Tallest industrial building in the world

[Alpha]

Which is the highest industrial building in the world?

I believe, it is the building of Unit K of Niederaussem Power Station ( http://www.statik.bv.tu-muenchen.de/...ekraftwerk.htm ), which is 172 metres tall. The exhaust of these power station are conducted through world's highest cooling tower ( 200 metres) in the air.
Unit K of Niederaussem Power Station is the highest "real" building in Germany outside Frankfurt/Main.


Niederaussem Power Station, Unit K

[M.K.]

Can you include in database Alpha?. Maybe we can do a drawing. What about the height of the new Kraftwerk im Hamburg? Is not the tallest? I thought this was the tallest with 173m high RWE-Power Plant Grevenbroich-Neurath

[Alpha]

Neurath Power Station is still under construction, but possibly already topped out. Its construction was delayed by several accidents.

But what is the situation outside Germany? Are there industrial buildings taller than 172 metres?

[Fabb]

I remember seeing very impressive industrial buildings in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong.
They looked really scary, tall, noisy and rusty.
I have no data about them, but I guess they topped 100 m.

[MolsonExport]

What about NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Assembly_Building

[bnk]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

What about NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Assembly_Building

I don't know? It seems rather sporadic at best as a true industrial building.

And add to that that is not a day to day operation and will likely close soon anyway. My def of an industrial building is a building that produces, repairs things on a daily basis.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

What about NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_Assembly_Building

Only 160.3 m tall.

[Zerton]

Only? That's pretty tall for an industrial building.

And just because it's high-tech doesn't mean it's not industrial.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by bnk

I don't know? It seems rather sporadic at best as a true industrial building.

And add to that that is not a day to day operation and will likely close soon anyway. My def of an industrial building is a building that produces, repairs things on a daily basis.

You have a very limited definition of "industrial building" then. As someone who works with industrial properties on a daily basis I can tell you that 80% of them don't really "produce or repair" things on a daily basis. Though even by that definition the Shuttle Assembly building would be perfectly described by the word "industrial building" considering it literally only exists to repair, assemble, and attach new rockets to the space shuttle. Just because it doesn't produce or repair multiple space shuttles a day doesn't mean people aren't working on repairing whichever shuttle is in there on a daily basis.

Going back to your definition: Most "industrial" properties in the United States these days don't really "produce or repair" anything. Most of them are used for warehousing or research and development purposes. One of our major clients is a $30 billion industrial conglomerate and most of the industrial properties they lease or buy are warehouses, equipment show rooms, equipment training centers, or lab spaces where their engineers can test the designs they come up with.

What I think you definition actually describes is a "Factory" or what the RE industry would describe as a "Manufacturing Building". Such spaces have much different requirements than general industrial space such as thicker floor slabs (to support assembly lines and other equipment), different ventilation systems, different dock requirements, different ceiling arrangements, etc... While all manufacturing buildings are industrial buildings, a relatively low number of industrial buildings are manufacturing buildings.


While this thread idea is cool, I think and even more interesting query would be to find out what the tallest factory, warehouse, or other industrial building is by floor count. Industrial buildings used to be much taller before the automobile allowed for them to be constructed in farm fields where they could sprawl out and all production could occur on one level. I've seen a few that are 10 stories, does anyone know of any factories or warehouses that break the 12 floor highrise mark?

[Alpha]

Of course I considered VAB at Cape Canaveral, but I know that the building of Niederaussem Power Station is taller. Are there further 150m+ industrial buildings in North America?

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Just about everything industrial in the United States built since WWII is extremely horizontal. There is just too much space and too many freeways to justify building a tall industrial structure unless you are using it to enclose something very big and tall (i.e. space shuttles).

[mhays]

You could stack an industrial structure, but it would be very expensive. It makes sense in places that can support the high cost, but really not anywhere in the US except in very specialized instances.

Industry thrives on spaces with high ceilings and large spans between columns. Floors generally need heavy load capacities for machinery, vehicles, and stock. Plus the US has high standards for everything from fire protection to seismic stability.

Everything I just said adds astronomically to the cost.

Vertical manufacturing can still work. But it usually involves small tenants, not very much equipment, small forklifts, etc. Further, the volume that needs to move via elevator tends to be comparatively low.

(I don't claim any great expertise. My company builds a fair amount of industrial facilities but less than most other types of commercial construction.)

[unusualfire]

The old Chicago post office is pretty tall and big.

[Alpha]

Really tall industrial buildings are found for the following uses:
* Power stations ( example: Niederaussem Power Plant)
* Hangars ( example: VAB)
* Silos ( example: Henninger Turm)
* Blast furnaces
* Cement works
* Towers for shot manufacturing
etc.

[Chicago103]

While not as tall as the building in the first post I know of a candidate for tallest grain elevator in the world. Here is an article talking about two supposedly 41 story grain elevators in Chicago on the shores of Lake Calumet.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug...tion/na-blago2
Blagojevich's name still towers over a bit of Chicago
A sign near the top of a 41-story grain elevator listing the disgraced politician as governor is too costly to remove, says a state official. The good news? 'It's flaking off.'
August 02, 2009|Kristen Schorsch
CHICAGO — At least one sign in Illinois -- welcoming drivers to the state's International Port District -- still proclaims Rod R. Blagojevich to be governor.

After Blagojevich was impeached and ousted from office following his arrest on federal corruption charges, Gov. Pat Quinn called for a cleansing of the Blagojevich name from signs across the state. The 32 such signs above Illinois Tollway plazas were removed immediately.

Yet the painted sign near the top of a 41-story grain elevator near Lake Calumet still bears the disgraced former governor's name.


"The good news is it's flaking off," said Tony Ianello, executive director of the port, which moves about 35 million tons of cargo a year, mostly steel. "The bad news is it's still up there."

Why so?

Because it's too expensive to remove, Ianello said.

Setting up scaffolding on the roof of the grain elevator to repaint the entire sign would cost about $5,000, and who knows who will be governor next year when Quinn's term is up, Ianello said.

"It would be fine if you could tell me who's going to win," Ianello said with a laugh.

He plans to repaint the sign next year anyway.

Until then, "Rod R. Blagojevich" remains a bit flaky.


I am familiar with these grain elevators on Lake Calumet and they are very very massive, bar none the biggest grain elevators I have ever seen and from measurements I have made on google earth they are almost 1,000 feet long each but I have trouble believing they are 41 stories high, even with Marina City floor to floor ratios (about as low as you can get with just over 9 feet per floor) would put the grain elevators at 371 feet tall. Granted there is not much to compare their height to but I would say they are certainly taller than a 15 story building two miles to the north and a 160 foot high landfill about a mile to the south. Given that the horizontal dimension of them is so big it might make the vertical seem smaller than it really is so I guess its possible it really could be that tall but there is no data from emporis or anywhere to confirm or deny any of this, I guess one could try to get information from the city of Chicago department of buildings or contact the Illinois International Port which gave the information for the above news article. It is hard to find good pictures of them on the internet but here is what I have found.

[muppet]

^Man they need to convert that, it's an amazing building imo.

[scalziand]

The Mitsubishi elevator testing facility is... 173m tall.
http://www.mitsubishi-elevator.com/e...t_tower01.html



Other elevator testing towers are the 154(or 158 depending on the source)m Otis test tower in Shibayama, Japan,

sheridan_grey

the 127m National Lift Tower in Northampton, England,

http://www.nationallifttower.co.uk/

the 117m Otis tower in Bristol, CT
http://www.otisworldwide.com/d70-safety.html

daveshumka

[Alpha]

What is the difference between a silo and a grain elevator?

As I know the tallest silo is Schapfenmühle Silo in Ulm. It has a roof height of 115 metres.

[Chicago103]

Originally Posted by Alpha

What is the difference between a silo and a grain elevator?

As I know the tallest silo is Schapfenmühle Silo in Ulm. It has a roof height of 115 metres.

In order for the grain elevator I picture to be truly 41 stories it would have to be pretty much exactly the same height as what you just pictured or 115 meters/377 feet tall. Compare the two, anyone good at scaling what do you think? The former is very vertical while the latter is very horizontal even if it is just as tall as the former.

[plinko]

^Not a chance those are '41 stories' tall. They look to be about the same size as the facility at the Port of Stockton in California, which top out at around 230ft.

It's just poor research on the part of the writer.