The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat says that a lot of new skyscrapers fudge the height factor by adding huge, ‘useless’ needles on top. Looking at you, WTC.
Tall buildings just aren’t what they used to be.
The developers of many new super-skyscrapers have been sticking huge, “useless” needles on top of them so they can be marketed as being among the world’s tallest, a report says. The unfinished 1 World Trade Center is listed as being among the top offenders, thanks to the 408-foot needle installed on its roof, but it’s hardly the worst in terms of “vanity height,” according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
The entire top 40% of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab is purely decorative.
The Chicago-based council, which is seen as a leading authority on skyscrapers, says 44 of the world’s 72 tallest buildings got over the symbolic 300-meter mark — about 75 to 80 floors — by adding a decorative spire