Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

S.R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology

3360 South State Street
Chicago, IL 60616, USA

CTBUH Contact:
pthurmond@ctbuh.org
P: 1 (312) 567-3487
Date: January 13, 2011 F: 1 (312) 567-3820

2010 The Most Successful Year of Skyscraper

Completion in History; China in the Ascendancy
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presents an Overview of Tall
Building Construction in 2010
Chicago – In a year dominated by news coverage of the new “World’s Tallest Building” – Burj
Khalifa, Dubai – one may be surprised to learn that, besides being the year in which a building
first surpassed the 600, 700, and 800-meter thresholds, 2010 has seen the completion of more
skyscrapers than any previous year in history. CTBUH annual data (see Figure 2) illustrates that 66
buildings with a height of 200+ meters (656 feet) were completed in 2010 (breaking the previous
record, set in 2007, of 48 buildings completed).

Including the Burj Khalifa, eight supertalls (buildings over 300 meters / 984 feet in height) were
completed in 2010 – again, more than any other single year in history. Four of these supertalls are
over 400 meters in height, placing them as the 1st, 4th, 7th and 9th tallest buildings in the world
(see supplementary info). That constitutes a 40% change in the world’s tallest ten in the course
of a single year. This has not occurred since 1930 when, led by New York’s Chrysler Building, four
US buildings were added to the tallest ten list. There are now, with 2010’s eight additions, 50
supertalls around the world in total. (1) Burj Khalifa, Dubai

(18) Excellence Century

(6) HHHR Tower, Dubai
Plaza Tower 2, Senzhen
(20) Hwaseong Dongtan
(2) International Commerce Metapolis 101, Hwaseong
(3) Nanjing Greenland Financial Centre, Hong Kong
(11) Sulafa Tower, Dubai (12) Shanghai Wheelock Center, Nanjing (4) Guangzhou
Square, Shanghai (10) Excellence Century International Finance
(14) Bitexco Plaza Tower 1, Senzhen
(8) Capital City (16) Lanko International Center, Guangzhou
Financial Tower,
Ho Chi Minh City Moscow Tower, Moscow Complex Yage Tower,
Chongqing (19) The Legacy at Millennium
(9) Sky Tower, Abu Dhabi Park, Chicago
(5) The Index, Dubai
(7) Ocean Heights, Dubai
(17) Capital City St. Petersburg
Tower, Moscow (15) Istanbul Sapphire,
Istanbul (13) Hotel JAL
Tower, Dubai

Figure 1. Skyline of the 20 Tallest Buildings completed in 2010. © CTBUH

Figure 2. Tall buildings 200 meters or taller completed each year, 1960–2012. © CTBUH

China tops the list of countries with the most 200m + buildings completed in 2010, with a total of
21, three of which are among the tallest five completed (see Figure 3). The UAE comes in second
(with 14) due primarily to the towers completed in the city of Dubai, which took the top spot
for most 200m + buildings completed in a single city with 11(see Figure 4). The US continues to
decline in its skyscraper construction, accounting for only 9% of buildings in 2010 (compared to
21% in 2009). The USA also barely breaks into the tallest 20 this year, with The Legacy, Chicago at
number 19. This is in stark contrast to the tallest buildings completed just one year prior, when
US buildings took the 1st, 3rd, and 5th tallest spots in 2009 (Trump International Hotel and Tower,
Chicago (1); Bank of America Tower, New York (2); Aqua, Chicago (5)).

“As has been predicted for numerous years, the century of the Asian skyscraper is now firmly with us,
with China in particular in the ascendancy,” said CTBUH Chairman Professor Sang Dae Kim of Korea.
“The tall building world has changed significantly from what it was even just 20 years ago. In complete
contrast to then, now the tallest buildings in the world are likely to be located in Asia, be residential or
mixed-use in function, and be of concrete or composite structure.” These trends are clearly evidenced
in the tallest buildings completed in 2010 (see Figure 5).
Figure 3. Tall buildings 200 meters or taller completed in 2010: by Country. Figure 4. Tall buildings 200 meters or taller completed in 2010: by City.
© CTBUH © CTBUH

Figure 5. Tall buildings 200 meters or taller completed in 2010: by Region, Function and Structural Material. © CTBUH

While 2010 was a very strong year for skyscraper construction, it was not as strong as originally
anticipated, as the pace of construction slowed during the economic recession. Numerous
seminal projects expected to complete during the year did not do so. This means that 2011 and
possibly even 2012 are expected to outpace the record year of 2010 for buildings over 200 meters
completed (see Figure 2).

“There is an obvious irony between these new towers hitting the market and the state of numerous
regional financial markets,” said CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood. “Though skyscraper
completion in 2011/2012 will likely continue the upward trend, we are almost certainly going to see a
dip in the global numbers in the immediate two or three years after that.”
800m

700m

600m

500m

400m

300m

200m

100m

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Figure 6. Tallest 20 Buildings Completed in 2010 – Height comparative diagram © CTBUH

The Twenty Tallest Buildings Completed in 2010

Building Name City Height* Global Ranking**

1. Burj Khalifa Dubai 828 m (2,717 ft) 1
2. International Commerce Centre Hong Kong 484 m (1,588 ft) 4
3. Nanjing Greenland Financial Center Nanjing 450 m (1,476 ft) 7
4. Guangzhou International Finance Center Guangzhou 438 m (1,435 ft) 9
5. The Index Dubai 326 m (1,070 ft) 29
6. HHHR Tower Dubai 318 m (1,042 ft) 35
7. Ocean Heights Dubai 310 m (1,017 ft) 37
8. Capital City Moscow Tower Moscow 302 m (989 ft) 48
9. Sky Tower Abu Dhabi 292 m (959 ft) 58
10. Excellence Century Plaza Tower 1 Shenzhen 288 m (945 ft) 64
11. Sulafa Tower Dubai 285 m (935 ft) 66
12. Shanghai Wheelock Square Shanghai 270 m (886 ft) 82
13. Hotel JAL Tower Dubai 269 m (883 ft) 89
14. Bitexco Financial Tower Ho Chi Minh City 269 m (882 ft) 91
15. Istanbul Sapphire Istanbul 261 m (856 ft) 109
16. Lanko International Complex Yage Tower Chongqing 258 m (846 ft) 122
17. Capital City St. Petersburg Tower Moscow 257 m (843 ft) 126
18. Excellence Century Plaza Tower 2 Shenzhen 250 m (820 ft) 143
19. The Legacy at Millennium Park Chicago 249 m (818 ft) 150
20. Hwaseong Dongtan Metapolis 101 Hwaseong 249 m (817 ft) 155
*Height figures and rankings are based on a measurement of “Height to Architectural Top” as defined by the official CTBUH Height Criteria. To learn more on CTBUH height definitions,
visit: http://criteria.ctbuh.org
**Global Rankings are as of December 31, 2010.

A complete list of all buildings completed in 2010 over 200 meters (656 feet) as well as further details and images of
the tallest 20 can be found in the supplemental PDF, “CTBUHTallest 2010_Additional Information.” For high resolution
images of CTBUH graphics please contact pthurmond@ctbuh.org

About the CTBUH

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, based at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, is an
international not-for-profit organization supported by architecture, engineering, planning, development and
construction professionals, designed to facilitate exchanges among those involved in all aspects of the planning,
design, construction and operation of tall buildings. The CTBUH is the world’s leading body in the field of tall
buildings, and the recognized source of information on tall buildings internationally. It is the arbiter of tall building
height, determiner of the title “The World’s Tallest Building” and maintains a significant database of built, under
construction and proposed tall buildings. For more information, contact info@ctbuh.org or visit www.ctbuh.org.