The world’s tallest buildings

Taipei 101, Sears in Chicago, CN Tower, Q1 and Burj in Dubai

Mar 9, 2007

Taiwan, Toronto, the USA, the Gold Coast in Australia and the United Arab Emirates all lay claim to the biggest structure on earth. Which skyscraper architecture wins?

Over the last century, the world’s buildings have gone steadily upwards and upwards. Place the likes of the Eiffel Tower or Ulm’s gigantic cathedral spire next to any of the new breed, and they suddenly look very small indeed.

In 2004, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, were dethroned. Until then, they had been generally agreed to be the world’s biggest, although there was controversy that much of the height was due to large spires rather than inhabitable space. Taipei 101 comes in at a whopping 509m tall, although some 60m of that is a spire.

With the giant spires of Taipei and Kuala Lumpur thought by some to be crafty gamesmanship, the purists still insist that the Sears Tower in Chicago is the tallest in the world. It is 442m tall, but with none of that flagpole and big spike related cheating going on. Constructed in 1974, it is still an important business hub in the main city of Illinois

CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

But what if you don’t consider all the extra decoration on top to be cheating? Then which is the biggest? Well… drum roll… the award has to go to the CN Tower in Toronto, which is essentially one big spire with an observation platform wrapped around it. It comes in at 553m tall, and you try telling the Canadians that it doesn’t count because there aren’t enough offices.

The simple fact of the matter is that whoever can currently lay claim to having the world’s tallest building will not be able to do so for long. Across the world, cities are competing to have the best signature sky. India, the US, Russia and South Korea are just some of the nations proposing ambitious projects. These are the Centre of India Tower (Katangi), the Freedom Tower (New York), Tower of Russia (Moscow) and the International Business Centre (Seoul) respectively. Topping the lot, though, is the Burj Tower, which is currently under construction in the Middle East’s building frenzy capital, Dubai. When it is completed, this monster will dwarf everything else in the skyline, reaching half a mile into the sky. At 800m tall, it will be considerably larger than any other building in the world, and it is due for completion in 2008.

Enough of the offices and spires, what about homes? Currently the world’s tallest residential building can be found on the east coast of Australia. The Q1 tower is 323m tall, and is used purely for domestic purposes. However, there is controversy over this, as (yet again) a spire comes into play. The Eureka building in Melbourne, Australia is also purely residential, yet its top floor is higher. The John Hancock Center in Chicago has a higher residence too, but the building is multi-purpose.

Thoughtfully, those building-crazy chaps in Dubai have decided to stop all the squabbling by making an even taller one. 23 Marina, due for completion in 2008, will have 89 floors and weigh in at 395m.

The copyright of the article The world’s tallest buildings in Buildings is owned by David Whitley. Permission to republish The world’s tallest buildings in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.