One World Trade Center, the 1,776-foot-tall “kick-me” sign nearing completion on New York City’s skyline, is 991 feet shy in height of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, which rises 2,717 feet above the Dubai desert. But thanks to a decision on Tuesday by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, in Chicago, One WTC ranks No. 3 among the world’s tallest buildings (No. 2 is in Mecca), and is the tallest in America and the Western Hemisphere.
The council ruled yesterday that the WTC’s antenna is a spire, even though its sheath was omitted to save money. Some expected that the council would rule against it on that basis. This would have dropped it to No. 29 on a list of the world’s 100 tallest buildings (the list includes those to be finished by 2016), after the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, and No. 2 in America.
But the council ruled thumbs up on the antenna, enabling the WTC to eclipse Chicago’s 1,451-foot Sears Tower (now called the Willis Tower), completed in 1974, and ending its near 40-year reign as tallest building in America.
Read the rest of the column in The Providence Journal.
Architecture Here and There 