Design Decadence

There is something so beautiful about skyscrapers. Dating back to the Great Pyramid of Giza, people have been awed and inspired to build structures roughly 80 times their size. With the power of modern engineering, technology and human invention, skyscrapers continue to grow taller and more architecturally aesthetic.
The tallest building in Austin is the Austonian building downtown, which stands 683 feet tall. This residential building spans 56 floors and asides from skyscrapers in Dallas and Houston, it is the tallest all-residential building in the state of Texas.

However, the Austonian looks like considerably smaller than most other skyscrapers in the world. Take for example, the Empire State Building in New York City. It was built in 1931 and stands 1,454 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the world between 1931 and 1972. In the early 1930s, the cost to construct the building was $40,948,900, which would be the equivalent of about $500 million today). Since the 70s, the competition to build taller buildings has increased steadily. The north tower of the World Trade Center passed the Empire State Building in height standing at 1,494 feet tall.

Today, the tallest man-made skyscraper is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which was completed in 2010 and stands at 2,723 feet tall.

The project cost $1.5 billion to complete and contains the world’s highest mosque, the world’s highest nightclub, the world’s highest restaurant and the world’s highest observation desk. What is our infatuation with building taller and taller? How long until the Burj Khalifa’s height is surpassed?