Taipei 101

[Fabb]

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/682azna0429.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/11152003_04_24n2.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/682bluesky.jpg

... from skyscraperpage.com

[Kris]

Truly grotesque. Laughable.

[Fabb]

Yes. That's exactly what I thought, too.
A couple of years ago.

[Kris]

What made you change your mind?

(Edited by Christian Wieland at 12:34 pm on April 30, 2003)

[Fabb]

I was really disturbed by all the tacky ornaments and the weird proportions of the base.
Well, the aesthetic quality of the building is clearly the dizzying repetition of the 8-story sections.
Nothing like the recent designs of big architectural firms.

[NoyokA]

Today everyone reffers to this thing as a stack of chinese take-out...

But I was the one who started that many years back. Before construction started, and Im not asking for credit or anything, but I find it amusing how that caught on.

[Kris]

Decorated containers piled on top of a matching podium.


(Edited by Christian Wieland at 5:15 pm on April 30, 2003)

[Fabb]

Eight of them ! It's a feat.


(Edited by Fabb at 5:39 pm on April 30, 2003)

[Kris]

No. Engineering today can do a lot more. It's up to architecture to make it extraordinary.

[Fabb]

You know engineering alone can do nothing. It needs the help of a political vision, a healthy economy, sound finances... and a good architect.

So far, Taipei succeeded.

[TLOZ Link5]

All it needs now are a few companions for infill and context.

[Kris]

Where's the good architect? His product looks a little stiff to me. This only illustrates the vanity of erecting the world's tallest building.

[DominicanoNYC]

Actually I like this building. The crwon doesn't look great, but everthing else is okay to me.

[Fabb]

The crown still has to be built. It'll contain a damping mechanism.

I'm glad Taipei was motivated to build the world's tallest building. The reason is not merely vanity, though. I won't get into the details. (Too political).

[Lightning Homer]

Nice ! Looks like nothing else in the world, I mean as a building. I like pagodas, I'm sure you guessed, he-he !


(Edited by Lightning Homer at 12:29 pm on May 1, 2003)

[dbhstockton]

I'm glad Taipei was motivated to build the world's tallest building. The reason is not merely vanity, though. I won't get into the details. (Too political).

Ahh...I didn't even think of that.

[Kris]

China will soon have much better to show off.

[TLOZ Link5]

Taipei 101 is more than twice the height of the current tallest building in Taipei, which in turn is a little more than twice the height of the second-tallest building.

I would liken it to the Singer Building, which far outstripped the Park Row, the former tallest in downtown (612 feet to 399); or perhaps the MetLife Insurance Tower at Madison Square, due to its relative isolation from the rest of the tall buildings in the city.

[NyC MaNiAc]

I feel affraid that I couldn't find Taipei on a globe, and it will soon have the WTB.

It seems quite alone...no other big buildings to speak of.

[Lightning Homer]

It looks great, and all that chinese stuff is also intended to have a good feng-shui for good luck and good wealth. What else ? It also have the same color as the sky and reminds me of a palm-tree. No, no, we shouldn't criticize that, as we know it's cheap to talk !

[TLOZ Link5]

Quote: from NyC MaNiAc on 11:35 pm on May 1, 2003
I feel affraid that I couldn't find Taipei on a globe, and it will soon have the WTB.

It seems quite alone...no other big buildings to speak of.


Heh. *I couldn't find Kuala Lumpur on a map until the Petronas Towers were finished, so you're not alone.

BTW, Taipei is on the northern coast of Taiwan, an island off of southeastern China.

[NyC MaNiAc]

Hopefully, I will get the privilege in a couple years to not have to try to find the WTB at all. With luck, it'll be at my starting point...

Planet Earth--North America--East Coast--New York State--New York City--Lower Manhattan.
That's where it deserves to be, agreed? :)

NyC MaNiAc

[Lightning Homer]

Well, TLOZ, I'm sure he was kidding. But if you, reader, you don't know where Taipei -Taiwan- is, here's a tip : you see Japan ? If not, you need a pair of glasses before you go further. Got it ? Yeahhhhh. Now, go south, south, south -if you handle your map the right way, your finger should go down and down. Now look : you should see what looks like a middle-sized island. Actually, it's as large as many US states. You've got it. Itwas also called Formose. That's the place the Emperor of Japan has been exiled just after the war.

[dbhstockton]

If you don't know where it is I hope that you're at least still in school.

[NyC MaNiAc]

LoL, dbh...

I know where Taiwan is...I think... :)

LoL, thank you Homer...

[Fabb]

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/1193tfc1.jpg

[NyC MaNiAc]

I think it looks alright.

[TLOZ Link5]

Me too. *it's just too tall and isolated in reference to the rest of the city.

It needs neighbors.

[Kris]

It needs surgery.

[Lightning Homer]

It looks so much like a palm tree, I almost expect this to bend when it's windy. Pretty scarry, uh ? But I still like this thing, it looks funny, I mean it's a building full of humorous beauty and that's why I like it.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Looks like they had the plans upside down.

[TLOZ Link5]

Hush, detractors. *=P

[Fabb]

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/500/746taipei101resize22.jpg

Far Eastern Economic Review



BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

On Top of the World, for Now

In Taipei, one of the most temblor-prone places on the planet, the world's tallest building is quickly ascending into the heavens. If a big quake strikes, how will Taipei 101's structure stay standing?


By Jason Dean/TAIPEI

Issue cover-dated June 12, 2003


STANDING ONE APRIL afternoon on the partially built 71st floor of Taipei 101, which will soon become the world's tallest skyscraper, this writer was struck by a few observations. The first was just how supremely the building towers over every other inch of Taiwan's capital, save for the mountains surrounding it. The second was relief that this writer wasn't the construction worker dangling expertly out over the concrete ledge, hundreds of metres above the ground. And the third was that such a lofty altitude might not be the best spot to at which to experience Taiwan's next big earthquake.

TAIPEI 101 FACTS

• Height: 508 metres (including spire)
• Highest working floor: 439 metres
• Total cost: $1.67 billion
• Office space: 198,347 square metres
• Retail space: 77,033 square metres
• Parking space: 1,862 cars and 3,045 motorcycles
• Observation-deck elevator speed: Fastest in the world at 1,010 metres per minute, 35 seconds to the top

When construction of Taipei 101 is completed next year, it will stand more than 50 metres taller than the world's current skyscraper supreme, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, instantly earning Taipei an unfamiliar listing among the locations of the world's great architectural and engineering wonders. Taipei 101 will reshape the Taiwan capital's skyline, and its property market. The shopping centre in its lower floors, to open this November, will house 162 shops and restaurants in 77,033 square metres, and the full 101-storey tower will open in October 2004 with 198,346 square metres of office space.

Taipei 101's reign as top global colossus will not last long. It is but one of several super skyscrapers in the works in Asia--proof that the ego-driven tall-building craze is alive and well in this region in a way that few might have imagined immediately after the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001. In China, already home to the world's fourth-biggest building, the Shanghai World Financial Centre is now under construction. Its builders say it will be bigger than Taipei 101 when completed in 2007. Hong Kong and Seoul have plans to construct buildings that will contend with it.

Not to be left out, architects in Japan, have drawn up plans for X-Seed 4000, which would soar a full four kilometres into the heavens--taller than Mount Fuji. Thankfully for the world's acrophobics (this correspondent included), X-Seed 4000 has yet to make it further than the drawing board.

Not surprisingly, the developers of Taipei 101 started thinking about the safety of their structure even before the attacks in 2001 illustrated how big buildings can come down disastrously. One of the most earthquake-prone places on the planet, Taiwan is, after all, hardly the ideal place to build the world's tallest building. It is hit by countless small quakes every year, and the far rarer big ones can be devastating. A quake of magnitude 7.3 centred in the heart of the island on September 21, 1999, killed at least 2,415 people and caused more than $11.5 billion in damage.

Then there are the typhoons that pelt Taiwan several times a year, with winds reaching 180 kilometres per hour or more. It's not surprising that few buildings in Taipei at present stand more than 20-30 storeys tall. The biggest now rises just 51 storeys, or 244 metres, and it towers over its neighbours (though the southern city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest, has an 85-storey building).

So why build such a behemoth here? In fact, Taipei 101 didn't start out as the world's tallest building on paper. In 1997, the Taipei city government requested bids for a new financial centre to be constructed on a build-operate-transfer basis, meaning private companies would put up the cash in exchange for the right to collect rents for a fixed period of time. It was intended as a trophy tower, to help make Taipei a regional financial centre.

The Taipei Financial Centre Corp., a consortium of 14 businesses including the Taiwan Stock Exchange and several big financial groups, won the tender with a plan for a three-building complex with a 66-storey tower and two smaller buildings on either side. "From there," says architect C.P. Wang, "the building started growing."

Pride was its fuel. When the big-money men backing the project looked at the plans, none of them wanted to be in the smaller buildings. The head of the stock exchange and top executives at Chinatrust Financial Holding, part of Taiwan's giant Koos Group family empire, demanded space in the main tower, says Harace Lin, Taipei Financial Centre Corp.'s president. The blueprint building kept rising until it reached 101 floors, with the blessing of then-mayor, now president, Chen Shui-bian.

Despite the possible seismic risks, Taipei 101's developers, architects, and structural engineers say they are confident that they are building a super-safe skyscraper. They say the jade-green tower will be able to withstand both the wicked gales of summer storms and the kind of quake that comes once every 2,500 years. And, while no building can be completely impervious to terrorist bombs or aircraft impacts, they say Taipei 101 would bear up better in a September 11-style catastrophe than did New York's World Trade Centre.

To make it that way, the builders used a combination of cutting-edge technology, old-fashioned physics, and sheer brute force. "There's no other such building in the world at this time being built in an active seismic zone with such typhoons," says Dennis Poon, a consultant on Taipei 101 from New York-based Thornton-Tomasetti Group, one of the world's leading structural engineering firms. Thornton-Tomasetti helped design Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Towers and helped investigate the collapse of the World Trade Centre. With Taipei 101, "the owner has been very clear to us that this building has to be very safe," he says, "and I'm sure this building is well designed and has a lot of structural integrity."

Ron Klemencic, a structural engineer who heads the U.S.-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the internationally accepted arbiter of the world's tallest high-rise trophy, agrees. He says, in fact, that skyscrapers in general are "actually about the safest place you could be" in an earthquake, and that Taipei 101's structure seems well designed to tolerate both quakes and powerful winds. He adds: "Taiwan's building codes are even more strict than those in the U.S."

STILL STANDING AFTER A QUAKE
Already, the building has been put to the test. A magnitude 6.8 earthquake in March 2002 toppled two cranes atop the structure, killing the two operators and three other construction workers and injuring about 10 others. Despite the tragedy, however, the structure itself held. "That was proof that the building works," says Thornton-Tomasetti's Poon.

So how does a building that tall stay stable? To begin with, Taipei 101's structure is different from that of many modern skyscrapers, which use variations of the so-called "tube" designs--methods the architects of Taipei 101 rejected as much for aesthetics as for safety reasons.

The World Trade Centre towers, for example, used closely spaced narrow steel columns and beams to form a giant external tube. But that design means windows must be thin (they were just 50 centimetres wide in the New York buildings). The folks in Taipei wanted grand views for their building. The Sears Tower in Chicago uses a bundled-tube structure--clusters of tubes arranged along a ticktacktoe shaped grid--but that requires a lot of structural walls throughout the building that slice up floor space. The Taipei 101 folks wanted to allow for big, open offices. Another option: the 100-storey John Hancock building in Chicago, which has a reinforced-tube structure. That might have worked, except that giant X-shaped exterior reinforcing columns are bad for feng shui--the Chinese form of geomancy that evaluates the shape and position of man-made structures in relation to their environment--so the idea was nixed.

Wang and his associates settled on a structural design whose name also conveys the project's outsized ambitions: a mega-frame. This involves eight mega-columns arranged around the building's perimeter, each one a rectangular tube encasing high-performance concrete in steel plating 50-80 millimetres thick, which makes them both sturdy and fire-resistant. These columns are connected at each floor with special "dog-bone"-shaped joints to numerous interior columns that are similarly constructed. Then, every eighth floor is used to house triangular horizontal trusses that further stabilize the structure. These vacant levels also function as fire-proofed "refuge" floors, where the building's 10,000 or so occupants could gather in the case of a disaster. "It's actually more like an 11-storey building than a 90-plus storey building," says Shaw Shieh, president of Taipei-based Evergreen Consulting Engineering, which led the structural design team on Taipei 101.

So the structure made the tower sturdy against seismic forces. But its designers still had to deal with the wind. All modern skyscrapers are built to bend a bit, but too much swaying can make people on the upper floors sick. To determine how much a building will move, designers build a scale replica and put it in a wind tunnel. With Taipei 101, the designers then decided they needed something called a tuned-mass damper, or TMD--a giant internal weight that shifts against the movement of the building. The technique has become fairly common since it was first used in New York's Citicorp Centre in 1977. But Citicorp's damper was a big concrete block hidden from sight in the building's top floors. The architects of Taipei 101 decided to make the TMD part of the interior. So visitors to the observation deck and restaurant on the upper floors will be able to see the 660-tonne gold-painted pendulum suspended from the 92nd floor.

None of which safety factors this writer understood while standing on the 71st floor. So, having learned about them, this acrophobic journalist now believes Taipei 101 stands a good chance of surviving the next big quake. But he'd still rather be somewhere else when it happens. Preferably far, far away.

[alejo]

horrible!

[TLOZ Link5]

Come to think of it, it does look somewhat gaudy.

[Lightning Homer]

Do you mean... Gaudi ?
TLOZ, c'mon !

[DominicanoNYC]

Building the WTB in Taipei 101 is somewhat ridiculous. Accodrding to skyscrapers.com Taipei has only 90 highrise buildings. It's second tallest building is a whole 864ft shorter than the Taipei 101. I like the Taipei 101 but all of this really doesn't satisfy me. We need to build the WTB here in NYC now or small cities like these will take the attention away from NYC. :( Because we have great architecture but a lot of people are more interested in height. Hey, it's opening the month of my b-day:)

(Edited by DominicanoNYC at 8:16 pm on June 10, 2003)

[TLOZ Link5]

Kuala Lumpur was relatively low-rise before the Petronas Towers were finished, as was Shanghai until Jin Mao came along. *I would bet that, once Taipei 101 is finished, many more tall buildings will be erected elsewhere in the city.

[DominicanoNYC]

I would hope so because a skyline like that is so strange.

[Fabb]

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/11152003_07_11copy.jpg

[NoyokA]

When will the lamp shade be added?

[Jasonik]

snicker...

nice on/off buttons

[Fabb]

Hey ! refrain you impulses.
Let live the new kid in town. It'll be famous one day.

[NoyokA]

the new kid in what town?

I dont care about Taipei.

[TLOZ Link5]

I heard that Seoul just approved a 1,900-footer that will be more than twice as tall as the current tallest there.

[Kris]

Famous? It'll be lost among the other cheesy contenders.

[Fabb]

Being second or third never prevented John Hancock or Chrysler from being famous.

[Kris]

How dare you compare those masterpieces to this shit!

[Fabb]

Tacky ornaments, unusual proportions, record breaking height... you've got the exact portrait of the Chrysler building. Not style-wise of course.

I think I even remember someone calling the Chrysler building a shit compared to the Woolworth building.

Anyway, more pictures :

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/11152003_07.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/2177155-5559_img_1_.jpg

http://skyscraperpage.com/gallery/data/556/2177155-5538_img.jpg

The interior makes me think of the works by the Swiss designer Gigger. He's the man who created the aesthetics of the Alien movies.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The engine room of Captain Nemo's Nautilus.

[Fabb]

That's right.
I like that kind of skeletal structure. I find it amusing.

[NoyokA]

Design wise it will go nameless. Its claim to fame will be its engineering.

[ZippyTheChimp]

You asked, Stern.
http://www.pbase.com/image/19041950.jpg

This might work
http://www.pbase.com/image/19042011.jpg

[NoyokA]

Thanks;

Architecturally speaking this building is a joke.

This building has also been compared to a stack of Chinese take-out, probably Chop Suey.

http://galleries.soaringtowers.org/albums/Stern/11152003_07.sized.jpg

[TLOZ Link5]

Don't those take-out boxes also have little pictures of pagodas in red ink?

[NYatKNIGHT]

Well I for one will never look at that building the same way again!

[ZippyTheChimp]

I missed the chopsticks earlier. :) *So that's the communications antenna?

Feng shui gone awry.

[Zoe]

Taipei tower takes height record
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- An office tower in Taipei, Taiwan, has overtaken Malaysia's Petronas Towers as the world's tallest building.

The Taipei 101 tower achieved its full 508-meter (1,674 feet) height Friday, with the addition of a huge metal spike capping the 101-floor structure.
Although the building remains under construction and will not officially open until late 2004, the 60-meter spire pushed the tower's height well above the 452-meter high twin towers in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Taipei's Mayor Ma Ying-jeou says he hopes the new structure will become his city's trademark icon.
"I have no doubt that it can bring Taipei to the world and bring the world to Taipei," Ma said at the tower's topping-out ceremony Friday.
The designers of the Taipei 101 tower say it has been built to withstand typhoons and earthquakes, both of which have struck the Taiwan capital in recent years.
Taiwan, which straddles an active fault line of the western Pacific regularly experiences earthquakes.

High ambitions
In September 1999 a powerful quake of magnitude hit the capital, killing more than 2,400 people and destroying or damaging over 50,000 buildings.
The architects behind the new Taipei 101 tower say it will easily ride out a quake of similar strength, or an even more powerful one.
Malaysia's Petronas Towers: The world's tallest -- until Friday.
The completion of the tower's full height comes as many people around the world continue to question the need for soaring skyscrapers in the wake of the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center (WTC).
Indeed, one future contender to unseat the Taipei 101 from its position as the world's tallest building is the proposed Freedom Tower, designed to replace the WTC.
Although that has yet to get the go-ahead, many New Yorkers say they do not want the tower to be built in their city fearing it will prove a target for future attacks.
Meanwhile Shanghai is continuing work on what may take over from the Taipei 101 as the world's tallest building -- the Shanghai World Financial Center, due for completion around 2008

From CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/10/17/taiwan.tower/index.html

[SUPREMO]

Finally Taipei has the world's tallest building. Honestly I don't find it's architecture that fascinating although the skyscraper resembles that of a glass pagoda.

But the skyscraper stands out pretty much on Taipei's skyline where most of it's buildings are less than 250 ft.

[larven]

An image below that has been doing th rounds in the world's press lately showing the building at its full 508m height.

I hated this building when I first saw the renderings but rather bizzarely have become quite fond of it as of late. Also some of my friends who couldn't care less about skyscrapers and architecture have seen this image in their newspaper and been astounded by the building whether it be the sheer scale of it or the unusual profile.

http://cakili.image.pbase.com/image/22428730/large.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

What if it encourages contextual companions?

[Jasonik]

Like this?
http://www.batteryparkcity.org/images/puryear.gif

[Gulcrapek]

Hehehe. Battery Park Taipei.

But no, I don't see a twin or family of lookalikes emerging..

[TLOZ Link5]

I like those sculptures, though.

I'd like to see Taipei having a large, respectable skyline in the next few years.

[larven]

http://image.pbase.com/u34/albertjou/large/22415032.IMG_0573.jpg

[emmeka]

despite what most prople are saying about the building, this will most probably be taipei's 'big break'. from now on it will have a much higher status among cities.

[tmg]

Metal Falls Off Taiwan Building, Hurts 2
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 21, 2003


Filed at 9:51 a.m. ET

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Pieces of metal fell off the world's tallest building Friday, injuring at least two passers-by and littering the grounds of an elementary school, an engineer and local TV reported.

The accident in Taipei prompted authorities to shut down a mall that's attached to the partially constructed building, expected to open next year. The shopping center, which opened one week ago, would remain closed for at least 24 hours, officials said.

Engineer Lin Pei-yuan told TVBS cable news that a worker had been moving a cart with the metal construction materials from the 90th to the 91st floor of the ``Taipei 101'' building -- named after its number of floors.

The wind might have caused the worker to lose control of the cart and spill some of the materials, Lin said.

A taxi driver showed his broken window on the right front passenger side of his car. He told TVBS at least five of the objects hit his vehicle, but no one in the car had been hurt.

Two passers-by had been taken to hospital with slight injuries, TVBS reported. Other TV stations reported up to five injuries, but officials weren't confirming the numbers.

Teachers at Hsinyi Elementary School found 28 pieces on the grounds, school official Lili Lee told CTI cable news.

``The sound was enormous, the pupils all heard it, but it was class time so all the children were inside,'' Lee said.

Engineer Lin said that workers didn't think the wind was strong enough to pose a threat.

``Today, the wind is not that strong that work is impossible,'' Lin said.

He didn't say what the L-shaped and rectangular metal pieces were used for. Cable stations showed objects of different shapes and lengths, the largest about 30 centimeter (1 foot) long.

Last month, engineers installed the pinnacle on the 500-meter-tall (1,600-foot-tall) building.

Taipei 101 is more than 50 meters (165 feet) taller than the world's former highest office building, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The highest freestanding tower remains the CN Tower, a 550-meter (1,800-foot) communications structure and outlook point in Toronto.

[Kris]

January 11, 2004

Taiwan Close to Reaching a Lofty Goal

By KEITH BRADSHER

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/11/international/11taiw184.diet.jpg
The Taipei 101 building is to be the world's tallest when its tower opens in December.

TAIPEI, Taiwan — When the Nationalists retreated here from the mainland at the end of China's civil war in 1949, they did not intend to stay long. The architecture shows it.

Rows of short, dreary concrete buildings line the older streets. Boxlike, 10-story glass office buildings with no pizazz flank avenues in the newer business districts. Typhoons are a frequent threat and earthquakes a constant menace — 2,455 people died in a quake here just over four years ago that destroyed 51,000 homes and damaged an additional 53,000.

Not surprisingly, only a handful of buildings have more than 30 stories — the tallest has 52. But that has not stopped a coalition of local tycoons, politicians, builders and architects from building what is about to become the world's tallest building, a 101-story tower with the shape of an abstract pagoda that soars past previous holders of the title, the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Sears Tower in Chicago. (Plans for the site of the former World Trade Center in Manhattan call for an even taller building, although some argue it may not qualify as tallest because part of it will be more structural framework than habitable building.)

Hydraulic jacks on the roof moved the Taipei building's spire into place in October, and the final windows to finish enclosing the 1,667-foot-high building were installed in early November. The building, Taipei 101, is to open in December. Although it trails the Sears Tower in the height of antennas on top of its roof, it exceeds the Sears building in the height of its uppermost occupied floor and has a higher spire than the Petronas Towers.

As with other very tall buildings in Asia, the construction of this one is as much about politics and pride as commerce. "As the world's highest building, Taipei 101 will attract attention to Taiwan's excellence, and carve `Taiwan first' in the minds of people around the globe," President Chen Shui-bian said in a written response to a question about the project.

Mr. Chen was the mayor of Taipei in the spring of 1997 when he began pressing to have a skyscraper built in the new neighborhood he was creating close to City Hall, on the city's eastern outskirts. He called Lin Hong-ming, one of Taiwan's wealthiest construction tycoons, who said he had rounded up the financing for the project in only a couple of days by contacting the leaders of a half dozen of the country's wealthiest families. The cost of the building is $1.7 billion.

Mr. Chen was a rising star then in the Democratic Progressive Party, which was starting to challenge the Nationalist Party's half-century monopoly on power. Tycoons who had grown rich under the Nationalists had an incentive to seek warm ties with the new party.

The initial plan was for a 66-story skyscraper with two 20-story buildings in front of it. Mr. Lin said the planned tenants for the 20-story buildings, China Trust and the Taiwan Stock Exchange, each wanted to be in the main building, though, so their office space was stacked on top of the original building.

"It was never really our intention to build the tallest building in the world," he said.

Mr. Chen's election as president in 2000 gave the project extra momentum. The Asian financial crisis in late 1997 and through 1998 did not derail the project, nor did the end of the dot-com boom, although both caused serious economic problems in Taiwan.

Just as the Rockefellers built Rockefeller Center inexpensively during the Great Depression, hiring workers cheaply, the tycoons here have found construction workers and companies eager to work even at reduced pay on one of the few big projects left.

Mr. Lin describes the building as the most important of his life and has pursued it with single-minded focus. Creditors have seized some of his family's other properties, which have suffered from the general downturn in the local real estate market over the last two years, but the Lin family has not reduced its stake in Taipei 101.

"I am 100 percent devoted to this project," he said in an interview in a barren, unpainted, makeshift office a third of the way up the tower.

Safety has been a big concern, and the Sept. 11 attacks raised fresh worries. C. P. Wang, the architect, said that while computer modeling of such an attack was difficult, the builders had designed Taipei 101 so that it should be able to stand for at least a couple of hours longer than the World Trade Center towers did and might not collapse at all under similar circumstances.

The World Trade Center's structure relied on many slender columns in each floor. Taipei 101 has an immense frame with eight pillars of steel and reinforced concrete, each measuring 11 feet by 8 feet at the base, rising inside the corners of the building.

Even a passenger jet moving at full speed should not be able to break one of the pillars, Mr. Wang said, but if it did, the other pillars should be able to support the building.

To anchor the building against earthquakes, builders drilled down through 200 feet of dirt and then 65 feet into the bedrock. Taipei lies in a bowl between mountains, and the soil is prone to shimmying like gelatin in an earthquake, but the bedrock moves less.

For all the precautions, the construction has been dogged by problems. An earthquake in 2002 caused two cranes on Taipei 101 to fall, killing five workers. A small steel panel fell from the top on Nov. 21, bouncing down the side of the building and lightly grazing a passer-by on the street.

On the roof now, the winds are surprisingly strong even on a clear day, as the building is higher than the surrounding hills. For stability during typhoons and other high winds, the building has a 727-ton solid steel ball hanging from eight cables inside the 89th floor.

Not much larger than a minivan, the ball is designed to act as a pendulum, offsetting up to 40 percent of the swaying in the tower's top floors.

Such balls, known as tuned mass dampers, are common in buildings over 70 floors, but are usually in mechanical rooms where visitors do not see them.

Already installed, the ball in Taipei 101 will be painted gold and will be the centerpiece of a bar and restaurant, so that patrons can watch it move. The ball is designed to swing back and forth up to five feet during a severe typhoon. Bumpers will prevent it from swinging any farther and striking barflies.

Mr. Wang said that even though the building was designed to withstand storms seen only once in a century, few people would be around to see the ball swing violently, given corporate and government policies of dismissing workers when a typhoon approaches.

"In the case of a real strong typhoon," he said, "I would recommend people go home."

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/10/international/11taiwGr600.jpg

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[ZippyTheChimp]

Already installed, the ball in Taipei 101 will be painted gold and will be the centerpiece of a bar and restaurant, so that patrons can watch it move. The ball is designed to swing back and forth up to five feet during a severe typhoon. Bumpers will prevent it from swinging any farther and striking barflies.

Hmmm, only four feet. Time for one more mai-tai. 8)

[Kris]

The World’s Tallest Building (for Now) (http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/hadenius0704.asp)

[NewYorkYankee]

soon, NYC will host the worlds tallest building, as it should! Im so excited!!! :D :D :D

[Archit_K]

Burj Dubai, United Arab Emirates 560 to 600 meters wow whats going to be next?

[krulltime]

What about that Kansas city Grant Hotel mix Mall building that is going to be built by what's his name. :roll:

[TonyO]

Yahoo news

Taipei 101 Skyscraper Deemed Tallest

Fri Oct 8, 5:01 AM ET

By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A global architectural group on Friday declared the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan's capital the world's tallest building.



The 1,679-foot-tall structure — which some liken to a giant bamboo shoot of glass and steel — received the title from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization involved in the planning, design and construction of skyscrapers.


"There's no dispute whether Taipei 101 is the tallest building in the world," said Ron Klemencic, chairman of the council, as he formally certified the building's record with a new plaque.


Before the title ceremony, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian told Klemencic that the record "not only gives affirmation to Taiwan's architectural industry, it's also the pride and honor of Taiwan's 23 million people."


The 101-story skyscraper is 184 feet taller than the previous record-holder, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Taipei 101 also claims a hat trick for having the highest structural top, tallest roof and the highest occupied floor.


It also has two of the world's fastest elevators, which travel 3,333 feet per minute and can go from the ground floor to the 89th floor in 39 seconds.


To determine a building's height, the council measures from the sidewalk level of the main entrance to the skyscraper's architectural top, which can include a penthouse, tower, spire or pinnacle. Flagpoles, TV and radio antennas aren't included.


Last October, Taiwan celebrated the skyscraper's record-breaking status when a pinnacle was installed on top of the building, making it the world's tallest structure.


The building features office space, a shopping mall and an observatory.


Klemencic acknowledged that the future of tall buildings seemed uncertain after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York.


"There was a strong emotional reaction from the public and even in the building industry," he said.


But he added that people now understand that the real threat came from airplanes. The terrorists could have easily attacked other structures, such as sports stadiums, he said.


Taipei 101 "is a much safer place to be than a house because of all the safety systems," he said.


Klemencic said the building has a state-of-the-art sprinkler and smoke control system. It also features "areas of refuge" — specially reinforced places with fire protection — that people can go to without evacuating the building.


"If there's a fire on the 75th floor, you only need to go down a few floors to a place built to be more fire safe and stronger," he said.

[Johnnyboy]

What about that Kansas city Grant Hotel mix Mall building that is going to be built by what's his name. :roll:
Whats the height of that?

[Johnnyboy]

God. that building is preety ugly. The reminder of chineese take out will always come to my mind when i see that building.

P.S. Its still hard for me to believe the burj dubay will really be build. Is it defenetly being build such a massive structure in a city like dubai?

[NoyokA]

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/01/10/international/11taiwGr600.jpg

Finally, an accurate diagram!

[Archit_K]

What a wonderful icon for Taiwan.

[TonyO]

Forbes.com

World's Fastest Elevator Opens Its Doors for Business in World's Tallest Building; Guinness World Records Certifies Toshiba's Elevator as the World's Fastest

12.16.04, 12:03 AM ET

Toshiba Elevator and Building Systems Corp. (TELC) today announced installation of the world's fastest passenger elevator in the world's tallest building, Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan. This elevator, developed by TELC, runs at a speed of 1,010 meters per minute or 60.6km per hour and has been officially certified by Guinness World Records in its 2006 edition.

Soaring 508 meters, Taipei 101 is now the world's tallest building, having supplanted the 452-metre Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The new building, largely devoted to offices, is called Taipei 101 because it has 101 above-ground floors, as well as five underground floors. Construction of Taipei 101 started in June 1999 and the grand opening will be celebrated on December 31, 2004.

TELC has installed 61 elevators and 50 escalators in Taipei 101, including two elevators that run at 1,010 meters per minute (60.6 kilometers per hour), the world's fastest, and 34 double-deck elevators.

The principal new technologies applied in the world's fastest elevator include:

-- The world's first pressure control system, which adjusts the atmospheric pressure inside a car by using suction and discharge blowers, preventing those riding inside the car experiencing 'ear popping'

-- An active control system which cancels vibrations by moving the counter mass in the opposite direction based on the vibration data from a sensor installed in the car

-- Optimization in the configuration of the streamlined car to reduce the whistling noise produced by a car running at a high speed inside a narrow hoist-way. This is based on pressure analysis of the atmosphere in the hoistway and on the car surface during operation

Mr. Masayuki Shimono, president and CEO of TELC commented, "Toshiba is a leader in the development and manufacture of high-speed elevators and their applications. The world's fastest elevators installed in Taipei 101 attest to Toshiba's technological strengths. The certification of our elevators as world record-holders by the authoritative Guinness World Records is a great honor for us. We will continue striving to deliver high-performance products responding to diverse customer needs. In the global market, with particular emphasis on Asia, we intend to expand our business by vigorously capitalizing on our wide line-up that includes ultra high-speed elevators, double-deck elevators, and elevators without machine rooms, the mainstay models for low-rise and mid-rise buildings."

Mr. Hein Le Roux, a specialist researcher at Guinness World Records said, "A record for the world's fastest passenger elevators was published in the first edition Guinness World Records in 1955, and updates have appeared in almost every edition since. As such, it is an interesting indicator of how technology has advanced in the fifty years since that first edition, when the record was 426 meters per minute, or 25.6 km/h, less than half the speed of the new record set by Toshiba at Taipei 101. However, Toshiba's achievement is impressive even by modern standards, since they exceeded the previous record in this category by 33%. This is a very significant and impressive margin for any record and it gives us great pleasure to recognize Toshiba's world-leading achievement."

About Guinness World Records

Published annually since 1955, Guinness World Records has become an international publishing phenomenon, published in more than 100 countries and in 23 languages. Guinness World Records has become a household name and the global authority on world records. No other enterprise collects, confirms, accredits and presents world record data with such comprehensiveness and thoroughness. Guinness World Records is the universally recognized authority on record-breaking achievements. -0- *T Basic specifications of the elevator certified by Guinness World Records as the world's fastest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Passenger capacity 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Load capacity 1,600 kg ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rated speed Ascending: 1,010 m/min Descending: 600 m/min ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Traveling distance 382.2 m ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of units installed 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *T

[BigMac]

CNN
December 31, 2004

World's tallest skyscraper opens

Associated Press

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/TRAVEL/12/31/bt.taiwan.skyscraper.ap/story.taipei101.afp.jpg
The world's tallest building provides a lot of new office space for businesses in Taipei.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan celebrated the official opening of the world's tallest skyscraper Friday with a colorful opera performance and some of the island's top personalities taking elevators up to the 89th-floor observation platform.

Known as "Taipei 101," the 508-meter-high building -- which some liken to a giant bamboo shoot of glass and steel -- is named after its number of floors.

The structure boasts some of the world's fastest elevators. They travel 1,010 meters a minute and can go from the fifth floor to the 89th floor in 39 seconds.

As the Min Hwa Yuan opera troupe performed in the background, a host of prominent guests - including President Chen Shui-bian, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng -- cut a ribbon.

Chen said Taipei 101 was "one of the most successful examples of (construction) projects ever completed in Taiwan."

The building is 56 meters taller than the previous record-holder, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.

Near the top of the building, a huge ball moves about to counter strong winds and seismic vibrations. Taiwan often suffers earthquakes, though most of the tremors don't cause any casualties or damage.

© 2004 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

[Kolbster]

I dunno...i think it looks ok. I like some of the architecture, but the symbols that they put on the building just make it look tacky. But it really is a revolutionary building, the way it was made, it was truely an engineering marvel...but from an architectural stand point, it's debatable,

[Jasonik]

Here is an informative site with great pictures of Taipei 101 (http://www.msm.cam.ac.uk/phase-trans/2005/t101/t101.html)

[TonyO]

Agence France Presse -- English
January 19, 2005 Wednesday 10:20 AM GMT

World's tallest building opens observatory to public in Taiwan


Taipei 101, the world's tallest building which also has the world's fastest elevators, opened its observatory to the public on Wednesday six years after construction began.

Visitors took 37 seconds to reach the observatory on the 89th floor of the 508-meter (1,676 feet) tower in the elevators, which run from the fifth level at 1,014 meters (3,346 feet) per minute.

"I am very excited to witness this historical moment at Taipei 101," said Liang Shih-tsao, who queued for about six hours to become the first visitor to take the elevator to the observation deck.

An estimated one million visitors a year will pay the 350 Taiwan dollar (10.87 US) fee to visit the observatory, according to the developer, Taipei Financial Center Corporation.

The 58 billion Taiwan dollar (1.8 billion US) 101-floor light green skyscraper, designed by Taiwanese architect C. Y. Lee, resembles the unfolding of a flower's petals or sections of a bamboo plant rising from the ground.

About a third of its 198,000 square meters of office space has been let.

The skyscraper was unveiled last December 31, just five days after an earthquake off Indonesia measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale sent killer tsunamis across the Indian Ocean.

Seismologists said few buildings in the world could sustain such a powerful quake, which was the largest in four decades.

"But the odds of such a killer quake hitting Taiwan are very low, given the fact that all the 42 active fault lines on the island are short," said Kuo Kai-wen, head of the Seismology Center.

When the island's longest Chelungpu fault line measuring some 100 kilometers (66 miles) ruptured in 1999, it touched off a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which killed some 2,400 people.

But mindful of possible earthquake and typhoon hazards, designers said they have adopted extraordinarily high safety standards for Taipei 101.

They have installed a 660-ton "damper", 5.5 meters (18.15 feet) in diameter, which is designed to reduce swaying in the event of strong winds or earthquakes.

A five-storey shopping mall, attached to the main building and featuring brand-name fashion houses, opened in 2003.

[Eugenius]

If space in this building is only 1/3 let, it looks like it will be a financial disaster. That seems to be the trend with Asian supertalls. Witness the Petronas towers...

[hkboy313]

actually i think it looks like an abstract pagoda. very chinese like :)

[Alonzo-ny]

Coincidence? I think not!

[TomAuch]

It reminds me of either a centipede or a bunch of Chinese takeout boxes stacked on top of eachother.

[Alonzo-ny]

Maybe they discovered the concept after a big chinese takeway! Cant say ive seen a centipede looking like that though?

[TonyO]

Skyscraper that may cause earthquakes

· World's tallest building may have reopened fault
· Doubts cast on plans for Sky City in Japan

Kate Ravilious
Friday December 2, 2005
The Guardian


At more than 500 metres, Taipei 101 in Taiwan is the world's tallest building. But now geologists fear that its size and weight may have transformed a stable area into one susceptible to earthquake activity. Photograph: Wally Santana/AP



Taipei 101 is a building with a lot to boast about. Standing 508 metres (1,667ft) high, it is the world's tallest. And at 700,000 tonnes, it must be among the heaviest.
But the sheer size of the Taiwan skyscraper has raised unexpected concerns that may have far-reaching implications for the construction of other buildings and man-made megastructures. Taipei 101 is thought to have triggered two recent earthquakes because of the stress that it exerts on the ground beneath it.

According to the geologist Cheng Horng Lin, from the National Taiwan Normal University, the stress from the skyscraper may have reopened an ancient earthquake fault. If he is right, then it raises concerns about proposals such as Sky City 1000 in Japan, the vertical city that has been proposed to solve Tokyo's housing problems. And it is not just skyscrapers that are a problem. Dams and underground waste deposits may also cause rumblings if they become too large.

Before the construction of Taipei 101, the Taipei basin was a very stable area with no active earthquake faults at the surface. Its earthquake activity was similar to parts of the UK, with micro-earthquakes (less than magnitude 2) happening about once a year.

However, once Taipei 101 started to rise from the ground, things changed. "The number of earthquakes increased to around two micro-earthquakes per year during the construction period (1997 to 2003).

"Since the construction finished there have been two larger earthquakes (magnitude 3.8 and 3.2) directly beneath Taipei 101, which were big enough to feel," says Dr Lin.

Using the construction information, Dr Lin has calculated how much pressure Taipei 101 exerts on the ground. The weight of steel and concrete came to more than 700,000 tonnes. This is spread over an area of 15,081 square metres (3.7 acres), meaning that it exerts a huge pressure of 4.7 bars on the ground below. "The construction of Taipei 101 is totally different to many other high-rise buildings because it used hybrid structures made of both concrete and steel, to give it added protection from earthquakes and fire. Therefore it has a huge vertical loading on its foundation," says Dr Lin.

And it is this exceptional downward stress that Dr Lin thinks may have caused the extra earthquakes.

"I think that the considerable stress might be transferred into the upper crust due to the extremely soft sedimentary rocks beneath the Taipei basin. Deeper down this may have reopened an old earthquake fault," suggests Dr Lin in his paper, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Other experts are more cautious about blaming the skyscraper for the earthquakes. "A building will change the stress on the ground under the building, but this probably won't reach down to around 10km, the level where the earthquakes occurred," says John Vidale, an earthquake expert at the University of California in Los Angeles.

Zygmunt Lubkowski, an earthquake analyst for the engineering firm Arup, is concerned at the lack of data. "Earthquakes occur on timescales of thousands to millions of years. From just 10 years of earthquake data it is hard to tell if the extra earthquakes are just noise in the signal or due to the building."

Many engineers and scientists are more perturbed about the impact of other types of construction. "It is well known that man can induce earthquakes from things like mining, building reservoirs and extracting oil and gas, where a large load acts over a large area," says Dr Lubkowski.

One of the most convincing examples is the Koyna Dam earthquake, which occurred in 1967. More than 120 people died and many more were injured when a magnitude 6.5 earthquake shook the ground around the recently constructed dam in Maharashtra state, India.

It is thought that the huge weight of water changed the stresses in the ground. Closer to home, the magnitude 5 earthquake in May 2001 in the North Sea is thought to have been caused by a release in pressure from oil and gas extraction.

In 1967, mountains of waste that had been injected into the Rocky Mountains set off a magnitude 5.5 earthquake under Denver in Colorado. A similar earthquake under a nuclear waste store would be disastrous.

Meanwhile, the idea of carbon sequestration - reducing global warming by locking up carbon dioxide in holes under- ground, will be pointless if earthquakes let all the carbon dioxide escape. "Huge amounts of fluid are going to be put in large cavities and earthquakes are a real concern," says Leonardo Seeber, a geologist from the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. "I am less worried about nuclear waste as it is more likely to be put in a small tunnels rather than huge cavities," he adds.

Compared with dams and underground waste deposits, skyscrapers such as Taipei 101 are mere pinpricks on the Earth's surface. "It is a point load which is probably going to be insignificant at depth," says Dr Seeber.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1655977,00.html?gusrc=rss

[lofter1]

PBS (Ch. 21) just showed some great video of Taipei 101 under construction: An earthquake hit, causing the construction crane at the top of the unfinished tower to buckle and crash down the side of the building, causing death (5 souls on the ground), damage and destruction. Fairly awesome sight.

[Dagrecco82]

^ I just finished watching that myself. Seeing the crane crash and the way the building swayed, I was amazed no more people (5) were killed.

[Scruffy88]

whoa. That must be a amazing footage. I cant seem to find it anywhere though

[Wevie-Stonder]

what an awful ugly building.

tear down this absurdity taipei and build something reasonable instead.

[iobtainas]

For those who don't know where Taiwan is
Taipei is not a small city, in fact it is a high tech city,
it has a lot of hightech industrial parks
much more high tech than many american cities including LA...
Taiwan makes more than 70% of the worlds's laptops, and PDAs,
All IPODs are made by Taiwanese engineers and manufacturers...
Also, many of the animations produced by disney are made in Taiwan including Lilo and Stitch, Mulan, and even Lion King!
In fact Taiwan makes 60% of World's Animations!

This is why when a big earthquake shook Taiwan a few years back, the stock of US fall as well.

You shouldn't say a city is small or underdeveloped by the number of tall buildings that it has.

The reason that Taipei city does not have a lot of high building is because the city is built very close to an airport, thus the government does not allow the city to build high buildings.

At first i don't like Taipei 101 as well, but once I have gone there and see the building myself, the building is actually very beautiful. The many chinese-like ornaments inscibed in the building makes the building much more exquisite and life like than most other sky scrapers.

I strongly encourage people to go Taipei to visit a city that is very different from any of the american cities, a city with its own style rather than a simple replicate of the traditional urban city.

[iobtainas]

For those who don't know where Taiwan is
Taipei is not a small city, in fact it is a high tech city,
it has a lot of hightech industrial parks
much more high tech than many american cities including LA...
Taiwan makes more than 70% of the worlds's laptops, and PDAs,
All IPODs are made by Taiwanese engineers and manufacturers...
Also, many of the animations produced by disney are made in Taiwan including Lilo and Stitch, Mulan, and even Lion King!
In fact Taiwan makes 60% of World's Animations!

This is why when a big earthquake shook Taiwan a few years back, the stock of US fall as well.

You shouldn't say a city is small or underdeveloped by the number of tall buildings that it has.

The reason that Taipei city does not have a lot of high building is because the city is built very close to an airport, thus the government does not allow the city to build high buildings.

At first i don't like Taipei 101 as well, but once I have gone there and see the building myself, the building is actually very beautiful. The many chinese-like ornaments inscibed in the building makes the building much more exquisite and life like than most other sky scrapers.

I strongly encourage people to go Taipei to visit a city that is very different from any of the american cities, a city with its own style rather than a simple replicate of the traditional urban city.