On Top of the World:
The Planet's Tallest Building, Taipei 101

On New Year's Eve, Taipei's Xinyi District takes center stage for a production like no other. Visitors cram the city government square vying for prime real estate to catch performances by the country's top entertainers. The main attraction that night, however, is not one person but a local landmark: Taipei 101. During the customary countdown, the superstructure becomes the base of a spectacular pyrotechnic show. Fireworks blast off from the side of the building, ascending upward section by-section toward the tower's crown, culminating in a technicolor bang in the sky.

Taipei 101's year-end fireworks are just one of its many wonders. The world's tallest building for now, the 1,667-feet-tall bottle-green skyscraper literally towers over Taipei's skyline of mostly low-level gray concrete blocks. Unveiled in December 2004 after six years of construction, Taipei 101 is no small feat of engineering. A self-sufficient unit, the super skyscraper could serve as a city within itself, housing a six-floor luxury shopping mall, offices for 12,000 people, restaurants, a post office and several nightclubs.

It also holds three of the "World's Tallest Building" titles: Tallest to structural top (a record formerly held by the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur), tallest to roof and highest occupied floor (both titles previously held by the Sears Tower in Chicago). The $1.8 billion 101-floor construction -- one-and-a-half times the size of the Eiffel Tower -- also holds the Guinness World Records title for the world's fastest double-decker elevators, each costing more than $2 million and equipped with a pressure control system to prevent "ear popping." Running at a top speed of 1,010 meters per minute (63 km/h or 37.5 mph), the elevators take just 37 seconds to whisk passengers from the main floor to the indoor observatory on the 89th floor.

The brainchild of the controversial architect C. Y. Lee, Taipei 101 was created as a new style of skyscraper blending international design theory with local culture. Inspired by classic Asian architecture, the pagoda-style tower is divided into eight canted sections each eight stories high -- the number 8 being a homophone in Chinese for "earn fortune." Upon Lee's insistence, oriental symbols of financial success such as the traditional Chinese juyi scepters, spoon-like figures of fulfillment, propitious clouds, and ancient Chinese copper coins were incorporated into the building's design and made large enough to be visible from the ground. After a draft design of the skyscraper was completed, to secure good fortune upon the new property, a feng shui master was consulted for the remaining aspects of the layout and planning.

But buffeted by powerful earthquakes and typhoons, Taipei did not seem the most favorable place to build the world's tallest building. During construction in March 2002, a 6.8 earthquake caused a crane to fall, killing five people. With Taipei 101, the challenge faced by the structural engineers was to build a skyscraper light enough to withstand an earthquake, but heavy enough to survive a typhoon. A "megaframe" for the first 62 floors was erected, consisting of giant steel columns filled with high-strength concrete, while the rest was made light, mainly using steel and glass. To reinforce the structural soundness of the tower, a 660-ton golden ball, the world's largest tuned mass damper, was hung from the 89th floor. The exposed sphere, installed to reduce shaking and rattling caused by the wind, is said to offset up to 40 percent of Taipei 101's movements, allowing the tower to withstand tremors measuring above 7 on the Richter scale.

With Taipei 101, Taiwan hopes not only to draw attention to the island, but in addition to lure foreign companies to its capital. Already the Taipei Financial Center Corp, Taipei 101's owner, has brought multinational corporations such as Nissan, L'Oreal, Bayer, and ABN AMRO Bank to its high rise. At the time of publication, 70 percent of the 214,000 sq meters of Taipei 101's prime commercial space was filled. With an average rent of NT$3,200 per ping (3.5 sq m), Taipei 101 is only slightly higher than the advertised quotes of other top-grade office spaces in the city. Additionally, with fiber-optic and satellite Internet connections allowing speeds up to 1 gigabit per second, Taipei 101 may be the world's most technically advanced skyscraper. That said, perhaps the best selling point of Taipei 101 is the most obvious one: A view from the top of the world.

For more information on Taipei 101, go to http://www.taipei-101.com.tw.

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