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Historically, the world's tallest man-made structure was the ancient tomb - the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which held the position for over 3,800 years[1] until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in England in 1311. Until the completion of the Washington Monument in 1884 the world's tallest buildings were Christian churches and cathedrals in Europe. The early skyscraper was pioneered in Chicago with the 138 ft (42.1 m) Home Insurance Building in 1885, forming the basis for which the United States would hold the position of the world's tallest building throughout the 20th century until 1998, when the Petronas Towers were completed. Since then only two buildings have held the title: Taipei 101 in 2004 and Burj Khalifa in 2010.[2]
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the US, the Middle East, China, and Southeast Asia have experienced booms in skyscraper construction.
Ranking criteria and alternatives
The international non-profit organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) was formed in 1969 and announces the title of "The World's Tallest Building" and sets the standards by which buildings are measured. It maintains a list of the 100 tallest completed buildings in the world.[3] The organization currently ranks Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the tallest at 828 m (2,717 ft).[3] However, the CTBUH only recognizes buildings that are complete, and some buildings included within the lists in this article are not considered finished by the CTBUH.
In 1996, as a response to the dispute as to whether the Petronas Towers or the Sears Tower was taller,[4] the council listed and ranked buildings in four categories:
height to structural or architectural top;
height to floor of highest occupied floor;
height to top of roof (removed as category in November 2009);[5] and
height to top of any part of the building.
Spires are considered integral parts of the architectural design of buildings, changes to which would substantially change the appearance and design of the building, whereas antennas may be added or removed without such consequences. The Petronas Towers, with their spires, are thus ranked higher than the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) with its antennas, despite the Petronas Towers's lower roofs and lower highest point.
Until 1996, the world's tallest building was defined by the height to the top of the tallest architectural element, including spires but not antennae. This led to a rivalry between the Bank of Manhattan Building and the Chrysler Building. The Bank of Manhattan Building (i.e. 40 Wall Street) employed only a short spire and was 282.5 m (927 ft) tall and had a much higher top occupied floor (the second category in the 1996 criteria for tallest building). In contrast, the Chrysler Building employed a very large 38.1 m (125 ft) spire secretly assembled inside the building to claim the title of world's tallest building with a total height of 318.9 m (1,046 ft), although it had a lower top occupied floor and a shorter height when both buildings' spires were excluded.
Upset by Chrysler's victory, Shreve & Lamb, the consulting architects of the Bank of Manhattan Building, wrote a newspaper article claiming that their building was actually the tallest, since it contained the world's highest usable floor, at 255 m (837 ft). They pointed out that the observation deck in the Bank of Manhattan Building was nearly 30 m (98 ft) above the top floor in the Chrysler Building, whose surpassing spire was strictly ornamental and inaccessible.[6]
At present, the Burj Khalifa tops the list by some margin, regardless of which criterion is applied.[7][8]
Tallest buildings in the world
As of 2020[update], this list includes all 75 buildings (completed and architecturally topped out) which reach a height of 350 metres (1,150 ft) or more, as assessed by their highest architectural feature. Of these, 37 are in China. Six of the last seven buildings to have held the record as 'tallest building' are still found in the list, with the exception being the North Tower of the original World Trade Center at 417 metres (1,368 ft) after its destruction in the September 11 attacks of 2001. If the twin towers had not been destroyed and One World Trade Center never built, the WTC towers would rank 34 and 35 on the list today.
bold
Denotes building that is or was once the tallest in the world
Tallest twin towers in the world; were the world's tallest buildings upon completion in 1998, and the first tallest building since 1908 outside of the United States.
Tallest building in the world from 1931 until 1972; tallest man-made structure in the world from 1931 to 1967; first building in the world to contain over 100 floors[17][18]
Tallest buildings by pinnacle height, including all masts, poles, antennae, etc. in 2014
This measurement disregards distinctions between architectural and non-architectural extensions, and simply measures to the highest point. This measurement is useful for air traffic obstacle determinations, and is also a wholly objective measure. However, this measurement includes extensions that are easily added, removed, and modified from a building and are independent of the overall structure.
This measurement only recently came into use, when the Petronas Towers passed the Sears Tower (now named Willis Tower) in height. The former was considered taller because its spires were considered architectural, while the latter's antennae were not. This led to the split of definitions, with the Sears Tower claiming the lead in this and the height-to-roof (now highest occupied floor) categories, and with the Petronas claiming the lead in the architectural height category.
If the World Trade Center towers were still standing today they would occupy numbers 12 (North Tower at 526.7 m (1,728 ft))[15] and 37 on the list (or 11 and 36, for it can be assumed the One World Trade Center would have never been built).
†
Denotes building with pinnacle height higher than architectural
This is a list of buildings taller than 350 m that are currently under construction.[16] On-hold buildings whose construction was interrupted after it had reached a significantly advanced state are also listed.
The following list shows the tallest completed buildings in each continent listed by greatest to least height (click on name of continent for continent-specific list):
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