Cost of a Supertall worldwide.

pflo777 · December 18th, 2007, 12:02 PM

Hello.

Lets assume we have a 400 m supertall, with a typical mix of high-end residential, office space, hotel and shopping (in the basement) in it.

Now lets assume, you have that building, and you want to build it in the US, or in China (eg, Shanghai or Chongqing) or in Dubai or in Europe (London/Frankfurt/Warsaw)

Based upon todays construciton costs, safety restrictions and protection for the workers, of course minor changes to the architecture would have to be done. E.G. in Germany, you have tougher fire-safety restrictions etc etc..

but if the whole rest of the architecture would stay the same, how much would the costs differ ( except theland price of course).

A teacher at a us college for architecture told me once, that the same skyscraper costs twice as much to build in germany than in the US. And in China or the mid-east, its even far cheaper than in the US.
Can this be true?

HK Fan · April 14th, 2008, 05:29 AM

Absolutely. At work, we subscribe to a service provided by Marshall & Swift (http://www.marshallswift.com/) to estimate how much a building would cost if constructed today. Many of the calculations are based on a base cost per square foot of building area, which you multiply by certain variables (usually, but not always near 1.0) In the back of the book they have multipliers for different regions of the US and major world cities, which can be an amusing read.

For example (not real numbers) an concrete industrial warehouse building may cost about $50 per square foot to build in the US. Then we would multiply this by 1.183 to account for the fact that materials and labor is more expensive in Seattle, resulting in $59.15 per square foot. Across the world these multipliers vary greatly, however keep in mind that some of the poorest places in the world may not have the infrastructure or skilled labor to make a project "cheap." If I remember correctly, the least expensive major world city was Shanghai, which had a multiplier of around 0.11!

December 18th, 2007, 12:02 PM	#1
pflo777 BANNED Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,504	Cost of a Supertall worldwide. Hello. Lets assume we have a 400 m supertall, with a typical mix of high-end residential, office space, hotel and shopping (in the basement) in it. Now lets assume, you have that building, and you want to build it in the US, or in China (eg, Shanghai or Chongqing) or in Dubai or in Europe (London/Frankfurt/Warsaw) Based upon todays construciton costs, safety restrictions and protection for the workers, of course minor changes to the architecture would have to be done. E.G. in Germany, you have tougher fire-safety restrictions etc etc.. but if the whole rest of the architecture would stay the same, how much would the costs differ ( except theland price of course). A teacher at a us college for architecture told me once, that the same skyscraper costs twice as much to build in germany than in the US. And in China or the mid-east, its even far cheaper than in the US. Can this be true? Last edited by pflo777; December 18th, 2007 at 12:11 PM.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

April 14th, 2008, 05:29 AM	#2
HK Fan ...wish I spoke Cantonese Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 5	Absolutely. At work, we subscribe to a service provided by Marshall & Swift (http://www.marshallswift.com/) to estimate how much a building would cost if constructed today. Many of the calculations are based on a base cost per square foot of building area, which you multiply by certain variables (usually, but not always near 1.0) In the back of the book they have multipliers for different regions of the US and major world cities, which can be an amusing read. For example (not real numbers) an concrete industrial warehouse building may cost about $50 per square foot to build in the US. Then we would multiply this by 1.183 to account for the fact that materials and labor is more expensive in Seattle, resulting in $59.15 per square foot. Across the world these multipliers vary greatly, however keep in mind that some of the poorest places in the world may not have the infrastructure or skilled labor to make a project "cheap." If I remember correctly, the least expensive major world city was Shanghai, which had a multiplier of around 0.11!