The tallest building in the world, by year
Fifteen buildings have held the record since the first steel-framed office block went up in Chicago. Four of them no longer stand, and one of them held the title for about a month.
The chain of record holders
The list below runs from the building usually credited as the first skyscraper to the one that holds the record now. New York City owns nine of the fifteen entries and held the record without a break from 1890 to 1973, the longest run any city has had. Chicago took it twice, 83 years apart. Since 1998 it has been held in Asia.
| Building | Place | Years | Height | Note | Scale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home Insurance Building | Chicago, USA | 1885–1890 | 42 m | Disputed. Demolished 1931. | |
| New York World Building | New York City, USA | 1890–1894 | 94 m | Demolished 1955. | |
| Manhattan Life Insurance Building | New York City, USA | 1894–1899 | 106 m | Demolished 1930. | |
| Park Row Building | New York City, USA | 1899–1908 | 119 m | ||
| Singer Building | New York City, USA | 1908–1909 | 187 m | Demolished 1968. | |
| Metropolitan Life Tower | New York City, USA | 1909–1913 | 213 m | ||
| Woolworth Building | New York City, USA | 1913–1930 | 241 m | ||
| 40 Wall Street | New York City, USA | 1930–1930 | 283 m | Held the record for about a month. | |
| Chrysler Building | New York City, USA | 1930–1931 | 319 m | ||
| Empire State Building | New York City, USA | 1931–1972 | 381 m | The longest reign, 41 years. | |
| World Trade Center, North Tower | New York City, USA | 1972–1973 | 417 m | Destroyed 11 September 2001. | |
| Sears Tower | Chicago, USA | 1973–1998 | 442 m | Renamed Willis Tower in 2009. | |
| Petronas Twin Towers | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | 1998–2004 | 452 m | First holder outside the United States since 1885. | |
| Taipei 101 | Taipei, Taiwan | 2004–2010 | 508 m | ||
| Burj Khalifa | Dubai, UAE | 2010–now | 828 m |
Why the measuring rule decides the list
Architectural height is the number that settles a record: ground level to the structural top, with spires included and antennas, flagpoles and signage left out. The Council on Vertical Urbanism applies that rule because a spire is part of the design the architect drew, while an antenna is equipment a broadcaster bolted on afterward and can take off again.
The 1998 handover shows what the rule costs. The Petronas Twin Towers beat the Sears Tower by ten meters on their spires alone. Chicago had the higher roof, the higher top occupied floor and twenty more floors, and its antennas reached 527 m. None of that counted, and the record left the United States for the first time in 113 years. Sears Tower staff were unhappy enough about it that the building's owners pushed for a recount, and lost.
Pick a different rule and you get a different list. Measured to the highest occupied floor, Chicago would have kept the title until Taipei 101 opened in 2004. Measured to the tip, the Empire State Building with its broadcast mast would outrank several buildings that officially passed it.
The 1930 race, and a spire kept in a shed
Two New York towers went up at the same time in 1929, each designed to beat the other. H. Craig Severance was building 40 Wall Street for the Bank of the Manhattan Company; William Van Alen was building the Chrysler Building four kilometers uptown. Severance revised his plans upward whenever Chrysler's floor count was announced, and in April 1930 he topped out at 283 m and claimed the record.
Van Alen had assembled a 56 m stainless steel spire inside the Chrysler Building's crown without telling anyone. In October 1929 it was raised through the roof in about ninety minutes and riveted into place, which put the building at 319 m. When Chrysler opened in May 1930, 40 Wall Street had held the title for roughly a month. Both buildings were then passed by the Empire State Building, finished in 1931 at 381 m, which held the record for 41 years: longer than any other building, and longer than the five holders before it put together.
What held the record before 1885
Height records existed long before office towers. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest structure humans had built for roughly 3,800 years, until Lincoln Cathedral's spire passed it around 1311. Cologne Cathedral was the last church to lead, for four years from 1880. The Washington Monument took it in 1884 and the Eiffel Tower in 1889 at 330 m, a figure no building matched until 1931.
None of those appear in the table, because a building needs floors people occupy continuously. The Eiffel Tower is a structure, not a building, which is also why the 629 m KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota was taller than every building on earth from 1963 to 2008 without ever holding this record. The question of which building was the first skyscraper turns on the same kind of definition.
When the record changes next
The Burj Khalifa has led since 2010 at 828 m, which is already the second-longest reign in the table. Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia is designed to pass 1,000 m. Work started in 2013, stopped in 2018 when the contractor left, and resumed in 2025. Until it tops out it changes nothing: the list counts finished buildings, which is why the Chicago Spire, approved for 610 m and never built above its foundation hole, is absent.
The pattern worth noticing is how uneven the jumps are. From 1885 to 1931 the record rose nine times in 46 years. From 1931 to 1998 it moved three times and gained 71 m in total. Then the Burj Khalifa added 320 m at once, more than the Chrysler Building's entire height. The current record holder has its own page, and the twelve famous skyscrapers include six buildings from this table.