There is an ongoing battle for the tallest skyscrapers spreading actually all over the world.The reason is evident :
Because they are such powerful and pervasive symbols of financial success and wealth, they also stand at the heart of a worldwide competition relating to who possesses the biggest and the best. Just look at how much funds, technical expertise, resources and collaboration are required to build one and you will understand why. Structures like the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty stood tall, but without office or residential space, they qualified as monuments rather than skyscrapers.
Chicago's Home Insurance Building constructed in 1884 stands as the first in its class according to the Guinness Book of World Records. At 42 meters tall the technological advances of the turn of the century quickly allowed other buildings, like the Woolworth to surpassit. At 241 meters, the Woolworth Building, constructed in 1913 in New York City, took advantage of the new feats in engineering, including the invention of safety elevators, reinforced concrete, steel frames, and
electric water pumps to move water to upper floors. These inventions revolutionized building and design, and created the ability to reach higher and higher to the skies.
Somebody defined skyscrapers as "machines that make the land pay", and most early skyscrapers emerged in the land-strapped areas of Chicago, London, and New York to do just that. After an early competition between N.York City and Chicago for the world's tallest buildings, New York took a firm lead. It celebrated the world's tallest buildings in the 1920s 1930s, including the art deco style Chrysler Building with its steel eagle style gargoyles completed in 1930, and the iconic Empire State Building which was completed in a record time of eleven months in 1931. The Empire State stood 100 stories tall and remained the world's tallest building for 40 years. It continues to symbolize big dreams and romance.
It lost its title of tallest to the World Trade Center in 1971 which then ceded first place to the Sears Tower in Chicago. While America dominated in the creation of skyscrapers-and still does in sheer of numbers (5.866 are counted in N.York alone), the title for the tallest structure went to Dubai, with the completion of the Burj Khalifa in 2010. Though skyscrapers show up worldwide, the engineering and expertise are considered American exports. That expertise literally gave rise to a new genre of buildings called the "supertalls". These buildings stand over 1000 ft or about 380 meters.
Some 48 of them are under construction or projected. The Burj Khalifa weighs in as the tallest, most elegant, and renowned in its class. It contains the world's fastest elevators and one visitor reported seeing the sunset twice before reaching the top of its tower ! While other buildings compete for the title of tallest using spires and antennas, this one soars a majestic 828 meters and 160 stories high.
The fall of the World Trade Center's twin towers on September 11, 2001, changed skyscraper history. That traumatic event seemed to have the most impact in American culture and called into question the viability of skyscrapers for a decade. The new One World Trade Center, built on the footprint of the destroyed towers, just opened its doors and stands a symbolic 1.776 ft tall, the date of the founding of the U.S. At 541meters, the O.W.T. is calling itself the tallest in the West, but the title is under dispute from its competitors, Sears (Willis) towers and Trump International Hotel, both in Chicago, who say that the One World Trade's height is artificially extended by its 124 meter spire.
In the early 2.000s, Asia and the Middle East jumped to build supertalls and these regions now take the lead in constructing vertical cities.
Some of the iconic structures that reveal the growing prosperity of these countries include the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, topping out at 379 meters, Taipei 101 at 508 meters. The Shanghai Tower slated for completion in 2014, will become the tallest building in China at 632 meters, and the Kingdom Tower projected for completion in 2017 in Jeddha, Saudi Arabia will surpass even the Burj Khalifa, at an astounding 1.000 meters tall.
The towers of the 90s became office space for giant corporations, but the new skyscrapers become vertical cities. These towers represent surpassing limits, but they also intend to become the new dwellings of the 70% of the population projected to reside in urban areas by the year 2050. The supertalls will offer habitats to city dwellers to live, work, find entertainment and shop in the....stratosphere.
