Dive Brief:

• In a decision by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, One World Trade Center now holds the title of tallest building in the United States.
• The council bestowed the title—which is wholly unofficial, of course—this week after its height committee put off a ruling last week.
• What made it a question in the first place is whether the top 408 feet of spire on One World Trade, which brought it to the symbolic 1,776 feet, was part of the building or an add-on structure, in which case Chicago's Willis Tower (long known as the Sears Tower) would hold the throne.

Dive Insight:

The tall-building council defines a spire as a "vertical element that completes the architectural expression of the building and is intended as permanent." That top stretch of One World Trade passed what council Chairman Timothy Johnson said was the test of being part of the building's "architectural height." There's no word on whether anyone in Chicago is hatching any plans to get the title back – or to have the Cubs win the World Series.