Frank Lloyd Wright once proposed The Illinois, a mile-high skyscraper set on the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago, a towering giant of a building powered by atomic elevators. Its clear symbol of the current race to raise skylines around the world that Wright’s vision from the ’50s, yet to be realized, is coming closer and closer to reality…
Tianjin CTF Finance Centre (Tianjin, China: 1,739 feet, estimated completion 2018)
As if to underscore the rate at which China is building supertalls, this is the second project for the city of Tianjin on this list. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to meet LEED Gold standards, this gently sloping tower features a crystallized facade that accentuates the curves of the building’s frame. There’s rhyme and reason to those subtle bends and arches: along with strategically placed vents, the shape reduces “vortex shedding,” which sharply decreases the wind forces impacting the tower.