Tallest building

How it was measured

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat measures height from the lowest significant, open-air pedestrian entrance to the architectural top of a building. That top includes spires but leaves out antennae, signage, and flagpoles. The 2,717 ft (828 m) figure is measured this way, so the spire counts toward the total while the antenna does not.

About Burj Khalifa

Burj Khalifa is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill designed it, with Adrian Smith as chief architect. Its primary structure is reinforced concrete, and its Y-shaped plan gives living spaces the most perimeter for windows. The tower opened in January 2010 as the centerpiece of Downtown Dubai, a mixed-use development. It was known as Burj Dubai before opening and was renamed to honor Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the former president of the United Arab Emirates. The building has 57 elevators and 8 escalators. It matters because it has reshaped what engineers and designers think is possible for supertall buildings.

The previous record holder

Taipei 101 held the title from 2004 until Burj Khalifa surpassed it. Measured the same way, to its architectural top, Taipei 101 stands 1,667 ft (508 m), so the new holder is about 1,050 ft (320 m) taller. Burj Khalifa's tubular structure uses a design from the Willis Tower in Chicago, and it needed about half the steel of the Empire State Building for its size.