Tall Building Construction Continues to Smash Records and Redefine Skylines

There are 402 percent more tall buildings in the world than there was in 2000.

1 minute read

December 19, 2017, 6:00 AM PST

The Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles, at 1,100 feet, was the tallest building completed in the United States in 2017, and the sixth tallest in the world. | trekandshoot / Shutterstock

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) recently released its annual report on tall building construction.

"The 144 buildings completed in 2017 beat every previous year on record, including the previous record high of 127 completions in 2016," according to a post on the CTBUH website. "This brings the total number of 200-meter-plus buildings in the world to 1,319, increasing 12.3% from 2016, marking a 402% increase from the year 2000, when only 263 existed."

The post contains a large collection of interactive infographics to break down the data—for instance, graphs on completions by country, world's 100 tallest by location, and completions by material. Here's the graph for completions by city, showing New York City as the only U.S. city competing with other cities around the world in tall construction, but click through to the original source for more.

The headline for CTBUH's annual report were very similar in 2014 and 2015, when the trend in tall building construction started to pick up record-breaking momentum.

FULL STORY: CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2017

Wednesday, December 13, 2017 in Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat

Architecture Urban Development United States Tall Buildings Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Skyscrapers View More

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.