[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Thaniel

If One WTC's spire is in fact not an antenna then I'd say they'll count it (even unfinished) and will continue not to count Willis Tower's antennae.

I think there will be a shake up. They feel the need to have press conferences in New York and Chicago.

But as I mentioned earlier, I'm more determined so see where the height measurement begins. That comes before all else, they have to get that right first.



http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...#axzz2kQyL006s

What makes a skyscraper the tallest? A ruling is coming





By Tina Susman
November 11, 2013

It was all so simple for King Kong, the giant ape who fled his captors by clambering to the top of the Empire State Building. Back then, there was no question the Manhattan icon was America's tallest skyscraper.

That was also before spires, antennas and accouterments made it much harder to determine which building could be called the tallest.

Enter the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which on Tuesday is scheduled to hand down its ruling on the latest tall building issue. Depending on the outcome, the decision could upend building ratings from China to Chicago.

At issue is whether the 408-foot spire and beacon atop One World Trade Center should be considered part of the building's height. If so, the skyscraper, scheduled to open in Lower Manhattan in 2014, would measure 1,776 feet. Without the spire, it stands 1,368 feet tall — the same height as the original One World Trade Center tower.

If the spire is included, it would bump Chicago's Willis Tower — formerly the Sears Tower — from the No. 1 U.S. spot. The Chicago building measures 1,729 feet with its antennas and 1,451 feet without them.

None of this would have mattered had the architects of One World Trade Center, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, not altered the slender, glassy building's design in 2012 to remove material that would have enclosed the spire and made it indisputably part of the building. The redesign shaved millions of dollars in construction costs and ensured easier maintenance of the spire.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land on which the building sits, and the architects say the multi-tiered spire is more than a communications antenna because it features a beacon with 288 50-watt LED modules and will emit a light visible for 50 miles on a clear night.

Daniel Safarik of the Chicago-based council said that it was unusual for the group to deliberate this intensely over a decision, but that technology had brought about industry-wide design changes that needed to be monitored. "Are we valuing our ability to put people or material into the air?" he said of the scrutiny of spires and antennas. "If it's material, we have to look carefully at what that material is and what it does."

Not everyone is convinced that height should be the most important element in ranking the world's skyscrapers. Carol Willis, an architectural historian and founder of the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan, said by focusing on height, people lost sight of other elements.

"What is a big building? It's not just a vertical height above the ground," said Willis, noting that even when the original One World Trade Center tower was displaced as the tallest building by Chicago's Sears (now Willis) Tower in 1974, it remained the bigger building based on square footage. It was also larger, in terms of square footage, than the new World Trade Center tower, said Willis, adding that the council has stepped into a "sticky situation" by limiting criteria to a few defining features.

Whatever the outcome of the latest competition, Willis said she was not worried about the effect on New York. "I think New York has got the biggest and best skyline in the world," she said, "and that's not going to change."