The Race to Build the World's Tallest Skyscraper

The tallest-building title began in 1909 with New York’s Metropolitan Life Tower at 700 feet. Over the next century, the crown moved through major New York skyscrapers, including the Woolworth Building and the Chrysler Building, which opened in 1930 as the first supertall skyscraper. The title continued to change as taller buildings were completed, culminating in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa reaching 2,717 feet. The timeline uses Council on Vertical Urbanism methodology, counting buildings with floors and measuring height to the architectural top, including spires while excluding detachable antennae, flagpoles, or signs. Since 1998, the world’s tallest building has been located in Asia.

"In 1909, New York's Metropolitan Life Tower became the tallest building in the world at 700 feet. Just over a century later, Dubai's Burj Khalifa reached 2,717 feet, nearly four times taller. This timeline shows every building to hold the title of world's tallest since 1909, using the most recent data available from the Council on Vertical Urbanism (CVU)."

"Per CVU methodology, buildings must include floors, excluding structures such as Toronto's CN Tower and the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. Heights are measured to the architectural top, including spires but excluding detachable antennae, flagpoles, or signs. New York's Skyscraper Boom For most of the 20th century, the U.S. housed the world's tallest building."

"New York in particular held the crown, with the Big Apple producing back-to-back skyscraper marvels from 1909 to 1972. The Metropolitan Life Tower, constructed in New York's Flatiron District, topped out at 700 feet in 1909. Within a few years, it would be surpassed by Tribeca's Woolworth Building ( 792 feet), which itself lost the title by the late 1920s with the arrival of the Art Deco icon known as the Chrysler Building ( 1,046 feet)."

"The Chrysler Building, found in East Midtown, opened in 1930 as the world's first supertall skyscraper. At the time, developers were racing to build the world's tallest building, and the Chrysler Building famously beat rival 40 Wall Street by secretly assembling a 125-foot spire inside the"

Read at Visual Capitalist