Tallest building

This list of tallest buildings in the world ranks skyscrapers by height. Only buildings with continuously occupiable floors are included, thus non-building structures, including towers, are not included. (See List of tallest buildings and structures.)

The international non-profit organization Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) was formed in 1969 and announces the title of "The World's Tallest Building" and sets the standards by which buildings are measured. It maintains a list of the 100 tallest completed buildings in the world. The organization currently ranks Burj Khalifa in Dubai as the tallest at 828 m (2,717 ft). The CTBUH only recognizes buildings that are complete, however, and some buildings listed within these list articles are not considered complete by the CTBUH.

In 1996, as a response to the dispute as to whether the Petronas Towers or the Sears Tower was taller, the council listed and ranked buildings in four categories:

Spires are considered integral parts of the architectural design of buildings, to which changes would substantially change the appearance and design of the building, whereas antennas may be added or removed without such consequences. The Petronas Towers, with their spires, are thus ranked higher than the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) with its antennas, despite the Petronas Towers' lower roofs and lower highest point.

Until 1996, the world's tallest building was defined by the height to the top of the tallest architectural element, including spires but not antennae. This led to a rivalry between the Bank of Manhattan Building and the Chrysler Building. The Bank of Manhattan Building employed only a short spire and was 282.5 m (927 ft) tall and had a much higher top occupied floor (the second category in the 1996 criteria for tallest building). In contrast, the Chrysler Building employed a very large 38.1 m (125 ft) spire secretly assembled inside the building to claim the title of world's tallest building with a total height of 318.9 m (1,046 ft), although it had a lower top occupied floor and a shorter height when both buildings' spires were excluded.

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