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The title of "world's tallest building" seems to change hands as frequently as the Miss Universe crown. The 1,644-foot-tall Taipei 101, inaugurated this past New Year's Eve and home to the Taiwan stock market, currently holds this distinction. Taipei 101 also boasts the world's fastest elevator, which whisks passengers from zero to the 89th-floor observation deck in only 37 seconds, moving at a speed that exceeds 36 miles per hour.
Super-tall buildings must be engineered for the static vertical loads caused by gravity and the dynamic lateral loads caused by wind. CY Lee solved the latter by installing a gigantic metal ball, weighing 606 metric tons, on the 92nd floor. In the high winds of a typhoon, the ball acts as a damper, swaying back and forth and reducing the tower's overall movement up to 40%. Rather than hiding this engineering element, the architects celebrated it, painting it gold and leaving it open for visitors to see.
Although Dubai's Burj building threatens to steal the title of world's tallest in 2008, Taipei 101's elegant Asian aesthetic and impressive technical aspects ensure its place on the global innovation skyline.
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