Towering Accomplishments

Buildings have been getting taller and taller since the skyscrapers became a popular architectural form in the 20th century. Here is a review of the world's tallest buildings and their astonishing architecture.

New York City, the largest city in the United States, is home to 5,818 completed high-rises, 96 of which stand taller than 600 feet (183 m). The tallest completed building in the city is the 102-story Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan, which was finished in 1931 and rises to 1,250 feet (381 m), increased to 1,454 feet (443 m) by its antenna. It also is the third-tallest building in the United States and the 22nd-tallest building in the world. The Empire State Building stood as the tallest building in the world from its completion until 1972, when the 110-story North Tower of the original World Trade Center was completed. At 1,368 feet (417 m), One World Trade Center briefly held the title as the world's tallest building until the completion of the 108-story Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) in Chicago in 1974. The World Trade Center towers were destroyed by terrorist attacks in 2001, and the Empire State Building regained the title of tallest building in the City. The second-tallest building in New York is the Bank of America Tower, which rises to 1,200 feet (366 m), including its spire. Tied for third-tallest are the 1,046-foot (319 m) Chrysler Building, which was the world's tallest building from 1930 until 1931, and the New York Times Building, which was completed in 2007.

New York skyscrapers are concentrated in Midtown and Lower Manhattan, although other neighborhoods of Manhattan and the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx also have significant numbers of high-rises. As of January 2011, the entire city has 228 buildings that rise at least 500 feet (152 m) in height, including those under construction, more than any other city in the United States.

Since 2003, New York City has seen the completion of 22 buildings that rise at least 600 feet (183 m) in height. Fourteen more are under construction, including the 1,776-foot (541 m) One World Trade Center, which will claim the title of tallest building in the city upon its completion. On April 30, 2012, this building officially surpassed the structural height of the Empire State Building with steel reaching to 1,271 feet (387 m), but construction is not scheduled to be complete until 2013. One World Trade Center is part of the complex that will replace the destroyed World Trade Center, which also includes three more under-construction skyscrapers: the 1,350-foot (411 m) Two World Trade Center, 1,240-foot (378 m) Three World Trade Center and 975-foot (297 m) Four World Trade Center. Overall, as of July 2012, there were 218 high-rise buildings under construction or proposed for construction in New York City.

Burj Khalifa (Arabic: برج خليفة‎, "Khalifa tower"), known as Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). This is nearly a thousand feet taller than the tower at One World Trade Center in New York City.

 

Construction began on 21 September 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on 1 October 2009. The building officially opened on 4 January 2010, and is part of the new 2 km2 (490-acre) development called Downtown Dubai at the 'First Interchange' along Sheikh Zayed Road, near Dubai's main business district. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago, with Adrian Smith as chief architect, and Bill Baker as chief structural engineer. The primary contractor was Samsung C&T of South Korea.

 

In March 2009, Mohamed Ali Alabbar, chairman of the project's developer, Emaar Properties, said office space pricing at Burj Khalifa reached US$4,000 per sq ft (over US$43,000 per m²) and the Armani Residences, also in Burj Khalifa, sold for US$3,500 per sq ft (over US$37,500 per m²). He estimated the total cost for the project to be about US$1.5 billion.

 

The project's completion coincided with the global financial crisis of 2007–2012, and with vast overbuilding in the country; this led to high vacancies and foreclosures. With Dubai mired in debt from its huge ambitions, the government was forced to seek multibillion dollar bailouts from its oil-rich neighbor Abu Dhabi. Subsequently, in a surprise move at its opening ceremony, the tower was renamed Burj Khalifa, said to honour the UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his crucial support.

 

Because of the slumping demand in Dubai's property market, the rents in the Burj Khalifa plummeted 40% some ten months after its opening. Out of 900 apartments in the tower, 825 were still empty at that time. However, over the next two and a half years, overseas investors steadily began to purchase the available apartments and office space in Burj Khalifa. By October 2012, Emaar reported that around 80% of the apartments were occupied.