In two years, downtown Ho Chi Minh City will welcome an 891 ft. tall skyscraper that’s slated to become the city’s highest tower. A private Vietnamese real estate firm is building the 68-story Financial Tower that will cost nearly $100 million (US) to develop. The new tower will dwarf the building that is presently Ho Chi Minh City’s tallest by 35 stories when completed. An American architect has been hired to design the tower, which will resemble a lotus flower about to bloom.
Eight of the world’s ten tallest skyscrapers are built in Asia, the tallest being Taiwan’s 1,667 ft. tall Taipei 101. However, the tallest skyscraper under development now is the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Burj Dubai, expected to rise 2,313 ft. above the sands by 2009.
Future skyscraper development is less concentrated. Moscow, Istanbul and Seoul all have towers on the drawing board that will exceed the 1,667 ft. mark that Taipei 101 broke in 2004. Ironically, the U.S.—where skyscrapers were born—only boasts 2 of the top 10 tallest towers: Chicago’s 1,450 ft. Sears Tower (built 1974) and the 1,250 ft. tall Empire State Building (built 1931).
So where will this new Southeast Asian tower fall in the rankings? The Ho Chi Minh Financial Center will exceed Dubai’s 21st Century Tower by only a few feet. The Century tower—which was built in 2003—is 883 ft. high. It was the world’s 53rd tallest skyscraper last year, according to an international database of the world’s tallest buildings.