W h a ti st h et a l l e s tb u i l d i n g ?

Since the dawn of history man has been trying to build the 'tallest building', 'tallest tower' or 'tallest structure' in the world. There seems to be much prestige in being home to the worlds tallest. So much in fact that this is a major issue on the political agenda of many countries. Many towers claim the title, and many cities quarrel about who is the winner. The Tallest Building in the world pages will try to answer the question above, and welcomes you to the most complete article about this subject, anywhere to be found on the Internet.

During the first 90 years of this century, the USA dominated the race for the title of the tallest building in the world, and constructed a range of famous buildings that, sometimes only for a few months, and sometimes for many years, were widely recognized as being the 'tallest building' in the world. In 1974 Chicago's Sears Tower was completed, and generally seen as the 'tallest building' in the world. Sears held on to that title for over 20 years. But since the ninetees the USA gets some stiff competition from Asia. In 1996 this resulted in the completion of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. From that moment on a sort of media clash was unleashed. All over the world people debated about the question wich one was the tallest; Sears or Petronas. Now the answer to this question seems so easy. Just measure both buildings from bottom to top, and the tallest one gets the title. Question answered, case closed, no more debate needed? Forget it! As usual, life is not that simple. One could consider how to measure these buildings. For example, do we take in account spires

and antennas? To end this discussion, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat made a compromise. They defined 4 categories for measuring tall buildings;

- Height to the structural or architectural top. - Height to the highest occupied floor. - Height to the top of the roof. - Height to the top of antenna.

C u r r e n t N e w s

Daring new residential skyscraper planned for Manhattan Plans for a daring residential Manhattan skyscraper designed by French architect Jean Nouvel that will be taller than the Chrysler Building were announced Thursday, The Independent reports.

Kuwait building the tallest building in the world at 1001 meters Kuwait is building the world's tallest tower at 1,001 meters in Madinat al Hareer, also known as the City of Silk. When completed, the Burj Mubarak al-Kabir will beat a residential tower undergoing construction in Dubai estimated to rise between 700 to 800 meters.