MARINA CITY AND LAKE POINT TOWER CHICAGO

 

From 1960 until 1991, Chicago was home to the tallest residential buildings in the world. 1960-1968 MARINA CITY I AND MARINA CITY II:  Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg.  The complex consists of two 587-foot 65-story apartment towers, and occupies almost an entire city block on State Street on the north bank of the Chicago River on the Near North Side, directly across from the Loop.  When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina.  1968-1991 LAKE POINT TOWER:  Lake Point Tower is a residential skyscraper located on a promontory of the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago, just north of the Chicago River at 505 North Lake Shore Drive. It is the only skyscraper in the city east of Lake Shore Drive.  Lake Point Tower was completed in 1968, is approximately 645 feet tall, and was the tallest apartment building in the world at that time.  Its tall curved three wing 'Y' shape was an inspiration for the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Chicago-born architect Adrian Smith.

MARINA CITY I AND II (LEFT) AND LAKE POINT TOWER (RIGHT)

NEEVA TOWERS FKA THE-RENNAISSANCE-MOSCOW TOWERS

 

The Neva Towers, formerly the Renaissance Moscow Towers, is a complex of two skyscrapers located on plots 17 and 18 of the Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) in Moscow, Russia. Tower 1, at 302 991 feet tall with 65 floors, is the ninth-tallest building in Europe. Tower 2, at 1,132 feet tall with 79 floors, is the tallest residential building in Europe and the fourth-tallest building in Europe. The complex was completed in 2020.

NEVA TOWERS

432 PARK AVENUE – NEW YORK CITY

432 Park Avenue is a residential skyscraper at 57th Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, overlooking Central Park. The 1,396-foot-tall tower was developed by CIM Group and Harry B. Macklowe and designed by Rafael Viñoly. A part of Billionaires' Row, 432 Park Avenue has some of the most expensive residences in the city, with the median unit selling for tens of millions of dollars. At the time of its completion in 2015, 432 Park Avenue was the third-tallest building in the United States and the tallest residential building in the world. As of 2023, it is the sixth-tallest building in the United States, the fifth-tallest building in New York City, and the third-tallest residential building in the world.

432 Park Ave. New York, NY

STEINWAY TOWER (111 WEST 57TH STREET)

 

111 West 57th Street, also known as Steinway Tower, is a supertall residential skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.  The 60 apartments in the tower range in cost from $18 million to $66 million per unit, and offer 360-degree views of the city. It is located just south of Central Park, along a stretch of Manhattan’s 57th Street known as “Billionaires’ Row.”  The main portion of the building is an 84-story, 1,428-foot (435-meter) tower designed by SHoP Architects and completed in 2021.  The tower is the fourth-tallest building in the United States as of November 2022, as well as the thinnest skyscraper in the world with a width-to-height ratio of about 1:24.

STEINWAY TOWER
111 WEST 57TH STREET
NEW YORK, CITY

ASCENT MKE

 

Ascent MKE is a mass timber hybrid high-rise apartment building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The 284-foot, 25-story high-rise is the world's tallest mass timber structure, edging out Norway's Mjøstårnet. It features 259 luxury apartments, retail space, an elevated pool with operable window walls, and a sky-deck.

ASCENT MKE - 700 E. KULBOURN AVE., MILWAUKEE, WI

ARLINGTON COUNTY VIRGINIA AND TURNBERRY TOWER

 

Arlington County is a county in the state of Virginia. The county is in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C.  In 2020, the county's population was estimated at 238,643, making Arlington County the sixth-largest county in Virginia by population and the largest unincorporated community in the United States.  The Turnberry Tower, located in the Rosslyn neighborhood, is a 26-story high-rise, and is the tallest condominium building in the Washington D.C. Metro.

TURNBERRY TOWER

BULLWINKLE OIL PLATFORM

Bullwinkle is a 1,736-foot tall, pile supported fixed steel oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Of the total height, 1,352 feet are below the waterline. It is located in Green Canyon Block 65, approximately 160 miles southwest of New Orleans. Bullwinkle is the world’s tallest supported fixed steel structure. The tower is designed to resist hurricane force winds, 70’ waves, and a lifetime of stress-reversals induced by small waves. Bullwinkle used 10 times the amount of steel as the Eiffel Tower and weighed over 50,000 tons. In order to tow it out to sea, an 853-foot long barge, the world’s largest at the time, had to be constructed.

Bullwinkle Oil Platform being towed out to sea
By Jay Phagan - Bullwinkle Oil Platform, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=102530784

WILLIAM PENN STATUE

William Penn is a bronze statue by Alexander Milne Calder of William Penn, the founder and namesake for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located atop the Philadelphia City Hall. It was installed in 1894. It was cast in fourteen sections and took almost two years to finish. At thirty-seven feet in height, it is tallest statue atop any building in the world. FUN FACT: For almost 90 years, an unwritten gentlemen’s agreement forbade any building in the city from rising above the hat on the Penn statue. This agreement ended in 1985, when final approval was given to the Liberty Place complex. Its centerpieces are two skyscrapers, One Liberty Place and Two Liberty Place, which rose well above the height of Penn’s hat. SEE ALSO: Philadelphia City Hall

WILLIAM PENN STATUE ATOP PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL

1894 - WILLIAM PENN STATUE READY FOR LIFTUP

PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL

Philadelphia City Hall serves as the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. It is also a courthouse, serving as the seat of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and houses the Civil Trial and Orphans' Court Divisions of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. Built of brick, white marble, and limestone, Philadelphia City Hall is the world’s largest free-standing masonry building. The weight of the building is borne by granite and brick walls up to 22 feet thick. The building structure used over 88 million bricks and thousands of tons of marble and granite. The building was constructed from 1871 to 1901. Designed to be the world’s tallest building, it was surpassed during construction by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower. Upon completion of its tower in 1894, it became the world’s tallest habitable building. It was also the first secular building to have this distinction, as all previous world’s tallest buildings were religious structures, including European cathedrals and – for the previous 3,800 years – the Great Pyramid of Giza. With almost 700 rooms, City Hall is the largest municipal building in the United States. FUN FACT: In the 1950s, the city council investigated tearing down City Hall for a new building elsewhere. They found that the demolition would have bankrupted the city due to the building’s masonry construction. SEE ALSO: William Penn Statue

NORTHSIDE OF PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL
By Toniklemm - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=81012838

MEMORIAL HERMANN TOWER – HOUSTON

At a height of 542 feet and 33 stories, Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center of Houston, Texas is the tallest hospital in the world.

MEMORIAL HERMANN TOWER - HOUSTON, TEXAS

1717 BROADWAY

1717 Broadway is a skyscraper located in Manhattan, New York City. At 750 feet high, it is the tallest hotel in North America. The building contains two hotels, the Courtyard New York Manhattan/Central Park and the Residence Inn New York Manhattan/Central Park, with a total of 639 rooms.

1717 BROADWAY SEEN IN FEBRUARY 2017

GUANGZHOU CIRCLE

Guangzhou Circle is a landmark building located in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China. It is the headquarters of the Hongda Xingye Group and the home of the Guangdong Plastic Exchange. Guangdong Plastic Exchange is the world’s largest stock exchange for raw plastic material with more than 25 billion euros of annual turnover in 2012. Guangzhou Circle was designed by Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale. The building has 33 stories and a height of 453 feet. The building features an empty hole in the center that has a diameter of 157 feet. Guangzhou Circle is the world’s tallest circular building.

GUANGZHOU CIRCLE

WHITE SHOAL LIGHT, MICHIGAN

The White Shoal Light is a lighthouse located 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge in Lake Michigan. At a height of 121 feet, it is the tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes. The White Shoal Light is the sole “aluminum-topped” lighthouse on the Great Lakes; most of the other lanterns are cast iron. The highly visible diagonal Daymark paint job, sometimes described as red and white ‘candy cane stripe’ is the only ‘barber pole’ lighthouse in the United States. White Shoal Light is one of over 150 past and present lighthouses in Michigan. Michigan has more lighthouses (still standing) than any other state with over 120 listed. (A scaled-down replica of this light was built on Lake Havasu at Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Located on the Lake Havasu Island Golf Course, the light is operational and was dedicated on November 2, 2008).

WHITE SHOAL LIGHT, LAKE MICHIGAN

PEGASUS AND DRAGON

Pegasus and Dragon is a 100-foot tall statue of Pegasus defeating a dragon in Gulfstream Park, Hallandale Beach, Florida. It is the third-tallest statue in the United States*.  It is also the world’s largest and tallest equine and European dragon statue. The Pegasus is poised with its front hoof on the neck of the dragon, which lies prostrate far below the level of the equine. The statue complex is 200 feet in length and 115 feet in width. Pegasus is made of 330 tons of steel and 132 tons of bronze. The dragon is made of 110 tons of steel and 132 tons of bronze. At night the statue is home to a fountain show featuring 13 musical pieces, 350 fog nozzles, 116 water nozzles, special LED lighting and dragon breathing fire 20 feet during the show. *Wikipedia lists Birth of the New World in Puerto Rico as tallest statue in the U.S. and the Statue of Liberty as the second tallest.

U.S. STEEL TOWER

The U.S. Steel Tower is a 64-story skyscraper at 600 Grant Street in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Standing at 842 feet, it is the tallest building in Pittsburgh and it is the tallest building in the world with a completely flat roof. The roof itself, at approximately one acre in size, is the largest roof in the world at its height or above.

U.S. STEEL TOWER PITTSURGH, PENNSYLVANIA

OAKBROOK TERRACE, ILLINOIS AND OAKBROOK TERRACE TOWER

Oakbrook Terrace is a suburb of Chicago located in DuPage County. The population in 2018 was estimated to be 2,119. Oakbrook Terrace has a total area of 1.278 square miles. Oakbrook Terrace is the smallest town in DuPage County in terms of both area and population. Oakbrook Terrace Tower is an octagonal 31-story office building located in the city of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. It was built in 1987 and is 418-feet tall. Oakbrook Terrace Tower is the tallest building in Illinois outside of the City of Chicago. Oakbrook Terrace was originally named Utopia, a name suggested by a postmaster. The name Oakbrook Terrace was adopted in November 1959.

OAKBROOK TERRACE TOWER

By NS Zakeruga at English Wikipedia - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23655007

GEVORA HOTEL

At a height of 1,168 feet, the Gevora Hotel along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai is the world’s tallest hotel. The four-star hotel opened in February 2018 after a construction period of twelve years. It has 528 rooms spread over 75 floors and a number of facilities including restaurants and a pool on top of its parking garage building. Besides being the tallest hotel, Gevora Hotel is also the eighth-tallest completed building in Dubai, the ninth-tallest in the United Arab Emirates, and among the 50 tallest buildings in the world.

The Gevora Hotel as seen from the other side of Sheikh Zayed Road

By Tristan Surtel - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74481463

THE UNION WATERSPHERE

The Union Watersphere, also known as the Union Water Tower, a sphere-shaped water tank in Union, New Jersey, is the world’s tallest water sphere. The Union Watersphere is located adjacent to U.S. Route 22, New Jersey Route 82, and the Garden State Parkway. Standing 212 feet tall, it was originally built in 1964 at the cost of $89,500. It holds 250,000 gallons of well water. A museum dedicated the watersphere is located in Austin, Texas and is operated by a former Union resident.

TOKYO SKYTREE

The Tokyo Skytree is a broadcasting and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. At a height of 2,080 feet it is the tallest tower* in the world, and the second tallest structure in the world after the Burj Khalifa. *A tower is defined as: “a tall human structure, always taller than it is wide, for public or regular operational access by humans, but not for living in or office work, and is self-supporting or free-standing, which means no guy-wires for support. Continuously habitable buildings and skyscrapers, radio and TV masts, bridge towers, chimneys, transmission towers, sculptures and most large statues and obelisks do not come within the definition of tower”.

By Kakidai - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19574418

THE SAN JACINTO MONUMENT

The San Jacinto Monument is a 567.31-foot-high column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas, near the city of Houston. The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. The monument, constructed between 1936 and 1939 and dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest masonry column and is part of the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site. By comparison, the Washington Monument is 554.612 feet tall, but remains the tallest stone monument in the world. The column is an octagonal shaft topped with a 34-foot Lone Star – the symbol of Texas. Visitors can take an elevator to the monument's observation deck for a view of Houston and the Battleship Texas.

Photo of the San Jacinto Monument taken from the Battleship Texas. The Fred Hartman Bridge is visible in the background.
By Tijuana Brass at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2657057