Each year, high-rise building experts from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) release their predictions for the worldwide skyscraper industry. They also recap the top tall-building news from the previous year (see "2013: The year of the super-tall skyscraper").
Looking ahead to 2014, CTBUH's Daniel Safarik and Antony Wood predict that between 65 and 90 buildings of 200 meters or more will completed by the end of the year, with as many as 13 projects exceeding the 300-meter barrier. If they're right, 2014 will be a record-setting year for skyscraper construction.
In their report, Safarik and Wood highlight eight major trends and developments in 2014:
1. The Torre Costanera, at 300 meters, will be South America’s tallest building and its first in the 'supertall' category (300 to 399 meters)
More on the Torre Costanera project via CTBUH
2. Twisting towers will continue to enter the vanguard of tall in 2014.
The KKR2 Tower of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (pictired), and the Spine Tower of Istanbul, Turkey, lead the list of new twisting towers.
3. A typically curvaceous Zaha Hadid-designed tower, the Wangjing SOHO T1, will open in Beijing this year.
This building was the subject of piracy rumors early last year when a highly similar tower group, the Meiquan 22nd Century in Chongqing, was revealed. The race is on in earnest to see if the original finishes before the “copy.”
4. The Shanghai Tower finished its concrete core in 2013.
The 632-meter tower, originally set to complete in 2014, will boast the world’s fastest elevators, as well as innovative use of double skins and sky lobbies. Its construction has been and will continue to be one of the most closely watched spectacles in the tall-building universe. Even if the completion date slips into 2015, as now seems likely, Shanghai Tower will likely be China’s tallest building for at least a period of time, depending on the progress of rivals Ping An Finance Center (660 meters), Wuhan Greenland Center (636 meters), and possibly Sky City J220.
5. The China Broad Group’s Sky City J220, an 828-meter, 220-story building to be constructed entirely of prefabricated modules, may or may not have gotten underway, according to conflicting reports, and may or may not complete in 2014.
Either way, the world will be watching. Unshaken by skeptical peers and media and bureaucratic hurdles, Broad Group Chairman Zhang Yue has vowed the project – aiming to become the world’s tallest before Kingdom Tower takes the title – will continue.
6. Kingdom Tower, set to become the world’s next-tallest building at 1,000 meters, broke ground in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2013.
The industry will be closely watching its out-of-ground progress in 2014. Intended to evoke a bundle of leaves shooting up from the ground, the faceted three-wing tower will cost $1.2 billion to construct and contain 167 floors.
7. When completed in 2014 at its intended, symbolic 1,776 feet (541 meters), One World Trade Center in New York will gain status as North America’s tallest building.
The announcement of CTBUH’s ratification of this height in 2013 drew commentary from the global press, Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel, and television comedian Jon Stewart—so a little more buzz when we “make it official” in 2014 can be expected.
8. The first of the crop of “superslim” towers in Midtown Manhattan, the 306-meter One57, will be completed, upping the ante for its even-slimmer rivals along 57th Street.
More on the One57 project via CTBUH
Read CTBUH's full report: "Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2013"
Related Stories
| May 8, 2014
Don’t bother planning for the future - it doesn’t care about you
Though strategic planning has helped many businesses move forward, its time has passed. So says Economist and Author Bill Conerly. SPONSORED CONTENT
| May 8, 2014
Infographic: 4 most common causes of construction site fatalities
In honor of Safety Week, Skanska put together this nifty infographic on how to prevent deadly harm in construction.
| May 8, 2014
Sporting events in style: Infographic showcases novel stadiums of the world
UK precast concrete maker Banagher, which specializes in precast stadia solutions, has assembled a list of the world's top stadiums in terms of architectural and structural design.
| May 7, 2014
Design competition: $900,000 on the line in Las Vegas revitalization challenge
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman wants your economic development ideas for remaking four areas within the city, including the Cashman Center and the Las Vegas Medical District.
| May 6, 2014
'Beyond' is artist's cinematic take on 2.5 years of development in the UAE
Seven-minute video offers a time-lapse trip through the built environments of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
| May 6, 2014
'Ugliest building in New Jersey' finally getting facelift
After a decade of false starts and mishaps, the American Dream mall in the Meadowlands may finally get built.
| May 5, 2014
Toronto residential tower to feature drawer-like facade scheme
Some of the apartments in the new River City development will protrude from the building at different lengths, creating a drawer-like "push-pull" effect.
| May 5, 2014
Tragic wired glass injury makes headlines yet again
In the story, a high school student pushed open a hallway door glazed with wired glass. His arm not only broke the glass, but penetrated it, causing severe injuries. SPONSORED CONTENT
| May 3, 2014
Health system capital planning for the future: The benefits of master plan portfolio analysis and ambulatory market modeling
Money continues to be scarce, yet U.S. health systems need to invest and re-invest in their physical future. Healthcare facilities planning experts from CBRE Healthcare outline tools and strategies for identifying where to best allocate precious resources.
