Trump Trumps Other Buildings, Now 6th Largest
Chicago-based group changes measuring criteria, makes Trump sixth tallest
The Trump International Hotel and Tower in downtown Chicago is a 92-story structure.
The Trump Tower just got a promotion … the Chicago way.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international non-for-profit organization that – among other things – issues a list of tallest buildings in the world, recently changed its parameters to rank the Trump International Hotel and Towers as sixth tallest building in the world, according to the Chicago Tribune's Blair Kamin.
Guess where the CTBUH is based. That’s right, in Chicago.
The organization introduced new criteria for measuring building heights.
Height used to be “measured from the sidewalk outside the main entrance." But now “height is measured from the level of the lowest, significant, open-air, pedestrian entrance."
That means Trump Tower’s Riverwalk entrance, which 27 feet below the main entrance on 401 N. Wabash Ave., can be included as the base for the building. The tweak gives the building a boost among the world’s tallest structures, making it sixth overall. (1,381 ft.)
“Beginning in 2007, with the knowledge that Burj Dubai would be significantly taller than any structure ever built, the CTBUH Height Committee met to review the criteria by which we recognize and rank the height of buildings,” said Peter Weismantle, Chair of the CTBUH Height Committee and Director of Supertall Building Technology at Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago.
CTBUH has employs two other categories to measure building height.
The “Height to Tip” category includes every inch of antenna. Under that measure the Willis Tower ranks first at 1,729 feet (at least until the 2,600 feet-high Burj Dubai is completed), while the Trump Tower is eighth (1,389 ft.)
In another ranking, “Highest Occupied Floor,” the Trump lags behind in tenth position (1,116 ft.), while the Willis Tower is third (1,354 ft.), trailing behind the Shanghai World Financial Center (1,555 ft.) and the Taipei 101 (1,473 ft.).
The organization also decided to throw out it previous “Height to Roof” category.
“The roof category just doesn’t make sense anymore,” said CTBUH Executive Director Antony Wood. “In the era of the flat-topped modernist tower, a clearly defined roof could usually be identified, but in today’s tall building world – which is increasingly adopting elaborate forms, spires, parapets and other features at the top of the building – it is becoming difficult to determine a roof at all, even less to measure it.”
Too bad, because the Trump might have gained another few positions.
Posted Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009 - 10:21 AM CST
