Skyscrapers

Burj Dubai


Burj Dubai (Arabic: برج دبي‎ "Dubai Tower") is a skyscraper under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure on Earth. Construction began on September 21, 2004, and it is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009.[1]

The building is part of the 2 km² (0.8 sq mi) development called 'Downtown Dubai' and is located at the "First Interchange" (aka "Defence Roundabout") along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street. The tower's architect is Adrian Smith[4] who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006.[5] SOM is the architecture and engineering firm in charge of the project.[4] The primary builders are Samsung Engineering & Construction and Besix along with Arabtec.[6] Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction manager.[7]

The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US$4.1 billion and for the entire new 'Downtown Dubai', US$20 billion. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the CEO of Emaar Properties, speaking at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 8th World Congress, said that the price of office space at Burj Dubai had reached $4,000 per sq ft and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Dubai, were selling for $3,500 per sq ft.


Taipei 101

Taipei 101 (traditional Chinese: 臺北101 or 台北101; simplified Chinese: 台北101; pinyin: Táiběi Yīlíngyī; Wade-Giles: T'ai-pei I-ling-i) is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper located in Taipei, Taiwan. The building, designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners[2][3] and constructed primarily by KTRT Joint Venture[4] and Samsung Engineering & Construction[5], is the world's tallest completed skyscraper. Taipei 101 received the Emporis Skyscraper Award in 2004. It has been hailed as one of the Seven New Wonders of the World (Newsweek magazine, 2006) and Seven Wonders of Engineering (Discovery Channel, 2005)[6].

The building stands as an icon of Taipei and Taiwan as a whole. The building contains 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. Its postmodern style combines tradition and modernity in ways that appear simultaneously Asian and international. Its safety features enable it to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. A multi-level shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of fashionable stores, restaurants and clubs. Fireworks launched from Taipei 101 feature prominently in international New Year's Eve broadcasts, and the landmark appears frequently in films, television shows, print publications, anime media, games, and other elements of popular culture.

The name of the tower reflects its location in Taipei's international business district (101 mailing code) as well as its floor count. (See also "Symbolism" below.) The number is pronounced in English simply as One Oh One and in Mandarin and other local languages by the equivalent.

Taipei 101 is owned by the Taipei Financial Center Corporation and managed by the International division of Urban Retail Properties Corporation based in Chicago USA. The name originally planned for the building, Taipei World Financial Center, was derived from the name of the owner. The original name in Chinese was literally, Taipei International Financial Center (traditional Chinese: 臺北國際金融中心; pinyin: Táiběi Guójì Jīnróng Zhōngxīn).

Taipei 101 was overtaken in height on July 21, 2007 by the Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE, upon the completion of that building's 141st floor.[7] The title of "world's tallest building" still rests with Taipei 101, though, as international architectural standards define a "building" as a structure capable of being fully occupied. The Burj Dubai is on course to claim the title once its construction is finished, expected in September 2009.

Petronas Twin Towers

Petronas Twin Towers (also known as the Petronas Towers or Twin Towers), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were the world's tallest buildings, before being surpassed by the Taipei 101. However, the towers are still the tallest twin buildings in the world. Tower 2 was built by the South Korean multinational Samsung Engineering & Construction and Tower 1 by Hazama Corporation of Japan[1]. They were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 if measured from the level of the main entrance to the structural top, the original height reference used by the US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat from 1969 (three additional height categories were introduced as the tower neared completion in 1996).

The Sears Tower

The Sears Tower is a skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It has been the tallest building in the United States since 1973, surpassing the World Trade Center, which itself had surpassed the Empire State Building only a year earlier. Commissioned by Sears, Roebuck and Company, it was designed by chief architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

Construction commenced in August 1970 and the building reached its originally anticipated maximum height on May 3, 1973. When completed, the Sears Tower had overtaken the roof of the World Trade Center in New York City as the world's tallest building. The tower has 108 stories as counted by standard methods, though the building owners count the main roof as 109 and the mechanical penthouse roof as 110. The distance to the roof is 1,451 feet (442 m), measured from the east entrance.[4]

In February 1982, two television antennas were added to the structure, increasing its total height to 1,705 feet (520 m). The western antenna was later extended to 1,730 feet (527 m)[5] on June 5, 2000 to improve reception of local NBC station WMAQ-TV.

Black bands appear on the tower around the 29th–32nd, 64th–65th, 88th–89th, and 104th–109th floors. These are louvers which allow ventilation for service equipment and obscure the structure's belt trusses which Sears Roebuck did not want to be visible as on the John Hancock Center.

The building's official address is 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606.

On August 12, 2007, the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates was reported by its developers to have surpassed the Sears Tower in all height categories

The Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. Its name is derived from the nickname for the state of New York. It stood as the world's tallest building for more than forty years, from its completion in 1931 until construction of the World Trade Center's North Tower was completed in 1972.[citation needed] Following the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York City.

The Empire State Building has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. The building and its street floor interior are designated landmarks of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and confirmed by the New York City Board of Estimate.[6] It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[4][7][8] In 2007, it was ranked number one on the List of America's Favorite Architecture according to the AIA. The building is owned and managed by W&H Properties

Commerzbank Tower

Commerzbank Tower is a skyscraper located in the city centre of Frankfurt, Germany. After it was completed in 1997 it ranked as the tallest building in Europe until 2005 when it was surpassed by the Triumph-Palace in Moscow. The tower is only two metres taller than the MesseTurm which is also located in Frankfurt. The MesseTurm was the tallest building in Europe before the construction of the Commerzbank Tower.

With a height of 259 metres (850 ft), 56 stories, it provides 121,000 m² (1.3 million square feet) of office space for the Commerzbank headquarters, including winter gardens and natural lighting and air circulation. The signal light on top of the tower gives the tower a total height of 300.1 metres (985 ft).

In its immediate neighbourhood are other high-rise buildings including the Eurotower (home of the European Central Bank), the Maintower, the Silver Tower, the Japan Center and the Gallileo skyscraper. The area is commonly known as Bankenviertel (banking district or financial district).

It was designed by Foster & Partners, with Arup and Krebs & Kiefer (structural engineering), J. Roger Preston with P&A Petterson Ahrens (mechanical engineering), Schad & Hölzel (electrical engineering). Construction of the building began in 1994 and took three years to complete.

The building is illuminated at night by a yellow light scheme which was designed by Thomas Ende who was allowed to display this sequence as a result of a competition.

30 St Mary Axe

30 St Mary Axe is a building in London's main financial district, the City of London. It is widely known by the nickname "The Gherkin", and occasionally as a variant on The Swiss Re Tower, after its previous owner and principal occupier. It is 180 metres (591 ft) tall, making it the second-tallest building in the City of London, after Tower 42, and the fifth-tallest in London as a whole. The building's name is its address — St Mary Axe being the street it is on.

The building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winner Lord Foster and ex-partner Ken Shuttleworth and Arup engineers, and was constructed by Skanska of Sweden between 2001 and 2004.

HSB Turning Torso

HSB Turning Torso is a skyscraper in Malmö, Sweden, located on the Swedish side of the Öresund strait. It was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and officially opened on 27 August 2005. The tower reaches a height of 190 metres (623 feet) with 54 stories. Upon completion, it was the tallest building in Scandinavia, the tallest residential building in the EU and the second tallest residential building in Europe, after the 264-metre-high Triumph-Palace in Moscow.

The 86 metre high Kronprinsen was the tallest building in Malmö before Turning Torso.

The design is based on a sculpture by Santiago Calatrava called Twisting Torso. It uses nine segments of five-story pentagons that twist as it rises; the topmost segment is twisted ninety degrees clockwise with respect to the ground floor. Each floor consists of an irregular pentagonal shape rotating around the vertical core, which is supported by an exterior steel framework. The two bottom segments are intended as office space. Segments three to nine house 149 luxury apartments.

The Twisting Torso sculpture is a white marble piece based on the form of a twisting human being. Johnny Örbäck, former CEO of the Turning Torso contractor and Board Chairman of the Malmö branch of the co-operative housing association HSB, saw the sculpture in 1999 and contacted Calatrava to ask him to design a building using the same concept. Construction started in the summer of 2001.

One reason for the building of Turning Torso was to re-establish a recognizable skyline for Malmö since the removal of the Kockums Crane in 2002, which was located less than a kilometre from Turning Torso. The local politicians deemed it important for the inhabitants to have a symbol for Malmö — Kockumskranen, which was a large crane that had been used for shipbuilding and somewhat symbolised the city's blue collar

Ranking criteria and its alternatives




Emporis ranks the buildings by highest architectural structural element, which means:[1]

* height of spire, statues (or any other architecturally integral element) count towards the height of the building
* height of antenna, flagpole (or other detail not classified as architecturally integral element) does not count towards the height of the building
* roof height is only relevant if no higher architecturally integral element is present

This naturally hurts the rankings of buildings without spires, or with antennas instead of spires. The most famous such discrepancy is that Malaysian Petronas Towers (with spire on top) is ranked higher than the US Sears Tower (with antenna on top) despite having lower roof and lower highest point (of spire/antenna).

Alternative lists of high buildings are maintained by nongovernmental US organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. These lists, first defined and compiled in 1996 as a response to the dispute as to whether the Petronas Towers or the Sears Tower was taller, rank buildings in four categories: height of structural or architectural top; height of highest occupied floor; height to the top of roof; height to top of any part of the building. Currently Taipei 101 tops all categories except highest point, where the Sears Tower is highest.