China’s Tallest Building
The 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, a 1,614 foot wedge-shaped tower with a rectangular hole at the very top, was topped out on Friday as its last beam was laid amid a drizzle that obscured the building’s panoramic view of endless high rises. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the building was redesigned into a so-called “megastructure,” with four huge pillars to make it stronger, said Japanese building tycoon Minoru Mori.
Taiwan’s Taipei 101, at 1,667 feet, beat the building’s height, taking the tallest sweepstakes in 2004. Developers of a skyscraper in oil-rich Dubai recently declared theirs the world’s tallest building when construction reached 1,680 feet — and the building is still far from finished.
