Skyscrapers database

New database made in April 2019, for someone interested in companies, tenders, architects and engineers involved in each building construction.

Download free SAMPLE:

Skyscrapers Database SAMPLE .xls

Buy FULL database:

The original 15,000+ skyscrapers database (2016)

After making databases of HDB and condos from Singapore, as well as public and private housing estates from Hong Kong, and other databases, I learned to use web scraping in August 2015, and in November 2015 I started making a database of skyscrapers, to showcase my ability extract data from websites and create larger databases that I could do copy-pasting data manually, and for my personal interest in studying evolution of skyscrapers over history.

I published it in January 2016, having over 15,000 buildings taller than 100 meters. Under construction buildings are included so the database will be valid for next 3-4 years.

Buy LITE database:

Tallest buildings today 300 meters / 984 feet, 218 buildings, completed and under construction
Tallest buildings in year 2000, 1980, 1960, 1940, 1920.
Timeline of tallest buildings in the world, in United States, and outside North America.

Buy FULL database (free SAMPLE):

All buildings over 100 meters / 328 feet, 15727 buildings, completed, under construction, planned, vision
Sorted by city (~600 cities having buildings over 100 meters), can be re-sorted by height or any other column.

How the Excel database was made:

I identified on map the cities with many buildings, check them on Emporis, made a list of skyscraper URLs for each city (most cities checked do not have any skyscrapers), then input list of URL in www.import.io (it was free until April 2016 when it turned into a paid service) to get details about each building and put in Excel table, then enhance Excel table, remove day/month from construction dates (leave only year for easy historical analysis), etc… dozens hours of work!

How the Excel sheet can be used:

Filter the table and make top tallest buildings by country, state, city, building usage, etc.
Filter the table by year and make top tallest buildings in any given year of history.
Analyze data and make statistics what cities have most buildings over 100, 200, 300 meters.
Convert Excel file to CSV or MySQL and create your own skyscrapers website or mobile app.
Etc…

I offer buildings database as web scraping service. Contact me for a price quote based by your requirements (worldwide or a list of specific countries, skyscrapers only, buildings over X meters, etc). If you want updates in the future you need to pay each update 50% of initial price.

Larger database: 160,000+ buildings from United States

In April 2016 someone seeing my skyscrapers database asked me if I can create a database of buildings in Ontario state of Canada. DONE!

In November 2016 another customer asked me if I can make database not just for skyscrapers but also high-rises in United States! DONE in about 5 days!

Buy FULL database:

He further asked to include low-rise buildings. So I decided to re-scrap website with all types of buildings and also included all 50 data fields and no just the ones of my and his interest. DONE in about 2 weeks, including 20 hours of manual work to build the list of URLs for all buildings then many hours of scraping. Had to run in batches of 2000 buildings (taking 15 min each) because of IP blocker, then join the files and re-scrap blocked URLs. A huge effort than deserve this price, not counting highly valuable information collected.

Buy FULL database (free SAMPLE):

These 163,938 buildings are not all buildings ever built, but all buildings included by Emporis as December 2016 (except New York City, note below). Maybe not 100% complete, but still the BEST resource of building information that you can get. They usually include famous buildings, and most (if not all) large public buildings, commercial buildings, churches, etc. But in case of residential buildings, most of them are not considered famous to be included.

Note for New York City: this is the only city in the world where every single building does exist on Emporis, including 390,000+ low-rise buildings and 320,000+ houses (more than double of whole rest of US). Would have taken extra 30 days to scrap them all, and the customer said “need few dozens buildings from every US city” and “in case of NYC scraping high-rises and skyscrapers is more than enough”.

Meantime the original skyscrapers database did not had any sale… so I changed page name from “Skyscrapers database” in “Buildings database” and published the US all-buildings database, in case other people are interested too.

History of skyscrapers

United States is well-known for skyscrapers, but in reality only a small area in the downtown have skyscrapers, and the era when United States was the only country with skyscrapers ended long time ago. A lot of high-rise buildings were built since late 19th century. What is less known, is that early skyscrapers were not so well received by population and most US cities set height limits to counter the “skyscraper race”, but in New York the law failed to be approved, so taller and taller skyscrapers were built. Early skyscrapers had continuous facade at street line, ugly side walls and airwells, making street to look like canyons. 1916 Zoning Resolution prevent buildings to cover entire plot of land.

The 1930 recession ended skyscraper construction in North America, for about 30 years no more tall buildings were built. Between 1933 and 1953, in entire world were 19 buildings over 600 feet (183 m), all of them located in United States, 17 of them were in New York alone (source).

Nice find: http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21249 – a lot of vintage photos of skyscrapers taken from 1900s to 1930s.

A thing less known, Russia attempted to take away the title of world tallest building from USA, with Palace of the Soviets started in 1938, but due to the World War II the construction was abandoned. After war, seven smaller but still megalithic buildings were built. Moscow State University completed in 1953 was the tallest building outside United States, until 1975.

Since 1990s a new skyscraper race began, probably helped by computer technology. New buildings over 300 meters appeared in Malaysia, China, Taiwan, as well as Europe. The world had 26 completed buildings over 300 meters as 2000, 53 as 2010, 126 as 2015, and 218 including under construction ones, according my database.

Asia started building skyscrapers with over 200 meters slowly during 1980s and nowadays it have most skyscrapers under construction.

Singapore’s UOB Plaza was tallest building outside United States between 1986 and 1989, and remains tallest in Singapore due to the height restrictions.

Malaysia surprised whole world in 1998 when completed Petronas Towers with 452 meters, taking the title of world tallest building from United States, and now is constructing KL118 with 635 meters, which in 2020 will become 3rd tallest in the world.

China had in 2000 only 4 of the world’s 25 buildings over 300 meters, and now it does have 98 of the 218 buildings over 300 meters according my database (including under construction).

Buildings over 500 meters have been proposed also in India, Indonesia, Philippines, South Korea. These countries may join the race during 2020s. How the earth will look like in 2050?

Latin America has been building skyscrapers since 1930s, Martinelli Building (built 1934, 130 meters), then Altino Arantes Building (built 1947, 161 meters), being also the tallest building outside United States. But the evolution was slow and not much taller buildings were built over years. Presently Brazil does have few hundred buildings over 100 meters, mostly residential, but the tallest, Mirante do Vale (built 1960), is only 170 meters. Tallest skyscraper in South America was Parque Central Complex built in 1983, only 225 meters until 2014 when Gran Torre Santiago was completed, with 300 meters.

Europe is the place where skyscrapers enjoyed little popularity, except Russia. Most skyscrapers of Europe are located in Moskow. Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world from 1889 to 1930.

Middle East does have relatively few buildings over 100 meters but between 2012 and 2015 it had the two tallest buildings in the world, Burj Khalifa and Makkah Royal Clock Tower, and now is building a new world’s tallest, Jeddah Tower, 1 kilometre high.

Skyscrapers statistics

See how many tall buildings were built starting from 1980s and especially during 2000s, probably helped by computer technology. How the world will look like in 2050?

Number of buildings with over # meters

Statistics based on original database made in January 2016 (15727 buildings).