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Built:
1997- 2004
Cost: $TWD59,400,000,000.00
Designed by: CY Lee
Type: Skyscraper
Stories: 91
Maximum height: 1667 feet / 508 meters
Location: Sung-Chih Road
City: Taipei
State: Taipei Shih
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T
his is the building that in the early 21st century put all the other buildings in their place. At the time, there was a rivalry between several buildings over which had the right to call itself the tallest in the world. When the Petronas Towers were erected in Kuala Lumpur the owners claimed their building was the world's tallest. Some disputed this claim because Petronas compared the height of its decorative spire to the flat roof of what was then called the Sears Tower in Chicago. Using that measurement included the Malaysian spires, but excluded Chicago's antennae. If the buildings were next to each other, one could stand on the top floor of the American building and look down at the top floor of the Petronas Towers. Since the Petronas spires serve no purpose, many discounted them, and relegated Malaysia's magnificent twin towers to the status of "also-rans."
Then, along came Taipei 101, completely blowing the Petronas Towers out of the race. Taipei 101 is taller to both its roof and the top of its spire than the buildings in Luala Lumpur. It became the undisputed world's tallest building.
Taipei 101 is a wonderful structure. It proudly shows its Asian influence through both its structure and its decorative flourishes, and it is massed in the traditional way skyscrapers have been since the 19th century. It starts at the square base with a gentile slope inwards and upwards. The division between base and shaft is denoted by a belt running around the perimeter of the structure. This is adorned with something resembling a belt buckle in the center of each side. It is actually a representation of an ancient coin.
The notion of center ornamentation is repeated up the shaft at the top of each flaring section. Think of it as a series of Chinese food take-out boxes stacked one upon the other, eight high, each eight stories tall (eight is considered a lucky number locally). The designers, however, prefer to think of it as a bamboo shoot instead of fast food containers. To each his own.
The crown of the building also sports this form, but much smaller, and there are only two – one very short, the other very narrow. The whole thing is finished off the way any good skyscraper is – with a mast/antenna/spire complex. Taipei 101 has earned its place among the great towers of the world, and its presence is even more stunning in its home town, where at the time of its completion, it was more than twice the height of the next-tallest building.
But Taiwan's crowning architectural achievement was short-lived. On July 21, 2007 the Burj Dubai surpassed Taipei 101 as the world's undisputed tallest building.
**There is a fault line just 660 feet from this tower, but the designers aren't worried about it, saying it hasn't been active in 45,000 years.
**The building's spire is 60 feet tall.
**Like many buildings its size, Taipei 101 has a tuned mass dampener to counteract swaying caused by earthquakes, wind, typhoons, and other causes. It is a massive solid steel ball about 60 feet in diameter, hanging from cables on the 87th floor of the building.
**The foundation of the building is more than 250 feet deep.
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