The History of the Museum's past Supertall exhibitions
SUPERTALL 2020 tallies 58 buildings worldwide that are completed or can be finished by 2024. They are all pictured and profiled in the LINEUP and GRID. The history of The Skyscraper Museum's past SUPERTALL SURVEYS can be traced in links to archived pages of its past exhibitions.
As part of the 2007 exhibition World's Tallest Building: Burj Dubai, the Museum created its first SUPERTALL SURVEY of skyscrapers worldwide the measured 380 meters/ 1,250 feet or higher. Even as the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11 shocked the world, the early 2000s saw a surge in the international construction of supertalls, especially in the emerging Economies of the Middle East and China. Completed in 2010, the Burj Khalifa, still the world's tallest building, stretched to 2,717 feet/ 828 meters. American architects and engineers dominated these new arenas of development, exporting their expertise.
The first survey counted 28 supertalls completed or under construction, as well as a few we believed would rise, but never did.
In 2011, the Museum mounted the exhibition SUPERTALL!, which featured 48 buildings worldwide –either completed, under construction, or proposed and approved by local authorities– that exceed our benchmark of 380+ meters. The survey revealed the growing supertall ambitions in Asia, and especially China, and the Middle East. Of this second SURVEY, eight towers were not completed as planned.
A cumulative page of supertalls that were included in past surveys is archived here: https://old.skyscraper.org/WEB_PROJECTS/SUPERTALL_SURVEY/2018.html
