Taiwan opens world's tallest building

Channel NewsAsia ^ | 31 December 2004 | AFP

[The Teen Conservative]

Interesting.

[Jaxter]

[pageonetoo]

Was it constructed with bamboo scaffolding?

[Straight Vermonter]

During the first 90 years of this century, the USA dominated the race for the title of the tallest building in the world, and constructed a range of famous buildings that, sometimes only for a few months, and sometimes for many years, were widely recognized as being the 'tallest building' in the world. In 1974 Chicago's Sears Tower was completed, and generally seen as the 'tallest building' in the world. Sears held on to that title for over 20 years.

But since the ninetees the USA gets some stiff competition from Asia. In 1996 this resulted in the completion of the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur. From that moment on a sort of media clash was unleashed. All over the world people debated about the question wich one was the tallest; Sears or Petronas. To make things more complicated; in 2004 Taipei 101 was finished. It is widely known to be the tallest building in the world. Now the answer to the 'tallest' question seems so easy. Just measure the buildings from bottom to top, and the tallest one gets the title.
Question answered, case closed, no more debate needed? Forget it!

As usual, life is not that simple. One could consider how to measure these buildings. For example, do we take in account spires and antennas? To end this discussion, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat made a compromise. They defined 4 categories for measuring tall buildings;

- Height to the structural or architectural top.
- Height to the highest occupied floor.
- Height to the top of the roof.
- Height to the top of antenna.

Now, since they finished Taipei 101, the Petronas Towers are not leading anymore in any of the categories above. As we believe Taipei 101 is leading in the categories 1 and 3. Category 2 is unsure, and Sears Tower definitely still leading in the fourth category! (By the way, the former WTC was even taller to the top of its antennas!). So this means there is not one 'tallest building in the world', but there are two of them!
Question answered, case closed, no more debate needed? Forget it!
Cause this is the point where some folks from Canada get a bit upset.

And of course they should be. Cause Toronto is home to the famous CN Tower! Not only is this a tower of remarkable beauty and grandeur, it is also very, very tall! In fact, Its top is no less than 1816 ft. up in the skies! So it is by far taller than the buildings as mentioned before. So the people from CN Tower themselfs claim that their tower is the 'world's tallest building'.

But then why do so many people not recognize CN Tower as the 'worlds tallest building'? Because, so they say, CN Tower is not a building. Constructors and architects argue that a building is a frame structure made of walls and floors. Now CN Tower houses some occupied floors indeed, but most of the structure is no more than a concrete shaft housing elevators, and therefore it is not a building, one could argue. This is the reason why the Council on tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, and many other building resources on the Internet, do not recognize CN Tower as the tallest 'building' in the world.

Source:http://www.xs4all.nl/~hnetten/tallest.html

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Here's a pic:

[Forgiven_Sinner]

My wife thinks the building looks like stacked up carry out boxes of Chinese food.

;)

[CasearianDaoist]

So does the designer have a "Type A" personality?

[Forgiven_Sinner]

My wife thinks the building looks like stacked up carry out boxes of Chinese food.

So does the designer have a "Type A" personality?

No, I think it's a "Column A" personality.

[shadowman99]

"Taiwan's worst tremor, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, struck in September 1999, leaving some 2,400 people dead. Another strong quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit on March 31 2002, killing at least four."

A strange paragraph. It's a terrible event, but also it has nothing to do with the story.

---

At least this "tallest building" seems to have occupied space going to almost the very top. Unlike the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Petronas Towers are in fact shorter than the Sears, but have very tall spires on top to steal the title. Same problem for the new thing they are building at the WTC site - 80 stories with a very tall glass wedge. In truth, Freedom Tower will not be as tall as the WTC towers.

[Schwaeky]

My wife thinks the building looks like stacked up carry out boxes of Chinese foooooooooooooooooooooood.

and then....... and then.....

[Malsua]

My wife thinks the building looks like stacked up carry out boxes of Chinese food.

When I first saw this building some time back, I said to myself; Self, that sure looks like a Chinese building to me. I just hadn't figured out why. Now you've accurately pointed out WHY I think it looks like a Chinese building. LOL.

Oddly, I'm craving some General Tso Chicken right now.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

A bad edit. There's an obvious connection to earthquakes and tall buildings. The graph must've been dropped.

[RayChuang88]

What makes Taipei 101 so earthquake resistant was the fact they borrowed the structural design from Japanese religious temples, where a central spine design actually makes the building very earthquake proof (after all, Japan is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries).

[Lazamataz]

What makes Taipei 101 so earthquake resistant

I just hope it's terrorist-resistant.

[F14 Pilot]

I saw this building and I went inside that.
It has a huge parking and a nice mall as well.

The parking has 7 underground flrs.

[Rebelbase]

I bet the architect got the idea for the basic building design after going to the movies.

[festus]

Was it constructed with bamboo scaffolding?

Nope. Tofu.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[monkapotamus]

All your tallest buildings are belong to us