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MIDDLE EAST In the 1990s Dubai, a city-state in the United Arab Emirates with a population of only about 1.4 million and no oil of its own, began to position itself as the financial, commercial, and recreation center of the Gulf region. Extravagant real estate ventures, such as the artificial Palm Islands in the Persian Gulf – visible from space – drove the econom y . The most ambitious was the 163-story Burj Khalifa, which at 828 meters/ 2,717 feet, is by far the tallest structure on the planet. Principally residential, the tower includes corporate suites only on the top 37 stories. Dubai ’ s other four supertalls are all residential, as is the single example in Abu Dhabi. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both petrodollars and religion upped the scale of supertalls. Completed in 2012, the Makkah Royal Clock T owe r , third tallest structure in the world, rises to 601 meters / 1,972 ft. to its crescent atop the Abraj Al-Bait complex of hotels, the Great Mosque, the Kaaba, and other pilgrimage facilities at Mecca. In nearby Jeddah, construction on the Kingdom T owe r , now renamed Jeddah T owe r , is stalled at about one quarter of its projected height of 1,000+ meters. The only other supertalls in the Middle East are o f fice buildings in Riyadh and Kuwait Cit y . READ ABOUT MIDDLE EAST CLOSE CHINA AND HONG KONG China, including Hong Kong, accounts for 30 of the 58 supertalls in our surve y . The multiplication of supertalls and of skyscrapers generally in Chinese cities is the direct result of government policies of urbanization. From the 1980s, 340 million people – the equivalent population of the U.S. – moved from farms to cities in the largest mass migration in human histor y . The Chinese government encouraged and invested in new construction. Beyond Hong Kong, which had long had a thriving skyscraper market, the earliest centers of supertall development were the financial district of Shanghai and the fast-growing cities of the Pearl River Delta, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Since 2007, many second- and third-tier Chinese cities with populations of four to twelve million such as Chongqing, Chengdu, Dalian, Guiyang, Nanning, Nanjing, T ianjin, and W uhan have built one or more major towers. Many projects stalled during construction: Goldin Finance 1 17 in T ianjin topped out at 597 meters, but remains on hold, and W uhan Greenland has been redesigned to cut more than 100 m. in height. Chinese supertalls are most often mixed-use towers with o f fices on the lower floors and residences and hotels above. They are often simple, slender forms that taper toward the top, where hotel floor plates are reduced in size and depth. In headquarter o f fice buildings such as CITIC Beijing and China Resources in Shenzhen, the topmost floors contain spectacular event spaces with sweeping city views. READ ABOUT CHINA & HK CLOSE SOUTH KORE A Although Seoul, South Korea had plans for multiple supertalls in 20 1 1, only two have been completed. At 123 floors, Lotte W orld T ower mixes o f fice, residential, hotel, and retail functions with a 7-story observation deck. The other supertall in Busan is a beach - front hotel and residence of 101 stories. SOUTHEAST ASIA AND MALAYSIA Kuala Lumpur grabbed the title of world ’ s tallest building from the US A in 1998 with the completion of the twin Petronas T owers, and the fast-developing capital of Malaysia has continued to embrace the supertall as both a symbol and a strategy of urban development. Completed in 2019, Exchange 106 is the centerpiece of a government-sponsored new financial district and commercial complex. Now under construction, another complex on a site connected to national independence, Merdeka 1 18, will be the city ’ s tallest building and at 644 m/ 2, 1 13 ft. to the point of its spire and will surpass Shanghai T ower to become the second-tallest building in the world. The only other supertall in Southeast Asia is V incom Landmark 81 in Ho Chi Min Cit y . Completed in 2018, it is an 81-story mixed-use tower of multiple setbacks that is the signature structure of a residential development called Central Park . READ ABOUT MALAYSIA CLOSE USA Only ten years after the trauma of 9/ 1 1, when many had pre - dicted there would be no new skyscrapers, there are now six towers taller than the touchstone Empire State Building – the largest number of supertalls of any city in the world. The first round of new construction, beginning around 2009, but stalled by the Great Recession, was residential. The super-slende r , ultra-luxury apartment towe r , used transferable air rights to add extraordinary height to small lots at high-value locations. With an engineering slenderness ratio of at least 10:1 – and with 11 1 W . 57th Street, an astonishing 23:1 – these buildings represent a true innovation in skyscraper histor y . Since the completion of One W orld T rade Center at the Ground Zero site in 2014, Manhattan has also seen a resurgence of supertall o f fice buildings in Midtown, with One V anderbilt at Grand Central T erminal and others planned for Park A venue, and at Hudson Y ards. Chicago, the only other city in North America with supertalls, added one tower in 2009 that stretched its spire to 1,389 ft. READ ABOUT UNITED STATES CLOSE 1931 1971 1973 1974 1996 1998 1999 2003 2004 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 1889 2020