WORLDS TALLEST BUILDINGS

The tallest man-made structure is Burj Khalifa, a skyscraper in Dubai that

reached 829.8 m (2,722 ft) in height on January 17, 2009. By April 7, 2008 it had been
built higher than the KVLY-TV mast in North Dakota, USA. That September it officially
surpassed Poland's 646.38 m (2,120.7 ft)Warsaw radio mast, which stood from 1974 to
1991, to become the tallest structure ever built. Guyed lattice towers such as these
masts had held the world height record since 1954.
The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, standing at 553.3 m (1,815 ft), was formerly
the world's tallest completed freestanding structure on land. Opened in 1976, it was
surpassed in height by the rising Burj Khalifa on September 12, 2007. It has the world's
highest public observation deck at 446.5 m (1,465 ft).
The Petronius Platform stands 610 m (2,000 ft) off the sea floor leading some,
including Guinness World Records 2007, to claim it as the tallest freestanding structure
in the world. However, it is debated whether underwater height should be counted in the
same manner as height below ground is ignored on buildings. The Troll A platform is
472 m (1,549 ft), without any part of that height being supported by wires. The tension-
legtype of oil platform has even greater below-water heights with several examples
more than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) deep. However, these platforms are not considered
constant structures as the vast majority of their height is made up of the length of the
tendons attaching the floating platforms to the sea floor. Despite this, Guinness World
Records 2009 listed the Ursa tension leg platform as the tallest structure in the world
with a total height of 1,306 m (4,285 ft). The Magnolia Tension-leg Platform in the Gulf
of Mexico is even taller with a total height of 1,432 m (4,698 ft).
Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan, set records in three of the four skyscraper
categories at the time it opened in 2004; at the time the Burj Khalifa opened in 2010 it
remained the world's tallest inhabited building 509.2 m (1,671 ft) as measured to its
architectural height (spire). The height of its roof 449.2 m (1,474 ft) and highest
occupied floor 439.2 m (1,441 ft) had been surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial
Center with corresponding heights of 487 and 474 m (1,598 and 1,555 ft). Willis
Tower (formerly Sears Tower) was the highest in the final category: the greatest height
to top of antenna of any building in the world at 527.3 m (1,730 ft).
Burj Khalifa broke the height record in all four categories for completed buildings
by a wide margin.