World's New Tallest Building Will Open In Tapei

Taipei, Taiwan: " 'If this building is going to be damaged, other buildings in Taipei will collapse,' claims Shaw Shieh, president of the tower's local structural designer, Evergreen Consulting Engineering Inc." When it is complete, the 101 story building will be 508 meters tall. Its primary feature are megacolumns, designed to withstand seismic events many times greater than the local laws require. Built with two dampers, the vibration at the top of the building will be reduced by 1/3. In selecting a structural system, Evergreen was inspired to adopt the "megacolumn" concept of Chicago's unbuilt 610-m-tall Miglin Beitler tower, designed by New York City-based Thornton-Tomasetti/Engineers. T-T joined the Taipei 101 team in 1998. Shieh says he welcomed the firm's involvement. "They made us feel more confident about designing a supertall building," he says.

Thanks to Adam Weiss