Taipei 101 Now World's Tallest Building

mstamat writes "A 101-storey skyscraper in Taipei is from today the world's tallest building. The new scyscraper is 508 metres (1,667 feet) tall, beating the 452-metre (1,483-feet) twin Petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur. The full height was achieved after adding a 60-metre (197-ft) spire on top of the building. The story is on Reuters." There's plenty of information about the building available.

Taipei Financial Center Corporation

[Sir Haxalot]

It appears this Corporation has been set up specifically to construct the building, but I wonder whether they will be operating it in the future?

Re:World's tallest building?

[Takara]

It's definatly not an office, but its still a building. It has elevators, resturants, and entertainment areas. I would love to argue semantics, but it just always pains me to hear people proclaim their building the worlds tallest.
Especially when there has already been one since 1976.

Principle of tall buildings

[heironymouscoward]

I noticed this in downtown Brussels: tall town houses, built for the rich burghers of the early 20th century. _Tall_ houses, with first floors way too high for times without good insulation or central heating.

And interestingly, the heights of the buildings correlate with the dates of construction: the first houses on a street are modest, then each new construction adds a little to each level, just enough to appear more important without being vulgar. When the street is full, the last construction is the most impressive, it towers over the older houses.

Of course then the whole community runs out of cash and they have to live in the cold drafty boxes they built.

I detected a similar pattern in medieval castles, and this scyskraper (sic) is a good example of the same principle at work today.

Basically, it's a bunch of boys comparing penises and sticking penis-sheaths onto them to make them look longer.

Bon amusement, mes gars!

Spires do not a skyscraper make

[shaldannon]

Sorry, but you can tack on a radio tower and claim to have the "tallest skyscraper." IMHO, it ain't the tallest unless you're comparing height from lowest occupiable space (sub-basement) to highest occupiable space (penthouse floor). Spires are mere decoration and airplane hazards.

Clarke's Space Elevator

[Esion Modnar]

When that goes up (or comes down from orbit, or whatever) won't that blow all the records out of the water? Or would that not count as a building? Though certainly not as an "office" building. ("Our building is half a mile high" "Yeah? Ours is 40,000 miles high...")

highest public deck?

[m0i]

The true question:
is the 448m roof of this new tower higher than the CN Tower Skydeck at 447m? If floor(447) is higher than topfloor(Tapei101), then IMO the highest still is the CN Tower (even if it's not considered a true building by charts).

Re:World's tallest building?

[Jasonv]

The CN-tower is actually the tallest free-standing STRUCTURE (not building).

The world's tallest STRUCTURE is the KTHI-TV tower in North Dakota (629m) -- it's supported by guy wires.

The world's tallest structure not supported by guy wires is the Petronius Platform (640m) but since its sits in the ocean it can be argued that it is supported by buoyancy.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, who rate 'tall buildings', say the CN Tower isn't a building because it's not a "frame structure made with floors and walls throughout"

So, that leaves the CN Tower as the world's talles freestanding STRUCTURE - which seems to be completly ignored by the city of Toronto who still try to say it's The Worlds Tallest Building [cntower.ca]

Jason

Re:Year (end) 2004

[ShadowFlair]

The spire was installed on 9 October; thus, the full height was attained. The building isn't due to complete until 2004.

I must say, having lived in Taiwan for 15 years, that I think the scariest are the earthquakes and typhoons -- tall buildings are pretty shakey without any wind already. I wonder what a combination (worst-case scenario) could do...