William Jenney was the engineer who helped build the Home Insurance Building. He realized the possibilities that steel frames could offer. Some people consider him the father of the skyscraper.
Soon after his building was finished, builders in Chicago and New York City began copying and improving on the idea of building up. Builders in these cities and others would also begin competing for the title of “tallest building.”
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BOB DOUGHTY: The Empire State Building in New York City is probably one of the most famous skyscrapers in the world. It held the title of tallest building for over forty years. It was completed in nineteen thirty-one and stands three hundred eighty-one meters tall.
The next building to hold the record no longer exists. One World Trade Center tower in New York City was completed in nineteen seventy-two. It measured four hundred seventeen meters. It was destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two thousand one. Chicago’s Sears Tower is now called the Willis Tower. It became the world’s tallest building in nineteen seventy-four, at four hundred forty-two meters.
The next records for tallest buildings are in other countries. The two Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia measure four hundred fifty-two meters. They were followed by the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan, which is five hundred eight meters tall.
STEVE EMBER: The most recent addition to this list is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. This building measures eight hundred twenty-eight meters in height. It cost an estimated one and a half billion dollars to create. It contains space for apartments, offices, a restaurant, hotel and Muslim religious center. The building’s footprint is shaped like a “Y”, with three wings extending from its center. This design was influenced by the shape of a desert flower that grows in the area.The building’s Web site says that as many as twelve thousand people were working on the building at the same time.
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