Celebrate Skyscraper Day Every September 3
Every September 3, the skyscraper gets its due. On Skyscraper Day.
Even if you don’t normally care about architecture, you have to admit skyscrapers are pretty amazing. These towering structures not only inspire awe for their size, but they’re built to stay standing through storms and earthquakes.
And every year seems to bring a new tallest building.
At one time buildings a few hundred feet high were amazing. Today they’re thousands of feet high. When will we reach the limits of what we can build and still have the building be safe?
We haven’t been able to discover who started Skyscraper Day or when.
The date does seem to honor architect Louis H. Sullivan (born 09/03/1856). We can’t find any proof that this was deliberate. But it seems likely. Sullivan has sometimes been called the father of the skyscraper (which isn’t exactly accurate: People had been building taller and taller buildings before Sullivan got in the game).
Skyscraper Trivia
Defining a skyscraper is, at best, tricky. And deciding on its official height is trickier still.
That’s because there’s no official definition of how tall a building has to be before it can be called a skyscraper.
When people first started building tall buildings they often called them skyscrapers when they got to be a few hundred feet tall. Today most of us would call that ordinary. In general we call buildings with 40 or more floors skyscrapers.
And the height depends on whether or not you count various decorations and such on top of the building (above any usable floor space). Most tall buildings have antennas and flagpoles on top. But those are usually not counted in the height, because they’re not integral parts of the building.
If a building has a spire, it may count toward the total height, because it is a design element.
But there is actually a group of people who decide all this: The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. It’s based in Chicago and made up of civil engineers and architects. It uses three criteria to rank buildings’ heights:
- Height from the lowest level to the architectural top (this excludes antennae and flagpoles but generally includes spires)
- Height of the highest occupied floor
- Height from the lowest level to the highest level (this measure includes antennae and flagpoles)
At any rate, skyscrapers help maximize available space for housing and offices. There’s only so much land available, so the more you can build upwards, the more resources you can put on that land.
But that’s not the only reason to build skyscrapers. These buildings are also symbols of power. Cities with skyscrapers, especially the tallest ones, get to claim bragging rights and the prestige that comes with it. These cities are seen as stronger and more vital.
Well, most of the time anyway. Chicago has several of the country’s tallest buildings, but we’re not sure they’ve helped the city’s image much lately.
You’re probably familiar with the lack of a 13th floor in many tall buildings. That’s because 13 is considered unlucky by many people in many cultures. Hong Kong takes things a bit further, because there the number 4 is also unlucky. So not only is there no 13th floor in its buildings, there are also no floors with a number 4 in it (i.e. – no 4th, 14th or 24th floor, etc.).
World’s Tallest Buildings
As of September, 2015, the 10 tallest buildings in the world are:
#10 Willis Tower in Chicago, IL (USA). Built in 1974, it’s 1,451 feet tall at its roof with 108 floors.
#9 Nanjing Greenland Financial Complex in Nanjing, China. Built in 2010 it’s 1476 feet (including its spire) and has 89 floors.
#8 Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Built in 1998, it’s 1,483 feet high (with its spires) with 88 floors.
#7 International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, China. Built in 2010, it’s 1,588 feet tall (at its roof) and has 118 floors.
#6 Shanghai World Financial Center in Shanghai, China. It was build in 2008 and is 1,614 feet high (at its roof) with 101 floors.
#5 Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan. This building was built in 2004. It is 1,667 feet high (with its spire) and has 101 floors.
#4 One World Trade Center in New York City, NY, USA. It was built in 2014 at 1,776 feet high (including its spire) and has 104 floors.
#3 Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Also built in 2014, it is 1,971 feet high (with its spire) with 120 floors.
#2 Shanghai Tower in Shanghai, China. It was built in 2014 at 2,073 feet high (at the roof) and with 121 floors.
#1 Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Built in 2010, it’s 2,717 feet high (including its spire) with 163 floors.
The CTF Finance Centre in Guangzhou, China should land in the middle of this list when it is finished in in 2016. It is expected to be 1,740 feet tall with 111 floors.
Tallest Buildings in the United States
Just 3 US cities contain the 10 tallest buildings in the country: Chicago, New York and Atlanta. (Again, this is as of 2015)
#10 Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta was built in 1993. It is 1,040 feet tall
#9 New York Times Tower in New York City was built in 2007. It is 1,046 feet tall.
#8 The Chrysler Building in New York City is one of the oldest on the list, built in 1930. It is also 1,046 feet tall.
#7 The Jon Hancock Center in Chicago was built in 1970. It is 1,128 feet tall.
#6 The Aon Center in Chicago was built in 1973. It is 1,136 feet tall.
#5 The Bank of America Tower in New York City was built in 2009. It is 1,200 feet tall. It is an environmentally friendly building that has earned a Platinum LEED certification.
#4 The Empire State Building in New York City is the 2nd oldest building on this list, built in 1931. It is 1,250 feet tall.
#3 The Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago was built in 2009. It is 1,389 feet tall.
#2 The Willis Tower in Chicago was built in 1973. Named the Sears Tower at the time, it was the tallest building in America at 1,451 feet. It dethroned the World Trade Center for the title. And it held that title until 2014, when the building built on the World Trade Center site dethroned it.
#1 One World Trade Center was finished in 2014. Its 1776 feet represent the year our Declaration of Independence was ratified. It’s not just the tallest building in America, it’s the tallest in the Western Hemisphere.
When the Woolworth Building in New York City was built in 1913, its 792 feet made it the tallest building in the world. We’ve come a long way since then!
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this unofficial towering holiday.
Ideas For Celebrating Skyscraper Day
If possible, visit a skyscraper. It doesn’t have to be one of the world’s tallest. Or even the country’s tallest. Just enjoy it:
- Take pictures of the building and the view from the building.
- Learn about its history.
- If the skyscraper you visit has a restaurant or cafe at or near the top, plan to have lunch or dinner there and enjoy feeling on top of the world.
If you’re interested in architecture, take some time to learn more about skyscrapers’ history and/or designing and building them.
One or more of these books might be a good place to start:
- Skyscrapers: A History of the World’s Most Extraordinary Buildings — Revised and Updated, by Judith Dupre
- The World’s Most Amazing Skyscrapers (Landmark Top Tens), by Michael Hurley
- The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper, by Kate Ascher
- Skyscrapers: Structure and Design, by Matthew Wells
- Who Built That? Skyscrapers: An Introduction to Skyscrapers and Their Architects, by Didier Cornille
- Skyscraper: The Making of a Building, by Karl Sabbagh
If your kids are interested in skyscrapers or architecture in general, they might like one of these (you might also enjoy the models):
- Power City Construction Super Skyscraper Building Kit (recommended for ages 4-6)
- CubicFun 3D Puzzle LED-Series “The Empire State Building – New York City” (recommended for ages 3 and up)
- Metal Earth 3D Metal Model – Chrysler Building (recommended for ages 14 and up)
- Sky Boys: How They Build the Empire State Building, by Deborah Hopkinson (recommended for ages 3-8)
- Skyscrapers!: Super Structures to Design & Build (Kaleidoscope Kids Books), by Carol A Johmann (recommended for ages 7 and up)
Will you be visiting a skyscraper to celebrate the day? Which one?
[…] Skyscraper Day: Celebrate the towering buildings we call skyscrapers. Even if we’re not sure exactly how to define “skyscraper.” […]