Skyscrapers. Call them crass expressions of plutocratic domination; call them environmentally inefficient, pointless wastes of money; call them patriarchal phallic symbols - negative people will always find a reason to dismiss or condemn anything that provokes the human imagination. But I just call them awesome and inspiring: Immediate, overwhelming evidence of what human ingenuity is capable of achieving. There are no plainer and more enduring monuments to our aspirations than skyscrapers - the physical embodiments of a yearning to reach ever higher, see ever farther, and make heaven and Earth one.
Unless you are a skyscraper enthusiast like myself, you probably are not familiar with many of them, and especially not those outside the United States - which now comprise the bulk of the tallest. As a matter of national pride, I hope some day that we will reclaim the title, but there are no projects currently in development that would do that (though we're still in the top 10, for now). I must, therefore, be satisfied that humanity as a whole continues to aspire upward, as it is an indicator of our initiative and adventurousness as a species.
Now, there are legitimate questions about the efficiency of skyscrapers with respect to a larger number of shorter buildings, but that is neither here nor there: I am not suggesting the skyscraper as a general solution to civil engineering. It isn't, and never will be financially or environmentally superior to create buildings 30 or 40 times taller than the average building height in a city.
Organic growth would be to either sprawl into exurbs or, if there are limits on outward development, create new buildings that are a third or half again as high, resulting in slow upward movement with few standout buildings. But that isn't inspiring: That's living in urban warrens like ants or moles. City-living has its rewards, when done right - the sense of community, walkable distances, lots of dining and entertainment options, etc. - but without skyscrapers, inspirational views aren't among them. And really a skyscraper is about more than the people who live in that city - it speaks to people throughout a nation, and even around the world. It speaks to humanity as a whole, and says "People built this. We can do things like this. You are more than you think."
So, without further ado, I would like to run down (not literally, of course) the tallest buildings in the world. These are only the completed ones - there are dozens of others in the same class under construction, mostly in China and Dubai. As height ranking depends on whether you use the rooftop or the spire as the standard, and this choice changes some rankings, I will use the spire standard.
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Burj Khalifa (originally Burj Dubai)
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Completed: 2009
Height: 2,717 ft
Floors: 162
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Tapei 101
Location: Tapei, Taiwan
Completed: 2004
Height: 1,671 ft
Floors: 101
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Shanghai World Financial Center
Location: Shanghai, China
Completed: 2008
Height: 1,622 ft
Floors: 101
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4.
International Commerce Centre
Location: Hong Kong, China
Completed: 2010
Height: 1,588 ft
Floors: 108
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Petronas Towers
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Completed: 1998
Height: 1,483 ft
Floors: 88
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Nanjing Greenland Financial Center
Location: Nanjing, China
Completed: 2010
Height: 1,480 ft
Floors: 89
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Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower)
Location: Chicago, USA
Completed: 1973
Height: 1,730 ft
Floors: 108
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Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago
Location: Chicago, USA
Completed: 2009
Height: 1,389 ft
Floors: 92
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Jin Mao Tower
Location: Shanghai, China
Completed: 1998
Height: 1,380 ft
Floors: 93
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10.
2 International Finance Centre
Location: Hong Kong, China
Completed: 2003
Height: 1,364 ft
Floors: 90
Note: An action scene in The Dark Knight involved this building. Batman flies off the roof.
