Top 10 Skyscrapers

10. First Canadian Place, Toronto, Canada, 951 feet (1975)

"The hub of the Canadian business empire" revitalized Toronto and signaled to the World that the city was on its way to becoming the financial center of Canada while Montreal would remain its cultural heartbeat. The building's plain look resembles Chicago's Standard Oil Building. The CN Tower, the tallest freestanding tower in the world, dwarfs this building. But as the tallest skyscraper north of the US border, it shows that Canada has a lot more to offer than igloos and beer.

9. Renaissance Center, Detroit, 725 feet (1976)

In the wake of the 1967 race riots and a local depression, Henry Ford II had the vision to create the Renaissance Center, consisting of five towers, a symbol of a resurgent Detroit. The Ford Motor Land Development Corporation led 50 other partners in the $250 million project. The mega-structure houses a hotel, office space, retail stores, an entertainment complex, as well as sufficient parking for 4000 cars (they don't call it the Motor City for nothing).

8. John Hancock, Chicago, 1127 feet (1969)

Spend your 21st birthday at the building's 95th floor restaurant, and it becomes hard for you to dislike this building. It's one of the three giants that tower over Chicago's skyline, along with the Sears Tower and the Standard Oil building. The building recently had a brush with notoriety as the place where SNL alumnus Chris Farley passed away.

7. Jin Mao Building, Shanghai, China, 1380 feet (1999)

The Jin Mao Building is China's tallest building and the world's third tallest. The tower exemplifies Shanghai's ascension to modern status, offering retail stores, office space as well as a hotel (in the upper 38 floors). China's first premier skyscraper, the Jin Mao blends western building standards with eastern aesthetics (lucky number eight figures into the tower's composition). The original design called for a circle atop the building, but was nixed by Chinese authorities as this represented a Rising Sun, a symbol of Japanese imperialism. As a result, a "bridge" cuts into the circle to avoid the connotation.

6. Chrysler Building, NYC, 1046 feet (1930)

One of the nicest buildings in New York's Skyline. In fact, DaimlerChrysler recently announced that it would move some of its operations back into the venerable building. The building's storied past includes The Cloud Club, which hosted several 'gettogethers' during the Prohibition era. Top 10 Skyscrapers

5. World Trade Center, NYC, 1362/1368 feet (1973)

Editor's Note: This list was compiled in November 2000, before the tragic events that occurred on September 11, 2001. Mention the World Trade Center and most will describe its signature twin towers that tower over the Empire State Building by 100 feet. The original design called for 85 story buildings, but the amount was increased to make them the world's tallest buildings. The project began in 1966 and wound up costing over $1.5 billion. When completed in 1973, the towers rose to 1,368 and 1,362 feet, and 110 stories each, ranking as the world's tallest and

largest buildings until some retailer had other ambitions.

4. Sears Tower, Chicago, 1454 feet (1974)

With close to $9 billion in sales, Sears, Roebuck and Company followed Business Tip #1 and decided to consolidate its administrative operations (and 13,000 employees) under one roof in downtown Chicago. Sears wanted to brag about building a tower as tall as the FAA would allow, remaining to this day the tallest skyscraper in North America. Something that the current tallest building in the world cannot brag about: you can see four states from the top on a nice day.

3. Woolworth Building, NYC, 792 feet (1913)

You thought your piggy bank was heavy? Frank W. Woolworth financed this baby with cash -enough said. The Venator Group (formerly Woolworth Corporation) sold the tower in June 1998 to the Witkoff Group for $155 million. The building's opening ceremony included President Wilson, who pressed a button in the White House that lit up every interior floor and the exterior floodlights. Not bad for 1913. In any case, this is the one building that mesmerized me every time I visited the city.

2. Petronas Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1483 feet (1998)

On April 15, 1996 (my mom's birthday, mind you), the Council on Tall Buildings passed the baton to Asia -- and Malaysia in particular -- as home of the tallest building in Kuala Lumpur. The Petronas Towers was symbolic of Asian aspirations to rank amongst the financial superpowers. So what if Asian excess, crony capitalism and loose lending imploded the market in 1997? A turnaround would follow, and no one would take away the physical infrastructure. A 41st-story bridge that was part of the movie Entrapment links the identical towers.

1. Empire State Building, NYC, 1250 feet (1931)

When this masterpiece was completed in postrecession 1931, it hailed as the tallest building in the world, topping the Chrysler Building by 200 feet. What makes this wonder more impressive is that it took a mere twenty months to go from concept to reality. The symbol of the "Empire State," this building single-handedly represents New York's ascension as the capital of the world.