Record-Breaking Year: The Supertall Skyscrapers Completed in 2019

The year 2019 marked a defining moment in high-rise construction, as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) reported a record-breaking number of supertall building completions worldwide. A total of 26 supertall structures measuring 300 meters or more were finished during the year, surpassing the previous record of 18 set in 2018. This surge brought the global inventory of supertall buildings to 170, a stark contrast to the 26 that existed in the year 2000. For context on how these structures compare with the tallest ever built, explore our guide to the tallest skyscrapers world has ever seen. While supertall completions soared, buildings over 200 meters declined for the second consecutive year after four straight years of growth, signaling a shift in how the construction industry approaches extreme vertical development.

The Global Surge in Supertall Construction

China once again led the world in supertall construction, accounting for 14 of the 26 buildings completed in 2019. This dominance reflects the country’s sustained investment in vertical urbanisation, driven by rapid population growth and limited available land in major metropolitan areas like Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. The United States placed second with four supertall completions, all located in New York City. The remaining supertall structures were distributed across Russia with the Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg, South Korea with the LCT The Sharp Landmark Tower in Busan, Malaysia with The Exchange 106 in Kuala Lumpur, and other parts of Asia.

Several key factors enabled this level of construction activity to take place across such diverse markets:

• Advanced high-strength concrete formulations that reduce column sizes and increase usable floor area while maintaining structural integrity under enormous compressive loads
• Improved crane technology allowing faster vertical material transport on constrained urban sites where ground space is at a premium
• Computational design tools that optimise structural systems for wind and seismic loads through iterative simulation rather than conservative overdesign
• Prefabrication of facade panels and mechanical components that reduces on-site installation time and improves quality control
• Growing expertise in deep foundation engineering for challenging soil conditions, particularly in soft ground areas like coastal China and the Gulf region

Interestingly, 2019 also saw continued experimentation with alternative building materials in high-rise construction. Mass timber systems, once dismissed as unsuitable for tall buildings, began appearing in mid-rise and even some high-rise proposals around the world. While supertalls still rely almost entirely on steel and concrete for their primary structural systems, the lessons from plywood skyscrapers how mass timber is reshaping high rise construction offer a glimpse of what future tall buildings might incorporate at larger scales. Engineered wood products such as cross-laminated timber and glulam beams are gaining acceptance in building codes worldwide, potentially opening the door for hybrid steel-timber supertalls in the coming decades.

Engineering Challenges of the 300-Meter Threshold

Building beyond 300 meters introduces a distinct set of engineering challenges that separate supertalls from ordinary high-rises. The most critical concern is wind loading. At these heights, lateral forces from wind can exceed gravity loads, requiring sophisticated damping systems to maintain occupant comfort during storms and even moderate breezes. Tuned mass dampers, sloshing liquid dampers, and aerodynamic shaping have become standard features in supertall design, with some buildings incorporating multiple systems working in concert.

Foundation design becomes equally demanding as heights increase. Supertall buildings impose enormous point loads on the ground below, often requiring piles driven 50 to 80 meters deep to reach competent bearing strata. In cities like Tianjin, where the Tianjin CTF Finance Centre rises 530 meters above soft alluvial soils, engineers had to design deep pile groups extending far below the surface to distribute the building’s weight evenly. The St. Petersburg site for the Lakhta Center presented additional complications, requiring construction techniques that could handle freezing winter temperatures and frozen ground conditions.

Vertical transportation also becomes a major design constraint in supertall buildings. Standard elevator systems cannot efficiently serve buildings above 300 meters without consuming excessive core space that developers would prefer to lease as floor area. The solution involves multiple strategies working together:

• Sky lobby transfer floors where passengers change between low-rise and high-rise elevator banks, reducing the number of shafts needed
• Double-deck elevator cabs that serve two floors simultaneously, effectively doubling passenger throughput without increasing shaft space
• Destination dispatch algorithms that group passengers heading to nearby floors into the same cab, reducing travel time and waiting intervals
• Rope-less elevator systems using linear motor technology that allows multiple cabs to operate in a single shaft, a technology that was in development during 2019 and has since been deployed in some new towers

These innovations allow supertalls to function as vertical cities, with residential, office, hotel, and retail spaces stacked hundreds of meters above street level. For a look at what upcoming projects are pushing these boundaries even further, see the future of skyscrapers four engineering marvels to look out for currently under development around the world.

Horizontal Connections in Vertical Cities

While 2019 celebrated vertical achievements, a parallel trend emerged involving horizontal connectivity between tall structures. The concept of skybridges and elevated pedestrian networks has gained traction as developers seek to integrate supertall buildings into the urban fabric rather than leaving them as isolated towers disconnected from their surroundings. This approach treats the entire development as a single interconnected ecosystem rather than a collection of individual structures.

New York City’s Hudson Yards development, home to the 387-metre 30 Hudson Yards completed in 2019, exemplifies this integrated approach. The development features a network of elevated plazas, pedestrian bridges, and the Vessel structure that ties multiple towers together at grade and above. This integrated model reduces street-level congestion by moving pedestrian traffic to elevated walkways and creates year-round public space in what would otherwise be a wind-swept corridor between skyscrapers. Residents and office workers can move between buildings without ever descending to street level, a convenience that becomes increasingly valuable in dense urban environments.

The engineering behind these horizontal connections involves careful structural coordination between adjacent buildings. Thermal expansion of bridge structures must be accommodated through sliding joints and flexible connections. Differential settlement between towers founded on different soil conditions requires careful monitoring during and after construction. Wind-induced sway at the top of each tower must be analysed to ensure that a bridge linking them remains stable and does not transfer damaging forces from one structure to another. These challenges are explored in depth in our article on skywalk engineering the rise of horizontal skyscrapers in modern construction, which examines how physical links between towers are transforming skylines across the globe.

Top Supertall Buildings Completed in 2019

The following table lists the ten tallest buildings completed during 2019, ranked by architectural height as certified by the CTBUH. These structures represent a combined investment of tens of billions of dollars and showcase the cutting edge of global construction capability across multiple continents.

Notable patterns emerge from this list. Chinese cities dominate with six of the top ten addresses, reflecting the country’s aggressive urban expansion over the past decade. The Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg stands out as Europe’s tallest skyscraper and the northernmost supertall building in the world at a latitude of 60 degrees north, requiring specialised concrete heating and enclosure systems to maintain pour temperatures during the harsh Russian winter. The twin Raffles City Chongqing towers, completed at the same height with an identical structural system, demonstrate the growing sophistication of Chinese developers and contractors in delivering complex megaprojects on schedule.

Regional Trends Shaping Tall Building Construction

The geographic distribution of tall building completions in 2019 reveals distinct regional trends worth examining in detail. China completed 57 buildings over 200 metres during the year, a significant drop from the 92 it completed in 2018. Industry analysts attribute this decline to tighter government regulations on real estate speculation and a deliberate policy shift toward quality over quantity in urban development. Despite the reduction, China still accounted for nearly half of all tall building completions worldwide, demonstrating the sheer scale of its construction industry relative to every other nation.

The United States completed 14 tall buildings over 200 metres in 2019, edging up from 13 the previous year. New York City led the nation with eight completions, including four supertall structures that reshaped the Manhattan skyline. Other American cities with tall building deliveries included:

1. Miami, Florida with three buildings, reflecting the city’s ongoing condominium boom along Biscayne Bay
2. Chicago, Illinois with one building, continuing its tradition as the birthplace of the skyscraper
3. Boston, Massachusetts with one building, adding height to the city’s historic skyline
4. Austin, Texas with one building, signaling the city’s emergence as a serious high-rise market

The Middle East saw a decline from 13 tall building completions in 2018 to 11 in 2019, with the United Arab Emirates accounting for nine of those. This slowdown reflects a broader regional trend toward completing existing megaprojects rather than starting new ones, as cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi recalibrate their development pipelines toward more sustainable growth rates. Saudi Arabia continued work on the Jeddah Tower, which when completed is expected to exceed the 1,000-metre mark and claim the title of the world’s tallest building.

Looking ahead to 2020, the CTBUH projected between 115 and 145 buildings of 200 metres or taller would be completed worldwide, a slight decrease from the 2019 projection range of 120 to 150. In the United States, New York City anticipated ten tall building completions in 2020, highlighted by the 472-metre Central Park Tower and the 435-metre 111 West 57th Street, both of which would add significant new landmarks to Billionaires’ Row. These projections, written before the global pandemic reshaped the construction industry, underscore how quickly the tall building market can shift in response to broader economic forces.

The record set in 2019 remains a benchmark for the international construction industry. It demonstrated that the global construction ecosystem could design, finance, and deliver 26 supertall buildings in a single year, each requiring thousands of skilled workers, millions of person-hours, and unprecedented coordination across multiple engineering disciplines. For construction professionals today, the lessons from 2019 continue to inform how tall buildings are planned, structurally engineered, and executed from foundation to crown.