The following is from a Chicago Tribune editorial:
It used to be the tallest building in America and in the world. It used to be the Sears Tower.
Now Chicago's Willis Tower is second, um, banana to New York's not-yet-completed One World Trade Center, which was declared tallest in the nation by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the official arbiter of disputes over the height of skyscrapers.
At issue was whether the pointy thing atop the New York building should count as an architectural element or an antenna. A spire, mast or other adornment counts as part of the structure. An antenna doesn't.
One World Trade Center aspires to a symbolically significant height of 1,776 feet, including a 408-foot needle. Last year, its developer scratched plans to enclose the needle. The move saved $20 million, but left the building with a topper that looks suspiciously like an antenna.
Without the needle, the building would be 1,368 feet. The Willis Tower, minus antennas, is 1,451.
But the council decided the pointy thing is part of the New York building, and, Chicago was second again.
This brings us to the concept of "vanity height" — defined by the council as "the distance between a skyscraper's highest occupiable floor and its architectural top." Anxious to measure up in the international skyline, developers are adding height by piling buildings with unusable structures.
Dubai's Burj Khalifa — the world's tallest building at 2,717 feet — is topped by 800 feet of unusable ornamentation. New York's Bank of America tower registers 36 percent, according to archdaily.com. The website notes once One World Trade Center is finished, "New York City will be home to three of the world's top 10 vanity heights."
Knock yourself out, New York.