# Has 2018 a bad year for skyscraper fans?



## Twopsy (Nov 26, 2012)

I forgot the word "been" in the title.

Since this year will end soon, I want to discuss, if this year had more good or more bad news for skyscraper fans.

Although many exciting new buildings were announced, there have also been some very bad developments:

-Wuhan Greenland Centre cut from 636 to 472 metres
-Jeddah Tower on hold with no progress in sight
-Dubai Creek Tower did not see any progress since May
-80 South Street and many other NYC towers very likely cancelled after Chinese goverment restricted foreign investments
-China Resources Tower in Shenzhen likely scaled back from 830 metres to 700 metres or less. So no Burj Khalifa contenter. 
-Even though there were many megatall proposals, only one megatall is under construction at the moment and that one only is a megatall because of a spire.

I am not very optimistic that 2019 will bring a lot of good skyscraper news, as the world economy already started slowing down.

What do you think? Was 2018 a good year?


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## Uaarkson (Feb 11, 2009)

2018 was a great year for construction. 2019 may not be.


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## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

Twopsy said:


> I forgot the word "been" in the title.
> 
> Since this year will end soon, I want to discuss, if this year had more good or more bad news for skyscraper fans.
> 
> ...


Aw poor China, only builds tiny 470-700 meter towers. So terrible...

Jeddah Tower and Dubai Creek don't have the right people behind them and are over ambitious, that was obvious from the get go. 

I remember about ten years back, the Sears Tower was still arguably the tallest building in the world due to its higher pinnacle height than Taipei 101. So I'd say things have progressed quite a bit.

The USA will top off one of the highest rooftops in the world and the world's tallest residential building (two more actually) in 2019. 

Which Chinese projects in NYC are you talking about? The air rights are paid for on that site so whatever rises eventually will likely be very tall.


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## Twopsy (Nov 26, 2012)

Jay said:


> Which Chinese projects in NYC are you talking about? The air rights are paid for on that site so whatever rises eventually will likely be very tall.


At least three large projects:

-80 South Street
-131-141 East 47th Street
-118 East 59th Street

There might still be the air rights, but that does not mean that anything will be built there any time soon. There are many examples of towers where no construction starts although the air rights are there. For example the tower above Port Authority Bus Terminal, 2 World Trade Center and 15 Penn Plaza.


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## DZH22 (Aug 9, 2009)

First and foremost, the activity in the city one lives in will likely be the biggest influence for their answer. From that respect, my city just topped off its tallest tower in 40+ years (a couple years after making that same claim) so I can't complain. Also, I'm close enough to NYC that I was able to check in on that boom in person, which is pretty much its biggest boom ever with many new supertalls! 2018 was a heck of a good year from my point of view! :lol:

It also depends on which cities you are most interested in. Many cities I have visited and enjoyed are really taking the next leap in their skyline evolutions (such as London, Philadelphia, Chicago, SF, Montreal, Toronto, Austin....) as are ones I have followed closely, such as Melbourne and other Australian cities, European cities, and some Chinese cities (plus more).

It's disappointing that some of the largest projects are struggling, but I'm much more interested in seeing existing skylines augmented than one-off giants that are out of place in their environments. From that perspective, 2018 was a very strong year and, in my corner of the world, the momentum continues!


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## Twopsy (Nov 26, 2012)

Yes, there is a lot of construction in NYC right now, but I do not attribute most of those buildings to 2018. Most of the supertalls have started in 2017 or earlier, so the only positive thing we can say about them in 2018 is that they were not put on hold in that year. 

For New York City I think the biggest positive news was the announcement if the new JP Morgan Chase Tower. If that is built (and I think it will even be built in case of a financial crisis), 2018 will be remembered as a good year for NYC.

Of course it is a matter of definition, which is the year you attribute a tower to. It could be the year of the approval, the year of groundbreaking or the year of completion. If you choose completion, 2019 and 2020 will be phenomenal years for NYC.


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## Hudson11 (Jun 23, 2011)

the start of two major office towers, 50 Hudson Yards and The Spiral, can be attributed to 2018. Don't forget 3 World Trade Center was also completed. It was a very good year for us in NYC, at the very least. 
I will grant you it has been a bad year for the megatall scene. Only one left under construction and it's the one that relies on a spire to bring it past the 600m superlative.


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## DZH22 (Aug 9, 2009)

Twopsy said:


> Of course it is a matter of definition, which is the year you attribute a tower to. It could be the year of the approval, the year of groundbreaking or the year of completion. If you choose completion, 2019 and 2020 will be phenomenal years for NYC.


Personally, I find the most exciting time for new skyscrapers to be their growth phase. Too often, when a buildings starts in my city it still takes well over a year to get out of the ground, sometimes over 2 years if a demolition is involved. This period frustrates me, whereas the growth phase is when it's actually adding a new presence to the skyline. 

In the case of NYC, 6 supertalls broke the midtown plateau in 2018, 4 of which topped out (3 at or adjacent to Hudson yards, plus Tower Verre) and the other 2 will be within a couple of months. That is more visual change to the skyline than I have seen in any other year of my lifetime.

Also in the Northeast, Philadelphia topped off its new tallest building, Baltimore topped off its tallest in ~40 years, my city did the same... From that perspective, 2018 was a bellweather year for the skyscraper!


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## You are to blame (Oct 14, 2004)

Toronto is still humming a long and we have almost reach 200 concurrent highrises under construction.
Our tallest, a supertall, broke ground in 2018 as well.
Toronto may not be building the tallest, on a global prospective, but for a developed country it is building in quantity that few can match and will continue in 2019


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## Zaz965 (Jan 24, 2015)

definitively not, because it is better a sparrow in the hand than a pigeon on the roof :grass:


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## Eric Offereins (Jan 1, 2004)

We are in a skyscraper boom here (also our first building over 200 meter U/C), so I'm happy with 2018 and the next couple of years. :cheers:


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## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

> We are in a skyscraper boom here (also our first building over 200 meter U/C), so I'm happy with 2018 and the next couple of years.


Right 

It seems that to a certain extent, obscenely large projects in Asia/Mid-East are coming to an end or may not happen, as expected. But a lot of great skyscraper development is going on in Western Countries. 

Canada and Australia get their first 300+ meter roof. The USA builds a near 500 meter roof, there are tons of other great (some supertall) projects happening too


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