Where Super Tall Skyscraper Towers Seemed To Fail In The USA They Have Become An Instant Success Around The World.

New Vigorous Life for a Concept of Super Tall Buildings Around the World Lex Loeb Contributor Network . Have you seen the latest in Super Tall buildings going up all over the world? It is pretty amazing. The number of super tall towers upward of 500 ft tall and over 1000 ft tall all the way to a monster planned for Saudi Arabia going to a Mile High is now at an all time under construction or planning record. It was only back on September 11 that Lewis Mumford , the original critic of the American skyscraper as unnecessary capitalist absurdity was getting re-read by academics who always hated the "anti-human scale" of the New York World Trade Centers. Academics who always hated the world trade center were quietly cheering the destruction of the WTC with a I told you so attitude. The critics of skyscrapers said they blocked light and stole fresh air from the rest of the city. Mumford championed that sensibility long ago when the Standard oil building rose in lower Manhattan with no set backs a fraction of the height of more modern skyscrapers. The tallest skyscrapers were later deemed to be a folly of economics as most in the USA proved to be relatively poor investments for their original builders. The economics of sky scraper building and mixed use have drastically changed since the American Invention has been reintroduced to the rest of the world. For high population per square mile cities like Hong Kong skyscrapers have long proved to be a godsend. High rises work in Hong Kong the same way they do on Manhattan Island because space is so limited. China's recent surge in development has lead to a skyscraper building frenzy. Sure there is a lot of trophy building there but the economics in china with cities of 15 and 30 million people concentrated near an urban core make the economics of super tall buildings efficient shelter building projects. In Dubai especially at the moment trophy building as gone mad. The economic fundamentals for most of the super tall structures planned and in construction for Dubai is suspicious. Yes Dubai maybe a great regional hub to do business but need for huge luxurious class A office space should be shrinking with computer automation. Dubai also builds many super tall condominium towers. The advantage of building tall in Dubai might be in concentrating air conditioning utilities and other desert living life support systems? The present contender for world's tallest biding is in a continuous state of topping out there. I would be curious if the developer actually sold or leased most of the space within it? The whole project has over a million sq ft of space within and it has lots of competition in Dubai. Not to be out done, the Saudis are building a clock tower higher than the sears tower in a cluster of super tall buildings overlooking Mecca. The economics of space directly across from the Mosque in Mecca looks like a sure thing with the millions of Pilgrims visiting mecca every year. It is reminiscent of the pan Am building and the cluster of skyscrapers that grew up around Grand Central Station in NYC as the economic raison d'etre for so much office space concentrated around the busiest railway station on earth. A Saudi Prince has proposed the ultra trophy super tall tower to rise over a mile tall. The economics of that are completely unknown. Frank Lloyd Wright proposed a mile tall tower long ago and it was a work of art. The Saudi proposal is more of a man made industrial mountain. Russia has recently re-joined the super tall building craze with a number of super tall structures of note. China has a giant oil lamp skyscraper / monumental tower in Guanzau being built and an empty structural tower like the Eiffel tower at monumental height. Chicago has the USA's tallest presently under construction- a spiral tower designed by a Spanish Architect and several short contenders for among the world's tallest. The NYC WTC replacement towers will be super tall . Right now NYC tallest under construction , at the moment is the new Bank America Tower up by the NY public library. One of the tallest to be built in several years happens to be the New York Time Building which may prove to be the Newspaper corporations tomb stone as the theory that trophy buildings go up when organizations are in a state of decline. For a run down off official heights of built, proposed and under construction towers Just go to SkyscraperPage.com and see what is going on. If you are feeling nationalistic and worried that the USA has lost the title to worlds tallest just remember American Architects and building experts have designed and helped build a lot of those listed. American exports play a role in a number of these building's necessary support systems including elevators in many of them. The American Idea of the skyscraper has found a new life all over the world and it is anything but absurd now from an economic stand point. The Site also include a diagram of the new three rivers dam in China which is lover a mile long and over 500 ft high which is a very fascinating diagram. There are diagrams of tall skyscrapers built before the modern age of super tall towers. The new New York Times building is about as tall as the Chrysler building in NYC. The Empire State building is half the hight to a third of many of the new skyscrapers planned and coming online. Skyscrapers in the Dubai desert may prove to be more economically suitable than those in Chicago. In China and places like Mexico City , India where population densities are very high, the super talls might prove to be the best way to make those cities comfortable living places for millions. The experiment is on . It is wise to have doubts. The tallest buildings built in the USA never proved to be economic miracles.at least not for the original builders. The anti-skyscraper academics who wrote them off as a wasteful absurdity may end of being surprised when the technology takes on a whole new life around the globe. The skyscraper is no longer just an American phenomenon. San Paulo, Brazil, is an example of a high rise city from hell and that could turn out to be the future of most Chinese cities. Time will tell. The best source to see what is up and going up is http://www.SkyscraperPage.com . The site includes diagrams drawn to scale where artists are welcome to contribute their work. .