For many people, 2020 will be remembered as the year that nothing went to plan. The same can be said for the tall building industry. As a global pandemic took hold in the first quarter, numerous projects around the world, at various stages, ground to a halt as restrictions on assembly came into force. It is therefore not surprising that 2020 yielded 106 completions of buildings 200 meters and taller, a 20 percent decline from 133 in 2019, and nearing a level last seen in 2014, when 105 such buildings were constructed.

This is the second year in a row in which the completion figure declined. In 2019, the reasons for this were varied, though the efforts of China to curtail its debt, combined with public policy statements against needless production of exceedingly tall buildings, constituted a strong factor that has persisted into 2020.

“CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020.” CTBUH Journal, January 2021, 40–49. https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/year-in-review/2020. 

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has released its annual report, CTBUH Year in Review: Tall Trends of 2020, part of the Tall Buildings in Numbers data analysis series. The report, kindly sponsored this year by Schindler, shows that 106 buildings of 200 meters’ height or greater were completed in 2020, a 20 percent decline from 2019, when 133 such buildings were completed.* The decline can be partly attributed to work stoppages and other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.1

Keywords: Construction, COVID-19, Development, Height, Hotel, Megatall, Mixed-Use, Office, Residential, Supertall

  • 1. Note: Please refer to Tall Buildings in Numbers—The Global Tall Building Picture: Impact of 2020 in conjunction with this paper, pages 48–49. *The study sets a minimum threshold of 200 meters’ height because of the completeness of data available on buildings of that height.