Shanghai tower, 2008's best skyscraper

Chicago, Nov 21: The Shanghai World Financial Center, which some describe as an elegant bottle opener, has been adjudged the world's the best skyscraper. The tower is world's second-tallest building. "The simplicity of its form as well as its size dramatizes the idea of the skyscraper," said Carol Willis of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international group of architects and engineers.

According to Xinhua news agency, the Shanghai tower was design by architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, which was founded in New York and has offices worldwide. Architect Tim Johnson, who led the council's selection committee, cited the building's innovative structural design. Steel trusses gird against the forces of wind and earthquake and "made the building lighter, made it use less steel, and contributed to its sustainability," he said and added that the tower's tapered form creates the impression it is dissolving into the heavens, he added.

The Council on Tall Buildings is the body that determines the world's tallest building -- a designation that seems to jump around the globe and will soon shift to Dubai.

ANI