The Great Skyscraper Comeback Skips North America

[M II A II R II K]

The Great Skyscraper Comeback Skips North America


January 13, 2015

By Patrick Clark

Read More: http://www.businessweek.com/articles...-north-america

Tall buildings are back. Developers around the globe completed a record 97 buildings of at least 200 meters (656 feet) in height in 2014, according to a new report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, as size-obsessed builders got back on a growth track after a two-year skyscraper dip.

- It’s not hard to explain the pattern. A typical skyscraper takes two to four years to finish, says report co-author Daniel Safarik. Work back from the year of completion, and the global financial crisis looks like an easy explanation for the drop-off in tall buildings. If you thought it was hard to get a home loan in 2009, imagine asking bankers to finance a gravity-and-wind-defying symbol of luxury, industry, and capitalist will.

- Alternatively, you could argue that the current skyscraper craze never really went away. Economic meltdown aside, developers finished more than twice as many 200-plus-meter-tall buildings in 2012 than they did in 2007, which at the time had been the most prolific year for tall buildings. The number of 200-meter-plus buildings has more than quadrupled since 2000. --- In any case, the trend is likely to continue. The CTBUH projects as many as 130 200-meter-plus buildings will be finished in 2015, including the 128-story Shanghai Tower and the 101-floor Marina 101 in Dubai. Even more tall buildings are expected to be completed in 2016.

- More than half of the 200-meter-plus buildings completed last year are in China, where more than 300 million people have moved to cities since 1995. Urbanized workers aren’t occupying the upper floors, says Safarik. China’s new city dwellers are living in “30- or 40-story cookie-cutter towers that are providing a justification for the tall or supertall office buildings or mixed-use structures we’re seeing,” he says.

- Safarik predicts a different kind of future for tall buildings in North America. The continent claimed 79 of the world’s 100 tallest buildings in 1990—and just 20 of the tallest 100 today. (In the U.S., developers completed three 200-meter-plus buildings last year, down from seven in both 2009 and 2010.) One day, it seems, North America will barely register in a discussion of the world’s tallest buildings. --- “I think we’re going to see fewer of these iconic standalones,” Safarik says, “and more structures that are integrated into their urban environments. More skyscrapers that are connected horizontally at height.”

.....

A rendering of Eton Place Dalian Tower in Dalian, China.

[hunser]

Yeah, we just discussed this in the New York supertall thread (CTBUH news). Only New York (and maybe Toronto) have massive skyscraper construction. The other North American cities not so much, except for a few supertalls and skyscrapers here and there.

List of 2014 Completions
Rank Building Name City Stories m ft
1 One World Trade Center New York City, US 104 541 1,776
2 World Trade Center Abu Dhabi - The Residences Abu Dhabi, UAE 88 381 1,251
3 The Wharf Times Square 1 Wuxi, China 68 339 1,112
4 Wuxi Suning Plaza 1 Wuxi, China 68 328 1,076
5 Moi Center Tower A Shenyang, China 75 311 1,020
6 Burj Rafal Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 68 308 1,010
7 One57 New York City, US 75 306 1,005
8 Wuxi Maoye City - Marriott Hotel Wuxi, China 68 304 997
9 Heung Kong Tower Shenzhen, China 61 303 994
= 10 Torre Costanera Santiago, Chile 62 300 984
= 10 Abeno Harukas Osaka, Japan 60 300 984
12 4 World Trade Center New York City, US 65 298 977

Without NY, the Chinese and Arabs would totally dominate. 432 Park Avenue (NY) will be the second tallest tower completed this year (after Shanghai Tower). Again, it's NY holding the fort.

[MolsonExport]

yeah, somebody better tell NYC to stop all those supertalls.

[isaidso]

Did we really need an article to tell us the obvious: that a place with 4 billion people will build far more more skyscrapers than one with 500 million. That more exist in the US (320 million people) than Canada (36 million) isn't rocket science either. Are we going to get an article highlighting that too?

[TownGuy]

Originally Posted by hunser

Yeah, we just discussed this in the New York supertall thread (CTBUH news). Only New York (and maybe Toronto) have massive skyscraper construction. The other North American cities not so much, except for a few supertalls and skyscrapers here and there.

For the record, using their criteria for that chart, Toronto has built 8 skyscrapers over 200m since 2007. 7 more are U/C.

Toronto has boomed right under that 200m mark. If you were to move that number to a minimum of 150m (500 ft) Toronto is at 44 skyscrapers built or UC since 2007.

[DZH22]

The comeback is happening (not just NYC/Toronto), if at a smaller scale. Some examples:

New supertall and another 200m+ building going up in Philadelphia
New supertall and another 200m+ building going up in San Francisco
New supertall going up in Los Angeles
New tallest for Calgary plus another 200m+
2 new 200m+ buildings going up in Boston
200m+ building about to start in Nashville
New tallest and a bunch more going up in Miami
Mexico city has a handful of 200m+ being built
Chicago with a couple new 200m+ out of the ground

Also....
Austin is booming
Montreal is booming
New 2nd tallest about to top off in Vancouver
Looks like Edmonton is getting into the game
Minneapolis might build a potential new tallest

This is all just off the top of my head. Kind of a goofy time for this article to come out.

[chris08876]

Yeah I don't agree with the attitude pointed out in the article. Also, we must realize that some of these skyscrapers being built in China are out of pride, and part of the 5 year economic plan(s). In some of the less well known cities, they sit empty with high vacancy rates.

But there has been a massive pickup when it comes to the skyscraper game in the U.S.. The recession hit us hard, and many cities witnessed a dramatic decrease in construction, but it started to pick in in 2012. Right now, many of our coastal and inland cities are developing them in numbers. SF, NYC, Boston, Miami, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Seattle, and so on.

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

yeah, somebody better tell NYC to stop all those supertalls.

We will build more! Taller, and on top of existing structures!

[aaron38]

Tall buildings are expensive. Expensive to build, expensive to maintain. I know a person who moved out of a 5 story condo building because of what the annual elevator inspection cost. It wasn't worth it to him when he had other options available.
Tall buildings are a question of economics. We shouldn't root for them for their own sake, that's the wrong way to look at it. When tall buildings are built it's a sign of the economic supply/demand equation being balanced for a given area. It's a sign that the economy of that given area can support their higher cost and that housing is in demand.
The issue with North America is that wages are stagnant except at the very top, and there is lots of land. Until people who would like to move into the inner city can afford to do so, there will be little demand for tall buildings.