ABSTRACT
The skylines of many world cities are defined and punctuated by tall buildings. The drivers for such
dominant skylines range from land scarcity and social needs, high real estate values, commercial opportunity and corporate demand, through to metropolitan signposting (CTBUH 2006). This obsession with the current form of tall, slender buildings can be traced to the Italian patrician families who created the 11th Century skyline of San Gimignano by building seventy tower-houses, some fifty metres tall, as symbols of their wealth and power. This was most famously followed in the late 19th Century with the Manhattan skyline. This obsession with building tall continues to spread worldwide and is forecast in this research to grow into the future. Even after the events of 9/11, the tall building format is very much here to stay.
