page_title: Mirror
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Mirror / Applications / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: Español: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois, Estados UnidosEnglish: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USADeutsch: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USA
context_page_description: A mirror is a smooth or polished surface that returns an image by reflection. Technically, a mirror or reflector is an object such that each narrow beam of light that incides on its surface bounces in a single direction. This property, called specular reflection, distinguishes a mirror from objects that scatter light in many directions, let it pass through them, or absorb it.
  Most mirrors behave as such only for certain ranges of wavelength, direction, and polarization of the incident light; most commonly for visible light, but also for other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum from X-rays to radio waves. A mirror will generally reflect only a fraction of the incident light; even the best mirrors may scatter, absorb, or transmit a small portion of it. If the mirror's width is only a few times the wavelength of the light, a significant part of the light will also be diffracted instead. An object that is a mirror when examined at a small scale may seem to be scattering light when examined at a larger scale.
context_section_description: Mirrors are a popular design theme in architecture, particularly with late modern and post-modernist high-rise buildings in major cities. Early examples include the Campbell Center in Dallas, which opened in 1972, and the John Hancock Tower in Boston.
  More recently, two skyscrapers designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, the Vdara in Las Vegas and 20 Fenchurch Street in London, have experienced unusual problems due to their concave curved glass exteriors acting as respectively cylindrical and spherical reflectors for sunlight.  In 2010, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported that sunlight reflected off the Vdara's south-facing tower could singe swimmers in the hotel pool, as well as melting plastic cups and shopping bags; employees of the hotel referred to the phenomenon as the "Vdara death ray", aka the "fryscraper." In 2013, sunlight reflecting off 20 Fenchurch Street melted parts of a Jaguar car parked nearby and scorching or igniting the carpet of a nearby barber shop.  This building had been nicknamed the "walkie-talkie" because its shape was supposedly similar to a certain model of two-way radio; but after its tendency to overheat surrounding objects became known, the nickname changed to the "walkie-scorchie."
caption: Trump International Hotel and Tower reflects the skyline along the Chicago River in downtown Chicago
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