Top 10 Most Famous Steel Structurers in the World

The Empire State Building in New York City is one of the most iconic skyscrapers in the world. The 103-story skyscraper was built in 1931, well ahead of its time. The colossal 1,454 feet tall building held the title of the world’s tallest building for 40 years; even now, it is in the top 10 tallest buildings. The steel frame of the Empire State Building is 57,000 tons, and the building’s total weight is 365,000 tons. Somewhat miraculously, this building was constructed in only 13 months.

The Eiffel Tower is one of the seven wonders of the world and is considered by many to be one of the most romantic structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower is part of the French identity, and no picture of Paris is complete without the silhouette of the Tower on the Paris skyline. While technically, the Eiffel Tower is made of wrought iron, not steel, it was the precursor to steel, so it deserves a place on this list. The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, and it is 1,063 feet tall, about 81 stories high. It was the tallest building in the world for 42 years when it was unseated by the Empire State Building.

The Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois, is a 110 story building that is 1,450 feet high and took 76,000 tons of steel to build. The Willis Tower took three years to build, starting in 1970 and finishing in May 1973 and over 2,000 people worked on its construction! It was the tallest building in the world until 1998, and it is currently the second tallest building in the Western Hemisphere and the twelfth tallest building in the world. 

The Willis Tower was originally called the Sears Tower because Sears Roebuck and Company built it as a central office that would hold their 350,000 employees. When Sears sold the tower 18 years later, and in 2009 it was renamed the Willis Tower after the Willis Group Holdings, who owned the tower until 2015.

The tower is currently home to over 100 businesses in multiple industries, with television and radio stations that broadcast from the rooftop. Over 15,000 people work in the Willis Tower, and it is an iconic landmark in Chicago that draws thousands of tourists.

The Chrysler Building is another breathtaking landmark in the New York City skyline and a classic example of Art Deco architecture. The building was originally the project of New York State Senator William H. Reynolds, who also developed real estate. However, by the time Reynolds was finished getting the building design planned and purchased the plot of land where the building now rests, he no longer had the means to construct the building. He sold everything to Walter Chrysler, the owner of Chrysler automotive, in 1928. 

Chrysler spent the next few months modifying Reynolds’ design, and construction began in 1929, taking only a year. The Chrysler Building is 1,046 feet tall with 77 floors. It was the tallest building in the world for 11 months before the Empire State Building unseated it. It took almost 30,000 tons of steel to build the Chrysler Building, and nearly 4 million bricks were used! The building has 3,862 windows!

The U.S. Steel Tower is in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is made of 44,000 tons of steel. Originally it was named the U.S. Steel Building, but it was renamed to USX Tower after the name of the company that constructed it. Then in 1988, it was given the name The U.S. Steel Tower to reflect the corporate identity of U.S. Steel. This is one of the most prominent buildings in the Pittsburgh skyline, and it was the first building to use liquid-fireproofed columns in its construction. The U.S. Steel Tower has the biggest roof for any building that height, and it is triangular with indented corners, giving it a unique appearance.

Burj Khalifa in Dubai is currently the tallest building in the world, standing at 2,716.5 feet tall and consisting of 163 stories. It is double the height of the Empire State Building and nearly triple the height of the Eiffel Tower. Burj Khalifa also carries a few other Guinness World Records: tallest elevator in a building (1,654 feet), most floors in a building, and highest restaurant from ground level (1,447 feet 10 inches).

Approximately 31,400 metric tons of steel were used in the construction of this incredible building, and they used a bundled tube design in order to reduce the amount of steel they needed for the building. Burj Khalifa was built in 2009 and took five years to construct. Over 12,000 people worked on the construction of the building. It also has about 26,000 hand-cut glass panels on the exterior, and it contains residential living, offices, a hotel, and more!

Burj Khalifa has an 11-hectare park, a 900-foot-long fountain that shoots water 500 feet into the air, and an observation deck on the 124th floor. The elevators have to travel over 1,600 feet to go from the bottom of the building to the top! If you laid the amount of steel used in the Burj Khalifa end to end, it would wrap about a quarter of the way around the planet!

The Shun Hing Square Tower is located in Shenzhen, China. Its original claim to fame was that it was built at a rapid pace of two to three floors per week. The building took only three years to construct, finishing construction in 1996.

The building is an office tower and holds the record for the tallest all-steel building in China. It stands at 1,260 feet tall, 978 of which is occupied. The Shun Hing Square Tower houses a five-story mall, offices, and apartments. In addition, it has an observation center on the 69th floor named the Meridian View Centre.

The Taipei 101 Tower is located in Taiwan. It stands at 1,667 feet tall and held the title of the tallest building in the world from 2004 to 2010, when the Burj Khalifa took over the record. It also had the record for the fastest elevator in the world at 60 kmph, but the Shanghai Tower in China took the title in 2016. The Taipei 101 Tower took only five years to build, and it is considered to be a modern icon of Taiwan. The Discovery Channel named the Tower one of the Seven Wonders of Engineering.

It is a unique appearance that is modeled into a pagoda shape, with eight sections total, which is a lucky number in Chinese culture. The Taipei 101 Tower has 101 stories, and because of its green color, it is the tallest green building in the world. It was designed to withstand an earthquake or typhoon.

The Seagram Building is another piece of the New York City skyline. Standing at only 515 feet tall, it is one of the shortest buildings on this list, but it’s sleek elegance makes up for that.

The Seagram Building was built in 1958 by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whose goal was to design a building that expressed both simplicity and functionality in its appearance. Its design incorporated geometry that gave it some incredible designs and made it the most expensive skyscraper of all time. The Seagram Building was the first to use steel framing and reinforcements with concrete.

Originally, the Seagram Building was the corporate headquarters of the Seagram Company, but it is now home to a variety of businesses, including a restaurant.

Other Famous Steel Structures

Here are we added some of the most famous steel structures in the world. These steel structures showcase the unparalleled design strength and durability of steel constructions.

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, is one of the most iconic landmarks in the area. Standing at 630 feet tall, it is currently the world’s tallest arch and the tallest accessible building in Missouri. Often called the Gateway to the West, the arch has stood for over 50 years now. The Gateway Arch was designed in 1947 by Eero Saarinen, a Finnish American architect. Construction began on the Gateway Arch in 1963 and was completed in 1965; it was opened to the public in 1967. The Arch cost approximately $13 million to build and only took about 100 people to build. It contains a time capsule welded into the keystone just before the final piece was set in place that was unearthed in 2015 during maintenance.

It is a popular tourist attraction that gives you tram rides to the top of the arch, a museum, and a 90-acre park that has five miles of trails. The Gateway Arch is an iconic part of the St. Louis skyline that has appeared in many movies and TV shows based in the St. Louis area.

The Steel House is in Lubbock, Texas, and was designed by the famous steel sculptor Robert Bruno. He built the Steel House because he wanted to know what it was like to live inside one of his sculptures. Bruno spent approximately 30 years designing and building the house and would regularly tear out sections and redo them if he no longer liked them. He worked on the house by himself and unfortunately died of colon cancer before he could finish the build — there were entire floors unfinished, with large gaping holes between some levels. However, he still lived there in his final months of life, so he could have the experience he desired when he started the journey. The house is still vacant, but it has a steady stream of visitors to this day.

For Bruno, it was not really about the house, “The motivation here is really to do something that has some aesthetic value. I’m not particularly concerned about having a house. I built it because I like doing sculpture.”

Brooklyn Bridge in New York was the first steel-wire suspension bridge and took 14 years to build, with construction beginning in 1869 and completing in 1883. Over 600 people worked on the construction of the bridge, and about two dozen people were killed in the construction process, including the original designer!

The Brooklyn Bridge carries over 150,000 cars and pedestrians every day! It is a historic landmark in New York.

Nevertheless, when we talk about most popular steel structurers and buildings in the world then list can be changeable as new steel structurers can replace with old steel buildings.