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HISTORY BAR >> Skylines History 1920-2007 | The World's Tallest Buildings 1920-2007 | One Century of Skyscrapers | Top skyline rankings since 1999
One Century of Skyscrapers
... and a bit more. Progression of building heights through time.
by Egbert Gramsbergen
Height in meters vs. year of completion, by region.
Only buildings above a certain time-dependent height are included, indicated by the horizontal thick black line. The vertical thick black line denotes the update year. In other words: the area above and to the left of the black lines has complete data, the rest of the graph has not.
Buildings marked with "+" in the graph
  • Auditorium Building (Chicago, 1882)
  • Pulitzer Building (New York, 1890)
  • Manhattan Life Insurance Building (New York, 1894)
  • Park Row Building (New York, 1899)
  • Philadelphia City Hall (Philadelphia, 1901)
  • Singer Building (New York, 1908-1968)
  • Metropolitan Life Tower (New York, 1909)
  • Woolworth Building (New York, 1913)
  • Chrysler Building (New York, 1930)
  • 40 Wall Street Tower (New York, 1930)
  • Empire State Building (New York, 1931)
  • American International (New Tork, 1932)
  • GE Building (new York, 1933)
  • Moscow State University (Moscow, 1953)
  • John Hancock Center (Chicago, 1969)
  • One World Trade Center (New York, 1972-2001)
  • Two World Trade Center (New York, 1973-2001)
  • Aon Center (Chicago, 1973)
  • Sears Tower (Chicago, 1974)
  • Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong, 1990)
  • Central Plza (Hong Kong, 1992)
  • Shun Hing Square (Shenzhen, 1996)
  • CITIC Plaza (Guangzhou, 1997)
  • Petronas Towers I, II (Kuala Lumpur, 1998)
  • Jin Mao Building (Shanghai, 1999)
  • Two International Finance Centre (Hong Kong, 2003)
  • Taipei 101 (Taipei, 2004)
  • Burj Bubai (Dubai, 2008)
  • Shanghai World Financial Center (Shanghai, 2008)
  • Abraj Al Bait Hotel Tower (Mecca, 2009)
  • Chicago Spire (Chicago, 2010)
  • International Commerce Center (Hong Kong, 2010)
  • Freedom Tower / One World Trade Center (New York, 2011)
  • Russia Tower (Moscow, 2012)
Sources: this site: 2007, 2005, 2004, and Marshall's Hot 500: 1990, 1920, 1910, 1900,
created: 1997-04-22
last update: 2007-09-24