Top 5 ‘vertical cities’ in the world.

Constructing tall buildings has been one popular demand and interest for cities in the world currently. Many cities build a huge number of skyscrapers due to insufficiency of land that leaves them with no choice but to build tall. However, there are few cities that build tall buildings only as a symbol of their strength and limitless ambition. Hence, the term ‘vertical city’ surfaced. It is no surprising for city dwellers not to get sunlight on the street in sunny morning as you are surrounded by towering buildings. I experienced this kind of situation in my city, Kuala Lumpur (KL) too. However, the city is still not that dense and does not have that much of tall buildings as compared to the ones listed below.

Buildings reaching above 200 metres in height are considered huge and tall already. And I’m happy that KL has over 10 buildings that falls into that category to be considered as ‘tall’. However, in recent years, it is very typical for a city to have at least few buildings of this kind of height. I took this opportunity to compile a list of cities of which each is home to at least 5 supertalls. ‘Supertall’ here means a building with over 300 metres tall. And so, KL could not make up into this list of world vertical cities. And for your information, there are only 5 cities at this moment that successfully joined the rank. I also include buildings above 290m since these are so close to 300m mark. Only completed and topped out buildings are included.

1. Dubai, United Arab Emirates – 20 buildings

(Burj Khalifa – 828m, Princess Tower, 414m, 23 Marina – 393m, Elite Residence – 381m, Almas Tower – 360m, JW Marriott Marquis Dubai 1&2 – 355m, Emirates Office Tower – 355m, The Torch – 337m, Rose Tower – 333m, Al Yaqoub Tower – 328m, The Index – 326m, Burj al Arab – 321m, HHHR Tower – 318m, Ocean Heights – 310m, Emirates Hotel Tower – 309m, Cayan Tower – 307m, The Address Downtown Burj Dubai – 302m, Emirates Crown – 296m, Khalid al Attar Tower – 294m)

2. Hong Kong, China – 7 buildings

(International Commerce Center – 484m, Two International Finance Centre – 412m, Central Plaza – 374m, Bank of China Tower – 367m, The Center – 346m, Nina Towers – 319m, One Island East – 298m)

3. Chicago, United States of America – 7 buildings

(Willis Tower – 442m, Trump International Hotel & Tower – 423m, Aon Center – 346m, John Hancock Center – 344m, AT&T Corporate Center – 307m, Two Prudential Plaza – 303m, 311 South Wacker – 293m)

4. New York City, United States of America – 6 buildings

(One World Trade Center – 541m, Empire State Building – 381m, Bank of America Tower – 366m, Chrysler Building – 319m, New York Times Tower – 319m, 70 Pine Street – 290m)

5. Shanghai, China – 5 buildings

(Shanghai Tower – 632m, Shanghai World Financial Center – 492m, Jin Mao Tower – 421m, Shanghai Shimao International Plaza – 333m, Wheelock Square – 298m)

Actually, Kuala Lumpur is not bad with 3 buildings above 300m height respectively. It would have been placed in top 10 or 15 if the list is extended. However, I prefer to limit the list to only 5 cities as I believe these 5 truly stand out among hundreds of mega cities in the world to be very deserving of ‘vertical city’ title or recognition. Dubai topped the list as expected as the city is also home to the world’s tallest man made structure; Burj Khalifa. Hong Kong which is often regarded as the world’s best skyline gets the second spot. Also not to forget that many cities in China now is building many supertalls. In five more years, China will certainly top the list easily.

(All images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)