Exciting, Boring, and Nonexistent Skylines : Vertical Building Gaps in Global Perspective

Despite the widespread prevalence and economic importance of tall buildings, little is known abouthow their patterns vary across space and time. This paper focuses on vertical real estate, aiming to quantifydifferences across major world regions over time (1950–2020). The paper exploits a novel database on thelocation, height (above 55 meters), and year of construction of nearly all the tall buildings in the world. It proposes anew methodology to estimate the extent to which some world regions build up more than others given similar economic andgeographic conditions, city size distributions, and other features. The analyses reveal that many skylines mayvisually appear more prominent than they really are once all the tall buildings and core controls are included, whichalters how regions are ranked in terms of tall building stocks. Using results by city size, centrality, height ofbuildings, and building function, the paper classifies world regions into different groups, finding that internationaltall building stocks are mostly driven by boring skylines of residential high-rises, and to a lesser extent excitingskylines of skyscrapers and supertall office towers. Finally, land use regulations and preferences, nothistorical preservation nor dispersed ownership, likely account for most of the observed differences.