World’s Highest Cities

Potosí - Bolivia (4,090 m)
Potosí is a city, the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is claimed to be the highest city in the world at a nominal 4,090 m (13,420 feet). It lies beneath the Cerro de Potosí — sometimes referred to as the Cerro Rico (”rich mountain”) — a mountain popularly conceived of as being “made of” silver ore, which has always dominated the city. Cerro de Potosí’s peak is 4,824 meters (15,827 feet) above sea level.

La Paz - Bolivia (3,500 m)
La Paz is a sprawling city 3,500 m above sea level and home to just under one million people. It’s in a great position for those who want to spend some time visiting a number of sights at altitude – the old ruins of Tiahuanacu are nearby (much older than Machu Picchu), as is Lake Titicaca.

La Paz is the highest capital city in the world, and is home to the world’s highest golf course, football stadium, velodrome (where the world record currently stands), and landing strip.

Quito - Ecuador (2,850 m)
The elevation of the city’s central square (Plaza de La Independencia or Plaza Grande) is 2,850 m (about 9,350 ft), making Quito the second-highest administrative capital city in the world (after La Paz, Bolivia), and the highest legal capital (ahead of Sucre, also in Bolivia, and Bogotá, Colombia).

Quito is located about 25 km (15 miles) south of the equator. A monument and museum marking the general location of the equator is known locally as la mitad del mundo (the middle of the world), to avoid confusion, as the word ecuador is Spanish for equator.

World’s Highest Buildings

Burj Dubai - The United Arab Emirates
Year: 2009 (est)
Stories: 167
Height: 818 m (2,313 ft)

The tower is being constructed by a South Korean company, Samsung Engineering & Construction which also built the Petronas Twin Towers and the Taipei 101. Samsung Engineering & Construction is building the tower in a joint venture with Besix from Belgium and Arabtec from UAE. Turner is the Project Manager on the main construction contract.

The primary structural system of Burj Dubai is reinforced concrete. Over 45,000 m3 (58,900 cu yd) of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes (120,000 ST; 110,000 LT) were used to construct the concrete and steel foundation, which features 192 piles buried more than 50 m (164 ft) deep. When completed, Burj Dubai’s construction will have used 330,000 m3 (431,600 cu yd) of concrete and 39,000 tonnes (43,000 ST; 38,000 LT) of steel rebar (enough to extend over a quarter of the way around the world if laid end-to-end); and construction will have taken 22 million man hours.

Taipei 101 - Taiwan
Year: 2004
Stories: 101
Height: 508 m (1,667 ft)

Taipei 101 is designed to withstand the typhoon winds and earthquake tremors common in its area of the Asia-Pacific. Planners aimed for a structure that could withstand gale winds of 60 m/s (197 ft/s, 216 km/h, 134 mi/h) and the strongest earthquakes likely to occur in a 2,500 year cycle.

Skyscrapers must be flexible in strong winds yet remain rigid enough to prevent large sideways movement (lateral drift). Flexibility prevents structural damage while resistance ensures comfort for the occupants and protection of glass, curtain walls and other features. Most designs achieve the necessary strength by enlarging critical structural elements such as bracing. The extraordinary height of Taipei 101 combined with the demands of its environment called for additional innovations on the part of engineers.

The design achieves both strength and flexibility for the tower through the use of high-performance steel construction. Thirty-six columns support Taipei 101, including eight “mega-columns” packed with 10,000-psi concrete. Every eight floors, outrigger trusses connect the columns in the building’s core to those on the exterior.

These features combine with the solidity of its foundation to make Taipei 101 one of the most stable buildings ever constructed. The foundation is reinforced by 380 piles driven 80 m (262 ft) into the ground, extending as far as 30 m (98 ft) into the bedrock. Each pile is 1.5 m (5 ft) in diameter and can bear a load of 1,000 metric tons (1,100 short tons) - 1,320 metric tons (1,460 short tons). The stability of the design became evident during construction when, on March 31, 2002, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Taipei. The tremor was strong enough to topple two construction cranes from the 56th floor, then the highest, and killed five people in the accident. An inspection afterwards showed no structural damage to the building and construction soon resumed.

Petronas Twin Tower - Malaysia
Year: 1998
Stories: 88
Height: 452 m (1,483 ft)

Designed by Argentine-American architect César Pelli, the Petronas Towers were completed in 1998 and became the tallest buildings in the world on the date of completion. They were built on the site of Kuala Lumpur’s race track. Because of the depth of the bedrock, the buildings were built on the world’s deepest foundations. The 120-meter foundations were built by Bachy Soletanche, and required massive amounts of concrete.

The 88-floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass facade designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia’s Muslim religion. Another Islamic influence on the design is that the cross-section of the towers is based on a Rub el Hizb (albeit with circular sectors added to meet office space requirements).

In an unusual move, a different construction company was hired for each of the towers. Tower 2 was successfully completed by Samsung Engineering & Construction and Kukdong Engineering (both of South Korea). The builders of Tower 1, Hazama Corporation found a problem during the construction, the tower was estimated to lean 25 mm on the ground with its own weight. The Tower 2 construction team succeeded one month earlier than Tower 1.