Global capital fuels the race, while the press and web forums drum up rabid enthusiasm. Structural topping-out gets its own ceremony in some cities across the world.
READ: World welcomes 100th "super-tall" skyscraper
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is the closest thing to an authority on skyscraper rankings, the final arbiter of what constitutes 'structural' versus 'architectural' height. We defer to their standard in the list that follows.
Where the construction timetable is fuzzy we've gone for the best visual evidence on sites like Skyscraper City. But yes, speculation is involved.
