Chicago has Two of Five World's Tallest for 2009, 8 in top 50 most of any city

The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat releaed on Monday its annual survey of skyscraper construction. Three of the five tallest new buildings were in the U.S., with 2009's world's tallest being the SOM/Adrian Smith Trump International Hotel and Tower, at 1389 feet. Second is New York's Bank of American Tower, at 1189 feet, third, Beijing's China World Trade Center III, at 1083, fourth, Arraya Center Office Tower in Kuwait City (984), and fifth, Studio/Gang's Aqua, at 858 feet. Five of the top ten were in China, two in the Middle East, none in Europe. The only two using steel construction were by SOM.

While more than half of the buildings on the list of 2009's 50 tallest were in Asia, Chicago's 8 buildings were the most of any city in the world. Bangkok had 5, Shanghai 4, New York 3. Pickard Chilton's 300 North LaSalle came in at number 12, (785 feet), Papageorge Haymes' One Museum Park (18th/726 feet) Lucien Lagrange's Elysian, (31, 686 feet), Goettsch Partners 155 North Wacker (45, 638 feet), and Lohan Anderson's 353 North Clark (48, 624 feet.)

Make up your own discussion on the questions of quantity and quality.

Overall, there were 38 buildings completed in 2009 with a height of 200 meters (656 feet) or over, down from 53 in 2008. In 2000, there were 267 structures over 200m, by the end of 2010, 643. Over 250 are in the pipeline for the next three years, with over a hundred to be completed in 2010 alone. After that, we'll see. My bet is that the Burj Khalifa's record of 2717 feet will be safe for a while.

More information here.