14 Engineering Wonders of The Modern World

14 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World

By Mr Ghaz, March 6, 2011

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14 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World

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1) Highest Observation Deck

A glass observation deck 477.96m (1,568ft 1 in) above street level is located on the 100th floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center in Pudong, China. The mixed-use skyscraper also houses the world’s highest hotel-the Park Hyatt Shanghai occupies floors 79 to 93.

2) Largest Reinforced Concrete Cement Flat Roof Span

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The Satsang Hall within the Govind Devji’s Temple in Jaipur, India, has a reinforced concrete cement flat roof with a single span of 36.27m (119ft). It was designed by NM Roof Designers Ltd, and the hall was dedicated to the public on 23 July 2009.

3) Largest Revolving Restaurant

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Bellini is an Italian and international cuisine restaurant located on the 45th floor of Mexico City’s World Trade Center. The establishment opened in 1994 and has an area of 1,044.6 m2 (11,244.58 ft2)

4) Largest Shopping Center

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The Dubai Mall in Dubai, UAE, has an internal floor area of 548,127 m2 (5.9 million ft2) over four levels. It houses 1,200 retail outlets and more than 160 food and rink outlets, and opened on 4 November 2008.

5) Largest Hotel Lobby

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The lobby at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California, USA, is 107m (350ft) long, 49m (160ft) wide and, at 52m (170ft) is the height of a 12-storey building. The lobby has 300,000 cascading lights and features trees, a stream and a fountain.

6) Tallest Building

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The Burj Khalifa (formally Burj Dubai) opened on 17 January 2009 in Dubai, UFA. It topped out at a record-breaking 828m (2,717ft), making it not only the tallest man-made structure on Earth but also the tallest building ever.

7) Largest Steel Structure

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Designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, the Beijing Olympic Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, cost $423 million (£265 million) to construct and has a floor space of 258,000 m2 (2,777,088 ft2) on a 21-ha (51-acre) site. The main body of the stadium is a saddle-shaped elliptic steel structure weighing 38,100 tonnes (42,000tons)

Largest Airport Passenger Terminal

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The Hong Kong International Airport passenger terminal building is 1.3 km (0.8 miles) long and covers 550,000 m2 (5,920,150 ft2). It has a capacity of 45 million passengers a year, arriving on 460 flights every day, and cost $20 billion (12 billion) to build. The baggage hall alone is as big as the Yankee Stadium in New York, USA.

9) Tallest Steel Structure

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Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is a 442-m-tall (1,451-ft), 108-storey office skyscraper constructed from steel. The building’s design includes nine steel-unit square tubes in a 3×3 arrangement, with a 22×22m (75×75ft) footprint. Completed in 1974, it has floor area of 423,637 m2 (4.56 million ft2).

10) Tallest Concrete Structure

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Completed in 2009, the 92-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, Illinois, USA, tops out at 360m (1,170ft), or 423m (1,389ft) including the building’s spire. Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the complex features 486 residential apartments and a 339-room hotel, and is the world’s tallest formwork concrete.

11) Highest Concentration of Theme Hotels

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There are more than 16 theme hotels on the Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Themes include the skyline of Paris and New York, Treasure Island and Venetian, Las Vegas boasts an incredible 120,000 hotel rooms, nearly one for every four of its inhabitants.

12) Largest Retractable Stadium Roof

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Completed in June 1989, the roof of the SkyDome, home of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team located near the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, covers 3.2 ha (8acres), spans 209m (685 ft) at its widest, and rises to 86m (282ft). It weighs 11,000 tonnes (12,125 tons) and takes 20 minutes to open fully. When retracted, the entire field and 91% of the seats are uncovered.

13) Largest Residential Palace

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The palace (Istana Nurul Iman) of HM the Sultan of Brunei in the capital Bandar Seri Begawan is the largest residence in the world, with a floor space of 200,000 m2 (2,152,780 ft2), 1,788 rooms and 257 lavatories.

14) Largest Department Store

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Built by Shinsegae Co. Ltd and opened on 26 June 2009, the Shinsegae (“New World”) Centum City Department Store in Busan, South Korea, covers an area of 293,905 m2 (3.16 million ft2), beating the previous record holder, the Famous Macy’s store in New York City, USA, by over 95,000 m2 (1.022 million ft2).