The Tallest of the Tall

I should be working today because I have a deadline for Monday. But instead I decided to blog. Actually I was distracted this morning by an article in the business section of today's The National newspaper: a story about the status of the completion of the Burj Dubai which lead me to wonder about the world's tallest buildings. So I spent the afternoon surfing the internet ... I tell myself that this is kind of work related ... isn't it???

Anyway, I came across a lot of really interesting stuff and one website in particular, the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat had a lot of information and resources. I decided to compile a Top 10 list of the the tallest of the tall based on the CTBUH list along with whatever photos and factoids I could dig up on the web.

Their criteria for measuring height is documented here.
They have a handy-dandy building height calculator here.

Disclaimer: In comparing various sources of information, I discovered a few inconsistencies (*gasp* NO! The internet ... conflicting information?!) I don't really have the time nor the inclination today to debate the facts nor decipher the truth. This is just for fun so take it with a grain of salt. I have also attempted to use what I believe to be "free" pictures wherever possible and give proper credit ... but to be honest, I lost track of where they all came from so I plead ignorance and beg forgivness in advance.

With that said and without further adieu, here's the list:

#10: Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, GD China
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1996
Height: 69 stories, 384 meters /1,260 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect: K.Y. Cheung Design Associates

The complex consists of three main parts,the tower itself, a five storey mall serving as a podium and a 35 storey annex. All three parts are directly connected.

It is China's tallest steel skyscraper.

The tower has a public observatory called the Meridian View Centre on the 69th floor; price to go up is 60rmb (about US$12).

#9: CITIC Plaza, Guanzhou, China (Yeah China again. Gonna see them on the list a few times!)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1996/7
Height: 80 stories, 391 meters /1,283 feet
Material: Concrete
Occupancy: Office
Architect: Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects & Engineers

The CITIC complex is named after the China International Trust and Investment Company, which is a state-owned company that was established by the People's Republic of China's government to encourage investment in China.

It is the tallest concrete building in the world.

It is the fourth tallest building in China (not counting the ones that are still on the drawing board!)

The building has 598 rooms and 36 elevators.

#8: Two International Financial Center, Hong Kong (China again ... kind of)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2003
Height: 88 stories, 412 meters /1,352 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architects: César Pelli & Association Architects and Rocco Design Ltd.

Tenants include ING Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp, Fidelity Investments, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority and the Financial Times.

2IFC, which was completed at the height of the SARS epidemic, was initially available to rent at HK$25-HK$35 per square foot. In 2007, as the economy has improved, high quality ("Grade A") office space is highly sought after, rents for current leases are $150 per square foot as of March 2007.

The Airport Express Hong Kong Station is directly beneath it.

I think Spiderman was climbing this tower in the first movie out a few years back ... ???

#7: Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2009
Height: 96 stories, 415 meters /1,362 feet
Material: Concrete
Occupancy: Hotel, residential, retail
Architect: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Client: Hmm, I wonder who that could be???

When this project was originally announced, it was proclaimed as a future world's tallest building. After the terrorist acts of september 11, 2001 the plans were scaled down a few hundred feet.

The building was originally planned with a large office section on the lower floors, but sales of the residential portion performed so well that the office floors were dropped from the plan.

#6: Jin Mao Building, Shanghai, China
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1999
Height: 88 stories, 421 meters /1,381 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office, hotel

Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill

Architects designed the building around the theme of the Chinese pagoda and the number 8(the number 8 is considered extremely lucky by Chinese people): the lowest segment of the building is sixteen stories high and each succeeding segment is 1/8th smaller than its predecessor.

The building employs an advanced structural engineering system of wind and earthquake engineering which fortify it against typhoon winds of up to 200 km/h (with the top swaying by a maximum of 75 cm) and earthquakes of up to 7 on the Richter scale. The steel shafts have shear joints that act as shock absorbers to cushion the lateral forces imposed by winds and quakes, and the swimming pool on the 57th floor is said to act as a passive damper.

#5: Willis Tower (formerly known as "Sears Tower", Chicago, Illinois, USA

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1974 (a dinosaur!)
Height: 108 stories, 442 meters /1,451 feet
Material: Steel
Occupancy: Office

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (these guys have quite the portfolio!)

Willis Tower is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

The building was renamed Willis Tower in July 2009 as the company [Willis Group Holdings] consolidated five local offices and moved some 500 Associates into 233 South Wacker Drive. It was not named after the little black kid from the 70's TV show "Different Strokes".

Now, here is where the CTBUH list is questionable: as far as heights go, the Empire State Building should be on the list here at 449 meters ... but its not. What gives???

Anyway, moving on.

Tie for #3 and #4: Petronas Tower 1 and Tower 2, Kuala Lampur, Malaysia
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 1998
Height: 88 stories each, 452 meters /1,483 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect: Cesar Pelli & Associates and KLCC Architects

PETRONAS, is short for Petroliam Nasional Bhd [sic], Malaysia's national petroleum corporation.

The tower's floor plate design is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of two interlocking squares creating a shape of eight-pointed stars. Upon the eight-pointed stars, are eight superimposed semi-circles softening the inner angles. These semicircles are themselves anchored by the arcs of the main structural columns of the buildings. The semi-circles were superimposed in the inner angles of the interlocked squares to create more usable floor space.

The Skybridge, a major attraction at the PETRONAS Twin Towers, symbolises a gateway to the future and is used to facilitate movement between the two towers. It can also function as an escape route in case of emergencies.

#2: Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2008
Height: 101 stories, 492 meters /1,614 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office, hotel

Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox

The most distinctive feature in the design of the building is an aperture at the peak. The original design specified a circular aperture to reduce the stresses of wind pressure, as well as serve as a subtext for the design, since "Chinese mythology represents the earth with a square and the sky with a circle". However, this initial design began facing protests from some Chinese who considered it too similar to the rising sun design of the Japanese flag. On 18 October 2005, KPF submitted an alternative design and a trapezoidal hole replaced the circle at the top of the tower, which in addition to changing the controversial design, will also be cheaper and easier to implement according to the architects. In the eyes of some, the building resembles a giant bottle opener (well, I guess you can't please everyone.)

A fire broke out in the SWFC on 14 August 2007. The fire was first noticed on the 40th floor, around 16:30 (GMT +8), and soon the smoke was clearly seen outside the building. By 17:45, the fire had been extinguished. The damage was reported to be slight and nobody was injured in this accident. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but according to some sources the preliminary investigation suggested workers' electric weldings caused the fire

#1: Taipei 101, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan (is that part of China or not? Depends who you ask I guess.)
Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: 2004
Height: 101 stories, 509 meters /1,670 feet
Material: Composite
Occupancy: Office
Architect / Designer: C.Y. Lee & Partners

It has been hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005).

Taipei 101 was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height.

Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Planners aimed for a structure that could withstand gale winds of 60 m/s (216 km/h , 134 mi/h) and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle.

Honorable mention: Burj Dubai, Dubai, UAE

Stats and Factoids:

Year of Completion: December, 2009 (insha'allah!)
Material: Concrete and Steel
Occupancy: Office, residential, hotel
Architect: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

This is the Grand-daddy of them all! 160+ stories, 818m/ 1,585 feet to the top! But it is HM on this list because it is not yet officially ranked by CTBUH; must be a) topped out architecturally, b) be fully cladded and c) open for business or partially occupied. As of yesterday, they meet criteria a) and b) but not quite there yet for criteria c).

NORR is doing the site supervision on this and at one time I was hopeful I might be able to swing a “site visit”. However security is extremely tight since a couple of base jumping lunatics (twice?) managed to get to the top to do their thing. I’m not optimistic about my chances for a view from the top but I hear there will be an observation deck on one of the intermediate levels ... and I can see it any time I want from my balcony.

And now for the “also ran” category”:

#13: Bank of China Building, Hong Kong. Why? Because I saw it when I was there last year and is one of my favorites. It is 70 stories, 367m/1,205 feet and was completed 1989. The designer was I.M. Pei and it was heavily criticized for its bad Feng Shui to its neighbors (one of which is a rival bank ... coincidence?)

#16 and #33: Emirates Towers 1 and 2, Dubai UAE:

Why? Because I go there almost every day! And because they are pretty cool buildings.

ET1, the office building was completed in 1999 and ET2, the hotel, completed a year later. They are/were a NORR project, designed by Hazel Wong (no, I don't know HW but I do work with her 'understudy' on the design of these, Yahya Jan who is becoming something of a mini-celebrity in his own right.)

Apparently, the Crown Prince of Dubai has an office in ET1. From time to time I see some pretty official looking vehicles parked out front and I once saw Shiekh Mo himself (Ruler of Dubai and father of CP), so it could be true.

#26: The Burj Al Arab, Dubai, UAE.

This one is definitely a "one of". It is the self-proclaimed “first 7-star hotel in the world” and they are priced accordingly! One cannot get past the front gate with out a reservation (believe me, I tried!), room rates start at 4000 Dirhams ($1,177CDN) and el cheapo chocolate fondue with Jen set us back a few hundred chips ... but we bit the bullet just so we could get in.

The interior is a bit on the “gaudy” side for most people's taste but the outside makes up for it, really quite amazing. I can also see this one from my balcony (on a clear day) and up close every Tuessday morning from Umm Sequiem beach when I am huffing and puffing my way through boot camp.

And just because I will always be a Canadian at heart, I must mention that Canada has 3 buildings in the top 100, all in Toronto (the “other” center of the universe):

#44: First Bank Tower completed in 1975, 298m, 978 feet in height.
#68: Scotia Plaza completed in 1989, 275m, 902 feet.
#95 BCE Place – Canada Trust Tower, completed in 1990 at 261m, 856 feet.

Well, that's it. Enough procrastinating for today, my deadline is still looming. I need to buckle down and do some real work ... right after I get back from Starbucks!