second tallest

As everyone in the Toronto area knows, the CN Tower is no longer the world's tallest freestanding structure, bested by the Burj Dubai, which is still under construction in the United Arab Emirates.

I can't say this mattered to me, as I have no great love for the Tower, an ugly concrete mass that only looks good at night. I do like the distinctive shape it gives the Toronto night skyline. But I don't know about the whole "structure vs building" argument. It seems sliced pretty thin just to get the bragging rights.

But the CN Tower's dethroning was a good excuse for newspapers and websites to break out graphics of skyscrapers all over the world, and to compare tall buildings through history. I really enjoyed that, both for the architecture lesson, and for the New York City memories.

Many of the former world's-tallest-buildings have been in New York, and those remain some of the city's most beautiful and treasured places.

tallest buildings001

Click for a larger image. The older buildings are in the lower right corner.

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