OpenWebGIS is free online GIS: Top 10 tallest freestanding structures on the map

All buildings views (like 3D) given in this article were created with the help of OpenWebGIS and OSM Buildings. Read more about the integration of OpenWebGIS and OSM Buildings here: http://blog.osmbuildings.org/2015/06/integration-of-openwebgis-with-osm.html. At the end of the article there will be a description of how to create such maps in OpenWebGIS by yourselves.

10. The Willis Tower. Pinnacle height: 527 m; opening year 1974. It was built as and still commonly referred to as Sears Tower, is a 108-story, 1,451-foot (442 m) skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois, United States. See Figure 1 and open Map 1.

Figure 1

9. CTF Finance Centre. Pinnacle height: 530 m; opening year 2015. Formerly The CTF Guangzhou, Chow Tai Fook Centre (simplified Chinese: 周大福商业中心; traditional Chinese: 周大福商業中心) is a supertall skyscraper under construction in Guangzhou, China. It will be the second of the two Guangzhou Twin Towers skyscrapers overlooking the Pearl River in Guangzhou. Its final height will be 530 metres (1,740 feet) with 111 floors. See Figure 2 and open Map 2.

Figure 2

8. Ostankino Tower (Russian: Останкинская телебашня, Ostankinskaya telebashnya). Pinnacle height: 540 m; opening year 1967. It is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia, owned by Moscow branch of unitary enterprise Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Network. Standing 540 meters (1,772 ft) tall, Ostankino was designed by Nikolai Nikitin. It is currently the tallest freestanding structure in Europe and eighth tallest in the world. The tower was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m (1,600 ft) in height. See Figure 3 and open Map 3.

Figure 3

7. One World Trade Center. Pinnacle height: 546.2 m; opening year 2013 (also known as 1 World Trade Center, One WTC and 1 WTC; the current building was dubbed the "Freedom Tower" during initial base work). It refers to the main building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere and the fourth-tallest in the world. See Figure 4 and open Map 4.

Figure 4

6. The CN Tower (French: Tour CN). Pinnacle height: 553 m; opening year 1976. It is concrete communications and observation tower in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976, becoming the world's tallest free-standing structure and world's tallest tower at the time. It held both records for 34 years until the completion of Burj Khalifa and Canton Tower in 2010. It is now the 3rd tallest tower in the world and remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, a signature icon of Toronto's skyline, and a symbol of Canada, attracting more than two million international visitors annually.

See Figure 5 and open Map 5.

Figure 5

5. Canton Tower (Chinese: 广州塔). Pinnacle height: 600 m; opening year 2010. It is a tall multi-purpose observation tower in the Haizhu District of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton or Kwangchow), Guangdong, China. The tower was topped out in 2009 and it became operational on 29 September 2010 for the 2010 Asian Games. The tower briefly held the title of tallest tower in the world, replacing the CN Tower, before being surpassed by the Tokyo Skytree. It was the tallest structure in China prior to the topping out of Shanghai Tower on 3 August 2013. It is now the third tallest tower and the fifth-tallest freestanding structure in the world. See Figure 6 and open Map 6.

Figure 6

4. The Abraj Al-Bait Towers. Pinnacle height: 601 m; opening year 2011. It is also known as the Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel and it is a government-owned megatall building complex in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. These towers are a part of the King Abdulaziz Endowment Project that strives to modernize the city in catering to its pilgrims. The central hotel building has the world's largest clock face and is the third tallest building and fourth tallest freestanding structure in the world. The building complex is meters away from the world's largest mosque and Islam's most sacred site, the Masjid al-Haram. See Figure 7 and open Map 7.

Figure 7

3. The Shanghai Tower (Chinese: 上海中心大厦). Pinnacle height: 632 m; opening year 2015. It is a megatall skyscraper under construction in Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai. It is designed by Gensler and owned by a consortium of Chinese state-owned companies. It is the tallest of a group of three adjacent supertall buildings in Pudong, the other two being the Jin Mao Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center. The building stands approximately 632 metres (2,073 ft) high and has 128 stories, with a total floor area of 380,000 m2 (4,090,000 sq ft). Its tiered construction, designed for high energy efficiency and sustainability, provides multiple separate zones for office, retail and leisure use. The Shanghai Tower is projected to open to the public in mid-2015.

See Figure 8 and open Map 8.

Figure 8

2. Tokyo Skytree (東京スカイツリー Tōkyō Sukaitsurī). Pinnacle height: 634 m; opening year 2012. It is a broadcasting, restaurant, and observation tower in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It became the tallest structure in Japan in 2010 and reached its full height of 634.0 meters (2,080 ft) in March 2011, making it the tallest tower in the world, displacing the Canton Tower and the second tallest structure in the world after Burj Khalifa (829.8 m/2,722 ft). See Figure 9 and open Map 9.

Figure 9

1. BurjKhalifa (Arabic: برج خليفة‎, "Khalifa Tower", pronounced English /ˈbɜrdʒ kəˈliːfə/). Pinnacle height: 829.8 m; opening year 2010. It is known as Burj Dubai before its inauguration, is a skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest man-made structure in the world, standing at 829.8 m (2,722 ft). Construction began on 6 January 2004, with the exterior of the structure completed on 1 October 2009. The building officially opened on 4 January 2010, and is a part of the new 2 sq.km (490-acre) development called Downtown Dubai at the 'First Interchange' along Sheikh Zayed Road, near Dubai's main business district. The tower's architecture and engineering were performed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of Chicago, with Adrian Smith as chief architect, and Bill Baker as chief structural engineer. The primary contractor was Samsung C&T of South Korea. The tower's construction was done by the construction division of Al Ghurair Investment group.

See Figure 10 and open Map 10.

Figure 10

How to create such maps as shown above using OpenWebGIS, OSM buildings and Wikipedia:

1. You must add the "OSM Buildings" Layer on the map by click on the button:

in the upper right corner of the map. This button has the title: "OSM Buildings. Click for visualizing OpenStreetMaps building geometry ...". After that in the list of layers on the left of the map there will be the new "OSM Buildings" layer. See the Figure 11 to get more information.

Figure 11

2. Insert in the "Wikipedia (Mediawiki) _Search:" field name of the object you are interested in. For example "Acropolis of Athens" and press button "Search", then a list of found objects will appear. See the Figure 12.

Figure 12

3. Move the cursor to the list of found items and there will be a brief description of the object. See the Figure 12.

4. If the object contains coordinates in an article of Wikipedia in the format shown in Figure 13, then you can click on the name of the object, then in the list of map layers a layer will be added containing a point with the specified coordinates (see Figure 14).

Figure 13

Figure 14

5. Select the name of your layer (for example, "Acropolis of Athens") in "Editable Layer" drop-down list, like it is shown in Figure 15.

Figure 15

6. Zoom the map to a layer extent with the coordinates of the object you have selected. To do this, click on the menu item "Layer"-> "Zoom to Layer" and you will see the result shown in Figure 16.

Figure 16

7. You can change the coloring of objects, for this click on menu item "Edit" -> "Edit OSM Buildings Layer" and set the desired parameters (as shown in Figure 17).