World's Largest Buildings and Famous Landmarks
This curated hub compares the world's largest and most famous buildings with practical reference data: height, floor area when available, floors, construction span, architect, and country context.
It separates the main search intents: tallest buildings by height, largest buildings by floor area, how many floors major buildings have, and why each landmark stands out in architectural history.
Quick answer
World's largest buildings: height vs floor area
The largest building depends on the metric. By height, Burj Khalifa leads this list at 828 m. By floor area,Marina Bay Sands leads this list with about 581,400 sq m.
Use the sections below to compare tallest buildings, largest buildings by floor area, long construction histories, and individual landmark facts without mixing those separate rankings.
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Tallest Buildings In This List
Largest By Floor Area
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30 St Mary Axe
London, United Kingdom
30 St Mary Axe is a widely recognized London skyscraper known for its rounded form and diagonally patterned facade. It helped make contemporary office towers a visible part of central London's identity.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 180 m
Floor area: 47,950 sq m
Construction: 2001-2003 (2 years)
Architect: Norman Foster
Commonly called The Gherkin, this tower brought a distinctive curved silhouette to the City of London's skyline.
Angkor Wat
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat is a monumental temple complex known for its moat, axial planning, and sculpted galleries. It is central to the study of Khmer architecture and one of the most important surviving temple landscapes in Asia.
Type: Temple complex
Height: 65 m
Construction: 1113-1150 (37 years)
Architect: Suryavarman II era builders
The largest religious monument in the world, originally built as a Hindu temple complex.
Burj Al Arab
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Burj Al Arab is famous for its sail-inspired profile and for the way it helped define Dubai's global image of ambitious waterfront construction. It is a hotel tower designed as a visual icon as much as a hospitality building.
Type: Hotel tower
Height: 321 m
Construction: 1994-1999 (5 years)
Architect: Tom Wright
A sail-shaped luxury hotel built on an artificial island just off Dubai's coastline.
Burj Khalifa
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Burj Khalifa is a supertall mixed-use skyscraper in Dubai. It is globally known for its height, high-speed elevators, and the way it redefined the scale of early 21st-century tower construction.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 828 m
Floor area: 309,473 sq m
Construction: 2004-2010 (6 years)
Architect: Adrian Smith and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
The tallest building in the world, completed as the centerpiece of Downtown Dubai.
Casa Batllo
Barcelona, Spain
Casa Batllo is one of the clearest urban-scale examples of Antoni Gaudi's organic design language. Its facade, roofline, and decorative program make it a landmark of Catalan modernisme.
Type: Townhouse
Height: 32 m
Floor area: 4,300 sq m
Construction: 1904-1906 (2 years)
Architect: Antoni Gaudi
A remodelled Barcelona townhouse known for its flowing facade and highly original interior detailing.
Casa Mila
Barcelona, Spain
Casa Mila is a late Gaudi residential project that pushed apartment architecture toward a highly expressive, almost landscape-like form. Its roof terraces and structural layout remain among the building's most studied features.
Type: Residential building
Height: 37 m
Construction: 1906-1912 (6 years)
Architect: Antoni Gaudi
An apartment building better known as La Pedrera, with a wave-like stone facade and sculptural roof forms.
Chrysler Building
New York City, United States
The Chrysler Building is celebrated for its spire, decorative metalwork, and automobile-inspired ornament. It remains one of the clearest examples of Art Deco high-rise design in the United States.
Type: Art Deco skyscraper
Height: 318.9 m
Floor area: 111,201 sq m
Construction: 1928-1930 (2 years)
Architect: William Van Alen
A stainless-steel-crowned Art Deco tower built during New York's race for the world's tallest building.
CN Tower
Toronto, Canada
The CN Tower was originally built as a communications and observation structure rather than an office tower. Its extreme height and concrete engineering made it one of the most distinctive towers of the late 20th century.
Type: Communications and observation tower
Height: 553.3 m
Construction: 1973-1976 (3 years)
Architect: WZMH Architects
A concrete tower built to improve broadcasting and telecommunications, later becoming Toronto's best-known landmark.
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne, Germany
Cologne Cathedral is a major Gothic monument whose design remained influential across centuries. Its long construction history and monumental western facade make it one of Germany's best-known religious buildings.
Type: Gothic cathedral
Height: 157.4 m
Floor area: 6,166 sq m
Construction: 1248-1880 (632 years)
Architect: Multiple medieval and 19th-century master builders
A Gothic cathedral with twin spires, completed after one of the longest interrupted construction histories in Europe.
Eiffel Tower
Paris, France
The Eiffel Tower transformed metal engineering into a national symbol. Its exposed iron frame, early prefabrication techniques, and long role in Parisian identity make it one of the most studied towers in architectural history.
Type: Iron tower
Height: 330 m
Construction: 1887-1889 (2 years)
Architect: Gustave Eiffel's company
A wrought-iron tower built for the 1889 Exposition Universelle and one of the most recognized structures in the world.
Elizabeth Tower
London, United Kingdom
Elizabeth Tower is the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster and a major symbol of British parliamentary identity. It is best known for the Great Bell commonly called Big Ben and for its Gothic Revival detailing.
Type: Clock tower
Height: 96 m
Construction: 1843-1859 (16 years)
Architect: Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin
The tower that houses Big Ben, forming one of the most recognized silhouettes in London.
Empire State Building
New York City, United States
The Empire State Building is one of the best-known skyscrapers in New York and in global architectural history. Its speed of construction, stepped silhouette, and long role in the Manhattan skyline made it a defining high-rise of the 20th century.
Type: Art Deco skyscraper
Height: 381 m
Floor area: 257,211 sq m
Construction: 1930-1931 (1 years)
Architect: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon
An Art Deco landmark that held the title of the world's tallest building for decades.
Flatiron Building
New York City, United States
The Flatiron Building occupies a sharply tapered block at the meeting of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Its unusual plan and early steel-frame construction gave it an outsized place in the architectural identity of New York.
Type: Office building
Height: 86.9 m
Floor area: 18,000 sq m
Construction: 1901-1902 (1 years)
Architect: Daniel Burnham
A triangular office building whose shape made it one of Manhattan's earliest architectural celebrities.
Florence Cathedral
Florence, Italy
Florence Cathedral is a major monument of Italian religious architecture whose dome solved an engineering problem that had remained open for generations. It is central to the architectural history of both late medieval Florence and the Renaissance.
Type: Cathedral
Height: 114.5 m
Floor area: 8,300 sq m
Construction: 1296-1436 (140 years)
Architect: Arnolfo di Cambio and Filippo Brunelleschi
Best known for Brunelleschi's dome, one of the turning points in Renaissance engineering.
Hagia Sophia
Istanbul, Turkey
Hagia Sophia is known for its vast central dome and the way it fused engineering ambition with imperial symbolism. Over time it served different religious and civic roles, which adds to its importance in world architectural history.
Type: Basilica and mosque
Height: 55.6 m
Floor area: 7,570 sq m
Construction: 532-537 (5 years)
Architect: Anthemios of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus
A Byzantine domed monument whose structure influenced later religious architecture across multiple traditions.
Himeji Castle
Himeji, Japan
Himeji Castle is a landmark of early modern Japanese castle architecture. Its preserved keeps, gates, and defensive routes make it one of the clearest surviving examples of large-scale castle design in Japan.
Type: Castle
Height: 46.4 m
Construction: 1601-1609 (8 years)
Architect: Ikeda Terumasa era builders
Japan's best-known surviving feudal castle, recognized for its white exterior and layered defensive planning.
Jin Mao Tower
Shanghai, China
Jin Mao Tower combines postmodern vertical setbacks with references to traditional Chinese numerical symbolism. It remains important as a transitional skyscraper between late 20th-century and 21st-century supertall design in Shanghai.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 420.5 m
Floor area: 278,707 sq m
Construction: 1994-1999 (5 years)
Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
A tiered tower in Pudong that helped establish Shanghai's modern skyline before the newer supertall towers nearby.
Leaning Tower of Pisa
Pisa, Italy
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a bell tower whose unintended inclination made it one of the world's best-known structures. It is studied both as medieval architecture and as a long-running structural stabilization problem.
Type: Bell tower
Height: 56.7 m
Construction: 1173-1372 (199 years)
Architect: Bonanno Pisano and later builders
A freestanding bell tower famous for its tilt and for the engineering work needed to stabilize it.
Lotte World Tower
Seoul, South Korea
Lotte World Tower is a mixed-use skyscraper whose tapered form was designed to read clearly in Seoul's skyline. It combines offices, hotel functions, observation space, and retail within one high-rise landmark.
Type: Supertall skyscraper
Height: 555 m
Floor area: 304,081 sq m
Construction: 2010-2016 (6 years)
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox
A needle-like supertall tower that became one of Seoul's most prominent skyline markers.
Lotus Temple
New Delhi, India
The Lotus Temple is one of the best-known late 20th-century religious buildings in South Asia. Its petal-like structure makes it both a major devotional space and a widely recognized work of modern expressive concrete design.
Type: House of worship
Height: 34.3 m
Floor area: 10,500 sq m
Construction: 1980-1986 (6 years)
Architect: Fariborz Sahba
A Bahai House of Worship known for its lotus-like concrete shell geometry.
Marina Bay Sands
Singapore, Singapore
Marina Bay Sands combines hotel, convention, retail, and entertainment functions in one waterfront complex. Its elevated sky park and large program made it a defining project in contemporary Singapore architecture.
Type: Integrated resort
Height: 194 m
Floor area: 581,400 sq m
Construction: 2006-2010 (4 years)
Architect: Moshe Safdie
A three-tower resort complex linked by one of the most recognizable sky parks in the world.
Neuschwanstein Castle
Schwangau, Germany
Neuschwanstein Castle was designed as a highly theatrical royal residence rather than a medieval fortress. Its historicist style and dramatic alpine setting made it one of the most reproduced castle images in the world.
Type: Castle
Height: 65 m
Construction: 1869-1886 (17 years)
Architect: Eduard Riedel
A 19th-century hilltop castle built for Ludwig II of Bavaria and famous for its romantic silhouette.
Notre-Dame de Paris
Paris, France
Notre-Dame de Paris is one of the most important cathedrals in European architectural history. Its facade composition, flying buttresses, and central urban setting made it a model for the study of Gothic church design.
Type: Gothic cathedral
Height: 69 m
Floor area: 5,500 sq m
Construction: 1163-1345 (182 years)
Architect: Multiple medieval master builders
A major cathedral on the Ile de la Cite, central to the history of Gothic architecture in France.
One World Trade Center
New York City, United States
One World Trade Center combines office space, symbolic height, and major security engineering in Lower Manhattan. It is important both as a skyscraper and as a rebuilt civic landmark tied to the history of the World Trade Center site.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 541.3 m
Floor area: 325,279 sq m
Construction: 2006-2014 (8 years)
Architect: David Childs
The main tower of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex and the tallest building in the United States by architectural height.
Petronas Towers
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The Petronas Towers are two linked supertall office towers known for their postmodern profile and skybridge. They were designed to serve as both corporate headquarters and a national architectural statement.
Type: Twin skyscrapers
Height: 451.9 m
Floor area: 395,000 sq m
Construction: 1993-1998 (5 years)
Architect: Cesar Pelli
Twin towers that became the symbolic center of Kuala Lumpur's modern skyline.
Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain
The Sagrada Familia is an ongoing basilica project that combines Gothic structure with highly original forms developed by Antoni Gaudi. Its construction history and evolving skyline profile make it one of the most unusual major church projects in the world.
Type: Basilica
Height: 172.5 m
Construction: 1882-present (144 years and counting)
Architect: Antoni Gaudi
Gaudi's unfinished basilica, notable for its exceptionally long construction history and sculptural facade program.
Seagram Building
New York City, United States
The Seagram Building is one of the most influential office towers of the 20th century. Its plaza setback, proportions, and material discipline strongly shaped postwar skyscraper design in many cities.
Type: Office tower
Height: 157 m
Floor area: 79,094 sq m
Construction: 1954-1958 (4 years)
Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson
A modernist office tower that set a new standard for glass-and-bronze corporate architecture.
Shanghai Tower
Shanghai, China
Shanghai Tower is known for its spiraling form, double-skin facade, and mixed-use vertical organization. It reflects the engineering and skyline ambitions of 21st-century Shanghai.
Type: Supertall skyscraper
Height: 632 m
Floor area: 578,000 sq m
Construction: 2008-2015 (7 years)
Architect: Gensler
A twisting supertall tower in Lujiazui that stands among the tallest buildings ever completed.
Space Needle
Seattle, United States
The Space Needle is a mid-century landmark designed to express optimism about technology and the future. Its flying-saucer profile helped make it one of the most recognizable towers in North America.
Type: Observation tower
Height: 184 m
Construction: 1961-1962 (1 years)
Architect: John Graham & Company
A futuristic observation tower built for the 1962 World's Fair and strongly associated with Seattle.
St Peter's Basilica
Vatican City, Vatican City
St Peter's Basilica is one of the largest churches in the world and one of the defining monuments of Renaissance Rome. Its dome, scale, and layered authorship make it central to the history of Western sacred architecture.
Type: Basilica
Height: 136.6 m
Floor area: 15,160 sq m
Construction: 1506-1626 (120 years)
Architect: Bramante, Michelangelo, and Carlo Maderno
A major Renaissance and Baroque basilica built over a long period by several of Europe's most important architects.
Sydney Opera House
Sydney, Australia
The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable 20th-century cultural buildings. Its engineering challenges, sculptural roof geometry, and waterfront setting made it a landmark far beyond Australia.
Type: Performing arts center
Height: 65 m
Floor area: 45,000 sq m
Construction: 1959-1973 (14 years)
Architect: Jorn Utzon
A harbor-side performance complex famous for its shell-like roof forms.
Taipei 101
Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei 101 is a landmark skyscraper that combines East Asian symbolic references with high-wind and seismic engineering. Its tuned mass damper and tiered silhouette are central to its identity.
Type: Supertall skyscraper
Height: 508 m
Floor area: 412,500 sq m
Construction: 1999-2004 (5 years)
Architect: C.Y. Lee & Partners
A bamboo-inspired tower that dominated the world's tallest-building rankings in the early 2000s.
Taj Mahal
Agra, India
The Taj Mahal combines symmetrical planning, marble craftsmanship, and funerary symbolism at a monumental scale. It is globally known both as a major Islamic architectural landmark and as one of the best-preserved imperial complexes of the Mughal era.
Type: Mausoleum
Height: 73 m
Construction: 1632-1653 (21 years)
Architect: Ustad Ahmad Lahauri
A white marble mausoleum commissioned by Shah Jahan and one of the best-known monuments of Mughal architecture.
The Shard
London, United Kingdom
The Shard uses a glass-clad, fragmented form to create a tower that looks different from multiple viewpoints. It is one of the key symbols of 21st-century redevelopment around London Bridge.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 309.6 m
Floor area: 110,000 sq m
Construction: 2009-2012 (3 years)
Architect: Renzo Piano
A sharply tapered mixed-use tower on the South Bank that redefined London's high-rise skyline.
Willis Tower
Chicago, United States
Willis Tower, formerly Sears Tower, is one of the most influential skyscrapers in structural engineering history. Its bundled-tube design allowed extreme height while keeping the tower practical for large-scale office use.
Type: Skyscraper
Height: 442.1 m
Floor area: 416,000 sq m
Construction: 1970-1973 (3 years)
Architect: Bruce Graham and Fazlur Khan at SOM
A bundled-tube skyscraper that changed the design logic of very tall office towers.