Next Wednesday, the Skyscaper Museum in NYC opens a neat exhibition called Supertall. As you can guess, it’s a show of “superlative skyscrapers worldwide, featuring projects that have been completed since 2001, are under construction, or are expected to top out by 2016.”
The museum defines “supertall” as buildings that rise at least 380 meters, or 1250 feet — the height of the Empire State Building — not the traditional 300 meters. They each have, or will have, 100 stories or more.
The Skyscaper Museum last approached this subject in 2007, when as part of its exhibition on what was then the world’s tallest building — the Burj Dubai, now known as the Burj Khalifa — it conducted a census of tall buildings. That first global “Supertall Survey” discovered 35 buildings, “historical, contemporary, and planned.”
What’s happened since then? As you might expect, they weren’t all built. The new census discards 12 from that list, because they were not built or because they didn’t achieve their planned height.
Now, though, it found 25 more supertalls — for a grand total of 48 that will be completed, undercontruction or topped out by 2016. Of course, some of thse may not be fully realized either. China (that’s the Shanghai World Financial Center above), South Korea and countries in the Middle East are most avid new builders of the supertall. According to the press release,
The exhibition includes projects in ten Chinese cities, with three buildings each in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Wuhan. In Seoul and Busan, South Korea, four towers will range from nearly 500 to 640 meters, or more than 2000 ft tall. While new development has slowed in Dubai, the emirate is still home to six supertalls, including Burj Khalifa, which at 828 meters/ 2,717 feet reigns as the world’s tallest skyscraper by more than 1,000 ft.! No project yet announced has challenged its supremacy, and if a rumored kilometer-tall tower does go forward, Burj Khalifa will remain the tallest manmade structure for at least for five years- the standard time it takes to complete a supertall.
Obviously, the museum can’t haul in the buildings, so what’s in the exhibit? “Organized geographically, the installation includes architectural and engineering models, renderings, animations and construction photographs and films,” says the press release.
The Skyscraper Museum has published its census, and done a great service to people who love tall buildings. Or, at least, looking at them.