The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, in charge of overseeing the global measuring standards for tall buildings, is reporting that more skyscrapers were built in 2014 than any year before.
The previous record of 81 skyscrapers built in 2011 was shattered in 2014 with 97 buildings of 656 feet (200 meters) or taller being constructed.
Eleven of the 97 buildings in 2014 are classified as “supertalls”, meaning they are at least 984 feet (300 meters) high. One World Trade Center, which is a supertall, represents the tallest building of the year.
In fact, One World Trade Center is now the third tallest skyscraper in the world.
The council credits the skyscraper boom last year to a couple things, saying in a report, “Now that six years have passed since the global economic crisis / recession began in 2008, and given the long gestation and construction periods common to tall buildings … we are almost certainly seeing a post-recessionary recovery.”
The council added that China continues to play a pivotal role in driving the rise of skyscrapers as the country continues to build straight up in many major cities. China alone accounted for 58 of the 97 skyscrapers built in 2014, the seventh year in a row the Chinese have built more skyscrapers than any other country.
This “indicat[es] that the massive plan to urbanize the country — requiring the urban relocation of some 250 million people — is underway,” says the council.
