Most Beautiful or Influential Skyscrapers in the World (old or new)

[CaliNative]

Give a list of your top 5 (or 10) favorite or architecturally significant or influential or iconic new or old tall buildings on the planet. Not necessarily the grandest or tallest--just the most important. If you want, you can also list your least favorite. Certainly the Woolworth & Empire State Buildings would be on all the lists. But what about the "Lipstick" building--good or bad? Willis (Sears) Tower--good or bad? The London "Shard"--good or bad? L.A. City Hall, aka the "Daily Planet"--certainly very well known--I like it--but is it good? I would say yes, for a city hall. Good. Featured in every episode of "Dragnet" and "Superman".

[Centropolis]

world trade center

[The North One]

Pretty much every Art Deco skyscraper.

I think the Shanghai World Finance Center is a rare example of a modern masterpiece.

[mrnyc]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

world trade center

i dk about beautiful or even influential, but it certainly is made with some of the best new materials in the world, particularly the glass.

[rgarri4]

Most significant in no particular order:

Chrysler Building
Empire State building
World Trade Center (original)
Sears Tower
The John Hanckock (Chicago)
Inland steel building
Seagram Tower
The Wainwrite building
The Reliance building
The Burj Kalifa
HSBC Hong Kong

Least favorites:
The Shard
20 Fenchurch (walkie talkie)
Ryugyong Hotel
Abrāj al-Bayt
Tour Montparnasse
Portland Municipal Services Building
Harold Washington Library
Fang Yuan Mansion Shenyang
Genex Tower
Beijing Pangu Plaza

[dc_denizen]

General Electric Building (Lex. Avenue)
30 Rock (comcast building)
Chrysler Building
20 Exchange Place (downtown NY)
old AIG building (downtown NY)
Fischer Building (detroit)
Penobscot Building (detroit)
Guardian Building (detroit)
US Steel building (pittsburgh)
NY Times Building (new)
Buffalo City Hall
John Hancock Center
carbon and carbide building (chicago)

[austin242]

Beautiful And Influential.

Petronas Towers
Taipei 101
Empire State
Chrysler
Eiffel
Us Bank in LA
Trans America
Palace of Culture and Science
NYC Municipal Building
Bank of China Tower
Tower of Pisa

In Austin Specifically
Frost Tower- The beginning of our skyscraper boom.



Influential

Sears/Willis Tower
World Trade 1-2
Burj Dubai
Hancock

[ozone]

My top 5 architecturally significant or influential tall buildings.
1. Empire State Building (NYC)
2. Lever House (NYC)
3. Tribune Tower (Chicago)
4. Seagram Building (NYC)
5. Rockefeller Plaza (NYC)

A lot of well-known towers, particularly of the 2000's-10's, aren't all the influential even if they've spawned copycats, mainly because they aren't all that original. The most influential towers may have not been completely original either but they help to popularize a style or type. One offs or singular examples aren't really influential either even if they are widely-known. As for the most beautiful? That's more subjective. Are we talking in the abstract or in it's context?