FAA warns Seattle developers planned 101-story tower could be too tall

Dive Brief:

Developer Crescent Heights Inspiration Living’s plans for a 101-story, 1,111-foot-tall downtown Seattle mixed-use skyscraper, dubbed 4/C, have been put on hold after the Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice of Presumed Hazard stating that the building’s height would have an "adverse physical or electromagnetic interference effect upon navigable airspace or air navigation facilities."
The FAA also informed Crescent Heights that the construction cranes needed to build 4/C could interfere with Harborview Medical Center helicopter traffic, resulting in a possible temporary closure of its helipad.
4/C is across the street from the Columbia Center, 46 feet shorter than the proposed 4/C and currently the tallest building in the northwest, KOMO reported. The FAA advised Crescent Heights that its building would not "have a significant adverse impact" if developers could bring the height down to roughly that of the Columbia Center.

Dive Insight:

The consulting engineer for 4/C told KOMO that such an FAA notice is standard for very tall buildings and that results satisfactory to developers and the FAA can usually be reached during the negotiation process. In a statement to KOMO News, Crescent Heights said the FAA Notice of Presumed Hazard is part of a "standard, business-as-usual review process" and "all development projects are presumed to be hazards until determined otherwise."

This move by the FAA comes at a time when the world’s building community is in the throes of a sort of a skyscraper fever. Developers and architects are in a race to be the tallest building in their region, country, and even the world.

Dezeen Magazine recently compiled a list of the tallest towers in the world scheduled for completion in 2016, and the tallest is the Ping An Finance Center in Shenzhen, China. The tallest building in the world, however, is currently the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

If Seattle developers win approval to build the 4/C at the proposed height of 1,111 feet, it would be the tallest building on the West Coast when completed, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.