Tallest skyscrapers of the past 100 years, as well as Kingdom Tower (completion 2019).The world is in the midst of another skyscraper race. The graphic illustrates the last nine tallest skyscrapers, as well as Kingdom Tower, a project under construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that will usurp the Burj Khalifa as the record holder upon its completion in 2019. In the past 100 years, the skyscraper race has led to the innovation of several technologies and with each record-setting tower completed, engineering solutions pave the way for the development of even larger buildings in the future.

The Kingdom Tower’s grip on the tallest building throne is tenuous, as the past three had an average reign of seven years. Erecting a record-breaking skyscraper is a common way of demonstrating a country's or region's engineering prowess, capital investment, and construction capabilities. Financers of the Kingdom Tower ultimately determined that Saudi Arabia would be the least-expensive Middle Eastern nation in which to build.

The past four tallest buildings were built in Asian or Middle Eastern locations with burgeoning technical industries and strong financial markets. Prior to the completion of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, the United States hosted the tallest buildings. The building with the longest reign as the world’s tallest (since 1874) is the Empire State Building in New York City, which was tallest from 1931-1972.

The considerable engineering leveraged to improve elevator technology, materials science, as well as other issues, such as wind deflection or thermal expansion, will serve as the foundation to innovations that will create the eventual successor to the Kingdom Tower.

Return to main story.