The year 1998 marked the end of an extended economic boom in Asia, and the construction that went with it. The recessionary conditions that marked the next few years are sometimes referred to as "the Asian flu."
The Asian recession was not as deep nor as long-lasting as the 1990s recession that affected Japan, Europe and North America, however. Construction slowed in Asia, but never truly halted. Within a few years a new round of economic expansion had resumed.
Two International Finance Centre
AKA Two IFC
Location: Hong Kong
Year completed: 2003
Height: 1,335 feet (90 storeys), plus a 29-foot antenna array
Claim to fame: Two International Finance Centre was the first giant to be completed in the 21st Century, and the first to be opened after the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings.
In the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 and the “Petronas Height Controversy,” the building opened with little fanfare regarding the fact that its roof is 13 feet higher than that of the Malaysian towers. By this measure, it was the fourth-tallest building built in history, surpassed only by the World Trade Center buildings and the Sears Tower.
This building also has a spire component and an antenna array. The 23-foot spires (which have a pair of elevator lobbies to access the roof) are arranged like a pair of horns on the top of the building, with the broadcast antennas between them. Counting the structural spires (but not the antennas), Two IFC is 1,358 feet tall, or four feet short of Number Two World Trade Center, which tragically did not exist anymore by the time Two IFC opened.
All other details of the September 11 tragedy aside, from the standpoint of this thread the collapse of the World Trade Center towers represented the first time since the Middle Ages that structures that had once been the crowning achievement of world architecture had been destroyed in tragic circumstances. (As previously mentioned, the Singer Building held the previous record for the largest building ever demolished, and it too was once the world's tallest building.)
Status: Two IFC features 22-foot ceilings on many of its storeys to accommodate trading areas for brokerage and commodities operations that take place there. The building features double-decker elevators, and on the taller floors passengers on the upper decks step out onto balconies facing the open-concept trading areas and walk down a short flight of stairs. The ground floor opens up into a large shopping complex and a rapid transit line that connects the building to Hong Kong's airport.
The building officially lists 88 storeys, but actually has 90. The number 88 has auspicious connotations in Chinese culture, but like buildings in Western countries that lack a 13th floor, at Two International Finance Centre the 4th, 14th and 24th floors are not numbered as such because in Cantonese these numbers sound like “die,” "definitely die" and "easy to die,” respectively. Some floors are given letter designations instead, such as 23B, which of course is actually the 24th floor.
The architect is César Pelli, who incidentally designed the Petronas Towers as well. The international nature of skyscraper construction is revealed in the fact that the tallest building in Hong Kong was designed by an Argentinean émigré based in New Haven, Connecticut.
^The "Big Five" in 2003, reflecting the completion of Two IFC and the destruction of the World Trade Center.
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