The Willis Tower in Chicago standing at 1,450 held the record for tallest building in the world for nearly 25 years after surpasing the World Trade Center in 1973. The building was originaly named the Sears Tower as Sears was the largest retailer in the world at the time and needed office space in Chicago.

The Woolworth Building is an early US skyscraper built in New York by architect Cass Gilbert. At a height of 792 feet, it stood as the tallest building in the world from 1913 to 1930. The exterior is decorated with terracotta and limestone with an interior lobby containing many sculptures and mosaics.

The Shanghai Tower, standing at 2,073 feet is the current second tallest building in the world. It currently holds the record for tallest observation deck at 1,843 feet! Although the building has been complete since 2015, major maintenance issues have caused the tower to remain largely unoccupied.

The Abraj Al-Bait is a complex of seven goverment owned skyscrapers in Mecca, Saudia Arabia. the central tower known as the Mukkah Royal Clock Tower has the larges clock face in the world as well as being the third tallest building in the world standing at 1,972 feet

The Petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world. They stand in Kuala Lumpu, and were built using a tube in tube design. An interesting fact is that the left tower was built by a japanese consortium, and the right was by a South Korean consortium.

Our City Hall right here in Philly is the worlds larges free standing masonry building. It is constructed with marble, limestone, brick and constructed from 1871 to 1901. Standing at 548 ft, City Hall still serves the seat of the munucipal government of Philadelphia.

Although Abode318 only stands at 567 ft, It was added to this gallery for it's unique Wave like design. Located in Melbourne Australia, this wave-like design created by Elenburg Fraser was chosen to provite insulation for the residential building.