Shanghai World Financial Center is the most beautiful skyscraper this year

Chicago - Architects have chosen the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world, the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Center, as the most beautiful skyscraper completed this year, reports Reuters.
    "The characteristic features of this skyscraper are the simplicity of forms and size," said Carol Willis from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which brings together architects and engineers from many countries around the world.
    The Shanghai Tower is the work of the architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, based in New York with branches around the world.
    Architect Tim Johnson, who chaired the selection committee, praised the building's innovative structural design. The steel beam protects the building from strong winds and earthquakes, giving it a light appearance as the tapering tower creates the impression of dissolving into the sky.
    Willis, who runs the New York Museum of Skyscrapers, said there are repeated opinions that skyscrapers are a dead issue, but super-tall buildings continue to come back into fashion, especially in Asia, in the oil-rich Middle East, but also in Russia.
    The terrorist attacks on the towers of New York's World Trade Center in 2001 raised concerns among many people about living and working in such buildings, but these fears seem to be fading, experts believe.
    This year, 24 buildings at least 244 meters high were completed, whereas in 2005 there were only eight, reported Emporis, which collects such data. Next year, 47 skyscrapers of the same height or taller are expected to be completed, although the current economic recession could halt the construction of some of them.
    There was a long pause in the construction of the 101-story Shanghai skyscraper (492 meters) from the mid-90s to 2000. Construction resumed after China recovered from the economic downturn.
    The Shanghai skyscraper was chosen as the most beautiful of three high-rise buildings built in other regions: New York Times Building in New York, office buildings at 51 Lime Street in London, and Bahrain World Trade Center in Manama.
    The Shanghai Tower covers an area of 377,000 square meters, will house 12,000 office workers in 70 floors, with a conference center and shops at the bottom, a hotel at the top, and an observation deck at the very top.