There are, though, other reasons to build so very high, and competition is perhaps chief among them. When the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, designed by the Japanese-American architect Minoru Yamasaki were completed in 1971, they were the tallest buildings in the United States. Not for long. In 1973, SOM completed the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower) in Chicago, at 1,451-ft (442m), a good 100ft taller than the Manhattan monoliths. New York and Chicago have long been commercial rivals: the race to see which of them could build higher than the other has been going on since the mid-19th Century.

The final frontier?

For many decades, the tallest building not just in the United States but in the world was the Empire State Building. Rising above midtown Manhattan during the Great Depression of the 1930s, it was a symbol of better days to come. It even survived an aircraft crashing into it – a B-25 Mitchell bomber lost in fog – in July 1945. At a press conference held in Chicago in October 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright unveiled his design for The Illinois, a mile-high skyscraper that would have been the biggest snub yet to New York. It was, however, beyond even the braggadocio of the Windy City’s biggest banks and developers. It never happened.

And yet, despite talk that after 9/11 the skyscraper would wilt and die, countries around the world are flexing their economic muscle and, as they do so, investing in ever taller buildings. Today, the People’s Republic of China boasts hundreds of skyscrapers (usually defined as buildings more than 500ft (152 m) tall. The skyline of Pudong, Shanghai’s new commercial centre, is a forest of extravagant skyscrapers and when it opens in 2015, the twisting Shanghai Tower, designed by the US firm Gensler, with Jun Xia, as lead architect, will be the world’s second tallest building at 2,073ft (632m).

The Chinese are likely to want to go much higher than this. Oil-rich Middle Eastern states, kingdoms and emirates are competing with China, while other countries keen to display newfound wealth have joined in this slightly inane numbers game. Where will it all end? Significantly, perhaps, the tallest new building in Russia is named after a space rocket. This is Moscow’s Vostok Tower (1,224-ft; 373m) due to open in 2015.