History of the world's tallest buildings
The buildings that were the tallest secular skyscrapers, which excludes religious buildings, were:
The list of tallest buildings is based on the default metric of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), that of measuring to the highest architectural element. Other criteria would generate a different list. Shanghai World Financial Center is not on the above list, but it surpassed Taipei 101 in 2008 to become the building with the highest occupied floor. Using the criteria of highest tip (including antennae), the World Trade Center in New York City was the world's tallest building from 1972 to 2000, until the Sears Tower in Chicago (which already had a higher occupied floor than the World Trade Center) had its antenna extended to give that building the world's tallest tip; a title it held until the 2010 completion of Burj Khalifa. Petronas Towers and Taipei 101 were never the world's tallest buildings by the highest–tip criteria.
World Trade Center (1973–2001)
When completed in 1972, 1 World Trade Center became the tallest building in the world for two years, surpassing the Empire State Building after a 40-year reign. The North Tower stood tall and featured a telecommunications antenna or mast that was added at the top of the roof in 1978 and stood tall. With the -tall antenna/mast, the highest point of the North Tower reached . Chicago's Sears Tower, finished in , reached at the rooftop. Throughout their existence, the WTC towers had more floors (at 110) than any other building. This number was not surpassed until the advent of the Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2010. Each tower had a total mass of around 500,000 tons.