John Cletheroe's
USA and Canada Holiday Hints

Towers and Tall Buildings in the USA and Canada

Variations between different sources in the quoted heights of tall buildings may in some cases be due to the inclusion or omission of aerial masts.

Anasazi ruins - many include towers, for example at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado and Hovenweep National Monument, Colorado and Utah.
Aon Center Chicago - 346 metres; 83 floors; built in 1973; currently ranked the 13th tallest building in the world.
Astoria Column, Astoria, Oregon
AT and T Corporate Centre, Chicago - 307 metres; 60 floors; built in 1989; currently the world's 21st tallest building.
AT and T Headquarters, New York City - 647 feet; built in 1984; unusual roof design.
Bank of America Plaza, Atlanta - 312 metres; 55 floors; built in 1992; currently ranked as the world's seventeenth tallest building.
Bank of America Tower, Seattle - 295 metres; 76 floors; built in 1985; currently the world's 30th tallest building.
Bridges (many bridges, especially suspension bridges, have tall towers)
Brunswick Building, Chicago, Illinois - 475 feet; built in 1965; load-bearing concrete walls free the interior of columns.
Cabot Tower, St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Calgary Tower, Calgary, Alberta.
Chrysler Building, New York City - 1046 feet; built in 1930; the world's tallest building at the time of its construction and currently ranked sixteenth.
CitiCorp Centre, New York City - 919 feet; built in 1977; unusual angled roof originally designed for solar panels.
CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario - according to one source 1815 feet, according to another source 1480 feet excluding aerials; one of the tallest free-standing towers in the world.
Coit Memorial Tower, Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, California - commemorates a famous head of San Francisco's Fire Department and has a design resembling the nozzle of a fire fighter's hose.
Dorset Fire Tower, Ontario
Eiffel Tower - there is a half size replica of the Eiffel Tower outside the Paris Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, located on The Strip in the same area as Bally's.
Empire State Building, New York City - 1250 feet; 102 floors; built in 1930; for many years the world's tallest building and currently ranked seventh.
First Canadian Place, Toronto - 298 metres; 72 floors; built in 1975; currently the world's 26th tallest building.
First Interstate Tower, Los Angeles, California - 62 floors, the tallest building in Los Angeles at the time of its completion.
Flatiron Building, New York City - 286 feet; 20 floors; built in 1903; one of the first skyscrapers; the name comes from its triangular shape.
Ingalls Building, Cincinnati, Ohio - 210 feet; built in 1903; the first reinforced concrete skyscraper.
J P Morgan Chase Tower, Houston - 305 metres; 75 floors; built in 1982; currently the world's 22nd tallest building.
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (JNEM), St Louis, Missouri (The Gateway Arch) - 630 feet. Cars ride up each side of the arch to an observation room at the top. In my opinion the Gateway Arch is one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of the USA and Canada.
John Hancock Building (sometimes called the John Hancock Tower), Boston, Massachusetts - at sixty floors and 790 feet this is the tallest building in New England; currently ranked the world's 92nd tallest building; built in 1976.
John Hancock Centre, Chicago, Illinois - 1127 feet; 100 floors; built in 1969; exterior steel frame with huge X braces visible. Currently ranked the fourteenth tallest building in the world.
Library Tower, Los Angeles - 310 metres; 73 floors; built in 1990; currently the world's eighteenth tallest building.
Miglen-Beitler Tower, Chicago, Illinois - according to one source this will be the world's tallest building at 1999 feet.
Niagara Falls, New York State and Ontario - there are several observation towers on each side of the Falls, notably the Skylon tower on the Canadian side.
Niles, Illinois - a half-size reproduction of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Old Water Tower, Chicago - one of the few buildings to survive the great fire of 1871.
RCA Building, New York City - 850 feet; built in 1933; 70 floors; part of the Rockefeller Centre.
Renaissance Centre, Detroit, Michigan.
Seagram Building, New York City - 525 feet; built in 1958; one of the first glass and metal flat-topped, flat-sided skyscrapers.
Sears Tower, Chicago Illinois - at 110 floors and 1454 feet (or according to another source 1449 feet) this was the world's tallest building from the time of its completion in 1974 until it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1996, making it currently the third highest.
Skyscrapers in cities such as New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The world's first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1885. Many skyscrapers have observation decks open to the public.
Society Centre, Cleveland, Ohio - at 948 feet this is the tallest building in Ohio.
Space Needle, Seattle, Washington State.
Statue of Liberty, New York City.
Stratosphere Tower, Las Vegas. Located towards the northern end of the Strip (Las Vegas Boulevard). At 1149 feet this is the highest building west of the Mississippi; entrance fee $5.
Television and Radio Transmission Towers - mostly closed to the public.
TransAmerica Pyramid, San Francisco, California - 853 feet; 48 floors; built in 1972; currently the world's 57th tallest building.
Two Prudential Plaza, Chicago - 303 metres; 64 floors; built in 1990; currently the world's 24th tallest building.
Washington Monument, Washington, DC - an obelisk, about 555 feet; the observation room can be reached by lift (elevator) or stairs; the tallest load-bearing masonry structure in the world; built in 1885.
Wells Fargo Plaza, Houston - 296 metres; 71 floors; built in 1983; currently the world's 29th tallest building.
Wind Turbines - seen in various parts of the USA especially California. While most wind turbines are probably not open to the public, I received this information from David Balderson of Roseville in northern California:
Many of these wind turbines are located in Tehachapi, about 40 miles/64 kilometres south of Bakersfield in California's Central Valley. These were constructed by Enron Wind, a subsidiary of the now very infamous Enron Corporation.

The wind turbines are available for touring by the non-profit organisation Kern Wind Energy Association. Potential visitors can get information on tours, escorted or self-guided, by calling the KWEA at US phone number (661) 822-7956 or viewing their web site http://www.kwea.org.

More information can be obtained from the Tehachapi Chamber of Commerce's site at http://www.tehachapi.com/wind/ and information about self-guided tours is available at http://www.chelseagreen.com/Wind/articles/TehPTour.htm

Enron Wind was bought out by GE Wind Energy (subsidiary of General Electric). GE's site has further information and several pictures of the wind turbines: http://www.gepower.com/wind/en_us/ge_wind_energy/index.html

Visitors might want to visit the Tehachapi Museum http://www.tehachapi.cc/museum prior to viewing the actual wind turbines. Admission is free.
When I checked in Aug/Sep-02 the link to the KWEA web site failed but the other links were ok.
Woolworth Building, New York City - 792 feet; 57 floors; built in 1913; the world's tallest building at the time of its construction but now ranked 90th; the first building to have a high speed lift system.
World Trade Centre, New York City - twin towers each of about 1360 feet and having 110 floors; built in 1973; a metal-mesh skin supported a substantial share of the load; multiple lobbies at different levels acted as transfer points between lifts. Both towers were destroyed by passenger planes hijacked by terrorists on 11-Sep-01, with massive loss of lives and numerous injuries.
World Trade Centre Replacement, New York City - according to one source the two finalists in the designs to replace the World Trade Centre are both 1350 feet. However, another source quoted the height of the winning design of 1776 feet, which may have been deliberately chosen so as to be equal to the year of the Declaration of Independence. The difference is presumably explained by the winning design having a tall spire.

Some tall buildings in other countries:

Grollo Tower, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - 1640 feet excluding aerials (planned).
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - twin towers, each 1483 feet excluding aerials.
Shanghai World Financial Centre, Shanghai, China - 1667 feet excluding aerials (planned).
Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan - 1667 feet excluding aerials (planned).

External Links - Bridges, Tall Buildings and Tunnels

Seven Wonders Of The USA And Canada

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About this personal web site JohnCletheroe

EMail me While I have an interest in the subject of towers and tall buildings, I am not an expert. Therefore I regrettably cannot offer any information on the subject other than that which appears on these pages.

Most recently modified 6-Nov-03