[Tuckerman]

Building height and economics is fascinating subject, nicely explored by Jason Barr in his work on NYC talks. I was always led to believe that any building over 50 stories was the triumph of ego over economics. However the cost picture is quite complex and the economics of building tall buildings in South America or China is very different, particularly when driven by construction costs. In any case what we have seen recently in Atlanta as examples is the new headquarters of Norfolk Southern (under construction), State Farm (almost complete), and NCR (completed recently). In each case the square footage is very high, but in each case these big companies opted for very large multi-building mid-rise projects rather than one tall tower. Undoubtedly, if each of these headquarters were built in NYC or Chicago they would be > 50 floors; in Shanghai even taller.