| Remember when skyscrapers were THE symbol of power and progress? The United States was home to the tallest buildings in the world for almost 100 years straight, but lately, it seems like America has lost its touch with the sky. While other countries are pushing boundaries with incredible megastructures, the U.S. is lagging behind and hasn’t built a single record-breaking skyscraper in the last 50 years. Join me to figure out why and if this is a trend that goes beyond out borders. We’ll also see how far some countries are pushing the boundaries of what is possible. |
| Short ContextI recently traveled to Dubai and visited the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper.I was blown away not just by its enormity, but by its awe-inspiring beauty.I also visited Taiwan on a previous trip and went to see how the previous record-holder, the TAIPEI 101, kept its stability in the face of the wind and earthquakes.It struck me that it had been a long time since the US was part of the news when it came to high-rise buildings.These are all the title holders for the tallest building in the world during the last 1000 years.Europe dominated construction before the 19th century.The US consistently beat each record during the next 98 years.But now the US is nowhere to be found, and won’t be for at least the next 10 years.This spurred me into researching if it was just me or if there was something more behind the story.It turns out, there was. |
| The DataI set to look for data about high-rise construction around the world and the US.What was I looking for?I was looking for trends in tall building construction.I needed data on construction dates, building height, building use, and anything else I could find.It wasn’t easy, but eventually I came across several online databases like the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat database, NYC Open Data, some Academic databases, and others.I found data on hundreds and hundreds of buildings from around the world.For the US, I found data on the tallest buildings built since 1740Almost 3 centuries of data!For the rest of the world, I found data on buildings from as early as 1092!That’s almost 1000 years worth of data on constructions from when the US didn’t even exist! |
| The next step was organizing and cleaning all that data.Then, came the analysis.I first wanted to check if we really are building fewer skyscrapers in the US compared to previous years.So, I grouped the almost 700 buildings in the US according to the year they were completed.This is what I found: (show first graph)The bars represent how many buildings were built during each five-year stretch shown below.The colors represent the range of heights.So, the first buildings were short, as I would have expected.Construction and engineering in the US are still in their infancy in the 18th century, so you can’t expect buildings too be too high.We get a massive surge in construction right before the Second World War, which started in 1939.Most of the new buildings are now 100 to 200 m or roughly 330 to 650 feet tall.In 1930 the Chrystler Building is completed in New York, breaking the 1,000 feet mark for the first time in history.Just one year later, they finish the Empire State building, towering 1,250 feet about the ground.It was a feast! |
| What happens in 1939? The Second World War breaks out!There are almost no new record-breaking buildings completed before 1960.There’s a second wave during the 60s, 70s, and 80s.Then things dry up again from the 90s to the 2010s.We have this spike here from 2020 to 2024, but then there’s another decrease in buildings projected to be completed before 2030.That spike followed by a through didn’t really convince me, so I dug in a little deeper on the data for the US, but I’ll get bacj to that in a minute. |
| Let’s look at what’s happening outside the US:You can see a similar pattern as in the US, but there are three things that stood out to me:There is a more consistent and obvious increase in the number of completed high rise buildings around the world in the last few years.The number of buildings under construction that’ll be finished by 2030 spikes significantly, instead of decreasing like it did here in the US.Notice that the salmon bars represent buildings over 400 m or 1,300 ft tall and the light blue represent buildings roughly 1,000 to 1,300 feet high.More than half of the new high-rise skyscrapers that will be built in the next 6 years will be over 1,000 feet high.In fact, one of them will make even the Burj Khalifa seem small, but we’ll get back to that in a moment.In the US, less than 15% will be that high. More than 85% of all new buildings will be 250 m or shorter. |
| So it seems that my first impressions, that the US is lagging behind int skyscraper construction, are legit, right?But I needed more evidence before I start digging into why that is.The good news is that I have A BUNCH OF DATA.So, I decided to plot the average height of new skyscrapers in the US across time and compare it with the global average.This is what I found (show third graph).Looking at this graph it’s a lot easier to see what’s going on.Compared to the rest of the world, US skyscrapers have been getting shorter and shorter during the last 40 years! |
| That’s why after the Petronas Towers were completed in 1998, overtaking the Willis Tower in Chicago, the US never broke a skyscraper record again.These are average heights.I did wonder what happened with the tallest buildings in the US, and those have steadily gotten taller.The tallest today is the One World Trade Center which stands at 1,776 feet. (show fifth graph)But they’re just not as tall as the talles built in other countries. |
| The last time the US held the “world’s tallest” title was decades ago.Where did all that daring ambition go? I’ve found that there are multiple reasons why we’re not chasing records anymore: #1 CostsIt comes down to economics and what we use skyscrapers for. Think of a typical skyscraper as a sandwich.The bottom floors are your bread – the foundation that holds everything up. The middle floors are like the hearty fillings – offices, apartments, etc. These are the parts you use the most.But what about the very top floors? They’re like fancy, gourmet toppings – expensive and not as practical for everyday use.Just like adding caviar to your sandwich, those extra floors get super expensive.The engineering to build that high gets complex and requires special materials, so the cost increases exponentially after certain height.It’s like needing a team of chefs and rare ingredients for your fancy topping.If we wanted to build those sam floors horizontally, we would use up much more land. That’s true!But, the cost of land would scale linearly, sometimes even slower.For example, if you need 1 acre of land in California, it’ll cost you $5,000 to $12,000. Two acres will cost double that.Linear growth.In a low-rise building, each floor can cost about $1M, so a 10-story building could cost roughly $10 M.But doubling to 20 stories makes all the floors more expensive and could cost about $3 M eacn, so you could end up spending $60 million instead of the$20 million you would expect.That’s exponential growth, and it makes taller buildings less economical.In the Burj Khalifa, each of the 163 floors cost an average $9.2 million. The costs for office building construction have been skyrocketing in the US.Just look at this graph that shows the Producer Price Index for new office building construction in the US.It jumped up significantly since 2020. But the bigger problem is that some of these buildings are losing value at an umprecedented pace:The 100 N Charles skyscraper in Baltimore was recently listed for auction at $1.5 million yet it cost$6 million In 1996.The Towe at One South Street which had sold in 2016 for $66 million also sold last summer for a third of the price. #2 UseThe problem with office buildings getting more expensive is that most high-rise buildings are used for office space: UseShareOffice67.61%Residential19.40%Hotel10.90%Retail2.09% That’s over 2/3s of all skyscrapers dedicated to office space and ⅕ to residential like those billionaire luxury condos in Manhattan. In the rest of the world things look like this: UseShareOffice63.54%Residential13.78%Hotel20.23%Retail2.44% Slightly less use of office space, but over twice as much use for hotels. In a buzzling city like Dubai, hotels are much more profitable than residential buildings, making it easier to get a return on investment. #3 ZoningStrict zoning laws in many cities limit how tall buildings can go.For example:In Washington D.C., the Height of Buildings Act limits building height within Washington, DC to 130 feet on commercial streets and 90 feet on residential streets.The maximum height for oceanfront lots in the RM-3 district of Miami Beach, Florida is 200 feet. In other parts of the state limits can be as low as 65 feet or 25 feet. This also happens in other places like Europe, and it’s why we don’t see many skyscrapers outside London and other large metropolises:In Paris buildings cannot be taller than 37 m or 121 ft. #4 Changing PrioritiesFinally, there’s a shift in focus on urban density, walkability, and sustainable development over sheer height. All of these factors put together make going higher a bad investment all around. |
But height isn’t everything, and it’s not the only thing in which American skyscrapers are lagging behind. What about aesthetics and design? Let’s face it, a lot of newer US skyscrapers are…underwhelming at best.They lack the awe-inspiring designs we see abroad. I mean look at the Burj Khalifa, or the Taipei 101 and compare them to the Aeon Center in Chicago or 432 Park Avenue in NYC.Or check out this concept skyscraper part of Saudi Arabia’s Neon development. It’s futuristic to a fault. American skyscrapers look like giant toothpickcs by comparison. Why is that? I found some possible explanations. #1 Cultural differencesThe first one is differences in culture. Architecture is a cultural expression and it shows in Asian buildings like the Taipei 101. #2 Different GoalsIn places like Dubai, these towers are flagships meant to put the city on the map, attracting attention.They’re basically feathers on a peacock.Practicality isn’t always the main concern. #3 FundingMany of these megaprojects get government backing or private investments from very wealthy individuals, easing financial constraints.Remember how I told you about the Sheek Khalifa financing the completion of the building that later was named in his honor? That type of thing doesn’t happen here in the US. |
| So is the US really abandoning skyscrapers?Not entirely, but it’s certain we’re downsizing and building fewer than before, and we don’t put as much emphasis on height as we did 40 or 50 years ago.Is that a good thing or a bad thing?You be the judge and leave a comment below.In the meantime, you’ll want to check out this video next. Thanks for watching. |
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