Hoorah! Shanghai Tower crowned world’s second tallest skyscraper

It’s official(er)! The Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has deemed our fair city’s 632-meter tall Shanghai Tower the second tallest skyscraper in the world. Suck on that Saudi Arabia!
The result of a six-year-long construction, Shanghai’s tallest landmark was actually completed last year, and was the world’s second tallest anyway a year before that. It stands at 632 meters tall and boasts 400,000 square meters of floorspace. Its 128 floors will comprise mostly of fancy office space, with the odd retail areas and hotel rooms, topped off by an observation point on the roof.
Already worth US$2.4 billion, the tower apparently could have cost $58 million more–if it weren’t for international firm Gensler‘s economical design of twisting 120 degrees upwards, thereby reducing both materials needed and effects of wind by 24%.

Currently runner-up to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Shanghai Tower gets to be second tallest for a good few years — until they are both looking up at the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia, to be completed in 2020.
By Pinky Latt