Over the last several years The Conco Companies have had the opportunity to be involved in the construction of the
two tallest skyscrapers west of the Mississippi, the Wilshire Grand in Los
Angeles and the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco. This experience got us to wondering who was
responsible for measuring and recording the world’s newly constructed skyscrapers
as they continue to push the envelope in terms of their towering height.
The Council on Tall Buildings and
Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the world’s leading resource for professionals focused
on the inception, design, construction, and operation of tall buildings and
future cities. The CTBUH is also responsible for developing the international
standards used to measure tall buildings’ heights and is the recognized official
organization for bestowing the title of the ‘The World’s Tallest Building.’
The height of tall buildings is
measured by three criteria that includes: the height to the architectural top;
the highest occupied floor; and the height to the tip. The height to the architectural top is
defined as the height measured from the level of the “lowest, significant,
open-air, pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of the building,
including spires, but not including antennae, signage, flag poles or other
functional-technical equipment.”
The highest occupied floor is officially
defined by the CTBUH as the measurement from the lowest significant pedestrian entrance to the highest occupied floor in the
building. The third criteria again starts
at the “lowest level” as defined earlier to the highest point of the building “irrespective
of material or function of the highest element (i.e., including antennae,
flagpoles, signage, and other functional-technical equipment).”
In addition to tall skyscrapers the
CTBUH also recognizes a fairly new category of “supertall” and “megatall” buildings. They define a supertall building as being over
300 meters or 984 feet high. Buildings
over 600 meters or 1,968 feet tall are considered to be megatall. Their statistics show that as of June 2015,
there were 91 supertall and 2 megatall buildings that were fully completed and
occupied across the globe. In addition there
are several more extremely high skyscrapers currently under construction.
At The Conco Companies, we are one of
the leading concrete contractors in the Western U.S. and offer a wide range of
quality services and products. Our
experience includes providing services for commercial, educational, parking and
other construction development as well as public works projects. We serve California, Washington State,
Oregon, Colorado and Nevada.
Source:ctbuh.org/TallBuildings/HeightStatistics/Criteria/tabid/446/language/en-US/Default.aspx
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