The most important attributes of any skyscraper are usage and location. Even as a potentially transient event, the pandemic is nevertheless revealing which skyscrapers firms need to operate going forward and the prediction of global city theory is that the only essential skyscrapers will be the ones found in the world’s leading global cities for finance and business. Skyscrapers elsewhere in the Global North or South, located outside the world’s leading global cities for business and finance, will struggle to remain viable as firms increasingly decentralize the work of their staff away from city center offices. Thus, in the context of COVID-19 we can theorize that advanced service firms will only practice on-site work where and when they must so that these face-to-face interactions with colleagues and clients will overwhelmingly only take place in the skyscraper-laden financial districts of the world’s leading global cities moving forward. Financial and corporate service firms cannot solely be digitally-based because they also require face-to-face interaction, collaboration, and joint production within themselves-and between one another-in the most connected global cities to effectively function as competitive businesses. So, with the skyscraper again in doubt it is worth thinking about what help global city theory might give us for understanding what the future of skyscrapers will now be.Īccording to global city theory, globalization needs global cities with highly concentrated business and financial districts. The threat now is about the risk of infection, the need for hygiene and social distancing in a world that is not zero-COVID, and crucially the legacy of the pandemic as the catalyst for a shift to working remotely from home or otherwise. The COVID-19 pandemic is now another existential threat to the skyscraper. Would people want to continue to work in tall buildings? Would companies want to fund their construction? Would firms want to rent office space, and would people want to live in them? The surprise was not only that skyscraper construction continued, but it accelerated as cities around the world experienced skyscraper booms: from New York and London to Dubai, Shanghai, and Manila, to name but a few. As proven targets for terrorists, it was doubted whether cities would allow new skyscrapers to be built. After the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, it was presumed that the era of skyscrapers would forever be associated with the twentieth century. Recent history provides a useful perspective. This remains true even for the world’s largest and most expensive skyscrapers, such as those planned in Saudi Arabia. Skyscrapers outside of global cities, in both the Global North and South, will be less important for globalization after COVID-19. Globalization’s need for global cities with highly concentrated financial districts explains why the COVID-19 pandemic will paradoxically only serve to make the world’s leading global cities more essential, valuable, and demanding of skyscrapers than ever before. In fact, the story is more complicated, as I recently argued in an article for the journal Futures. What is the future of skyscrapers after the COVID-19 pandemic? The recent unveiling of Saudi Arabia’s fantastical new master-planned city, NEOM-with its colossal, mirrored walls piercing the clouds-might suggest business as usual after the disruptions of COVID-19 seemed to threaten the skyscraper’s future.

New chicago skyscrapers 2022