Which city has biggest difference between highest and second highest structures?

Factual Questions
1

So I was in Berlin recently and someone mentioned that the TV tower there towered above any other structure in the city, making it easy to get one’s bearings while out and about. Wiki says it’s 368m tall and the second tallest structure is 146.8m, so quite a difference.

That got me thinking. What’s the most prominent structure in a city in the world. I guess it could be measured two ways; absolute height difference (in this case 221m), or the next highest as a % of the highest (so in this case 40%).

2

I am going to go with The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.

“The Ryugyong Hotel has a height of 330 metres (1,080 ft), making it the most prominent feature of Pyongyang’s skyline and by far the tallest structure in North Korea.”

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://assets2.motherboard.tv/content-images/article/look-inside-north-korea-s-insane-ryugyong-hotel-for-the-first-time--2/089ddaa8e76e27de73567c0c49f84890_vice_630x420.jpg&imgrefurl=http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/look-inside-north-korea-s-insane-ryugyong-hotel-for-the-first-time--2&h=420&w=630&sz=77&tbnid=8g85OPZXQix-TM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=174&zoom=1&usg=__vp864LjfEEt5BAj6aUypHd9YkX4=&docid=WLd2I4uc0KR0rM&sa=X&ei=zhZLUtSpJcPj4AOZvoGQDg&ved=0CEIQ9QEwCQ

3

The difference between the two tallest buildings in Dubai is 415m, so there’s a starting point. I haven’t looked at structures yet. I’m sure it must be even more.

4

OK, how 'bout Blanchard, ND. Don’t know what the second highest structure there is, but the highest is 628.8m tall, and it doesn’t look like the kind of place that is going to have much in the way of tall structures besides that. I’m guessing this one wins on both measures.

5

Hmmm I was thinking more along the lines of UK cities i.e. with populations well in excess of 26!

6

That’s not hard to do. It’s the *only *structure in North Korea. Is it occupied, or just there to give Kim something to gaze at?

7

The Devon building in Oklahoma City is 844’ tall. The next tallest building is 500’. It dominates the skyline in a comically disproportionate fashion.

8

I’m pretty sure this is it. The Burj Khalifa is 1,400 feet taller than the next building, over twice as tall. You could stack the Empire State building on top of the next tallest building in Dubai and it still wouldn’t be as tall as the Burj Khalifa. That will change in a few years as a new second tallest building in Dubai is finished but the difference is only about 100 feet. There are a few even taller 2nd tallest buildings proposed but nothing in the immediate future.

9

It was supposedly intended to be occupied, but North Korea ran out of money. The government just pretended it didn’t exist for a while, but a few years ago they were able to get the exterior reasonably finished.

10

I like how it’s not even a town or a village, merely a “census designated place.” At any rate, Dubai will qualify as a city by any definition, so that should work.

11

There are suggestions that it was 90% illusion intended to be finished around a very small number of actual rooms; that a good portion of the structure was not prepared for wiring, plumbing, HVAC etc. but merely cells in the physical support.

Only one side has been finished, the one that faces the airport and Presidential Palace side of town, and the Russians paid for that as a gesture.

12

I wonder if the answer is different for the largest ratio between tallest and 2nd tallest. Burj Khalifa is twice the height of the next tallest building (cite). Or to be exact, 2.005 times higher. (That can’t be a coincidence, can it?)

13

Do we want to open the usual building-v-structure argument and limit the entrants to buildings only - counting even things like the CN tower but not guy-stayed communications towers?

14

While on a very long conference call to which I had to pay only minimal attention, I spend time bouncing around Wikipedia’s various “List of Tallest Buildings in…” pages for the United States.

Results in the spoiler.

But the top five U.S. cities I found for gross difference are:

New York City - 160m
Las Vegas, NV - 125m
Mobile, AL - 98m
Oklahoma City, OK - 95m
Indianapolis, IN - 91m

By percentage difference it is:

Mobile, AL - 76%
Montgomery, AL - 72.7%
Amarillo, TX - 70.1%
Oklahoma City, OK - 69.1%
Washington, DC - 69.0%



CITY                TALLEST  2ND TALLEST  DIFFERENCE   %Difference
New York City, NY   541m     381m        160m         42.0%
Las Vegas, NV       350m     224m        125m         56.3%
Mobile, AL          227m     129m         98m         76.0%
Oklahoma City, OK   257m     152m         95m         69.1%
Indianapolis, IN    253m     162m         91m         56.2%
Jersey City, NJ     238m     167m         71m         42.5%
Washington, DC      169m     100m         69m         69.0%
Cleveland, OH       289m     220m         69m         31.4%
Atlantic City, NJ   220m     160m         60m         37.5%
Seattle, WA         286m     235m         51m         21.7%
Montgomery, AL      114m      66m         48m         72.7%
Los Angeles, CA     310m     262m         48m         18.3%
Amarillo, TX        114m      67m         47m         70.1%
Omaha, NE           193m     146m         47m         32.2%
Atlanta, GA         312m     265m         47m         17.7%
Buffalo, NY         161m     121m         40m         33.1%
Nashville, TN       188m     149m         39m         26.2%
Austin, TX          208m     172m         36m         20.9%
Pittsburgh, PA      256m     221m         35m         15.8%
Raleigh, NC         164m     131m         33m         25.2%
Detroit, MI         222m     189m         33m         17.5%
Fort Wayne, IN      135m     103m         32m         31.1%
ColoradoSprings, CO  75m      46m         29m         63.0%
Albuquerque, NM     107m      78m         29m         37.2%
Little Rock, AR     166m     138m         28m         20.3%
Cincinnati, OH      203m     175m         28m         16.0%
Savannah, GA        109m      82m         27m         32.9%
Jacksonville, FL    188m     163m         25m         15.3%
Charlotte, NC       265m     240m         25m         10.4%
Phoenix, AZ         148m     124m         24m         19.4%
San Antonio, TX     190m     166m         24m         15.9%
Columbus, OH        192m     169m         23m         13.6%
San Francisco, CA   260m     237m         23m          9.7%
Tucson, AZ          100m      80m         20m         25.0%
Jackson, MS          97m      78m         19m         24.4%
Shreveport, LA      111m      92m         19m         20.7%
Grand Rapids, MI    124m     105m         19m         18.1%
Chicago, IL         442m     423m         19m          4.5%
Wichita, KS          98m      80m         18m         22.5%
Duluth, MN           75m      58m         17m         29.3%
Boise, ID            98m      81m         17m         20.1%
Richmond, VA        137m     120m         17m         14.2%
Kansas City, MO     197m     180m         17m          9.4%
Long Beach, CA      121m     105m         16m         15.2%
Milwaukee, WI       183m     167m         16m          9.6%
Winston-Salem, NC   140m     125m         15m         12.0%
New Orleans, LA     212m     197m         15m          7.6%
El Paso, TX          90m      76m         14m         18.4%
New Haven, CT       117m     103m         14m         13.6%
Rochester, NY       135m     122m         13m         10.7%
Boston, MA          241m     228m         13m          5.7%
Norfolk, VA         104m      93m         11m         11.8%
Corpus Christi, TX  125m     114m         11m          9.6%
Louisville, KY      167m     156m         11m          7.1%
St. Louis, MO       192m     181m         11m          6.1%
Dallas, TX          281m     270m         11m          3.7%
Lansing, MI          91m      81m         10m         12.3%
Augusta, GA          95m      85m         10m         11.8%
Akron, OH           101m      91m         10m         11.0%
Fort Lauderdale, FL 138m     128m         10m          7.8%
Columbia, MO         52m      43m          9m         20.9%
Anchorage, AK        90m      81m          9m         11.1%
St. Paul, MN        144m     135m          9m          6.7%
Philadelphia, PA    297m     288m          9m          3.1%
Charleston, WV       89m      81m          8m          9.9%
Memphis, TN         131m     123m          8m          6.5%
Davenport, IA        73m      66m          7m         10.6%
Madison, WI          86m      79m          7m          8.9%
Midland, TX         101m      94m          7m          7.4%
Columbia, SC        106m      99m          7m          7.1%
Dayton, OH          124m     117m          7m          6.0%
Sacramento, CA      129m     122m          7m          5.7%
Miami, FL           240m     233m          7m          3.0%
Baltimore, MD       161m     155m          6m          3.9%
Fort Worth, TX      173m     167m          6m          3.6%
Denver, CO          222m     216m          6m          2.8%
Gary, IN             48m      43m          5m         11.6%
Billings, MT         83m      78m          5m          6.4%
Providence, RI      130m     125m          5m          4.0%
Birmingham, AL      138m     133m          5m          2.2%
Newark, NJ          142m     137m          5m          3.6%
Tulsa, OK           203m     198m          5m          2.5%
Oakland, CA         123m     119m          4m          3.4%
Orlando, FL         134m     130m          4m          3.1%
Minneapolis, MN     241m     237m          4m          1.7%
Toledo, OH          125m     122m          3m          2.5%
Portland, OR        166m     163m          3m          1.8%
Houston, TX         305m     302m          3m          1.0%
Fresno, CA           69m      67m          2m          3.0%
Hartford, CT        163m     161m          2m          1.2%
Salt Lake City, UT  129m     128m          1m          0.8%
Honolulu, HI        131m     130m          1m          0.7%
Peoria, IL           86m      86m          0m          0.0%
San Jose, CA         87m      87m          0m          0.0%
Worcester, MA        88m      88m          0m          0.0%
Bellevue, WA        137m     137m          0m          0.0%
San Diego, CA       152m     152m          0m          0.0%
Miami Beach, FL     170m     170m          0m          0.0%
Tampa, FL           176m     176m          0m          0.0%
15

Although, note that in North Dakota any incorporated community is called a city. There’s a city called Ruso that has four people in it. However, it looks like Blanchard for whatever reason isn’t incorporated so, dang, disqualified.

Until it fell over, the Warsaw Radio Mast would have made Konstantynów, Poland a contender.

16

The Azerbaijan Tower, in whatever town the artificial islands will be called, will be the new winner. It’s proposed to be much taller than the Burj Khalifa and there’s nothing else in the area right now.

There are dozens of proposed supertall buildings but this might actually get built.

17

Also, the mast is 3 miles outside of town. I suppose Blanchard could artificially extend their “city limits” to include it. It is interesting to note that there are now two self supporting structures taller than the former “world’s tallest structure” which is a guyed tv mast.

18

In terms of absolute difference is has to be Dubai.

The previous record holder was surely Toronto. First Canadian Place is very tall indeed, at 978 feet, but the CN Tower dwarfs it at 1815 feet. That makes it more dominating in terms of absolute OR relative height than any U.S. structure, and it’s still up in the world rankings.

One of the interesting effects of the CN Tower’s rather astonishing height is to make the Toronto skyline look LESS impressive; the city has some rather huge skyscrapers, but when the CN Tower is, well, towering above them, you almost can’t notice how big they are, until you’re standing right downtown amongst them.

19

More poking around on more conference calls. Here’s the difference (relying on wiki data so grains of salt) for every city it lists as having at lesat one building of 250m or taller.



Dubai, UAE          828m     413m        415m        100.0%
Tokyo, Japan        634m     333m        301m         90.4%
Mecca, Saudi Arabia 601m     265m        336m        126.8%
Taipei, Taiwan      509m     244m        265m        108.6%
Toronto, Canada     553m     298m        255m         85.6%
Nanjing, China      450m     255m        195m         76.5%
Pyongyang, NK       330m     142m        188m        132.4%
Chongqing, China    468m     283m        185m         65.4%
Izumisano, Japan    256m      95m        161m        169.5%
New York City, USA  541m     381m        160m         42.0%
Kaohsiung, Taiwan   348m     222m        126m         56.8&
Yokohama, Japan     296m     171m        125m         73.1%
Kuwait City, Kuwait 413m     300m        113m         37.7%
Santiago, Chile     300m     194m        106m         54.6%
Chicago, USA        527m     423m        104m         24.6%
Gold Coast, Aust.   323m     243m         80m         32.9%
Tianjin, China      336m     257m         79m         30.7%
London, UK          305m     235m         75m         29.8%
Inchon, South Korea 305m     235m         70m         29.8%
Beijing, China      330m     260m         70m         26.9% 
Cleveland, USA      289m     220m         69m         31.4%
Hanoi, Vietnam      336m     267m         69m         25.8%
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam263m     195m         68m         34.9%
Hong Kong, China    484m     416m         68m         16.3%
Wuhan, China        331m     273m         58m         21.2% 
Shenzhen, China     442m     384m         58m         15.1%
Seattle, USA        286m     235m         51m         21.7%
Guangzhou, China    441m     391m         50m         12.8%
Los Angeles, USA    310m     262m         48m         18.3%
Osaka, Japan        256m     209m         47m         22.5%
Atlanta, USA        312m     265m         47m         17.7%
Moscow, Russia      307m     268m         39m         14.6%
Bangkok, Thailand   304m     266m         38m         14.3%
Mumbai, India       254m     222m         32m         14.4%
Melbourne, Aust.    297m     265m         32m         12.1%
Kuala Lumpur, Mal.  452m     421m         31m          4.9%
Chonburi, Thailand  252m     226m         26m         11.5%
Charlotte, USA      265m     240m         25m         10.4%
Shanghai, China     492m     482m         24m          5.1%
San Francisco, USA  260m     237m         23m          9.7%
Manama, Bahrain     260m     240m         20m          8.3%
Seoul, South Korea  284m     264m         20m          7.6%
Istanbul, Turkey    261m     244m         17m          7.0%
Doha, Qatar         300m     186m         14m          4.9%
Dallas, USA         281m     270m         11m          3.7%
Manila, Philippines 259m     250m          9m          3.6%
Philadelphia, USA   297m     288m          9m          3.1%
Busan, South Korea  300m     292m          8m          2.7%
Abu Dhabi, UAE      312m     305m          7m          2.3%
Jakarta, Indonesia  262m     257m          5m          1.9%
Panama City, Panama 284m     281m          3m          1.1%
Houston, USA        305m     302m          3m          1.0%
Frankfurt, Germany  259m     257m          2m          0.7%
Singapore           280m     280m          0m          0.0%