The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) released an original “Tall Buildings in Numbers” (TBIN) research study entitled Vertical Transportation: Ascent & Acceleration. The study began as a collaboration with Guinness World Records to identify the commercial building with the fastest elevator speeds and longest vertical runs, which turned out to be Shanghai Tower, China. Expanding on this research, the Council determined the top buildings in each category and uncovered a number of other intriguing vertical transportation superlatives along the way.
When it comes to the tallest skyscrapers in the world, the vertical commute in the building becomes just as important as the horizontal commute through the city. Innovations in vertical transportation systems allow passengers to get to their destinations more quickly, and with less stops along the way. It is no surprise then that the world record-holder for fastest elevators also happens to be the second tallest building in the world at 632 meters.
With elevators speeds topping out at 20.5 meters per second (m/s), Shanghai Tower (Shanghai, China) narrowly surpasses CTF Finance Center (Guangzhou, China), which boasts speeds of up to 20 m/s. Meanwhile, Taipei 101 (Taipei, Taiwan) trails at 16.83 m/s, following by Landmark Tower (Yokohama, Japan) at 12.5 m/s and Two International Finance Center (Hong Kong, China) at 10.6 m/s.
Shanghai Tower also features the tallest continuous elevator run at 578.55 meters. These elevators whisk visitors all the way from the basement, to the observation deck near the top of the 632-meter building. Following closely is Ping An Finance Center (Shenzhen, China), with elevators running a continuous 573.5 meters, just meters short of the building’s 599-meter pinnacle.
Looking to the future, Saudi Arabia’s under-construction Jeddah Tower, with a projected height exceeding 1,000 meters, is poised to challenge these records. The tower will reportedly feature an elevator run of 660 meters and double-decker elevators that exceed the current record of 10 m/s for such systems.
An interactive version of this study is available online, exploring details on the collected project data. Additionally, the study is included within the 2017 Issue III of the CTBUH Journal. Purchase a copy of the journal here.
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