Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013

By all appearances, the small increase in the total number of tall-building completions from 2012 into 2013 is indicative of a return to the prevalent trend of increasing completions each year over the past decade. Perhaps 2012, with its small year-on-year drop in completions, was the last year to register the full effect of the 2008 / 2009 global financial crisis, and a small sigh of relief can be let out in the tall-building industry as we begin 2014.

At the same time, it is important to note that 2013 was the secondmost successful year ever, in terms of 200-meter-plus building completion, with 73 buildings of 200 meters or greater height completed. When examined in the broad course of skyscraper completions since 2000, the rate is still increasing. From 2000 to 2013, the total number of 200-meterplus buildings in existence increased from 261 to 830 – an astounding 318 percent. From this point of view, we can more confidently estimate that the slight slowdown of 2012, which recorded 69 completions after 2011’s record 81 – was a “blip,” and that 2013 was more representative of the general upward trend.

Of course, each year is extraordinary in its own way. Here are some of 2013’s key milestones:

• 2013 was the second-most successful year on record for completion of buildings 200 meters or greater in height. In 2013, 73 such buildings were completed, second only to the 81 completions of 2011.

• For the fourth year running, nine supertalls were again completed in 2013. These 36 supertalls, built over the last four years, comprise nearly half the total number of supertalls that now exist (77).

• Across the globe, the sum of heights of all 200-meter-plus buildings completed globally in 2013 was 17,662 meters – also the second-ranked in history, behind the 2011 record of 21,642 meters.

• Of the 73 buildings completed in 2013, 12 – or 16 percent – entered the list of 100 Tallest Buildings in the World.

• For the sixth year running, China had the most 200-meter-plus completions of any nation, at 37 – located across 22 cities.

• The tallest building to complete in 2013 was the 355-meter JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai Tower 2 in Dubai, UAE.

• Three of the five tallest buildings completed are in the United Arab Emirates, for the second year in a row.

• The city of Goyang, Korea, has debuted on the world skyscraper stage with eight 200-meter-plus buildings completing in 2013.

• Europe has two of the 10 tallest buildings completed in a given year for the first time since 1953.

• Panama added two buildings over 200 meters, bringing the small Central American nation’s count up to 19. It had none as recently as 2008.

• Of the 73 buildings over 200 meters completed in 2013, only one, 1717 Broadway in New York, was in the United States.

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Report by Daniel Safarik and Antony Wood, CTBUH
Research by Marty Carver and Marshall Gerometta, CTBUH