The 31 Tallest Buildings in the World
Even if you’re not architecturally inclined, you’ll appreciate these towering structures.
Some of the most impressive modern marvels are the incredibly high skyscrapers that rise above the clouds and seem to go on forever. Sometimes they’re residential buildings, sometimes they’re offices, and sometimes they’re a hybrid mix of offices, apartments, and even hotel rooms.
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The views are stunning, but they come at a cost. Take the Burj Khalifa in downtown Dubai; it features residential units that range from studios to an opulent five-bedroom penthouse that was going for $27,770,000 in 2017.
We picked the most surreal, awe-inspiring, vertigo-inducing structures and compiled them into this list of the 31 tallest buildings in the world, starting with the the biggest of them all.
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Burj Khalifa
Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Height: 2,717 feet
Completion Date: 2010
An innovative, tri-pedal design, along with projecting edges to cut through the wind like the front of a boat, afford the building greater stability. But these are just a few of the smart ways the Burj Khalifa succeeded in rising to its record-setting height; the building soars more than 700 feet over its nearest competitor.
The race upward has accelerated in the last couple decades, as governments and citizens have pulled together the means for erecting record-breaking tall buildings, particularly in emerging economies in East Asia and the Middle East. “It’s a recognition that they want to project their image out into the global scene,” says Daniel Safarik of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) located at the Illinois Institute of Technology. “One easy way physically to do that, in a relative sense, is with a skyscraper.”
The same designer of the Burj Khalifa, Adrian Smith, has drawn up an even more ambitious project, the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia. It was slated to open in 2017 and soar to 3,281 feet—a full kilometer—but the completion is now in limbo, stalled by “Saudi political intrigue and COVID shutdowns.” About one-third of the building is complete, but there are currently no plans to restart construction.
Shanghai Tower
Location: Shanghai, China
Height: 2,073 feet
Completion date: 2014
Twisting to the sky with 128 floors that make the Shanghai Tower one of the tallest in the world, the design from Gensler embraces an inner glass façade and a twirling exterior. While the inside of the tower features nine zones created by the stacking of interior components atop of one another, the curved exterior not only provides a unique aesthetic as the third of three skyscrapers in close proximity, but also offers an engineering benefit by reducing wind loads.
With one of the world’s highest observation decks opened to the public in 2016, expect plenty of views of the city.
Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel
Location: Mecca, Saudi Arabia
Height: 1,972 feet
Completion Date: 2012
Big Ben done bigger, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel was built to afford comfortable accommodations to wealthy Muslim pilgrims making the Hajj. A factor that contributes to the building reaching so high: its gigantic footprint. A broader base supports greater height, as we’ve all learned first-hand playing with LEGO bricks as kids. “I think this building is getting by on sheer mass,” said Safarik. “You can see the way that the other buildings around it have a stabilizing effect.”
Ping An Finance Center
Location: Shenzhen, China
Height: 1,965 feet
Completion date: 2017
The Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, China, has really spurred on growth. And that includes upward growth, seen in the 2017 completion of the concrete and steel Ping An Finance Center. Intensely dense and connected into the center of the city—it sits on the high-speed rail corridor—the mix of hotel, office and retail offers a modern approach to skyscrapers in China. American firm Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates designed its 115 floors.
Lotte World Tower
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Height: 1,819 feet
Completion date: 2017
The 123 floors of the Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates-designed Lotte World Tower became the first 100-story building in Korea. The steel building curves inward as it rises, and the glass used was meant to serve as a reminder of Korean ceramic history. A mix of retail, office, hotel, residence, and event space fills the tower.
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One World Trade Center
Location: New York City, United States
Height: 1,776 feet
Completion Date: 2014
The spire of One World Trade Center attains a height of exactly 1,776 feet—a shout-out to the birth year of the United States. The building proper is only around 1,300 feet tall, but the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) chose to count spire toward the building’s official height. That decision saw the new building controversially eclipse the Willis Tower in Chicago (later in this list) as the tallest building in North America.
Safarik said spires have accordingly provoked controversy within CTBUH itself. “We continue to have this debate,” he says.
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Tianjin Chow Tai Fook Binhai Center
Location: Tianjin, China
Height: 1,739 feet
Completion date: September 2019
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Tianjin Chow Tai Fook (CTF) Binhai Center took place in November 2009. The building features a curved glass look which was accomplished by using eight massive, strategically placed columns that provide support and stability and are designed to help keep the building upright in the event of an earthquake or other seismic activity. The taper seen on the edifice not only looks cool, but also helps minimize the amount of surface area exposed to the elements. The Tianjin CTF center is easy to spot if you ever find yourself in the city—it towers over the surrounding buildings in the area.
Honorable mention: The Guangzhou Chow Tai Fook Finance Center (sometimes referred to as the CTF Finance Center) in Guangzhou, China is also 1,739 feet tall.
China Zun
Location: Beijing, China
Height: 1,731 feet
Completion date: 2018
Fully topped out in 2017, and completed in 2018, this is the tallest building in Beijing. The unique design from TFP Farrels + Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates curves the building inward as it rises before it curves outward again near the top of the 109-floor structure. The mixed-use building provides a completely fresh perspective on Beijing skyscrapers, likely to lead the way for years to come.
Taipei 101
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Height: 1,667 feet
Completion Date: 2004
Taipei 101 “adopts some of the vernacular architecture of the region where it’s built,” Safarik says. “Here you have a classic, stacked pagoda look, which is a common thing throughout Asia.” Furthermore, the building has eight segments of eight floors each, a nod to the auspicious nature of the numeral 8 in the Chinese-speaking world.
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Shanghai World Financial Center
Location: Shanghai, China
Height: 1,622 feet
Completion Date: 2008
You can buy bottle openers shaped like this building thanks to the open space at the very top that resembles the tool we use to crack into a cold one. The little souvenirs can be found within the observation deck gift shop, one of 101 floors within the massive structure. The building is used for several purposes and includes offices, hotel rooms, conference rooms, and even shopping on the ground floor.
International Commerce Centre
Location: Hong Kong, China
Height: 1,588 feet
Completion Date: 2010
This big building was a big gamble for its developers, given its relative isolation from the rest of Hong Kong’s high rises, but the International Commerce Center is doing just fine. The mixed-use office and hotel building has a 97 percent occupancy rate and excellent in-building services such as a 24-hour concierge.
According to the 2009 book, Exploring Hong Kong: A Visitor’s Guide to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, ICC’s designers had wanted to make it the tallest building then on the planet. But a local ordinance, which outlaws structures from rising higher than nearby mountains, stymied the dream.
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Wuhan Greenland Center
Location: Wuhan, China
Height: 1,560 feet
Completion: 2022
Work on this skyscraper began in June 2012, and it faced various setbacks along the way. For one, designers originally planned for the building to reach 2,087 feet, but due to local airspace restrictions—which stated that buildings must not exceed 1,640 feet above sea level—the team had to go back to the drawing board.
The project was then put on hold several times in mid-2017 due to a cadre of issues, including financial problems and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the building topped out at 1,560 feet, and it was fully completed in 2022. The final price tag? A whopping $4.5 million, largely due to the aforementioned setbacks.
Today, the skyscraper features hotel rooms and office space in addition to parking space, banquet halls, and even bike storage space.
Central Park Tower
Location: New York City, United States
Height: 1,550 feet
Completion: 2020
Located at 217 W. 57th St., Central Park Tower is located along Billionaire’s Row in midtown and is also known as Nordstrom Tower (because of the Nordstrom store on the lower floors). This structure is the tallest residential building in the world, housing 179 condo units that start at a cool $7 million. The $3 billion project is also the second-tallest building in the U.S. and features incredible views of its namesake park.
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Lakhta Center
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
Height: 1,516 feet
Completion date: 2019
Spiking straight into the sky, the distinct design of the Lakhta Center on the outskirts of St. Petersburg offers a “lonely spire in a horizontal landscape” that will serve as the centerpiece to a growing neighborhood around it that includes plenty of open space for pedestrians. The building includes thermal insulation via a double-glazed façade to combat the summertime heat and an ice-formation control system for winter weather.
Vincom Landmark 81
Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Height: 1,514 feet
Completion date: 2018
Located on the Saigon River, Landmark 81—the 81 floors ensure this isn’t just a clever name for a building—marks the tallest building in Vietnam. Designed by Atkins from Britain, the stair-stepping aesthetic of the building provides a distinct design and serves as the centerpiece of a new mixed-use neighborhood.
Petronas Towers 1 and 2
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Height: 1,483 feet (each)
Completion Date: 1998
A two-story skybridge connects these twin towers at the 41st and 42nd floors. It not only gives the structure its iconic look, but it also “speaks to the future of tall buildings” and urban development, Safarik says. That future will involve connecting tall buildings at height, he argues, so that people in large buildings can cross from one to another without going all the way down to the ground and up again. Few but the Petronas towers have that feature today.
Honorable mention: The Changsha IFS Tower T1 in Changsha, China is also 1,483 feet tall. The taller twin tower of the Changsha IFS complex meant to attract high-end financial institutions offers visitors to China a Wong Tung & Partners design featuring a rectangle form with glass and metal. The Tower 1 design includes incremental setbacks near the top to help match the shorter second tower without dwarfing its existence. At 94 floors, expect a mix of uses within the building.
Zifeng Tower
Location: Nanjing, China
Height: 1,476 feet
Completion Date: 2010
Zifeng was designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the firm behind the Burj Khalifa, and the resemblances are easy to spot. Here, the cutaway look is meant to mimic a dragon wrapping around the structure. Another neat detail Safarik noticed during his visit is that many windows pop out several degrees, a little like those tiny smoking windows found in the back seat of older cars. “It’s pretty rare you can open windows in a building that tall,” Safarik says.
Honorable mention: The Suzhou International Financial Square (IFS) in Jiangsu, China is also 1,476 feet tall.
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The Exchange 106
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Height: 1,462 feet
Completion date: 2019
Using a 12-story illuminated crown to accentuate the height of The Exchange 106 in the Tun Razak Exchange financial district development in Kuala Lumpur, the new skyscraper gives visitors a shiny new example of height in Malaysia. The Peter Chan Architect design is structurally completed with the opening, including a mix of uses of the 106-floor building.
Willis Tower
Location: Chicago, United States
Height: 1,451 feet
Completion Date: 1974
Formerly, and still better known as the Sears Tower, this hefty, blocky office building’s design is unusual, and it will probably stay that way. “I don’t think you’re going to see something like this built again,” said Safarik. “It’s just so gigantic in its lower floors.” When the tower was constructed, huge typing pools filled whole floors, with armies of employees cut off from windows and natural lighting—a big no-no nowadays.
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KK100
Location: Shenzhen, China
Height: 1,449 feet
Completion Date: 2011
The Kingkey, or KK100, is the jewel of the Shenzhen, a major manufacturing metropolis just north of Hong Kong. The building’s distinctive, transparent, glassed-over top portion hosts a restaurant and mall.
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