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Tallest buildings -Top 5 1.Burj Khalifa Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates Height: 2,717 feet Completion Date: 2010 An innovative tripedal design, along with the projecting shapes of its edges to cut through the wind like the front of a boat to reduce turbulence, both affording greater stability, are but a few of the smart ways the Burj Khalifa succeeded in rising to its record-setting height. The building soars more than 700 feet over its nearest competitor. The race upward as accelerated In the last couple decades, as governments and citizens have pulled together the means for erecting record-breaking tall buildings, particularly in emerging economies in East Asia and the Middle East. "It's a recognition that they want to project their image out into the global scene," says Daniel Safarik of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) located at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "One easy way physically to do that, in a relative sense, is with a skyscraper." The same designer of the Burj Khalifa, Adrian Smith, has drawn up an even more ambitious project, the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia. It is slated to open in 2017 and soar to 3,281 feet—a full kilometer. 2. Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel Location: Mecca, Saudi Arabia Height: 1,972 feet Completion Date: 2012 Big Ben done bigger, the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel was built to afford comfortable accommodations to wealthy Muslim pilgrims making the Hajj. A factor that contributes to the building reaching so high: its gigantic footprint—a broader base supports greater height, as we've all learned first-hand playing with blocks as kids. "I think this building is getting by on sheer mass," said Safarik. "You can see the way that the other buildings around it have a stabilizing effect." 3.One World Trade Center Location: New York City, United States Height: 1,776 feet Completion Date: 2014 The spire of One WTC attains a height of exactly 1,776 feet—a shout-out to the birth year of the United States. The building proper is only around 1,300 feet tall, but the CTBUH chose to count spire toward the building's official height. That decision saw the new building controversially eclipse the Willis Tower in Chicago (later in this list) as the tallest building in North America. Safarik said spires have accordingly provoked controversy within CTBUH itself. "We continue to have this debate," he says. 4.Taipei 101 Location: Taipei, Taiwan Height: 1,667 feet Completion Date: 2004 Taipei 101 "adopts some of the vernacular architecture of the region where it's built," Safarik says. "Here you have a classic, stacked pagoda look, which is a common thing throughout Asia." Furthermore, the building has eight segments of eight floors each, a nod to the auspicious nature of the numeral 8 in the Chinese-speaking world. 5.International Commerce Centre Location: Hong Kong, China Height: 1,588 feet Completion Date: 2010 This big building was a big gamble for its developers, given its relative isolation from the rest of Hong Kong's high-rises, but the International Commerce Center is doing just fine. The mixed-use office and hotel building has a 97 percent occupancy rate and excellent in-building services such as a 24-hour concierge. According to the 2009 book Exploring Hong Kong: A Visitor's Guide to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, ICC's designers had wanted to make it the tallest building then on the planet. But a local ordinance, which outlaws structures from rising higher than nearby mountains, stymied the dream. All images are taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.Images are free to share.