New challengers to tallest building crown?

Except for Donald J. Trump's attempts every few years (witness: Trump's 1980's plan for NBC studios at Television City, now Trump Place; a 1980's plan for the Coliseum; a plan for the New York Stock Exchange on pilings at the end of Wall Street; and now Trump World Tower: the world's tallest residential building), New York builders no longer vie for the title of World's Tallest Building.

That hasn't stopped the rest of the world from trying and succeeding. There are attempts now in progress in Taiwan, Shanghai, Brazil, and even Chicago, where the Sears Tower currently reigns over the American Continents at 1,450 feet.

In September, 1998, European American Realty had plans approved by the Chicago Plan Commission for a 1,210-foot-tall building. Now, they are asking the Zoning Administrator to allow a taller and re-massed 112-story building. The structure is being designed by Adrian Smith of Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), and would rise 1,537 feet before being topped by two 463-foot antennas desired by a consortium of local television stations. That would bring the total to an even 2,000 feet.

By contrast, the structural spire part of Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, now considered the tallest building in the world, is 1,483 feet tall, even though the Sears Tower has a taller antenna and taller occupied floors. And if you're counting antennae, New York's World Trade Center is still the title holder, topping out at 1,728 feet.

If constructed as planned - as a mixed-use building with floors for parking, retail, commercial and residential - the new Windy City structure would also claim the Tallest Residential Units in the World, a title now held by those in the neighboring John Hancock Center, also designed by SOM.

As an update, the Taipai International Financial Center was to have broken ground in June in Taiwan. Designed by C.Y. Lee, Kumagai Gumi  and two Taiwanese firms have been awarded the construction contract. which is being managed by Turner. Toshiba-designed elevators will be the fastest in the world, running 1,000 meters a minute.

But that project was just scaled back from 1,667 feet to 1,286 feet after protests by area officials concerned about flight traffic. The developers, who will turn the building back over to the government after 70 years, had threatened to drop the entire project if they couldn't go up the full 101 floors. Apparently, the 90-story mark will provide enough return for the $606 million project, on which they have already sunk $30 million, China News reported.

In Australia, the Grollo Tower proposed for the Batman's Hill in the Docklands of Melbourne is back before the development board. That one is projected to rise 1,838 feet. Brothers Bruno and Rino Grollo have just turned over the company that built most of Melbourne's skyline to their three sons, all age 30 or younger, and divided up their assets.

Bruno Grollo's sons, Adam and Daniel, will run the development side, which includes the construction of a proposed 246-meter hotel in Sydney (about half the height of the 560-meter Grollo Tower proposal), and other high profile projects. Their father is expected to lend a hand, but according to last week's The Age, he will spend the majority of his time with his wife, who is ill.

Meanwhile, Eugene Kohn of Kohn Pederson Fox told the Young Men's/Women's Real Estate Association meeting in May that they are trying to construct the world's tallest building at 1,510 feet in Shanghai for Mort Bldg., a Japanese company.

The problem, Kohn said, is that Shanghai has 1,000 feet of mud. "When we drive piles that are 300 feet long, many disappear and end up in New York," he said, half seriously. "They are friction piles and we have to drive a lot, but it drives the building out of the soil. For a tall building, that's not a good idea. We have 20 feet of concrete just to keep the building from rising."

There are other issues: Mort was counting on obtaining much of the $750 million construction money from 35 Japanese investors who are now strapped from dealing with their own finances, and the Asian Wall Street Journal reported in early June that work on the project was stalled.

It may be just as well. To keep the architects and engineers alert, the area is an active earthquake zone. Kohn said the mud acts as if it were Jello, and responds at a different frequency than the rest of the earth around it, playing havoc with the way the building structure would respond to an earthquake.

Mother Earth has another trick: the winds are so severe, Kohn explained, "it could blow the building over." The architects therefore created a 50-meter hole at the top of the chisel-like tower to let the wind biow through, and if ever completed, a daring pilot could actually fly through with a 747.

The huge circle was designed to represent unity and the Moon Gate, a common theme in Chinese gardens, because the Chinese believe the sky is round and the earth square. But the Mayor of Shanghai wouldn't approve the design because when he saw the circle, it looked like the Rising Sun of the Japanese flag. Sources said the mayor declared that the Rising Sun would never rise over Taiwan.

To appease him, Kohn said the architects created a bridge across the bottom to break up the circle.

"That's where James Bond will fall off and ultimately hit the ground 1,500 feet below," Kohn added. Probably falling out of the 747.