Wikipedia:WikiProject Skyscrapers/Tallest building lists

Units

Meters and feet are the two units used in tallest building lists. Per Manual of style guidelines, the first instance a particular unit must be linked and fully spelled out, as seen in this example with feet and meter 2,684 feet (818 m). Any other figure using feet or meter proceeding this figure must be abbreviated and unlinked (231 ft (70 m)). For American cities, feet is stated first, with the figure in meters in brackets.

Do not provide your own guesses or estimates of a building's height.

Height cutoff

Every tallest buildings list requires a data cutoff point, which determines the minimum height needed to be included in the list. This depends on the size of the skyline. Larger skylines will have higher cutoffs.

The cutoff height should be one of the following: 50 m (164 ft), 75 m (246 ft), 100 m (328 ft), 150 m (492 ft), 200 m (656 ft), or 250 m (820 ft). The cutoff height should be chosen so that the list is of a reasonable length, resulting in a range between 12 and 200 entries. American cities may use height cutoffs that are multiples of 50 or 100 feet, such as 200 or 300 ft. Beyond 300 ft, they may use the cutoff heights in metric as well.

If a city's tallest buildings list is used as the basis for the number of skyscrapers given in List of cities with the most skyscrapers, the height cutoff should be kept at a maximum 150 m (492 ft) even if the number of buildings in the list exceeds 200. This is as the height of every building on the list needs to be verifiable.

For some cities with lots of skyscrapers, especially in non-English speaking countries, it is impractical to create complete list of buildings above a given height if the cutoff is too low. The cutoff should be high enough to make sure every skyscraper taller than it can be listed.

Should a city's skyline keep growing such that the length of the table is too long or unmanageable, the height cutoff should be raised, and buildings shorter than it be removed from the list.

Scoping

Projects that have not yet received government approval, due to WP:CRYSTAL concerns and the lower likelihood that they will actually be constructed, may not be included in the "Tallest under construction or proposed" or "Tallest under construction or approved" section, per this RfC.

Inclusion of non-building structures

Lists can include any notable free-standing structures (e.g. observation towers) that are taller than the height cutoff, although they should be unranked, with their value in the rank column replaced by "N/A". A note should be made in the notes column that the structure is not a habitable building. These structures should also not appear in the map of buildings below.

Lists titled "List of tallest buildings and structures in (city)" may include non-free standing structures as well.

Referencing

The lead and the history section should include in-line citations. Per WP:BLUE, citations are not necessarily required for general statements about the city's skyline. Statements about the number of buildings above a given height do not require citations if the information is supported by the main list.

For data on individual buildings, such as their name, function, year of completion, floor count, and especially height, the CTBUH is almost always the primary source. For example, if the CTBUH states a high-rise is 96 metres tall, while SkyscraperPage says the same high-rise is 102 metres tall, and the cutoff height is 100 m, the building should *not* be included in the list.

If a building has no entry in the CTBUH database, figures from Emporis or SkyscraperPage can be used instead. If the building's height is still unknown, citations from the following sources can be used instead, as long as the height can be verified:

• News websites
• Journals
• Official publications by the developer or architect
• Documents from the application process
• Other city documents
• Any other relevant sources

When citing, link to the website of PDF that states the building height directly.

Image

The image in the infobox is the lead image of the article. It should be a photo that shows the skyline clearly without it being too close or too far away. The image should be less than a decade old, unless a more recent picture is unavailable.

Statistics

For all cities, the tallest building should be stated, along with the year of its completion (in brackets next to the building) and its height (in a separate parameter below).

Figures for the number of buildings taller than a certain height should be included as well.

• For heights equal or greater than the height cutoff of the list, there is no need to include a reference, and the number given should match that inferred from the table.
• For heights below the cutoff height of the list, a source should be cited. The only acceptable sources are CTBUH (The Skyscraper Center), SkyscraperPage, or Emporis. Generally, for large skylines, figures for shorter heights of 50 m and 100 m are unreliable, and should not be included if no accurate figure can be found.

First paragraph

The first sentence may be a brief statement about the city's location, size, and population, linking to the article for the city itself, after which the topic moves to the city's buildings. The number of buildings above a certain height should be stated, usually 100 m, 150 m, or 200 m depending on the city. One or two such figures should be stated; three is excessive. A year should be attached to the figures to let readers know how current the figures are, using WP:ASOF (e.g. "as of 2025, New York City has XXX buildings above YYY metres ...").

The city's tallest building should be stated in the lead, either in the first paragraph or in the paragraphs below. The lead should include the name of the tallest building, the year it was built, its purpose, and any distinctive features—architectural or otherwise—if they exist.

If the skyline is notable for being among the largest in a state, country, or region, it can be mentioned. Only use the ordinals "first", "second" or "third" if the skyline's size in comparison to other cities is unambiguous, and use "one of the" otherwise. For example, Calgary, Montreal, and Vancouver all have a reasonable claim to being Canada's second largest skyline, so saying that any one of them is the "second largest skyline in Canada" should be avoided. If the city's skyline would rank fourth or below in a region, "one of the" should be used, or the scope of the region considered can be shrunk. Optionally, if the ranking can be quantified by the number of buildings over a certain height (usually 100 m or 150 m), this may be provided.

Second to third paragraphs

The second paragraph should contain material about the history of the city's skyline, describing the time period when the city began to construct high-rises. If there is a building referred to as the city's "first skyscraper" or first significant tall building, it should be mentioned, including the year it was built and its height. Afterwards, the city should describe high-rise construction trends throughout the city's history, including which years, decades or periods saw more skyscraper construction, and which saw less. Important buildings completed during each period may be mentioned, including but not limited to the city's five tallest buildings. If mentioned already, the tallest building may be brought up again, but with fewer details. If a city has a long history of skyscraper development, this part may be split into two paragraphs.

Final paragraph

The final information can include more information about the skyline, including but not limited to:

• The location/distribution of a city's tallest buildings
• If a city has multiple distinct high-rise "clusters", this should be mentioned here
• Any unique aspects of the skyline (e.g. geographic layout). This may also be mentioned in the first paragraph
• Observation towers or famous viewpoints for observing the skyline
• The skyline's importance to the city's identity or culture
• Any significant upcoming projects. This may also be mentioned at the end of the history part.

If there is not enough information for an individual paragraph, this information should be merged with one of the paragraphs above.

GeoGroup

The lead should also have a GeoGroup template, which automatically links to an OpenStreetView map of every coordinate in the page.

Line chart

A line chart can be placed at the top or bottom of the history section using the Chart extension. The chart shows the historical rate of growth of tall buildings in the skyline. The chart extension requires two data pages, a .chart and a .tab page, to be created on Wikimedia Commons. For example, see the .tab and .chart page for Toronto.

{
    "license": "CC0-1.0",
    "mediawikiCategories": [],
    "version": 1,
    "type": "line",
    "title": {
        "en": "Growth of skyscrapers in (city) by year"
    },
    "xAxis": {
        "title": {
            "en": "Year"
        }
    },
    "yAxis": {
        "title": {
            "en": "Number of buildings"
        }
    },
    "source": "(city)_skyscraper_growth.tab",
    "@documentation": "https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Chart/Specification"
}

Rank

Buildings should be listed by height, in descending order. If two buildings have the same height, the one built earlier should go first; if they are still tied, they should be listed alphabetically. If two buildings have the same height and year because they are part of the same complex, and their names are numbered (e.g. "Pinnacle Tower 1" and "Pinnacle Tower 2" or "Aspire I" and "Aspire II"), the one with the lower number should be listed first.

It is up to the editor's discretion on whether buildings with identical heights should be given identical rankings with an equal sign attached ("=22" instead of 22), although not doing so would make reranking easier when new buildings are added. Some editors may choose to use the Row numbers template to make sorting easier.

Name

Many high-rises have various names, due to language barriers, a lack of standardization, or ownership changes. Generally, the title should follow WP:COMMONNAME. If the building has a link to its Wikipedia page, the title of the page should be used as the name of the building. If not; the building should use the official name given by the CTBUH. If both are unavailable, the editor can use the title provided by Emporis, SkyscraperPage, or any other sources referenced in the notes column.

For cities that use a non-Latin script, such as cities in Japan or China, the building's name in that language may be provided in a line below the English name.

Image

If an image of the building is available on Wikimedia Commons, it should be added to be list. The width of all the images in the column should be the same. A width of 125px is recommended, but 100px and 150px are also acceptable. Images that are too narrow or squat are discouraged, as it would cause the height of each row to vary wildly. Editors may use Commons:CropTool to adjust the proportions of images and ensure the image is focused on the building.

If an image is unavailable, it should be replaced with an en dash ("–").

The image column should be omitted if very few buildings have an available image, as is the case with several Chinese cities. The images available should be placed outside the table to the right instead, and the table will no longer take up the full width of the screen on desktop.

Location

This column contains information about the building's location. At a minimum, it should contain the building's coordinates, using the Coord template. If the only location information provided are the coordinates, the header cell may be changed to Coordinates.

In a line above the coordinates, the building's street address may be provided; alternatively, if every building can be placed in a given district, neighbourhood, or high-rise cluster, that information may be given instead. In some cases, as in List of tallest buildings in New York City, both the neighbourhood and street address are stated. If the list is for a metropolitan area, the building's city proper should be given.

Height

The height column states the building's height. For non-US cities, the height is given in metres, with the conversion of feet given in brackets. For US cities, this order is reversed, with the height given in feet first. It is recommended that every entry uses the Convert template to make conversion easier, with the abbreviation parameter set to "values" (hiding the units).

Instead of just "height", the header cell should have "m (ft)" listed in a line below, in smaller text. You can and paste the following into the cell:

Height<br /><small>[[metre|m]] ([[Foot (unit)|ft]])</small>

Floors

The floors column states the number of above-ground floors it has. If the building has an entry at CTBUH, take the number of floors from it directly. If not, use any figures available from Emporis, SkyscraperPage, or another source. If above-ground and below-ground floors are not distinguished, use any figure given for the number of floors in the source. If the number of floors is unavailable, it should be replaced with an en dash ("–").

Year

The year column states the year when construction on the building was complete. It does not refer to the year the building topped out. If the building has an entry at CTBUH, take the year of completion from it directly. If not, use any figures available from Emporis, SkyscraperPage, or another source.

Purpose

The purpose column states the primary function of each building. Most buildings will fall into one of four categories: Office, Residential, Mixed-use, or Hotel. Other valid categories include Education, Government, Health, or Religious. "Health" covers hospitals and other high-rise buildings mainly dedicated to healthcare. If a building is mixed-use, a breakdown of its components may be provided in the "notes" column.

If a building's purpose is unknown, it should be replaced with an en dash ("–").

Notes

The notes column contains all the references inside the table and any interesting facts about the buildings. The following building should receive corresponding notes:

• Buildings that were once the tallest buildings in the city
• Buildings that were the tallest building completed in that decade
• Building that are the tallest for each function (e.g. office, residential)

In addition, these notes may also be seen:

• A note about the tallest building in a certain area
• A note about an office building's notable tenants
• A note about buildings that are global or regional headquarters of a notable company
• A note about buildings that are the tallest in a certain area
• Any other interesting facts about a given building, its design, or its development

Highlighting

Rows of buildings that were once the tallest building in the city (thus appearing in the "Timeline of tallest buildings" section below) should be highlighted in green. For consistency, use the shade #ddffdd.

Some lists may include architecturally topped out, but incomplete, buildings in the main table. To distinguish these buildings, highlight the rows in yellow, specifically the shade #ffff99.

Optional tables

In addition to the main table, there are two optional tables that could be added to the "Tallest buildings" section. If many of the ten tallest skyscrapers in a city have antennas and radio masts, atallest buildings by pinnacle heigh table may be included. Only the top ten entries should be ranked, to avoid lengthening the article by too much. The image, location, and purpose columns should be omitted, while a pinnnacle height column is introduced alongside the usual height column, here titled "standard height". For example, the list for Chicago shows the tallest buildings by pinnacle height.

If the city is known to have tall buildings throughout its city or metropolitan area, a Tallest buildings by borough / neighborhood / region / city table may be added at the bottom of the section. For example, the list for New York City includes the tallest buildings in each borough.

Under construction

The table of buildings under construction is formatted in the same way as the main table, but without an image column. The rank and coordinate columns are optional. As in the main table, each entry should be supported by a source. Text centering is optional.

Approved

The approved table includes government-approved buildings that have yet to start construction. It is formatted in the same way as the under construction table.

Updating the map

When a new building is added to the list, it could be cumbersome to add its marker to the map, as every number below it will have to be shifted. Fortunately, this job can be made simpler with a bit of code. For Python users, this code will update every instance of mark-title, mark-coord, and mark-text to one above their original number. For example, mark-coord23 will become mark-coord24.

import re

PARAM_PAT = re.compile(r'\b(mark-(?:title|coord|size)|shape-color|shape|label|label-(?:pos|size)|ldx|ldy)(\d+)\b')

def shift_mark_params(text: str, insert_at: int, shift: int = 1) -> str:
    def repl(m):
        key, num = m.group(1), int(m.group(2))
        if num >= insert_at:
            return f"{key}{num + shift}"
        return m.group(0)
    return PARAM_PAT.sub(repl, text)

skyscraper_map="""
#insert the text for OSM Location Map template to be updated here
"""

print(shift_mark_params(skyscraper_map, insert_at=1, shift=1))