COVID-19 Contributed to Sharp Decline in Completed Skyscrapers in 2020


Kohn Pedersen Fox’s One Vanderbilt in Midtown Manhattan ranked as the second tallest of the 106 skyscrapers completed globally in 2020. Image © Raimund Koch

Kohn Pedersen Fox’s One Vanderbilt in Midtown Manhattan ranked as the second tallest of the 106 skyscrapers completed globally in 2020. Image © Raimund Koch

It’s a given that the coronavirus pandemic has had wide-ranging impacts on construction projects large and small over the past 10 months. So, what about the construction of new buildings that share the defining characteristic of being superlatively tall?

As detailed in an annual report published earlier this month by the Chicago-headquartered Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), newly completed skyscrapers experienced a global decline of 20 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year due, both directly and indirectly, to the COVID-19 crisis.

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