There are two kinds of tall structures: buildings and towers. A “building” is considered to be a structure that is designed for residential, business, or manufacturing purposes. An essential characteristic of a building is that it has floors. Note that towers are NOT included in the list. Although a number of tall buildings on this list have “Tower” in their name—the famous Petronas Towers, for example—none are technically towers.
The tallest buildings are as follows:
1. Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan 1,670 ft
2. Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1,483ft
3. Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1,483 ft
4. Sears Tower, Chicago 1,450ft
5. Jin Mao Building, Shanghai 1,380ft
Towers are principally telecommunications towers, and while they may have observation decks or restaurants, they do not have floors all the way up.
The tallest tower is Canadian National (CN) Tower,
Toronto, Canada 1,815ft