CTBUH: Top 15 contractors of the world's tallest buildings

Dive Brief:

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has published its list of the contractors who have built the most of the 100 tallest buildings in the world, and the CSCEC Group of Companies came out on top with 21 towers, more than three times its nearest competitor.
CSCEC, owned by the Chinese government, is responsible for such skyscrapers as the Ping An Finance Center (1,965 feet), which will be the tallest dedicated office high-rise in the world when complete. Projected for completion in 2018, the Wuhan Greenland Center in Wuhan — which will be the third-tallest building in the world at 2,087 feet when complete — will also be built by CSCEC.
Tied for second place were the Arabian Construction Company and Shanghai Construction Group (Shanghai Tower, Dalian Greenland Center) with six towers each, followed by AECOM (One World Trade Center, Tianjin CTF Finance Centre) with four.

Dive Insight:

At the beginning of this year, the CTBUH proclaimed 2016 as the era of the "megatall" skyscraper. The organization also predicted that by 2020, the drive to build these 1,968-foot-plus structures would diminish, but, until then, it expected the number to more than double from three to seven. However, Thomas Leslie, professor of architecture at Iowa State University and author of "Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934," told Construction Dive in March that he disagreed with the CTBUH's prediction that megatall high-rise construction would taper off. "Someone has been proclaiming it's the end of skyscraper development for the past 25 to 30 years," he said.

However, not everyone thinks building tall is the way to go. Some protestors maintain that these towers can damage the aesthetic and character of a neighborhood and isolate its residents or tenants. While Leslie said that protestors "rarely win," money is the true decider. As long as developers can scrape together the financing to build them, and property managers can fill them with residents and tenants, there's little reason to expect a slowdown in skyscraper production.

CTBUH Top 15 Contractors include:

1. CSCEC Group of Companies (21 buildings)
2. Arabian Construction Company (6)
3. Shanghai Construction Group (6)
4. AECOM (4)
5. Brookfield Multiplex (4)
6. Samsung C&T Corporation (4)
7. Hong Kong Construction (Holdings) Limited (3)
8. Kumagai Gumi (3)
9. Saudi Bin Laden Group (3)
10. Turner Construction Company (3)
11. Arabtec (2)
12. Besix (2)
13. Dubai Civil Engineering (2)
14. Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group JV (2)
15. Lend Lease (2)