Worlds Tallest ?

There is a lot of debate about which building is the tallest in the world.

Nobody seems to be able to agree on a common standard that is acceptable to everyone (mostly because someone always loses their spot at number one when you do so). Depending on the way you measure buildings there could be as many as three different tallest buildings !!

The question is whether you measure to the top of the roof, to the top of the structure (including architechural features such as spires but not including non-structural features such as antennas), or just simply to the top of the tallest point on the building.

Then there is the question of should you include towers which are not strictly buildings themselves ?

Then if you are going to do that, how about television antenna towers ?

The general consensus seems to be – ignore television antenna towers and anything else that is not self-supporting (TV towers usually have wire supports holding them up).

So you just need to decide whether to include tourist towers or just buildings that have more than 50% of their space set aside for habitation (whether office, retail, or residential).

Let’s see how some of the lists appear depending on how you measure them.

(Note that I have included “destroyed” buildings in the list in the order they would have appeared if still standing, but not actually assigned a rank to them)

A. Simply the tallest self-supporting building or tourist tower from ground level to tip.

1. CN Tower, Toronto, Canada – 553.3m
2. Ostankino Television Tower, Moscow, Russia – 540.1m
3. Sears Tower, Chicago, USA – 527.3m
x. One World Trade Center, New York, USA – 526.3m
4. Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai, China – 467.9
5. John Hancock Center, Chicago, USA – 457.2m
6. Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 451.9m
7. Empire State Building, New York, USA – 448.7m
8. Menara Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 335m
9. Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China – 420.5m
10. Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – 415.8m
x. Two World Trade Center, New York, USA – 415.3m

B. The “official” height, (official according to the skyscraper.com database).

skyscraper.com says:
The structural height includes the highest architecturally integral part of the building, and everything above that (masts, flagpoles, signs, metal chimneys) are not considered part of the building; rather they are considered as removable additions to the structure and counted in the tip height. If the highest point on a building is also part of its architectural design, then the tip height will be the same as the structural height.

This list also doesn’t include structures which are not “buildings” by their definition: “a building 35 meters or greater in height, which is divided at regular intervals into occupiable levels”. So this counts out towers like the CN Tower in Toronto, Ostankino Television Tower in Moscow and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai – since they don’t have mostly “occupiable floors”. Now I know this is nitpicking, but it’s an important distinction to investigate.

So the order now becomes:

1. Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 451.9m
2. Sears Tower, Chicago, USA – 442m
3. Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China – 420.5m
x. One World Trade Center, New York, USA – 417m
x. Two World Trade Center, New York, USA – 415.3m
4. Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – 413.8m
5. CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China – 391.1m
6. Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China – 384m
7. Empire State Building, New York, USA – 381m
8. Central Plaza, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – 374m
9. Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – 367.4m
10. Emirates Office Tower, Dubai, UAE – 354.6m

C. What if we take just the “roof height” ?

skyscraper.com says this about roof height:
Roof height is defined as the vertical elevation from the base to the highest exterior portion of the shell enclosing the building’s interior space. This excludes spires, parapets, and other protruding non-habitable elements

So the list including towers would now be:

1. CN Tower, Toronto, Canada – 457.2m
2. Sears Tower, Chicago, USA – 442m
x. One World Trade Center, New York, USA – 417m
x. Two World Trade Center, New York, USA – 415.3m
3. Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – ?
4. Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – ?
5. Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China – ?
6. Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai, China – ?
7. Ostankino Television Tower, Moscow, Russia – 385.5m
8. Empire State Building, New York, USA – 381m
9. Tuntex 85 Sky Tower, Kaohsiung, Taiwan – 347.5m
10. Aon Center, Chicago, USA – 246.3m

D. But hang on – that includes structures that are not fully occupiable… so let’s do the list again with just buildings:

1. Sears Tower, Chicago, USA – 442m
x. One World Trade Center, New York, USA – 417m
x. Two World Trade Center, New York, USA – 415.3m
2. Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – ?
3. Two International Finance Centre, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – ?
4. Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai, China – ?
5. Empire State Building, New York, USA – 381m
6. Tuntex 85 Sky Tower, Kaohsiung, Taiwan – 347.5m
7. Aon Center, Chicago, USA – 246.3m
8. John Hancock Center, Chicago, USA – 343.5m
9. Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China – 325m
10. CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China – 321.9m

So there you go… we went up the Sears Tower this morning, and they claim to be the tallest in the world bar none. That’s only true if you count roof height of largely occupiable buildings. We also went up the Jonh Hancock Center this afternoon, and they claim to be the fifth tallest building in the world. That’s only true if you include antenna height in the measurement regardless of whether the building is largely occupiable or not !

I guess the rule is, you choose the rule that makes you look the best :D

Naturally the Canadians are a little peeved at this since the Americans are prone to choosing rules that exclude their darling CN Tower !

I’ll write about how Australian buildings fare in my next post.

In the meantime, check out www.skyscraperpage.com for their great buildings database (where I got this info from), and also www.skyscrapers.com for some more great info.

LOCATION: Hyatt Regency, Chicago, USA
LOCAL TIME: 11:45pm, Sunday 7th Sept.