Today we present you with a super-monumental article about the 15 tallest completed buildings in the world. If you want to check out immediately the top 5 tallest completed buildings in the world, click here.
Have you ever been fascinated by these lonely, cloud-capped, giant constructions? Have you ever felt how small you are while looking up to them? Yet, they are human-created, architectural and engineering miracles. The history of the skyscrapers go back to the end of the 19th century, when due to the Bessemer process, mass steel producing became possible. Before open hearth furnace, Bessemer process was the first cheap industrial procedure to make steel from molten pig-iron.
So how do we define skyscrapers? Well, it depends! If we speak about the first high-rise buildings from the 1880s, we can say they are between 10 and 20-storey constructions. This idea was then shifted with new innovations in the 20th century, therefore a modern skyscraper should be at least 150 m tall, and should include a minimum 40 floors as we wrote in our former article, in the 20 cities with the most skyscrapers in the world. Anyhow, the first modern skyscraper was built in Chicago, in 1885. Its name was (the recently demolished) Home Insurance Building. Let’s check out what incredible differences there are between the first high-rise building and the most modern, by far the tallest skyscraper ever – the Burj Khalifa. While being built, both of them symbolized the beginning of a new architectural age. The Home Insurance Building was the most innovative “super-tall” building in its age, as it was 42 m (138 ft) tall, and it included 10 floors above ground. By contrast, the Burj Khalifa is 829.8 m (2,723 ft), and it possesses 163 floors above ground and 1 floor under ground. It means that the Burj Khalifa is almost 20 times taller than the Home Insurance Building! How far mankind was able to go within only 125 years! The first real high-rise construction and by far the tallest skyscraper of all-time. Who would have thought that humanity would be able to construct almost 1 km tall buildings by the beginning of the 21st century?
Telling you the truth, before I decided to write articles about the skyscrapers, I hadn’t imagined they were so arresting and charming. As for me, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. I’m totally fascinated by that gorgeous dependent corridor between the two towers, and they sparkle in the sunshine as if they had myriads of mirrors on their facades. Interestingly, they can’t be found in this compilation, as on a world scale they are “only” the 16th tallest completed buildings in the world.
Another interesting fact, that the US was the first country where these high-rise buildings were designed and implemented, yet among the biggest construction projects in US we couldn’t find any plans of building skyscrapers. Unlike on the list of the biggest construction projects in the world, where we can see two skyscrapers, the Kingdom Tower or the Jeddah Tower, and of course the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Only the largest construction materials companies can compete in building these monumental skyscrapers, such as Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:CX), JELD-WEN Holding, Inc. (NYSE:JELD) and Emcor Group, Inc. (NYSE:EME)
In order to make the list of the 15 tallest completed skyscrapers in the world, we consulted Skyscraper Center, where you can find every little detail about all the skyscrapers across the globe. You can observe that 9 out of the 15 super-tall buildings are located in China again, but at the same time it’s not surprising. Where towns can grow from ground within a few years, and in the “next moment” they become cities with a population of millions – there the only innovative solution is to build vertical cities. This is the reason why there aren’t European high-rise buildings even on the first 100 spots. Nevertheless, it’s good to see that on designing these super-tall buildings, sustainability and environmental footprint are full as important as the competing height.
And now, sit back in your armchair comfortably with a glass of red wine in hand – and let’s have a tour around the 15 tallest completed skyscrapers in the world!
Leonard Zhukovsky/Shutterstock.com
15. Changsha IFS Tower T1, China
Height: 452.1 m/ 1,483 ft
Floors: 94
Year of completion: 2018
Material: composite
Use: hotel / office
As a matter of fact, the development includes two towers, the first one is 452 meters tall, while the other one is 315 m. The twin towers are located in Furong District, serving large number of financial institutions headquartered in Hunan Province. Similar to other super-tall skyscrapers that ever managed to reach the 400-meter “dream-barrier”, there is a hotel at the top for those, who are willing to spend a considerable amount of money for the amazingly magic sights.
Pixabay/Public domain
14. Vincom Landmark 81, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Height: 461.2 m / 1,513 ft
Floors: 81
Year of completion: 2018
Material: composite
Use: hotel / residential
Vincom Landmark 81 stands in the circle of “low-built” constructions, like a lonely sentinel. Actually, Landmark is the tallest skyscraper in Vietnam, and tallest completed construction in Southeast Asia. It includes a hotel, luxury apartments, retail spaces, conference facilities, restaurants, bars, multi-story observation deck – in other words, everything we can just imagine.
Pixabay/Public domain
13. Lakhta Center, St. Petersburg, Russia
Height: 462 m / 1,516 ft
Floors: 87
Year of completion: 2019
Material: composite
Use: office
St. Petersburg is the only Russian city on the list of the 15 tallest completed buildings in the world. Oddly, even Moscow doesn’t show up in the first 40 cities. Actually, Moscow is just on the 45th spot with its Federation Tower (373.7 m / 1226 t), looking like a giant chimney. The Lakhta Center is situated in Primsorsky District of St. Petersburg and alongside offices, it offers several public functions, such as medical center, planetarium, a bank and a performance hall.
Pixabay/Public domain
12. International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong, China
Height: 484 m / 1,588 ft
Floors: 108
Year of completion: 2010
Material: composite
Use: hotel / office
Hong Kong is one of the most spectacular cities in the world as you also can see in the image below. The International Commerce Center is the home to the most prestigious financial institutions across the globe. Having received the ISO 50001 Energy Management Systems certification in 2011, International Commerce Centre shows that even a super-tall building can work on a high level of energy efficiency. Nothing seems to show this fact but the result that the total energy consumption was reduced by 11 % (which means a significant 6.4 million kWh) from 2012 to 2013.
Pixabay/Public domain
11. Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China
Height: 492 űpéúá
4ü4/ 1,614 ft
Floors: 101
Year of completion: 2008
Material: composite
Use: hotel / office
Going up on our list of the 15 tallest completed buildings in the world, here’s the marvelous city Shanghai, and its tallest skyscraper, the Shanghai World Financial Center. This stunning high-rise building represents a sustainable, cloud-capped new innovation, and is also a modern icon of culture and commerce. Shanghai World Financial Center is a vertical city-in-a-city, as it includes 62 floors for offices, conference facilities, dining and retail spaces – and what crowns all these, you can find the world’s highest hotel here! Five-star Park Hyatt Hotel is at the top with 174 rooms, from the 79th to 93rd floors. But it isn’t the absolute top of this skyscraper – as from the 94th to 100th floors there’s a square and observatory.
Pixabay/Public domain
10. TAIPEI 101, Taipei, China
Height: 508 m / 1,667 ft
Floors: 101
Year of completion: 2004
Material: composite
Use: office
TAIPEI 101 represents a supertall building that has paid lots of attention to sustainability, is located in the Xinyi District of Taipei, which is the city center of financial and shopping world. Its special form resembles a grandiose Chinese pagoda. However, symbolism had a really important role in designing this spectacular skyscraper, since if we take a look at its name we can see TAIPEI 101. The number “100” means perfection, and “100 plus 1” raises this innovation into a new level: it projects a breathtaking new beginning.
Pixabay/Public domain
9. CITIC Tower, Beijing, China
Height: 527.7 m / 1,731 ft
Floors: 109
Year of completion: 2018
Material: composite
Use: office
CITIC Tower is the main building of a 30-hectare central business area of Beijing. This elegant, slender skyscraper is alike the ancient Chinese vessel, the so-called “zun”. The concept for designing was that the shell should bend gently until it reaches a unique, majestic form. It has 109 floors above ground and 8 floors under ground, and an amazing number of 100 elevators at a speed of 10 m/s.
Pixabay/Public domain
7. Tianjin CTF Finance Centre, Tianjin, China
Height: 530 m / 1,739 ft
Floors: 97
Year of completion: 2019
Material: composite
Use: hotel / serviced apartments / office
This tower is in a suburban district of Tianjin, in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area. It includes a hotel with 365 rooms, 249 luxurious apartments and office space. It has 97 floors above ground and 4 floors under ground, while there are 80 elevators at a speed of 10 m/s.
7. Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre, Guangzhou, China
Height: 530 m / 1739 ft
Floors: 111
Year of completion: 2016
Material: composite
Use: hotel / residential / office
Being a mixed-use supertall building, Guangzhou CTF Finance Centre has four main transition points: office to apartments, apartments to hotel, hotel to crown, and crown to sky. This skyscraper applies several energy-saving tools to decrease its environmental footprint. What’s more, multi-level connections to mass transportation can be found there.
Pixabay/Public domain
6. One World Trade Center, New York City, USA
Height: 541.3 m / 1,776 ft
Floors: 94
Year of completion: 2014
Material: composite
Use: office
One World Trade Center is a new icon for New York citizens after 11/09/2001. It stands highly, slenderly and proudly to embody not only modern architectural wonders but the strength of the American people, too. The tower speaks about the future with its sustainability and modernity. Due to the glass parapet if you walk around the tower, it looks like a kaleidoscope, by the sun moving in the sky during the day the tower will seem differently.
Pixabay/Public domain
Click to continue the top 5 tallest completed buildings in the world.
