Dive Brief:

• The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's annual review of the world's tall buildings — 656 feet (200 meters) or higher — found that 128 were completed in 2016, the third straight year that the number of completed skyscrapers has broken the record.
• In a country-by-country breakdown, China was home to the most tall-building projects (84) in 2016, followed by the United States (7), South Korea (6), Indonesia (5), the Philippines (4) and Qatar (4).
• The tallest building completed in 2016 was the 1,739-foot-high Guangzhou CTF Financial Centre in Guangzhou, China, while the tallest towers built in the U.S. were both in New York City — 30 Park Place (926 feet) and 10 Hudson Yards (879 feet)

Dive Insight:

The 1,965-foot Ping An International Finance Center in Shenzhen, China was predicted to be the tallest building finished in 2016, but that date has been pushed back to 2017. In fact, the Guangzhou CTF Financial Centre was originally slated to be the fourth-tallest completed last year behind the 1,959-foot Goldin Finance 117 in Tianjin, China and the 1,820-foot Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea — all of which have also been delayed.

A combination — or composite — of steel and concrete were the materials of choice in the construction of 68 of the 128 buildings completed in 2016, while designers chose concrete for 58 buildings. According to the CTBUH report, all-steel construction for skyscrapers has fallen largely by the wayside in favor of composite.

The pervasive narrative in this year's CTBUH report is that of China's lead in tall-building construction. The city of Shenzhen alone saw the addition of 11 tall buildings this year, more than any other country aside from China. Shenzhen's aggressive skyscraper program is intended to spur economic growth, but the overall pace of tower construction in China is reflective of the uptick in urbanization that country has seen in the last decade.

At the outset of last year, CTBUH declared that 2016 would be the era of the "megatall" skyscraper. With only three megatall buildings presently — concentrated in China and the Middle East — the council forecasts the number of supertall structures will double within the next five years. But, the organization has also predicted within the next three years, the drive to build these 1,968-foot-plus structures will decline. 

The CTBUH's report also included "supertalls," several of which have fallen behind schedule. Because of this lag, the council expects a jump in supertall completion in 2017.

Looking ahead, the CTBUH predicted these would be the 10 tallest buildings completed in 2017:

1. Ping An Finance Center, Shenzhen, China (1,965 feet)
2. Lotte World Tower, Seoul, South Korea (1,821 feet)
3. Changsha IFS Tower T1, Changsha, China (1,483 feet)
4. Suzhou IFS, Suzhou, China (1,476 feet)
5. Wuhan Center Tower, Wuhan, China (1,437 feet)
6. Marina 101, Dubai, UAE (1,401 feet)
7. Capital Market Authority Tower, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1,263 feet)
8. Nanning Logan Century 1, Nanning, China (1,257 feet)
9. Dalian International Trade Center, Dalian, China (1,212 feet)
10. The Address The BLVD, Dubai, UAE (1,207 feet)