Photo © New World China via CTBUH
According to a new report by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), 126 buildings of 200 m (656 ft) height or greater were completed this year, including 26 ‘supertall’ buildings at least 300 m (984 ft) tall.
The total number of supertall buildings worldwide is now 170. The 530-m (1739-ft) Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM)-designed Tianjin CTF Finance Centre in Tianjin, China, was the tallest building completed this year.
Overall, the number of completed buildings of at least 200 m in 2019 declined by 13.7 percent (there were 146 in 2018). This is the first year in which the overall completion figure declined since the 2010 to 2011 gap, which was attributed to project cancellations during the 2008 recession. Due to the long lead times inherent to skyscraper construction, many of the projects completing this year were conceived and initiated five or more years ago, and thus reflect the development circumstances of a half-decade prior.
However, 2019 was a significant year for some areas that did not already have an abundance of tall buildings, and in some cases, had never been on the 200-m-plus list before.
The African continent and the nation of Algeria got a new tallest building: the Great Mosque of Algiers (265 m [869 ft]), and on the opposite end of Africa, the Leonardo (227 m [745 ft]) in Johannesburg, South Africa, became that nation’s new tallest building, and the second-tallest building on the continent.
Europe also gained a new tallest building—the Lakhta Center (462 m [1516 ft]) in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Brazil completed the Infinity Coast Tower (235 m [771 m]), which is the country’s first building to exceed 200 m, despite being a nation of many tall buildings.
