with several safety tools and equipment including built-in harnesses attached to the bodies of the cleaners and the platform . “I instruct them to wear the harness at all times. There are other cables here inside this swing stage; these are used to support the platform to prevent unnecessary movements when a strong wind blows. The rope also serves as a support in the event of a breakdown. They are also connected to the glass windows in the building, so we are really safe,” he assured.

Jenat Ali Sheikh from Bangladesh and Saru Munam from India are two of the window cleaners who scale the heights of some of Kuwait’s tallest skyscrapers. “This is my job and I do this every day without fear,” Sheikh said. “I am not afraid anymore; in the beginning it was scary, but not now. Anyway, all jobs are dangerous even if you are in an office; you go out in the street you don’t know whether you’ll reach home alive,” he reasoned.

Munam said they were carefully trained before getting the job as window cleaners. “I underwent training for about one or two months. Initially, we start from the first floor; then every day, if we can tolerate the height, they increased the floors until the top floor; It’s a process – you will be replaced if you cannot tolerate heights,” Munam said.

The scaffolding carries about five buckets of water and some chemicals to clean the windowpanes. When all the water is consumed, the operator lifts up the swing stage to replenish it. Cleaners perform the job manually using the chemicals and other cleaning tools and equipment. Generally, chemicals are added to water and a brush or cloth-covered wiper is dipped into the resulting solution and used to scrub the glass. A squeegee is then used to sluice the dirt and water mixture from the glass.

Note: Suspended platforms are access platforms for one or more workers with manual or motor driven devices for raising and lowering via ropes. Platforms may be fitted to high rise buildings or skyscrapers, or assembled from components to suit the architecture and nature of work being performed. These can be either temporary or permanent. Both have their own unique governing codes and regulations. Permanent suspended platforms are often known as building maintenance units (BMU) and their platforms are also known as gondolas in Europe.

Tallest In Texas Rescue

Two workers have been pulled through an open window to safety after the scaffolding they were working on fell on one side, dangling precariously outside Houston's tallest skyscraper.

Window washers rescued from dangling scaffold outside Houston's tallest skyscraper: Two workers were pulled through an open window to safety after the scaffold they were working on fell on one side, dangling precariously outside Houston's tallest skyscraper. According to the Houston Fire Department, the workers were at the 71st floor when they experienced a motor malfunction and radioed for help.

HFD High Angle Rescue Teams arrived. There were also windows glaziers on scene and a mechanic from the window washing company. HFD was able to establish contact with the two men on the scaffold and they were brought in through a 71st floor window after the glass was removed by the two glaziers. There were no injuries and this incident was declared under control at 11:10 a.m. JPMorgan Chase Tower downtown is Houston's tallest building, at 75 stories (1,049 feet) tall. That's just shy of three and a half football fields.

Firefighters rescued two window washers trapped on a broken scaffold on the JP Morgan Chase Tower in downtown Houston on Monday morning.

HFD rescues window washers 71 floors up:  HOUSTON - Houston firefighters responded to the JPMorgan Chasetower in downtown where a window washer's scaffolding partially collapsed. Fire fighters were seen helping carry out the rescue operation before 11 a.m. above Texas Street near Travis. It appeared one half of the scaffolding's support lines gave way due to a motor failure. The incident happened near the 71st floor of the 75-floor building. There were no reports of injuries. The rescue operation came to an end before 11:30 a.m. after firefighters managed to remove a window and bring the workers to safety. The cause of the incident is under investigation. The tower is widely known as the tallest building in Texas.

By 11:30 a.m. the men had been allowed to escape the platform through a window in the building.  Work continued to stabilize the window washing platform. 

Houston window washers rescued from dangling skyscraper platform: Two workers have been rescued from a dangling window-washing scaffold 71 stories above downtown Houston. According to the Houston Fire Department, the two workers were pulled to safety through a 71st story window of the 75-story Chase Bank Building at about 11:10 a.m. Monday.

The men had become trapped on the dangling scaffolding at about 10:37 a.m. when the platform experienced a motor malfunction. For approximately 25 minutes, the scaffold remained dangling over downtown while the men awaited rescue. No injuries were reported. Fire officials still have Travis blocked near the scene while crews worked to secure the platform.

Terrifying ordeal ... the men were left hanging from the side of JPMorgan Chase tower in Houston, Texas for an hour. 

Window cleaners rescued after dangling 300m above the ground for an hour: Two window washers were at the top of a 75-storey tower when their cleaning rig malfunctioned, leaving them dangling at a 45-degree angle. The men were 300 metres off the ground on a platform suspended from the roof of the 75-storey JPMorgan Chase Tower in Houston, Texas’ tallest building, when one of two elevation motors broke down.
KHOU 11 News reports the platform was left listing for about an hour before firefighters could rescue the workers on Monday morning. Fortunately, the workers were secured with additional safety harnesses separate from the window washing platform. Rescuers removed a window on the 71st floor and pulled the men to safety. “That looks like just about my worst nightmare. It’s pretty terrifying. I’m sure those guys are really cold up there too,” witness Tyler Ferguson told KPRC.
Witness Amy Lafargue said: “They were hanging on for dear life, for sure. They were facing the building looking in. So I’m sure that everybody inside the Chase Tower was freaking out hoping that they were going to be OK. They were just holding on.”
Houston Fire Department spokesperson Kenyatta Parker said the rescue was challenging but the men were safe. “When you’re dealing with something so high, that’s when you have to bring in the rescue team for a high-angle rescue,” Parker told KPRC Houston. “Certain things that they know that an ordinary person wouldn’t. It’s tedious, I’m certain, on their end. Just sit back and let them do what they do.” The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the incident. The window washers worked for Jobs Building Services.

London Firefighters Rescue Window Cleaners

Two window cleaners were trapped outside the 10th floor of a 35-storey London City skyscraper.

Firefighters save window cleaners after being trapped up City skyscraper for hours: Two window cleaners were trapped outside the 10th floor of a 35-storey City skyscraper for hours yesterday afternoon, before being rescued by London Fire Brigade. The men had been cleaning windows at the Undershaft, or St Helen's -  formerly known as the Aviva Tower of the Commercial Union building - next to Leadenhall Market.

Three crews worked alongside building management to lower the cradle to the first floor, with the men then being brought down to ground level using an aerial ladder platform. The men were stuck outside the building for "a number of hours prior to the brigade being called,", LFB said, but were not injured. The brigade was called at 4.17pm and the incident was over at 6.16pm. A fire engine from Dowgate fire station, an aerial ladder platform from Greenwich fire station and a fire rescue unit from Islington fire station attended the incident.

Window cleaners left dangling 10 floors up Aviva Tower for hours after 'pulley malfunction' - City workers downed tools to watch a nail-biting rescue operation after two window cleaners were left dangling 10 storeys up the Aviva Tower for hours. The drama unfolded yesterday afternoon in the 35-storey building, official name St Helen's, in St Mary Axe opposite the Gherkin.

The two men, who are familiar faces in the area, got into trouble at about lunchtime when their cradle is believed to have developed a fault. One witness, who works at Costa Coffee in the ground floor of the building, said the men were only able to operate one side of the pulley system – meaning they could change the angle of their box but not its height. “It’s automatic but it got stuck,” she said. “One side was going down but the other was stuck so they could have slipped out of one side.

“We had to close the shop at 5pm but they’d been up there for seven hours. “They had a phone so they were speaking with other people on the ground. They were very high.” The window cleaners, one of whom was thought to be about 18 while the other is an older man, have been signed off work until Monday while they recover, it is believed. “We see them every day,” said the barista. “They come here for a coffee. I don’t know their names but I know what they drink. “Everybody from the building was shocked – everybody just stopped working.”

Three fire crews helped staff in the building lower the faulty cradle down to the first floor where they were rescued by an aerial ladder platform. Neither of them was hurt. The rescue, which began at about 4.15pm after the men had been stuck for a number of hours, lasted until 6.15pm.

Shortage Of Glass

A typical high-rise office tower can need hundreds of thousands of square feet of metal-framed glass panels. A Brookfield Property under construction in New York City.

Cost of Skyscraper Glass Hits Dizzying Heights - Earlier manufacturing cutbacks create delays, add to price tag as construction rebounds: A shortage of glass is taking a toll on the nation’s commercial building boom, adding millions of dollars to the cost of new skyscrapers and halting some projects midway through construction.

Demand is soaring for the metal-framed glass panels, or curtain wall, used to sheath skyscrapers. Those buildings need a lot of glass—hundreds of thousands of square feet for a typical high-rise office tower.

Glass manufacturers and fabricators can’t keep up. Many glass makers mothballed their operations or went out of business in 2008 and 2009, during the recession, which hit the construction industry hard.

Now, however, apartment buildings are sprouting up at their briskest pace in decades, and new office towers are rising in major markets like Manhattan at the fastest rate since the early 1990s.

Restarting idled glass factories is a costly and time-consuming process, so property developers say the current shortage could last well into next year, if not longer.

In the meantime, builders are reporting that curtain-wall prices, which have risen more than 30% in the past 18 months, are setting records.

Glass accounts for roughly one-quarter of a construction project’s budget, so the extra expense can add tens of millions of dollars to a building’s cost, according to Brett Atkinson, executive vice president of Moss & Associates, a Florida-based company with 30 buildings under construction that require curtain wall.

New Hudson Facades is a glass-making business that is an offshoot of real-estate developer Related Cos., which teamed up with a specialty-metal manufacturer so as to ensure a supply of glass panels.

Delays are also a problem: Several towers in San Francisco’s trendy Rincon Hill neighborhood, home to some of the city’s most expensive apartments, are standing bare while their builders wait for glass.

“Nowadays, the glass guys are dictating the timetables of a project to us, instead of the other way around,” said Ralph Esposito, who oversees commercial construction by the New York office of Lend Lease Corp., one of the country’s largest building contractors, with nearly 30 high-rise towers under way. “I don’t think people had the leap of faith that the [real-estate] industry would be as strong as the run we’re currently on.”

The glass that ends up on the outside of an office building is manufactured in giant tanks in which sand is melted at temperatures north of 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Long ribbons of raw glass are floated down a river of molten metal. This “float glass” is then cut into pieces, customized to order, and the panels are sent to contractors who fit them into metal frames to produce panels that meet the builder’s specifications. A contractor typically installs the curtain wall on the side of a building.

Producers shut 11 out of 47 float-glass manufacturing plants in North America between 2007 and 2014, according to PPG Industries Inc., a Pittsburgh-based glass maker, as demand for glass of all kind—from building facades to auto windshields—sagged during the downturn. Building a new plant can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, PPG says, and restarting an idled line can take months because workers have to jackhammer thousands of pounds of hardened glass to remove it from melting tanks.

“Once you take one of those tanks out of commission, you can’t just turn it back on,” said Glenn Miner, director of construction for PPG’s flat-glass division. The downturn “affected all the suppliers in the marketplace. None of them were unscathed.”

New Hudson Facades is producing mockups for the panels set to go on the Manhattan building.

As the glass shortage worsens, some developers are taking matters into their own hands. This summer, Related Cos., a large New York real-estate firm, got into the glass-panel manufacturing business. Teaming up with M. Cohen & Sons, a specialty-metal manufacturer, the developer, opened a $16 million, 180,000-square-foot factory in a wooded industrial park in Linwood, Pa., near the Delaware border.

Related, which is known for glitzy properties like Manhattan’s Time Warner Center, decided to open its own curtain-wall factory after waiting months for delivery of window panels intended for new apartments last year in the New York borough of Queens.

The developer needs more than 3,000 panels of architectural glass for an apartment tower it is building on Manhattan’s West Side, said Bruce Beal Jr., Related’s president.

The new glass company, dubbed New Hudson Façades, is producing mockups for those panels. It predicts that by next year its factory will be at full capacity, producing two million square feet of curtain wall annually.

“With the logistical issues, small number of producers and growing costs, we’d rather bet on our ability to domestically produce and control the supply” of glass, Mr. Beal said.

The glass industry is gearing back up, but progress is slow because some parts of the supply chain still haven’t recovered from the recession, said Troy Hansen, director of materials at Viracon Inc., a division of Minneapolis-based Apogee Enterprises Inc. and one of the largest fabricators of the glass panes that go into curtain wall.

“As these [float glass] plants have shut down, glass has to travel farther and farther from the raw manufacturer to our facilities,” Mr. Hansen said. “There’s definitely a future of shortage of raw glass coming.”

Viracon closed one of its three manufacturing plants, in St. George, Utah, in early 2013 amid flagging demand. In late 2014, as construction picked up, the company rushed to bring the plant back online. Even so, Viracon told customers in July that prices would rise by as much as 12% due to shortages of float glass, a once-unusual price increase that is becoming commonplace, Mr. Hansen said.

Scott Kinter, a senior vice president in Boston with AvalonBay Communities Inc., one of the largest U.S. apartment-builders, said his team began hearing about glass-related delays about a month ago, and he expects a significant curtain-wall shortage in the fourth quarter of 2015 and into early 2016. Prices are up between 35% and 45% from 2013, he said.

“Everyone is so busy and they can’t keep up with the demand,” he said. “If I were starting a new high-rise anywhere on the East Coast today, the first thing I’d try to lock down is the glass. Then I’d pray nothing goes wrong.”

Could The Era Of Glass Skyscrapers Be Over?

The "Gherkin" was completed 10 years ago

Could the era of glass skyscrapers be over? One of the architects behind London's famous Gherkin skyscraper has now turned against glass buildings. Is it time tall towers were made out of something else, asks Hannah Sander. It is one of the UK's most recognisable buildings. A Stirling Prize winner. A backdrop to Hollywood films. Named the most admired tower in the world. But 10 years after it was opened, one of the designers behind the "Gherkin" has turned against it. Architect Ken Shuttleworth, one of the team at Foster and Partners who designed the tower, now thinks the gigantic glass structure was a mistake. "The Gherkin is a fantastic building," he says. "But we can't have that anymore. We can't have those all-glass buildings. We need to be much more responsible."

The building at 30 St Mary Axe - nicknamed after a gherkin because of its bulbous silhouette - kick-started a decade of strangely shaped glass towers. The Cheesegrater, the Walkie-Talkie and the Shard loomed up from the pavements of London. The skylines of both Birmingham and Manchester were drastically altered by the addition of towers by property firm Beetham.

The danger of glare from glass buildings is also a concern. This became evident last summer when the Walkie-Talkie at 20 Fenchurch Street in London was blamed for melting cars

One of the best-known glass building mishaps took place last summer, when the Walkie-Talkie at 20 Fenchurch Street in London was accused of melting cars. The 37-storey building reflected light in its glass facade and shone powerful rays at its surroundings. Cars parked underneath were damaged, and passers-by even managed to fry eggs using only sunlight.

The Walkie Talkie

In the end the developers, Land Securities, had to apply for planning permission to obscure architect Rafael Vinoly's £200m design with a permanent "brise soleil" or sunshade. And yet despite this, Land Securities recently revealed that the widely reported calamity "did nothing to deter lettings". Glass buildings are popular - not just because of their striking appearance but for the views they boast, and the increased light they let in.

When German architect Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe designed what is said to be the world's first glass skyscraper in 1921, he associated the glass facade with purity and renewal. Later in the century, British architect Richard Rogers praised glass buildings because of their social worth. Glass walls enabled even employees working in the basement to benefit from reflected natural light and dissolved barriers between a cramped indoor office space and the greenery outside.

Companies like to give the impression of a democratic working environment - open-plan and with floor-to-ceiling windows, so that all employees, not just the boss, benefit from the view. However, as concerns over global warming have become more widespread, so the glass structure has come under scrutiny.

Since leaving Foster and Partners in 2006, Shuttleworth has become a key voice in the fight against glass. Despite his background working on giant glazed buildings, he has founded an architectural practice in which floor-to-ceiling windows are considered an archaic luxury.

"Everything I've done for the last 40 years I'm rethinking now," he says. "If you were designing [the Gherkin] today... it wouldn't be the same product all the way around the building. "We need to be much more responsible in terms of the way we shade our buildings and the way we thermally think about our buildings."

Manchester's Beetham Tower overlooks the city

Glass lets out and lets in a lot of heat. A vast amount of energy is required for an office full of people to remain cool in the UAE and to stay warm in the snowstorms of Toronto. Governments are now so concerned by the long-term impact of "solar gain" - the extent to which a building absorbs sunlight and heats up - that they have introduced strict regulations around shape and structure.

Architects are being encouraged to change where they place windows, so that a sunny south-facing wall has less chance to absorb heat than a chilly north-face. Walkie-Talkie developers Land Securities are currently at work on a building called the Zig Zag, that is designed so that alternate walls cast shadows on their neighbours. The building is deliberately shaped so it can keep itself cool. In the US there is a campaign in favour of wooden skyscrapers, promoting wood as a "green" building material in place of glass.

However, the trade association Glass for Europe has dismissed what they consider "a preconceived idea" that glass is bad. Instead they point to sustainable buildings in which glass has been fashioned into corridors that don't require central heating and solar panels that have been slotted seamlessly into a design. The association also points out that glass is fully recyclable. "A whole palette of glass products is available for the glazing to meet different functions in the building envelope," the association said. "Glass is fit for all climates."

Glasgow Science Centre

In the past decades, the glass industry has worked hard to adapt technology in the context of climate change. Engineer Andrea Charlson is part of a team at firm Arup that seeks new ways to increase material sustainability. She is not convinced that the glass in glass buildings is the cause of their problems. "There have been a lot of advancements in glass technology in the last few years and it's amazing what we can do now in terms of putting coatings on glass. Some of them can be a heavy colour tint that will provide some shading. Others will be almost invisible but will still keep a lot of the heat and solar gain outside a building," she says.

Charlson is currently investigating problems in the materials that hold the glazed panels on buildings in place. "As the glass technology improves, one of the biggest causes of heat loss is through the framing. The heat energy will always try to find the path of least resistance." Even with the improvements to glass technology, Shuttleworth is not convinced that these sheer skyscrapers can be justified in today's society. He is not only concerned by their environmental impact, but also with the other effects a glass tower has on its surroundings.

The original glass box: Crystal Palace, 1851

Architecture and design critic Tom Dyckhoff is equally keen to see the glass skyscraper put to bed. "As someone who spends their entire life staring at buildings, I am a bit bored by the glass box. They were radical in the 1920s and now they are just cliches, expensive ones at that. "But now that we are having to be more thoughtful about how and where we use glass, maybe architects will become more inventive in how they use windows, instead of plastering them across whole facades," he says. Shuttleworth's most recent project began life as a solid steel object and he says it has glass only where it is needed. "It is a privilege to have a window. I think it should be seen as a privilege," he says.

How Does A Skyscraper Melt A Car?

The "hot spot" on Eastcheap, in London.

Who, what, why: How does a skyscraper melt a car? A London skyscraper dubbed the Walkie-Talkie has been blamed for reflecting light which melted parts of a car parked on a nearby street. What happened? It's like starting a fire with a parabolic mirror. "Fundamentally it's reflection. If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light," says Chris Shepherd, from the Institute of Physics.

The half-finished 37-storey "Walkie Talkie"- nicknamed such because of its tapering rectangular design - is indeed a curvy building. Its design, which has also been compared to a brimming pint glass, has come under controversy before. It transpires the car, a Jaguar on Eastcheap in the City of London, was parked at just the spot where the focused light landed.

The car wasn't the only casualty. There have also been reports of a smouldering bicycle seat, singed fabric and blistered paintwork. Land Securities, which is developing the tower with the Canary Wharf Group, says it is working on a solution and has taken the emergency measure of suspending the parking bays beneath the glare. They have described the problem as a phenomenon caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky. It is thought it can last for two hours a day and might only be a problem for the next two or three weeks. But how common is it for skyscrapers to damage cars or property in this way?

Architectural critic Jonathan Glancey says the story is not unprecedented. In 2003, the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by architect Frank Gehry, hit a similar stumbling block. "The building was clad from head to toe, right down to the pavement, in stainless steel panels, and they would send the sun dazzling across the sidewalks to hotspots where people were. It was measured up to 60C (140F). "Local people living there complained they were having to crank their air conditioning up to maximum to cool things down," he says.

Blinding glare also affected drivers passing the building. After computer models and sensor equipment identified the panels causing the problem, they were sanded down to break up the sun's rays. There are also plenty of lesser-known, smaller scale sun traps caused by architecture, according to Shepherd. "The Eden shopping centre in High Wycombe has a shop with a series of windows in a curve that all happen to concentrate the light at one point. If you walk across that point you can feel some warmth," he says.  There are also those caused by design, rather than accident.

Solar furnace in the French Pyrenees.

Solar furnaces, the largest of which is in Odeillo in France, use mirrors to gather sunlight and create high temperatures, usually for industry. The temperature at focal points can reach 3,500C (6,330F), with the heat used for testing various materials, generating electricity and the design of solar plants. Shepherd says the same principle is also used in reflecting telescopes. A curved mirror collects the light and reflects it to a focus. "It has to be perfectly curved to get a clear picture - if not you get hazy blob concentrations," he says. The physics is the same for sound as for light, he adds. "The curved mirror effect can be used to focus sounds - or the reverse, if a speaker stands at one end of an amphitheatre, and wants to project to an audience."

Bike saddle - One reading suggests hot spot was 91.3C today (196.34 Fahrenheit).

When it comes to the skyscraper and the car, Shepherd says the fact the car was black - a good absorber of light - would have had an impact on the damage caused by the concentrated heat. He says the only parts that seem to have suffered are plastic, which is significant, as plastics generally have a much lower melting point than the steel of the car body. Some plastics such as PVC - polyvinyl chloride - can melt at 100C, but they can soften before that. One reading taken today suggested the hotspot was 91.3C.

As for the Walkie-Talkie, Shepherd thinks the developers could employ a number of possible solutions. "They could coat the windows to reduce reflection - which would be a cheap fix - but the downside of that is it could reduce the light entering the building. "Another solution would be for them to misalign the window frames, to slightly alter them by about a millimetre, but that would be very expensive," he says.

Also see -  Energy Efficient Windows Melting Houses & Cars

The Sky Is The Limit

The Sky Is The Limit For High-Flying Window Washers: Columbus, Ohio - As the first rays of sunlight beam down on the windows of the city’s skyscrapers, crews get to work. The first order of business is to get out of the shop and get to the glass. “This is a big market out here; everything that has a window is a potential customer,” Columbus Window Cleaning Company President Lynn Elliott said. The company calls those on the front line “airmen,” because they are not happy until they anchor thousands of feet of half-inch nylon rope and take the leap of faith over the side of the building, 10TV’s Jeff Hogan reported. “That’s what it is,” said Director of Operations James Waddy. “There’s no turning back now. Once you’re over there, you’re over, bud.”

What is peaceful for the workers would paralyze others with fear. To minimize that fear, the window washers are trained in high-rise rescue to get themselves out of trouble. They spend hours in weekly and monthly safety classes. The attention to detail could be the difference between life and death, window cleaning specialist Chad Williams said. “Unless you have done it, don’t say that you can, because men get killed,” Williams said. Wind is one of the “airmen’s” biggest enemies. “If it’s too windy, there’s nothing you can do. You could be lined up here, and if it’s windy out there, it could blow you clear over there,” Waddy said. 

A turf-war exists between the window washers and falcons. “Out of nowhere, they’ll be dive-bombing,” Waddy said. Window washing is a job for those who like a vertical challenge – a mid-air ballet holding a bucket of water, Hogan reported. Window cleaning specialist Allen Wood said people are captivated by what they do. “I guess we blow their mind,” Wood said. “They don’t see too much of this too often. They see somebody hanging down, rappelling 600 feet on a rope. It’s kind of like a wow issue, you know.” Elliot said that she was happy with her life in the sky. “There is nothing better than this,” she said.

New York From Above - Living On The Edge

Feeling queasy? Photographer Navid Baraty shuns safety and simply leans over some of New York City's tallest skyscrapers to achieve these amazing snaps. Click to enlarge.

Living on the edge: Photographer leans over side of New York City skyscrapers to capture vertigo-inducing pictures: ‘Don’t look down’ is the common cry when teetering on the edge of any petrifying precipice. But these vertigo-inducing photographs of New York City force you to do just that. In a series of incredible pictures, photographer Navid Baraty threw caution to the wind to capture the hustle and bustle of the city from above. Speculating on how exactly he takes the aerial photos, people guess he is a helicopter pilot or a window cleaner with a penchant for photography. A few have jokily suggested he is Spider-man. The truth is somewhat scarier  - perched on the top of some of the city’s highest skyscrapers, Baraty simply leans as far as he can from the edge to get the images. Click the images to magnify.

Vertigo-inducing: The 31-year-old photographer confesses that his photos have made people's stomach churn in the past. Click to enlarge.

Inversion: While New Yorkers always look up at the city's impressive skyscrapers, Baraty wants to give people the opposite viewpoint. Click to enlarge.

With no harness, the only safety precaution the 31-year-old takes is to wrap his camera strap round his wrist to ensure he doesn't drop it. Often 30 to 40 stories in the air, thankfully Baraty doesn’t suffer from vertigo although confessed to the MailOnline that people have felt queasy just from looking at his photos. Inspired to take the photos when he moved to the city in 2010, Baraty has inverted the view people pounding the pavements typically get. ‘Everyone walks around Manhattan looking up at the giant skyscrapers, but very few get the chance to look down from so many different vantage points,’ he said. From such heights, the city’s ubiquitous yellow cabs are transformed into toy cars and New Yorkers resemble ants scurrying about their daily lives. ‘When you watch NYC from above, you're really able to feel the energy and flow of the city–the constant stream of yellow taxis lining the avenues, the waves of pedestrians hurriedly crossing at the change of traffic signals, little figures disappearing into the subway stations, the chorus of honking horns and sirens. It’s all so rhythmic,’ Baraty said of his bird’s eye view. 

Toy-town: New York's ubiquitous yellow cabs become toy cars. Click to enlarge.

Spider-man? Wondering how he takes the amazing images, people have speculated that Baraty is a helicopter pilot, a window cleaner and....Spider-man himself. Click to enlarge.

Mirror image: Baraty says he was particularly happy with this image after he managed to capture the street below in the glass reflection. Click to enlarge.

Bird's eye view: Baraty says that the sounds and pace of the city is clearly felt from 40 stories up; 'It's all so rhythmic' he said. Click to enlarge.

Safety first? Baraty wears no safety harness when taking his pictures, he simply wraps his camera strap round his wrist so it doesn't plummet down the 40 storey height as he leans over to get his picture. Click to enlarge.

Inspired: Baraty first took shots from above in Tokyo and was inspired to do a similar project when he moved to NYC in 2010. Click to enlarge.

Sky High In Shanghai - 101st Floor Window Cleaning

No room for vertigo: Left, two workers are suspended against the cityscape as they prepare for a shift on the 1,614ft skyscraper. Click to enlarge.

Tall order: The city sprawls out into the smog as one of the window cleaners readies his squeegee at the Shanghai World Financial Centre, China. Click to enlarge.

Yang Bo cleans a window outside the 94th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center March 26, 2012. Click to enlarge.

Sky high in Shanghai: Fearless window cleaners at work outside the 101st floor of the world's fourth-tallest building. The wacky workplace slogan of a thousand coffee mugs has never been more true: You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps. Outside the 101st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center in China, window cleaners are shown preparing for their shift. More than 30 workers on the window-cleaning team of the supertall skyscraper work in pairs every day.

Top of the world: It takes a team of more than 30 cleaners, working in pairs every day, to keep the skyscraper looking its best. Click to enlarge.

They have to obtain a licence for high-rise operations and must not have high blood pressure or, naturally, suffer a fear of heights. They are not allowed items which could fall, such as mobile phones or wristwatches, and must stop working in heavy winds. The centre is the fourth-tallest building in the world, standing at 1,614ft. It opened in 2008 and houses the highest observation deck on Earth, while the Park Hyatt Shanghai, occupying the 79th to 93rd floors, is the world's second-highest hotel.

Nerves of steel: The Shanghai World Financial Center dwarfs the already huge buildings of China's biggest city. Click to enlarge.

The 1,614ft Shanghai World Financial Center in Lujiazui. Click to enlarge.

Two cleaners prepare for work outside the 101st floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center in Lujiazui. More than 30 workers on the window-cleaning team of the skyscraper work in pairs every day. The cleaners have to obtain a license for high-rise operations and must not have high blood pressure or, naturally, suffer a fear of heights. They are not allowed items which could fall, such as cell phones or wristwatches, and must stop work in medium to heavy winds.