1WTC Wins "Tallest" Ruling

One World Trade Center has been judged the tallest building in the western hemisphere by the "official" ruling body of such matters. Sorry, Chicago.

The nonprofit Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat—the accepted arbiter on matters of skyscraper height—on Tuesday ruled that the spire atop One World Trade Center counts toward the official "architectural" height, making the new tower the tallest building in the U.S., at 1,776 feet. "We determined the structure above the mass of the building was in fact a spire," said Timothy Johnson, the council's chairman. At issue was whether the One World Trade's 408-foot steel mast is considered a "spire" that is part of the building's architecture. A structural spire counts toward the height; but an antenna doesn't. The council's guidelines are brief, calling for buildings to be measured to their "architectural top," including spires but not antennas or other functional equipment. Last week Mr. Childs flew to Chicago to urge the council to count the mast as a spire, saying the symbolic height was a key part of the design.

According to the council, by far the tallest building in the world is Dubai's Burj Khalifa at 163 floors and 2717 feet. When completed, it appears that One World Trade Center will rank at third on that list, although several other super-skyscrapers are also presently under construction.

Which Is The Tallest?

The "arbiters of world building heights" are meeting this weekend to decide if the almost-completed One World Trade Center will take the crown from Chicago's Willis Tower as the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

"Most of the time these decisions are not so controversial," said Daniel Safarik, an architect and spokesman for the nonprofit Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The 30 members of its Height Committee are meeting to render a judgment behind closed doors in Chicago, where the world's first skyscraper appeared in 1884. The committee, comprising industry professionals from all over the world, will announce its decision next week. The question over 1 World Trade Center, which remains under construction and is expected to open next year, arose because of a change to the design of its tower-topping needle. Under the council's current criteria, spires that are an integral part of a building's aesthetic design count; broadcast antennas that can be added and removed do not. The designers of 1 World Trade Center had intended to enclose the mast's communications gear in decorative cladding made of fiberglass and steel. But the developer removed that exterior shell from the design, saying it would be impossible to properly maintain or repair. Without it, the question is whether the mast is now primarily just a broadcast antenna.

Embiggen the above graphic for some comparisons.

New York Times Rejects Banksy Op-Ed That Slams One World Trade Center

Via Yahoo News:

Banksy, the elusive British street artist nearing the end of a month-long New York City residency, published an op-ed column on his website Sunday slamming the design of One World Trade Center, the 104-story skyscraper scheduled to be opened on the World Trade Center site next year. "As a visitor staying New York for the past few weeks one thing has become very clear to me," Banksy wrote in the op-ed. "You've got to do something about the new World Trade Center. That building is a disaster. Well no, disasters are interesting. One World Trade centre [sic] is a non-event. It's vanilla. It looks like something they would build in Canada." Banksy submitted the op-ed to the New York Times, which declined to publish it. "We couldn't agree on either the piece or the art, so we did reject it," Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Times, told Yahoo News.

Banksy's website is here.