The 500 Club
 

Here's a list for all you numbers geeks out there that want to know who's in the 500 Club. . . by that I noted cities which have at least (5) buildings taller than 500 feet. . . to which I owe the data to Emporis and leave it open for discussion since there are the inevitable "known unknowns". . . if you know what I mean. . . :cool:

City			Built	U/C	Total

Hong Kong (PRC)		186	16	202

New York City (USA)	184	8	192

Chicago (USA)		86	11	97

Shanghai (PRC)		71	13	84

Dubai (UAE)		26	58	84

Tokyo (Japan)		64	17	81

Shenzhen (PRC)		30	11	41

Singapore		36	4	40

Guangzhou (PRC)		22	9	31

Houston (USA)		29	-	29

Seoul (South Korea)	26	1	27

Miami (USA)		6	20	26

Melbourne (Australia)	24	-	24

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)	22	2	24

Sydney (Australia)	23	-	23

Nanjing (PRC)		12	9	21

Los Angeles (USA)	21	-	21

Panama City (Panama)	6	14	20

Bangkok (Thailand)	17	3	20

Moscow (Russia)		12	7	19

San Francisco (USA)	16	2	18

Osaka (Japan)		14	3	17

Dallas (USA)		17	-	17

Toronto (Canada)	12	4	16

Boston (USA)		16	-	16

Beijing (PRC)		5	9	14

Atlanta (USA)		12	2	14

Makati (Philippines)	13	-	13

Wuhan (PRC)		9	3	12

Seattle (USA)		12	-	12

Las Vegas (USA)		3	9	12

Chongqing (PRC)		8	4	12

Busan (South Korea)	9	3	12

Frankfurt (Germany)	10	1	11

Philadelphia (USA)	8	2	10

Macau (PRC)		1	9	10

London (England)	9	1	10

Abu Dhabi (UAE)		4	6	10

Tianjin (PRC)		8	1	9

Pittsburgh (USA)	9	-	9

Istanbul (Turkey)	6	3	9

Calgary (Canada)	9	-	9

Sharjah (UAE)		-	8	8

Paris (France)		7	1	8

Minneapolis (USA)	8	-	8

Jakarta (Indonesia)	6	2	8

São Paulo (Brazil)	4	3	7

Qingdao (PRC)		7	-	7

Mexico City (Mexico)	6	1	7

Dalian (PRC)		7	-	7

Buenos Aires (Argentina)3	4	7

Montréal (Canada)	6	-	6

Jersey City (USA)	3	3	6

Detroit (USA)		6	-	6

Xiamen (PRC)		5	-	5

Tel Aviv (Israel)	3	2	5

Taipei (Taiwan)		4	1	5

Nagoya (Japan)		3	2	5

Manama (Bahrain)	1	4	5

Madrid (Spain)		1	4	5

Kaohsiung (Taiwan)	5	-	5

Jinan (PRC)		4	1	5

Hangzhou (PRC)		1	4	5

Doha (Qatar)		1	4	5

Denver (USA)		5	-	5

Columbus (USA)		5	-	5

Charlotte (USA)		4	1	5

Changsha (PRC)		5	-	5

Brisbane (Australia)	4	1	5

fine work, thomas.

shanghai & chicago, dubai has got your number. NYC & HK, you're next. it appears as though dubai won't be satisfied until it has more 500+ footers than the rest of the world combined!

one question though, emporis lists chicago as having 87 buildings 500' or taller, not 86. did you miss one?

Hmm. . . interesting. . . my search comes up with 86. . . I'll have to snoop around a bit and see where that elusive building is hiding. . .

The Hong Kong number is surprising. I remember a few years ago being around 80 u/c. Is it due to a slowdown or a lack of height information for the towers currently u/c

*edit*

nevermind ... checked it out myself

over 260 buildings (~220c/~40u/c) 500+ feet or 50 storeys tall

is the demolished tower being included?

great list Tom and wow is Dubai going insane! As for the US there are only 5 cities with 20+ now but I wonder if any approved/proposed projects in other cities will bring their totals to greater than 20.

Calgary actually has 10, not 9. Another (Centennial Place - 41s, 545') is under construction, and as many as 4 more (Arriva42, Jamieson, Penny Lane, The Bow) may start construction in 2007.

Sunny Isles Beach, Florida is only 1 building breaking ground away from joining the club. Wouldn't that be crazy (1 completed, 3 under construction currently)? Quite an accomplishment for a city thats less than 1 square mile (and only 7 years old).

How many people outside of the Miami area have even heard of Sunny Isles by the way?

WOW.. Dubai has 28 built and 59 u/c... thats insane!

Miami and Panama City should be sister cities if they aren't already. An interesting way of looking at things. I knew Houston was tall, but didn't think they had the numbers. For Miami, I believe Emporis has a few listed as u/c that aren't really, but it seems like we have them starting once every 2 weeks, so it's probably close.

If counting NYC and Jersey City, the total comes to.........drum roll..........187 built and 11 u/c making it numero uno. NWTC towers plus countless proposals with potential supertalls.

Observations
 

I'm surprised that Toronto and Atlanta have so few 500 ft. buildings. I also think Houston never gets proper respect around here.

3 out of the five in Columbus are government buildings. It is good to be the state capital!:D (Thanks Cincy, Cleveland, Toledo, etc. for your tax dollars at work!) :tup: ;)

Las Vegas are going to be 4 times than now, not bad!

Miami has 20 500 + under construction?......that's insane....and they must all be residential.....no wonder they call it a bubble about to burst. I am surprised at Toronto and Boston. Toronto's buildings must all be 495 and Boston's 505.

Cool.

Right now Austin only has one completed, but has another one under construction.

And we have atleast 2 more proposed. There's also the possibility of up to three more in the works.

Houston and Dallas have a few in the works, too. Atleast 2 for each. By 2008 Fort Worth will have atleast 3.


Tom, remember back in February when you were in Austin and you were talking about cities with buildings of 35 floors or more, built, under construction and proposed? At that time Austin had 4 proposed. We now have 7, and with a few towers that are in the works, we could have as many as 9 or 10.

Austin built, under construction and proposed buildings:

Two 700-799 foot buildings.
Two 500-599 foot buildings.
Five 400-499 foot buildings.

Toronto has 12 built with 7 under construction (or 11 and 8) with 2 to 3 to start next year and another dozen or so planned. It's only low in comparison to New York & Chicago

Brickell I'll have to check but the only one out of the 20 for Miami that isn't u/c is MET 3. Also Emporis has not updated the twin Capital at Brickell towers which are 649' & 607' and started construction this month. So we can add another 2 to Miami's total. As for approved projects by the city I counted 20 more.

Top 10 (US only):

1) NYC : 192
2) Chicago : 97
3) Houston : 29
4) Miami : 27
5) LA : 21
6) SF : 18
7) Dallas : 17
8) Boston : 16
9) Atlanta : 14
10) Seattle : 12

Data for Paris are wrong.

Completed buildings above 500 feet in Paris:

1. Tour Maine Montparnasse (1972) : 689 feet.
2. Tour Total (1985) : 614 feet.
3. Tour Areva (1974) : 604 feet.
4. Tour Gan (1974) : 587 feet.
5. Tour Alicante (1995) : 548 feet.
6. Tour Chassagne (1995) : 548 feet.
7. Tour EDF (2001) : 541 feet.
8. Coeur Défense (2001) : 528 feet.
9. Tour AXA (1974) : 522 feet.
10. Tour Adria (2002) : 509 feet.
11. Tour Egée (1999) : 509 feet.

Buildings above 500 feet under construction in Paris :

1. Tour T1 (2007) : 607 feet.
2. Tour Granite (2008) : 600 feet.

So even without counting Tour Ariane (499 feet), we have:

• Built : 11
• U/C : 2
• Total : 13

Paris SSP diagram
Paris tallest buildings and structures in Paris (Wikipedia)

:haha:

That list put Detroit at 6. Actually it has 7 and one only 5 feet short, if you include the flag pole that will put Detroit right at 8.

1. Marriott Hotel Ren. Cen. - 748 ft.
2. Comerica Tower - 620 ft.
3. Penobscott Bldg. - 565 ft.
4. Ren. Cen. Office Tower #1. 506 ft.
5. Ren. Cen. Office Tower #2. 506 ft.
6. Ren. Cen. Office Tower #3. 506 ft.
7. Ren. Cen. Office Tower #4. 506 ft.
8. The Guardian Bldg. - 495 ft.

Detroit has also had at least 3 buildings over 500 feet cancelled.
The Book Tower #2 - 944 ft.
The Fisher Bldg. original plan - 840 ft.
Greektown Casino Hotel plan #2 - 558 ft.

Detroit has 7...

Marriott
Comerica
Penobscot
RenCenX4

There are 5 buildings in Toronto only like 5-10 feet short of 500.

We have a ton of 300-500 feet buildings.

According to SSP diagrams, there are 152 buildings above 300 feet in Toronto.

Surprisingly, there are more buildings over 300 feet in Paris than in a city such as San Francisco. Indeed, there are 98 of them in Paris whereas there are 88 of them in San Francisco.

Just as a comparison with other European cities. There are 38 of them in London, 32 in Frankfurt, 44 in Istanbul and 64 in Moscow (though I believe some aren't recorded on the SSP database, especially for Moscow).

There are 5 buildings in Toronto only like 5-10 feet short of 500.

I don't see how that's any different than any other city. . .

We have a ton of 300-500 feet buildings.

Cool. . . but that's not what we're talking about. . . anyways the height game is just that. . . a game. . . there's no way to know for sure without accurate research that buildings are exactly what they are in height, so that number is constantly a moving target. . . given that fact, my thoughts are to measure a city based upon number of buildings over a certain number of floors. . . 35 seems to give me the impression that a building is worthy of "skyscraper" status. . . cities like Vancouver and Sao Paulo would be better represented whereas a 50 floor cutoff would almost eliminate them entirely. . . hmm. . . so many ways to slice it. . . how should I go about it next???

Anyhow if anyone thinks those numbers are in question, please feel free to PM me with some information as to what it should be and why (of course a reliable source eg. site survey of building under construction or blueprints reveal building is whatever blah blah blah is needed before I go about making any changes). . . it would also be nice to know what I'm missing for Chicago or how Steely got 87 buildings completed while I'm showing 86. . .

Why stop at 5 buildings? Why not just 2 buildings, or 10?

Could you please correct the datas for Paris ? I've already given you several links proving that there are 11 completed buildings above 500 ft and 2 under construction in that city, and not respectively 7 and 1 as you've written.

By the way, I do have issues to understand how you could get those figures of 7 and 1 for Paris.

Tom, you're also counting buildings right at 500' and not just those *over* 500', right? If so, Philly has 11:

1. Comcast Center 975' (u/c)
2. 1 Liberty Place 945'
3. 2 Liberty Place 848'
4. Mellon Bank Center 792'
5. Bell Atlantic Tower 739'
6. IBX Tower 625'
7. 1 Commerce Square 565'
8. 2 Commerce Square 565'
9. City Hall 548'
10. Residences at the Ritz 518' (u/c)
11. 1818 Market St 500'

we stopped building anything over 15 stories and that is why miami is going to blow by us. at least we're not 3rd world though....

Wow, go Miami!

^ :jester: good one J !!

I'll have some time today to look at these corrections and see if my search criteria made any mistakes. . . I'll let you all know later. . . thanks for your input. . .

While youre making corrections... I count 4 500+ buildings being built right now in Atlanta with at least 3 more to start in the next two or three months.

i think i know why we're getting different numbers tom. you're on emporis proper, while i only have access to the public version. the public version rounds all building heights to the nearest foot, so where you see a building that's listed at 499'- 8", the public version simply displays it as 500'. i think that's where our discrepancy is coming from.

Isn't 490 something splitting hairs a bit ?

Boston and its skyline are so underrated on this forum while Toronto is hyped to the max (like its the same as NYC or something). Boston has two buildings proposed over 500'. The SST is schedule to break ground in the spring of 2007 with height around 650'. 115 Withrop Sq. is planned at 1,200' with its spire and 1,000' to the roof. Like most big cities, Boston has lots of buildings in the 450 to 500 foot range.

sure, but that's exactly what threads like this do. this is a tally of all buildings over 500', not buildings close to 500'. it's this inherent arbitrariness that means not a great deal of importance should be placed on these kinds of lists. they're still interesting to look at none-the-less.

Hmm... Sacramento:
Current= none. :(
U/C= Towers on Capitol Mall (tower 1) 615'
Towers on Capitol Mall (tower 2) 615'

A few more are in the pipeline, but we'll have to wait for the housing market to pick up again.

"while i only have access to the public version."

which becomes increasingly more pathetic - don't know so many volunteer for what is essentially a pay site

why do people still look at emporis as being gospel? to me, they are irrelevant and this site is just as reliable if not more.

^there is no equivilant one stop shop out there like Emporis. Unfortunately though, the quality of the information on the public side is also analogous to Walmart

the only added value that emporis has that SSP does not (IMO) is sometimes they will have a quick blurb on the history of the building.

SSP building database has potential, I guess, but for now its quite the joke - incomplete, out-of-date, and diagrams instead of photos

the only added value that emporis has that SSP does not (IMO) is sometimes they will have a quick blurb on the history of the building.

Well yeah. . . uh. . . no. . . I can't agree with you less. . . but we'll just forget you said that. . .

Cool List. If all goes to plan, Downtown LA will add Zen (50), LA Live (55), LA Central (44 stories, maybe 500 Feet), Olympic (60), City House (60), Grand Ave Tower 1 (55), Park Fifth (71), all suppose to break ground by mid 2007, and twin 47 story towers in Century City, so possibly 9 more for LA!

i just have found their quality not up to par as it once was (i was a former contributer and photographer) and don't think the site should be the standard all others should set themselves by.

Within a year Melbourne's likely to have another 2 U/C - actually both will be over 200m for those of us who use metric mental images.

Developers of Prima Tower (220m) on Southbank announced they're starting construction next year. Assuming this will push another tower into construction - 368 Little Collins (207m) as they're both aimed at the same market.

SAMA are said to be circling a site in Docklands that we're expecting will possibly be the next tallest in Melbourne (Eureka = 297.3m or 975 feet).

Tom, you haven't answered me. How could you get to that silly figure of 7 completed skyscrapers and 1 under construction for Paris ? Could you display me the list so that I could see which are missing ?

Tour Granite and Tour T1, which are BOTH under construction for a year now, are almost exactly at the same height (607 and 600 feet IIRC). As for completed buildings, missing 4 towers out of the 11 which are above 500 feet is quite a lot ! That gives a very poor image of Emporis to.

Here's what I came up after going through my database for the 8 cities with the most 500-footers, including uc's. There are a lot of 500-footers that do not come up on an Emporis building search, because the exact heights are not known yet. I have included buildings that I estimate are at least 500 ft. I have probably missed several in the Chinese cities, because I do not have complete information. But I think this will give a more realistic count:

Hong Kong - 295 total - 256 completed - 39 uc
New York - 194 - 186 - 8
Dubai - 119 - 28 - 91
Chicago - 98 - 87 - 11
Shanghai - 94 - 72 - 22
Tokyo - 88 - 67 - 21
Guangzhou - 60 - 42 - 18
Shenzhen - 53 - 36 - 17

If I have under-estimated anything, please feel free to add comments.