Don’t Tell Comcast, But Skyscrapers Herald Depression

Not the kind you take Zoloft for. The economic kind.

Skyscraper economic index graphic via Arch Daily.

Skyscraper economic index graphic via Arch Daily.


Arch Daily highlights a Barclays analysis of skyscrapers today, pointing out that many notable projects since the late 19th century have acted as harbingers of financial. Included in that list? Philadelphia’s City Hall, built in the crash year of 1901, the first stock market crash of the NY Stock Exchange.

The most recent global example was the preposterous Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world. But construction will soon start on Jeddah’s Kingdom Tower, which will out-Dubai Dubai by being 568 feet taller than Burj Khalifa.

Locally, we have several new skyscrapers beanstalking up, but none more prominent than the Comcast tower designed by Lord Norman Foster, which will be, according to plan, the tallest building in the U.S. outside of New York and Chicago. Does this spell hard times ahead?

Mega-Tall Skyscrapers Herald Economic Depression, Says Barclays [Arch Daily]