11. Palace of the Parliament | Office Buildings
One of the heaviest buildings in the world, the Palace of the Parliament, is located in Bucharest, Romania. It has a floor area of about 3,65,000 sq m. The administrative building was designed by chief architect Anca Petrescu on orders of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the then president of Romania. Its construction began in 1984.
Apart from housing the Romanian parliament, this building is also used as a conference centre, national museum to use its space to an optimum level.
12. AON Centre
Clad in white stone, this office building is located in Chicago, Illinois. It was completed in 1973 by Perkins+Will and Edward Durell Stone & Associates. The office building is about 347 m tall and has 83 floors above ground. The core of the building has elevators and other services. The structural system is a framed and linked tube system done in steel, to support the large floor plates.
13. 55 Water Street
Located in lower Manhattan, New York City, in the United States, this is a 56 storey office building. It was designed by Emery Roth and Sons and was completed in 1972. It’s a 209 m high building with vertical striped windows in its upper part and horizontal striped windows in its lower part.
14. Burj Khalifa
The world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. Located in downtown Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is about 828m tall, and not just houses offices but also residential, observation floors, hotels, and restaurants. Inspired by a desert lily, the tower looks like the letter ‘Y’ at the top after the reduction of the cross-section with increasing height.
15. Lotte World Tower | Office Buildings
Located in Seoul, South Korea, this building is a composite structure built of reinforced concrete, concrete encased steel, and steel. Completed in 2017, Lotte World Tower is a 123 storey office building with a total floor area of about 3,04,080 sq m. Not just offices, but the tower also has hotels and retail. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, this building is about 554 m tall.
16. Taipei 101
Located in district Xin Yi, Taipei, Taiwan, this building was completed in 2004. It has 101 floors above ground and measures a height of about 508 m. The building has been done in a composite structural system by C.Y. Lee & Partners. The building also received the highest LEED rating in 2011 and became one of the greenest skyscrapers in the world.
17. MetLife Building
Located in Manhattan, New York City, in the United States, this building is a steel structural system. Completed in 1963, the building consists of 59 floors. It is about 246.3 m tall and appears like a bulky structure. It is one of the examples of Brutalist architecture that was designed by Emery Roth & Sons, Pietro Belluschi, and Walter Gropius. It was commissioned to be the headquarters of the PanAm Airways and was hence, formerly known as the PanAm Building.
18. Shun Hing Square
Shun Hing Square is located in Shenzhen city, China, and was completed in 1996. With a total of 69 floors, this office building is about 384 m tall. It is a composite structural system done in reinforced concrete and steel. Not just offices, the tower also contains luxury apartments and a shopping complex. Aluminum and glass cover a large part of the facade. It was designed by K.Y. Cheung Design Associates.
19. Brookfield Place (formerly BCE Place)
Designed by architect Santiago Calatrava and Bregman + Hamann Architects, this project features the Allen Lambert Galleria, a 6 storey pedestrian avenue. It is an award-winning pedestrian avenue. Located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, it has a total building size of about 1,30,715 sq m and 47 floors. Built in the year 1992, the building combines two office towers via the pedestrian avenue.
20. International Commerce Centre | Office Buildings
Located in Kowloon, Hong Kong, the office building is a composite structure that is about 490 m high. It was completed in 2010 with a floor area of about 2,74,064 sq m. The building was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates for Sun Hung Kai Properties. It also houses an observation deck and a hotel.
