ctbuh.org/papers Title: The Competition for the Tallest Skyscraper - Implications for Global Ethics and Economics Author: Christopher Michaelson, Associate Professor, University of St. Thomas Subjects: History, Theory & Criticism Social Issues Keywords: Economics Ethics Publication Date: 2014 Original Publication: CTBUH Journal, 2014 Issue IV Paper Type: 1. Book chapter/Part chapter 2. Journal paper 3. Conference proceeding 4. Unpublished conference paper 5. Magazine article 6. Unpublished © Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat / Christopher Michaelson History, Theory & Criticism The Competition for the Tallest Skyscraper: Implications for Global Ethics and Economics An iconic skyscraper has aesthetic significance that may have meaning for other aspects of human experience – serving, for example, as an expression of cultural and ethical values and a symbol of economic power. This study examines the competition for the world’s tallest skyscraper as a symbolic, but also substantively significant, window through which to understand the relationship between economics, ethics, aesthetics, and human well-being. Christopher Michaelson The study consists of an empirical component, analyzing skyscraper economics; and a philosophical inquiry on the social and ethical implications Authors of the empirical data. The empirical component connects architectural data Christopher Michaelson, Associate Professor Opus College of Business on the world’s tallest skyscrapers to indicators of economic and ethical University of St. Thomas 1000 LaSalle Avenue performance. The philosophical component explores the relationship Terrence Murphy Hall 443 Minneapolis MN 55403 between economic power and aesthetic and ethical values, raising normative United States concerns about the race to growth, without succumbing to the cultural t: +1 651 962 4349 e: [email protected] paternalism that often pervades contemporary Western commentary on www.stthomas.edu Eastern economic practices. Christopher Michaelson The Skyscraper as a Window on the World center of tallest skyscraper gravity, which from With a PhD in Philosophy, Christopher Michaelson helped launch a business ethics consulting practice 1998 had visited Malaysia in the form of Kuala with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in 1998 before If the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah is completed Lumpur’s twin Petronas Towers and then taking a lectureship at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Now associate professor according to plan, it will become the world’s Taipei 101 in 2004. The one-upmanship has of Ethics and Business Law at the University of St. tallest building in a few years time by a long not been this intense since it played out on a Thomas, Opus College of Business, he has also been on the Business and Society faculty of New York margin. At more than a kilometer high, it much smaller field in Manhattan during the University’s Stern School of Business since 2005 and would eclipse the Burj Khalifa, less than a Great Depression. In the aftermath of the maintains an advisory role with PwC. Michaelson’s Figureclients have 1: included In one-fourth MNCs, NGOs, and the government time (1995-2020),decade after the the location Dubai landmark of the became world’s the Great Recession, the contest to build the tallestinstitutions. skyscraper His research integrates will move management about five world’stimes firstthe distancemegatall (600+ it moved meters) building.in the world’s tallest skyscraper will continue as long and the arts to explore global ethics and meaningful work. century before (1875-1975)Together, the buildings represent a shift in the as new entrants are intent on announcing Skyscraper data from CTBUH 2008, 2011; Distance data from timeanddate.com Distance Calculator their fitness for a manufactured competition 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 for global supremacy. 12,000 12,000 Kingdom Tower, Increasingly, skyscraper construction is est. 2019, Jeddah D occurring in developing markets, and on one Burj Khalifa, i s 2010, Dubai t 9,000 a hand, the shifting center of skyscraper gravity 9,000 n c t (km) s e appears to represent increasing economic e f l Home Insurance Bldg, l r o a t 1885, Chicago development. On the other hand, these same m s u Petronas Towers, p skyscraping ambitions invite ethical criticism o r i 1998, Kuala Lumpur e v 6,000 v e i r about misplaced priorities, emphasizing 6,000 o p World Building, u s 1890, NYC m primitive spiritual aspirations to the heavens t a o r Bank of Manhattan Bldg, Park Row Building, l f l e and rudimentary biological aspirations to size e 1930, NYC 1899, NYC s c t (km) n at the potential expense of well-being. The a t Taipei 101, Sears Tower, 1974, s 3,000 i 3,000 2004, Taipei Chicago Burj Khalifa became a financial liability for an D Woolworth Building, emirate needing outside assistance to 1913, NYC Chrysler Building, 1930, NYC weather a global recession. The Kingdom Manhattan Life Singer Building, Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, Building, 1894, NYC 1908, NYC 0 1931, NYC 1972, NYC 0 Tower is rising in a city woefully lacking in 1875 1895 1915 1935 1955 1975 basic infrastructure, where in 2009 floods led 1995-2020 1875-1975 to death and destruction, merely because the city did not have a basic drainage system Figure 1. In the 25 years from 1995–2020, the location of the world’s tallest skyscraper will move about five times the distance it moved in the entire century before (1875–1975). Source: Skyscraper data from the CTBUH Skyscraper (Al-Ahmed 2009). Center; distance data from Distance Calculator, www.timeanddate.com 20 | CTBUH Journal | 2014 Issue IV The recent history of the skyscraper is a product and symbol of industrial advancement, and thus provides a window As a species of the technological sublime, the on the world through which to examine some of the most important ethical challenges “skyscraper evokes ‘awe and wonder, often arising from economic growth in developing markets. These challenges include such tinged with an element of terror’ whether tangible issues as corruption, for which standing near the top looking down, at the base opportunities and incentives multiply as markets grow in size and complexity; and the looking up, or even from afar, contemplating the natural environment, the stewardship over which is complicated by externalities and magnitude of the enterprise. competing priorities. They also include intangible philosophical questions with ” practical consequences, including how to wonder, often tinged with an element of term “supertall” to refer to buildings over 300 preserve cultural values while engaging in a terror” (Nye 1994: xvi) whether standing near meters in height, and now uses “megatall” for global marketplace, and how to balance the top looking down, at the base looking up, buildings at least twice that height. Among future investment with present needs. Much or even from afar, contemplating the completed skyscrapers, 7 of the tallest 10 in the as the skyscraper competition transposes the magnitude of the enterprise. world in 2014, and 72 of the tallest 100, were inherited value of “growth for growth’s sake” completed in 2000 or later. Although only two into the economic present, these challenges The biological aspiration to achieve, and the completed megatalls existed in 2014, five more have been confronted over and over respectful fear of size, have roots in animal were in progress (CTBUH Skyscraper Center). throughout history and proliferated with psychology, as demonstrated by the alpha Twice as many supertalls were completed in industrialization. Can the skyscraper help male chimpanzee who deploys tree branches 2010 than in 2000, and nearly four times as societies learn from the mistakes of the past, to enhance his stature when displaying (De many will be completed in 2020 as in 2010, and or are we doomed to repeat them? Waal 1998, Goodall 1971). In ancient remnants the average height of the top 20 skyscrapers in of human civilization, height elicits awe, 2020 will be almost megatall, at 598 meters deference, and spiritualism, from the Great (CTBUH 2011). The Skyscraper as Symbol of Economic Pyramids at Giza, to the location of the Ambition and Ethical Values Parthenon on the Acropolis, to the tiered form The shift in the geographical center of the of Ming Dynasty pagodas (Dupré 2008). In skyscraper’s gravity is equally dramatic. As Symbolically, a skyscraper communicates scripture, the Tower of Babel represents shown in Figure 1, in recent history, in roughly meaningfully through its size, design, and reaching for the seat of God. But another one-fifth the time, the location of the world’s technology to biological, aesthetic, and reason the skyscraper stands as a particular tallest skyscraper will move approximately five ethical values of human beings (De Botton and compelling symbol of contemporary times the distance that it did in the span of the 2006, Goodman 1985, Kingwell 2008, Petit power and values is that its technological so-called “American Century.” The changing 2002). Like literature and other arts possibility dates back only as far as the dawn geography of the skyscraper is a fairly sudden (Michaelson 2012), a skyscraper may reflect of modern industrialization. shift from West to East. From the 1930s to the cultural values at the same time that it 1970s, more than 90% of skyscrapers were in influences them. Unlike other arts, however, a Although much of the positioning for North America, dipping slightly to about 80% skyscraper is necessarily and always will be a ultimate supremacy occurred early in the in the 1980s and 1990s. By the 2000s, more major public-private venture, requiring skyscraper’s life – 10 of the 16 world’s tallest than half were outside North America – mostly aesthetic disinterestedness and economic buildings were completed in the first 50 years Asia – and by the 2010s, more than 75% were interest, architectural imagination and (CTBUH 2008) – the skyward competition has outside North America, about equally practical engineering, and financial capital accelerated dramatically in the past two distributed between Asia and the Middle East and resource coordination.