CONTEMPORARY NY
New York Architecture Images- notes
"Tallest building in the world!!"
   
Park Row Building

THE PARK ROW BUILDING 

Tallest building in the world, 1899-1908.
119m / 391ft, 30 floors

 

Singer Tower<br>(HABS, NY,31-NEYO,71-4) Singer Building
Tallest building in the world, 1908-1909
612 feet (187 meters) 41-stories
GRP19-met.jpg (40870 bytes) Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

700 feet (213 meters)
Tallest building in the world, 1909-1913
019X.jpg (53270 bytes) THE WOOLWORTH BUILDING 
Tallest building in the world, 1913-1930
792 feet, 241 meters. 55-stories.
037-srivals4.gif (88907 bytes) TRUMP BUILDING 
Tallest building in the world, 1930-1930
281,8m / 927.0ft. 72 floors.
Chrysler Building 
Tallest building in the world, 1930-1931
77 floors, 319.5m (1048 feet)
MID073-EmpireState2.jpg (41416 bytes) Empire State Building
Tallest building in the world, 1931-1970
wtcbasedet.jpg (204867 bytes) World Trade Center
Tallest building in the world, 1970-1973
110 floors rising 1,353 feet
 


Photo: Chicago Public Library

1973 Sears Tower

World's Tallest
Building Until 1996

Regains Tallest Occupied
Floor Title in 1997

 

 

 

Chicago became home to the world's tallest building in 1973 when the Sears Tower was topped off. The Sears Tower remained the tallest building in the world until February 13, 1996. The Sears Tower continues to be the tallest building in North America.

On July 10, 1997, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat met in Chicago to announce new standards with four categories for measuring tall buildings. These categories are:

 

  1. Height to the structural or architectural top.
  2. Height to the highest occupied floor.
  3. Height to the top of the roof.
  4. Height to the top of antenna.

The Sears Tower leads in the second and third categories. The height to the top of the roof is 1,450 feet and the height to the highest occupied floor is 1,431. The twin Petronas Towers in Malaysia win the first category with its 111-foot decorative spires.

Sitting on two city blocks and rising one quarter mile (1,454 feet) above the ground, the Tower's 110 stories comprise some 4.5 million gross square feet of office and commercial space. It was designed by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, and was constructed in a little less than two and half years.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 10 July 1997, p32.

 

World's Top 10 Buildings

Rank Name City Country Feet Metres Stories
1
Petronas Tower 1 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 1483 452 88
2
Petronas Tower 2 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 1483 452 88
3
Sears Tower Chicago USA 1450 442 110
4
Jin Mao Tower Shanghai China 1380 421 88
**5
Citic Plaza Guangzhou China 1,283 391 80
6
Shun Hing Square Shenzhen China 1,260 384 69
7
Empire State Building New York USA 1250 381 102
8
Central Plaza Hong Kong China 1227 374 78
9
Bank Of China Hong Kong China 1209 369 70
10
The Center Hong Kong China 1148 350 79
11
T & C Tower Kaohsiung Taiwan 1140 348 85
12
Aon Center Chicago USA 1136 346 80
13
John Hancock Center Chicago USA 1127 344 100
14
Burj al Arab Hotel Dubai UAE 1,053 321 60
15
Baiyoke Tower II Bangkok Thailand 1050 320 90

NOTE: Height is measured from sidewalk level of main entrance to structural top of building. Antennas and flag poles are not included

**The twin World Trade Center towers, New York, 110 stories, 1368 feet, ranked 5 and 6 prior to their destruction by terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

Source: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Lehigh University.

 

#

Building

Year

Location

Feet

Stories

 

Burj Dubai

2008

Dubai, UAE

2313

160

 

Freedom Tower

2009

New York City, USA

1776

73

1

Taipei Financial Center

2004

Taipei, Taiwan

1671

101

 

Busan Lotte Tower

2010

Busan, South Korea

1621

107

 

World Financial Center

2007

Shanghai, China

1614

101

 

Union Square

2007

Hong Kong, China

1555

111

2

Petronas Towers

1998

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1483

88

3

Sears Tower

1974

Chicago, USA

1450

110

4

Jin Mao Building

1998

Shanghai, China

1380

88

x

World Trade Center

1972

New York City, USA

1368

110

5

2 Int'l Finance Centre

2003

Hong Kong, China

1352

88

6

CITIC Plaza

1997

Guangzhou, China

1283

80

7

Shun Hing Square

1996

Shenzhen, China

1260

69

8

Empire State Building

1931

New York City, USA

1250

102

9

Central Plaza

1992

Hong Kong, China

1227

78

10

Bank of China

1989

Hong Kong, China

1209

72

11

Emirates Office Tower One

1999

Dubai, UAE

1165

55

12

Tuntex Tower

1997

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

1140

85

13

Aon Center / Amoco Bldg

1973

Chicago, USA

1136

83

14

The Centre

1998

Hong Kong, China

1135

73

15

John Hancock Center

1967

Chicago, USA

1127

100

16

Shimao International Plaza

2005

Shanghai, China

1093

60

17

Wuhan Int'l Securities Building

2005

Wuhan, China

1087

68

18

Ryugyong Hotel

1995

Pyongyang, North Korea

1083

105

19

Burj al Arab Hotel

1999

Dubai, UAE

1053

60

20

Chrysler Building

1930

New York City, USA

1046

77

21

Bank of America Plaza

1992

Atlanta, USA

1023

55

22

US Bank Tower

1989

Los Angeles, USA

1018

73

23

Menara Telekom

2001

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1017

55

24

Emirates Hotel Tower Two

2000

Dubai, UAE

1014

56

25

AT&T Corporate Center

1989

Chicago, USA

1007

60

26

JP Morgan Chase Tower

1982

Houston, USA

1002

75

           

 

Building & Location

Year

Sto-
ries

Height

Chief
Architect

M.

Ft.

Center of India Tower, Katangi, India (speculative)

2008?

224

677

2,222

 

Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center
New York

 

 

 541

1,776

Daniel Libeskind

Taipei 101 Tower
Taipei, Taiwan

2004

101

 509

1,670

C.Y. Lee & Partner

Shanghai World Financial Center, China

2007?

95+

460+

1,509+

Kohn Pederson Fox

Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1998

88

452

1,483

Cesar Pelli

Petronas Twin Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1998

88

452

1,483

Cesar Pelli

Sears Tower, Chicago

1974

110

442

1,450

Bruce Graham (SOM)

Kowloon Station Phase 7 (MTR Tower) Union Plaza, Hong Kong

2007?

102

574

1,883

SOM

Jin Mao Building, Shanghai

1999

88

421

1,381

SOM

World Trade Center, New York
Destroyed by terrorists 9/11/01

1973

110

417

1,368

Minoru Yamaski

Two International Finance Centre (IFC), Hong Kong

2003

88

415

 

Rocco Design Ltd.

 

Construction of world's tallest tower to begin

  • 18:24 10 December 2004
  • NewScientist.com news service
  • Will Knight
Burj Dubai will be nearly half a mile high, at 800 metres tall (Image: SOM)
Burj Dubai will be nearly half a mile high, at 800 metres tall (Image: SOM)

The construction of what will be the world's tallest building is set to begin in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The building contract was awarded to a consortium led by the South Korean Samsung Corporation on Thursday.

The Burj Dubai tower will stand 800 metres tall - just 5 metres shy of half a mile - once completed in 2008. That will be nearly 300 metres taller than the tallest floored building in the world today, the Taipei Tower in Taiwan.

The new tower's unique, three-sided design will ascend in a series of stages, around a supportive central core and boast a total of 160 floors, accessible via a series of double-decker elevators. Its shape will be integral to its impressive size. The design is intended to reduce the impact of wind and to reduce the need for a stronger core - allowing for more space - as it ascends.

"It's almost like a series of buildings stuck together," says Mohsen Zikri, a director at UK engineering consultants Arup. "As you go up you need less and less lifts and less core."

Military precision

A key challenge will be the logistics involved in construction, Zikri told New Scientist. "You need things to be delivered with military precision or you will have chaos on the ground."

A spokeswoman for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Chicago-based architects firm behind the design in the US, says the shape should prevent wind vortices building up around the tower and causing it to move in the wind. "Wind is the primary thing at this height," she told New Scientist. "The engineers have focused on shaping the building to minimise this effect."

As wind whirls around a tall building it can build into powerful vortices that in turn generate powerful winds on the ground. But the wide base of the Burj Dubai should also prevent wind from causing these disturbances.

Besides beating the Taipei Tower, which stands at 508 metres tall, Burj Dubai will also be considerably taller than the CN tower in Toronto, Canada, which stands at 553 metres tall though is without a multiple floor structure.

Foundation work was recently completed by Turner Construction International, based in New York, US. Above ground construction will now begin under the control of the Samsung Corporation. The contract was awarded by Emaar Properties in Dubai, after an 11-month bidding process.

The tower will be used for offices, residential apartments, hotels and shops and will be surrounded at its base by a man-made lake.

 

Image: Taipei 101 Building
AT A CEREMONY witnessed by officials and business leaders, a 197-ft 
spire capped the 101-story structure, officially making it taller than 
the 1,483-feet twin towers in Kuala Lumpur.
“I have no doubt that it can bring Taipei to the world and bring 
the world to Taipei,” Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou said at the ceremony.
Taiwan hopes the new landmark will put Taipei on the global map, 
but the Sept. 11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) called 
into question the merits of tall buildings. 

Fearful of tempting future attacks, most New Yorkers said they 
did not want a new “world’s tallest” to be built on the site of the WTC 
where some 2,800 people died in the hijacked plane attacks, a poll 
released in May showed.
Architects say Taipei 101 will be much better able to withstand 
a similar attack, allowing people more time to escape.
But it is earthquakes, rather than terror attacks, that scare 
Taiwanese the most.
“September 11 attacks? Taiwan will not be a target. I am more 
afraid of earthquakes. If a big one strikes, even though the building 
does not collapse, it will still be frightening,” said an official, who 
declined to be identified, who works at the Taiwan Stock Exchange, a 
future tenant of Taipei 101. 

Taiwan, which lies on a seismically active stretch of the 
Pacific basin, was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter 
scale in September 1999. The tremor killed more than 2,400 people and 
destroyed or damaged 50,000 buildings.
The Taipei 101 tower is designed to absorb earthquakes above 
seven on the Richter scale and one-in-100-year gales.
The skyscraper of steel, concrete and glass, due to be completed 
in 2004, will house a shopping mall, offices for 12,000 people, and the 
stock exchange.
It has the world’s fastest lifts: 34 double-decker shuttles that 
can zoom at 37 mph and take passengers to the 90th floor in under 39 
seconds. 
Shanghai is building a skyscraper that may top Taipei 101 in 2007. 

Taipei is not the only city that covets the title of host to 
the world’s tallest building. Shanghai is building a skyscraper that 
may top Taipei 101 in 2007. 

© 2003 Reuters Limited