2. BUILDINGS 7 - 5
7. John Hancock CenterHeight: 1476 feet
Location: Chicago
Built: 1968
"Big John" is one of the most striking big roofs on the Chicago skyline. The shape of the building is unique, almost like a pyramid; it is 50,000 square feet at the base, decreasing to 16,000 square feet at the top.
Occupancy includes 300,000 square feet of commercial, 8 levels of parking, 25 floors of office space, 700 luxury apartments (with a pretty nice view), multiple restaurants and health clubs, as well as a swimming pool, a supermarket, and an ice-skating rink. What, no laser tag?
Height: 1482 feet
Location: Kuala Lumpur
Built: 1996
To join the twin towers of Malaysia, construction workers lifted installed an enormous pre-assembled "sky bridge" between the 41st and 42nd floors (you may remember it from the Sean Connery flick Entrapment). The visual effect is that of a giant gateway to the great beyond. Each building contains a mix of hotels, offices, and residential space to the tune of about 11 million square feet.
Add to that 1.5 million square feet of retail, entertainment, and a Philharmonic Hall on the bottom, and you have a substantial complex. How substantial? Each tower contains approximately 80,000 cubic meters of concrete. That's a lot of mix and pour.
5. Oriental Pearl Broadcasting Tower
Height: 1535 feet
Location: Shanghai
Built: 1995
Located in the city of Lujiazui on the east shore of the Huang-pu River, the Oriental Pearl has one of the most unusual shapes of all the buildings on our list. It has 5 sky hotels, a revolving restaurant, and various sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment opportunities.
It's a major tourist attraction, like so many of the others on our list, but its original purpose was for the somewhat pedestrian goal of improved television reception. Amazing what a big antenna can turn into when you let crazy architects loose to design it.
