Rank Building, city Year Stories

Height
M ft
1. Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan 2004 101 509
1,670
2. Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998 88
452 1,483
3. Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
4. Sears Tower, Chicago 1974 110 442
4,450
5. Jin Mao Building, Shanghai 1999 88 421
1,380
6. Two Int’l Finance Centre, Hong Kong 2003 88 415
1,362
7. CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China 1996 80 391
1,283
8. Shun Hing Square, Shenzhen, China 1996 69 384
1,260
9. Empire State Building, New York 1931 102 381
1,250
10. Central Plaza, Hong Kong 1992 78 374
1,227

NOTES:

Criteria for Inclusion on the List of 100 Tallest Buildings by the Council on Tall
Buildings and Urban Habitat

This data was gathered and/or supplied by members and representatives of the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat who represent world leaders in the
field of the built environment, including research, industry, and education.

What defines a building (as opposed to a tower)? A “building” is considered to be a

structure that is designed for residential, business, or manufacturing purposes. An
essential characteristic of a building is that it has floors. Note that towers are
NOT included in the list. Although a number of tall buildings on this list have
“Tower” in their name—the famous Petronas Towers, for example—none are
technically towers.

When does a building appear on the list? When a building is “topped out”—the
point of construction when the structure has met its proposed structural top (see
height definition below)—the building is officially ranked and is placed on the list.

1
Height The height of a building is measured from the sidewalk level of the main
entrance to the structural top of the building. This includes spires, but does not
include television antennas, radio antennas, or flag poles. Height is listed in both
meters and feet and is rounded to the nearest integer. This is the official criterion
used by the Council in determining ranking.

In many cases, the height of a building is supplied to the Council using only one
unit of measure (either feet or meters). Based on the exact value of the unit
supplied, the other unit’s value is mathematically calculated, then rounded to the
nearest integer. The final determinant in ranking a building’s height is the footage
—not meters—because of footage’s smaller (and therefore more precise)
incremental value.

Rank Ranking is determined by height to the structural top of the building (see
above). If there is a tie, the building with the larger number of stories is ranked
higher. If a tie still remains, the building which was completed first is ranked
higher. If a tie would still remain, the buildings would be ranked alphabetically.

Year The year in which construction of the building was officially completed. “UC”
stands for Under Construction. The term “UC05” indicates that a building under
construction is expected to be completed in 2005. For a building that is currently
under construction to appear on the list it must be “topped out.”

Heigh Heigh
t t
Tower, city Year (m) (ft)
Canadian National (CN)
Tower, 197
Toronto, Canada 5 553 1,815
Ostankino Tower, 196
Moscow, Russia 7 537 1,762
Oriental Pearl Tower, 199
Shanghai, China 5 468 1,535
Milad Tower, 200
Tehran, Iran 5 435 1,427
Menara Kuala Lumpur, 199
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 6 421 1,403
Central Radio & TV Tower, 199 405 1,329

2
 Beijing, China 2
Tianjin TV Tower, 199
Tianjin, China 1 415 1,362
Kiev TV Tower, 197
Kiev, Ukraine 3 385 1,263
Tashkent Tower, 198
Tashkent, Uzbekistan 5 375 1,230
Liberation Tower, 199
Kuwait City, Kuwait 6 372 1,221
Alma-Ata Tower, 198
Almaty, Kazakhstan 3 371 1,217
Riga TV Tower, 198
Riga, Latvia 7 368 1,209
Fernsehturm Tower, 196
Berlin, Germany 9 368 1,207
Stratosphere Tower, 199
Las Vegas, United States 6 350 1,149
Macau Tower, 200
Macau, China 1 338 1,109
NOTES: Height is from top to bottom, antennas included. A tower differs from a building in
that the latter has floors, and is designed for residential, business, or manufacturing use.
The structures listed here are principally telecommunications towers, and while they may
have observation decks or restaurants, they do not have floors all the way up. Towers and
buildings are freestanding structures; this list does not include masts supported by guy
wires. The tallest mast currently standing is the KVLY-TV Mast in North Dakota, built in
1963; it is 629 m (2,063 ft) tall. The tallest mast of all time was the Warszawa Radio Mast
near Konstantynów, Poland, built in 1974; it was 646 m (2,120 ft) tall before collapsing
during renovation work in 1991. (Note that the name of a building or mast may include the
word “tower,” but that does not affect its status.) This list also does not include the
Petronius Platform, built in 2000 in the Gulf of Mexico, which is 610 m (2,001 ft) tall
without its spire, or 640 m (2,100 ft) with it. While it is the world's tallest freestanding
structure, 535 m (1,754 ft) of it is underwater and it is partly supported by buoyancy.
Sources: Structurae, Emporis, Wikipedia, and other sources.

3
(c) C.Y. Lee & Partners

An 800-ton tuned mass damping system will help stabilize the tower. This system will be held in an exposed
spherical structure near the top of the building, between the restaurant level and the observation deck.
- This will be one of the few buildings in the world equipped with double-deck elevators.
- Each elevator is designed with an aerodynamic body, pressurization and emergency braking systems, and the
world's first triple-stage anti-overshooting system. The cost for each elevator is over $US 2 million.
- The 89th floor will be an indoor observation area, and an outdoor observation deck will be located on the 91st
floor.
- It is one of the few supertalls in the world in which the design inspiration comes from traditional Chinese
buildings.
- The tower's design and specifications are all based on the "8", a lucky number in traditional Chinese culture.
This kind of "8-design" was also widely used in the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.
- The official rooftop topping-out ceremony was held on July 1st, 2003. The president of Taiwan and the mayor
of Taipei participated in the event. Taipei 101 now holds the title of the world's tallest building measured to the
roof, replacing the Sears Tower.
- The building will have the world's fastest elevators, traveling upwards at 1008 meters/minute (60.48 km/hour)
and downwards at 610 m/min. (36.6 km/hour). The top speed are 34 percent faster than the current fastest,
Yokohama Landmark Tower.
- The outdoor observation deck will be the second highest in the world, surpassed only by the Shanghai World
Financial Center.
- The Taiwan Stock Exchange will rent 7 floors in the building.
- The final section of the spire was put in place October 9, 2003, thus giving Taipei 101 the official world's tallest
building title.
- Taipei's Mayor Ma Ying-jeou fastens a golden bolt to signify the official top-out of the tower at a ceremony held
in October 17, 2003.
- It is the first and the only supertall in the world that is built at a highly active earthquake zone.
- Petronas Tower 1 and Petronas Tower 2 still hold the world's tallest twin towers title despite Taipei 101 holds
the world's tallest title.
- Taipei 101 exceeded the structural height of Petronas Tower 1 and Petronas Tower 2 in late August of 2003.
- It is the first world's tallest building in the 21st century.
- The shopping mall, Taipei 101 mall, officially opened in November 13th, 2003.
- It is the first and currently only building in the world that breaks the half-kilometer mark in height.
- Exterior construction elevators and elevator shaft were fully disassembled in late February of 2004.
- Most aspects of the design, layout and planning are consulted by a Feng Shui master.
- Taipei 101 holds 3 of the World's Tallest Building titles: Tallest to structural top, Tallest to roof and Highest

4
 occupied floor

(c) Patrick Beckers

architect: Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects, Adamson Associates, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers
Private Limited

- The skybridge is now open to the public, and connects both towers at levels 41 and 42. It is 58.4 meters long
(192 feet) and weighs 750 tons.
- The tower has 29 double-decker elevators.
- Shared the world's tallest building title with its twin from 1996 to 2003.

5
(c) Daniel Kieckhefer

architect:
Skidmore,
Owings & Merrill
LLP
World's tallest building from 1974 - 1996; surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

- Until Taipei 101 was topped out in 2004, the Sears Tower held title to the world's highest roof
and highest occupied floor.
- The two antennae on the roof give the tower the highest "tip height" of any skyscraper in the
world.
- The height was listed in many sources for years as 1,454 feet. This is the result of misprinted
data which was copied by several sources until it was corrected by the engineers in the middle
1990s.
- The lobby contains the moving sculpture "The Universe" by Alexander Calder.
- The structure is formed from 9 bundled square tubes, each 75 feet wide with no columns
between the core and perimeter. Two of the tubes are 50 floors high, two are 66 floors, three
are 90, and two are 108.
- The floor count is usually given as 110; however this figure includes the elevator box and its
roof, features not normally counted as floors.
- This has been the tallest building in Chicago since 1974. For a timeline of Chicago's tallest
building through history, start with Holy Name Cathedral.
- The observatory elevators are among the world's fastest at 1600 feet per minute.
- Double-decker express elevators take passengers from the first two floors to skylobbies at
floors 33/34 and 66/67.
- Twenty-eight acres of black anodized aluminum panels and approximately 16,100 bronze-tinted
windows form the tower's facade.
- The lobby floor is decorated with metal tiles in a stylized design based on the bundled tube
structure.
- Sears Tower was topped out on May 3, 1973, surpassing One World Trade Center as the
world's tallest building.
- This is not the original Sears Tower; the previous headquarters of Sears Roebuck was a vast
building on Chicago's West Side that included the Sears Merchandise Building Tower.
- A renovation in the 1980s added a barrel-vaulted entrance pavilion to the west side and a small
cut-away atrium inside the east entrance.
- Sears Roebuck & Co. originally occupied the lower half of its namesake tower. In 1995 the
company moved to a low-rise complex in the northwest Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates.

6
- Sears executives chose to build a single tall headquarters building over an alternative proposal
for twin towers at half the existing tower's height.
- The Skydeck occupies the 103rd floor, the highest non-mechanical floor in the building. It has
its own entrance on Jackson Boulevard, and attracts approximately 1.5 million visitors per year.
- Before the tower was developed, its site was split in half by West Quincy Street. Sears paid the
city of Chicago $2.7 million for the street segment.
- The building's facade has been climbed twice: by Dan Goodwin in 1981 and by Alain Robert in
1999.
- 2.5 million cubic feet of concrete were used during construction.
- In 2000, four high-definition television antennas were lifted to the roof by helicopter.
- The tower's sway has been known to induce motion sickness in people working at the top.
- The tower has a pressure lock (like an airlock) at the freight entrance to combat the 'stack
effect' generated by the differential in air pressure caused by cold air meeting warm air in the
building.

(c) Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

Jin Mao Tower

7
architect: Rocco Design Limited, Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects

Two International Finance Centre

CITIC Plaza
architect: DLN Architects & Engineers

The tallest building in Asia between 1997 and 1998 when Petronas Towers were built
- Was briefly the tallest building in China, until completion of Jin Mao Tower.
- The tallest concrete building in the world. To view a historic timeline of the world's tallest reinforced concrete
skyscrapers, start with the Ingalls Building in Cincinnati

8
architect: K.Y. Cheung Design Associates

Tallest "steel" building in China.

- The building provides offices, apartments, car park and shopping arcade complex.
- The shopping arcade is a five-storey mall with four sets of escalators, five passenger lifts and two service lifts
and a floor area ranging from 3450m2 to 4900m2.
- Buildings was constructed with fast pace, four storeys in nine days.
- There is an observation floor called "Meridian View Centre" at the 69th floor.
- Was momentarily the tallest building in China and Asia until the completion of CITIC Plaza in Guangzhou,
1997.
(c) pixie

9
Empire State Building
- The Empire State Building is a legend. Built in the midst of the Depression, it was, and still remains a
testament to American fortitude and ingenuity.
- An international icon, it has been visited by more than 117 million people, who come to marvel at the 80-mile
view into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
- Built in 1930 to be the tallest structure on earth, the Empire State Building was then considered the largest
commercial venture and investment ever.

10
architect: DLN Architects & Engineers

Central Plaza

11
PBCOM Tower, Makati City

259m/848ft
55 floors
completed in 2000
designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

tallest building in the Philippines.

12