The World's Next 20 Tallest Skyscrapers

If skyscrapers followed a human course of development, we might say they're about to enter puberty. By 2020 the world's 20 tallest towers will achieve an average height of 1,962 feet (nearly 600 meters). That's more than 500 feet taller than their average height in 2010, and more than 700 feet taller than the average in 2000 — or about the difference of the entire height of the Met Life building in New York, which was the world's tallest when it was completed in 1909. Earlier this month the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat released a diagram of the what the world's tallest buildings will be come 2020:

The image underscores the global race to the clouds. By 2020, according to the council's accompanying report, nine buildings will eclipse (or nearly break) the "megatall" barrier of roughly 2,000 feet (or 600 meters) — twice the height of the Eiffel Tower. As a point of comparison with today's skyscrapers, consider that the Petronas Towers, which were the tallest in the world when completed in 1998, will rank just 27th when 2020 arrives. In the words of the council's report, "600 m seems to be the new 300 m." Likewise, 300 meters (or 984 feet) seems to be the new snowman: by 2020 an estimated 198 towers will reach that height, compared to just 15 in 1995.