China building world's tallest skyscraper in 12 weeks

China are not slowing down when it comes to building skyscrapers. Almost a third of the world’s tallest buildings are already in China with more to follow.

Construction firm The Broad Group are planning to top the Burj Khalifa in Dubai by 32 feet. The building will begin construction in January and the skyscraper will be 2,749 feet tall. What is incredible is that they plan to do it in record time, in just 12 weeks!

The building will be in Changsha, in South Central China and it is to be called ‘Sky City’. The skyscraper will hold a school, a hospital, 17 helipads and accommodation for 30,000 people.

Skyscrapers 'linked with impending financial crashes'

There is an "unhealthy correlation" between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes, according to Barclays Capital.

Examples include the Empire State building, built as the Great Depression was under way, and the current world's tallest, the Burj Khalifa, built just before Dubai almost went bust.
China is currently the biggest builder of skyscrapers, the bank said.

India also has 14 skyscrapers under construction.

"Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction," Barclays Capital analysts said

Source BBC News

Sears Tower (1973-2009)

It is now called the Willis Tower, but I reckon it will revert back to its original and more famous name of the Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

At 1450 feet it is the tallest building in the USA and in July 2007 I even visited this amazing feat of engineering myself! This was a picture I took on what was a glorious summer day that then turned into a thunder and lightening storm!

The tower was the brainchild of Sears and Roebuck who in the 1960s were the world's largest retailers. The idea to house many of their employees under such an impressive roof was implemented and from 1973 until 1998 the Sears Tower was the world's tallest building, eclipsed by the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The CN Tower in Toronto is taller but different categories place the CN Tower as the largest freestanding structure in the Americas.

I am fascinated by such skyscrapers as not only are they an amazing feat of construction and engineering but they represent man's ambition to be faster, longer, taller in all such weird manner of feats!

I am lucky enough to have stood on the skydeck of the Sears Tower (as it was called then) and also the Petronas Towers. I'll have some work to do to visit both the Tapei 101 and the Burj Dubai before new buildings in Shanghai and Chicago outstrip the current number 1 and 2 tallest buildings!