Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Developer: Emaar Properties
Architect: Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill
Year: December 2009 (projected)
Height: 818 meters / 2,684 feet (includes spire)
Stories: 162
About the Burj Dubai
Dubai has become a showplace for innovative buildings, and the Burj Dubai is shaping up to be an icon for wealth and progress. The unfinished skyscraper soars higher than Taiwan's Taipei 101, which rises 508 metres (1,667 feet).
2. Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan is currently the world's tallest building - if you count its massive 60-foot spire.
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Architect: C.Y. Lee & Partner
Year: 2004
Height: 509 meters / 1,670 feet
Stories: 101
About the Taipei 101 Tower
The design of Taipei 101 borrows heavily from Chinese culture. Both the building's interior and exterior incorporate the Chinese pagoda form and the shape of bamboo flowers. The lucky number eight, which means blooming or success, is represented by the eight clearly delineated exterior sections of the building.
Taipei 101 Tower is currently the world's tallest building - if you count its massive 60-foot spire. But when construction is completed, the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates will outrank Taipei 101 Tower.
3. Shanghai World Financial Centre
A trapezoid-shaped opening near the top reduces wind pressure on the 101 story Shanghai World Financial Centre.
Location: Pudong District, Shanghai, China
Project Architect and Engineer: Minoru Mori, Mori Building Co., Ltd.
Design Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates P.C. (KPF)
Year: 2008
Structure: Steel-framed and steel reinforced concrete
Height: 492 meters / 1,600 feet
Stories: 101
About the Shanghai World Financial Centre
The Shanghai World Financial Centre, or Center, is a soaring glass skyscraper with a distinctive opening at the top. The original plans called for a 46 meter (151 foot) circular opening that would reduce wind pressure and also suggest Chinese symbolism for the moon. Many people protested that the design resembled the rising sun on the Japanese flag. Eventually the opening was changed from circular to a trapezoid shape.
The ground floor of Shanghai World Financial Centre is a shopping mall and an elevator lobby with gyrating kaleidoscopes on the ceiling. On the upper floors are offices, conference rooms, hotel rooms, and observation decks.
4. The Petronas Towers
Tall spires atop the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia make them among the world's tallest buildings, 10 meters higher than the Sears Tower in the USA.
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Architect: Cesar Pelli
Year: 1998
Petronas Tower 1 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 1 Stories: 88
Petronas Tower 2 Height: 452 meters / 1,483 feet
Petronas Tower 2 Stories: 88
About the Petronas Towers
Traditional Islamic design inspired the floor plans for two Petronas towers in Kuala Lumur, Malaysia. Each floor of the 88-story towers is shaped like an 8-pointed star. The two towers have been called cosmic pillars that spiral heavenward. At the 42nd floor, a flexible bridge connects the two Petronas Towers.
5. Sears Tower
The Sears Tower in Chicago was the world's tallest building when it was built in 1973. Today it is the tallest building in North America.
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Architect: Bruce Graham, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM)
Year: 1973
Height: 442 meters / 1,450 feet
Stories: 110
About the Sears Tower
To provide stability against high winds, architect Bruce Graham used a new form of tubular construction for Sears Tower. Two hundred sets of bundled tubes were laid into the bedrock. Then, 76,000 tons of prefabricated steel in 15-foot by 25-foot sections were put into place. Four derrick cranes moved higher with each floor to lift these steel "Christmas Trees" into position.
Facts about the Sears Tower:
* The Sears Tower covers two city blocks and has 101 acres (4.4 million square feet) of office and commercial space.
* The roof rises a quarter of a mile -- 1, 454 feet (442 meters).
* Its highest occupied floor is 1,431 feet above the ground.
* The foundation and the floor slabs have some 2 million cubic feet of concrete -- enough to build an eight-lane highway five miles long.
* The Tower has more than 16,000 bronze-tinted windows and 28 acres of black duranodic aluminum skin.
* The 222,500-ton building is supported by 114 rock caissons. Each is securely socketed into the bedrock.
* A 106-cab elevator system (including 16 double decker elevators) divides the Tower into three separate zones, with skylobbies in between.
* Two domed entrances, one with skylights, were added in 1984 and 1985.
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