Talk:List of tallest buildings in New York City

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Frequently asked questions

General Questions

Q1: "Why do you lead with feet instead of meters, New York is a world city, shouldn't it use the worldwide standard?"

A1: Wikipedia's Manual of Style recommends the use of whatever unit is locally predominant. Further the references drawn from are overwhelmingly American, and also use feet as the primary unit of measurement; Wikipedia tries to reflect its references. The height in meters is available in parenthesis.

Keepin' it real: The guideline that calls the tune here has been extensively discussed; it's not changing anytime soon.

Q2: "I added/changed something in the article but it got reverted, Why?"

A2: Most likely, your addition/change either was unsourced, cited an unreliable source, or wasn't reasonably germane to this article in particular; changes like that are usually reverted within a short period of time due to the list's Featured Status. Featured Lists require reliable sources to verify their content, as a result any information added to a Featured List that lacks a reliable source is subject to removal from the article at the discretion of any editor. In addition, there's already articles on the Architecture of New York City, and the History of New York City, in addition to many other subject area specific NYC articles. Unless the information is pertinent to this subject in particular, it probably belongs elsewhere.

Keepin' it real: We can add stuff, but it must be relevant, notable, and sourced.

Q3: "Why do floor counts vary so often between sources?"

A3: Floor counts may differ among published reliable sources, and among different Wikipedia articles for a variety of reasons, depending on how mechanical floors, enclosed and unenclosed voids, mezzanines, basement levels, small above roof rooms, and over-height lobbies are counted. Further to maximize value it is not uncommon to exclude certain numbers that result in reduced per unit sale/rental price for superstitious reasons. Finally, the ownership or marketing team for a skyscraper may number floors in order to achieve its own objectives resulting in count that differs significantly from the actual number of physical floors present in the skyscraper. We try to default to whatever number is most widely reported in reference.

Keepin' it real: There's no universally agreed upon way to count floors, so we just go with the most widely reported number, because, hey, it works.

Q4: "Why do building heights sometimes vary depending on the source?"

A4: Height discrepancies sometimes occur depending on whether the source is measuring to the building's top floor, roof, bulkhead, the curtain wall promontory, or the tip of whatever mechanical masts are present at the top of the building. Sometimes measurement is started from the lowest point on the base, sometimes the lowest entrance, the lowest significant entrance, or the average level of the base is used. Also be aware that permit heights are often listed as "absolute heights" or elevations, that is the official height of the building measured from sea level. Although the majority of Manhattan lies at or near sea level, certain buildings can appear significantly taller based on this measurement. For example, Central Park Tower's permits show an absolute height of 1,630 feet but a building height of 1,550 feet due to the fact that the area south of Central Park is roughly 80 feet above sea level.

Keepin' it real: There's no simple and easily agreed upon way to measure a buildings height. A difference of an inch in choosing a measuring point can possibly make sources appear to show a difference of a foot once rounded. We tend to defer to what the experts on this subject have to say.

Q5: "Can I add a yet to be built skyscraper?"

A5: To start, the project should have a specific site, an owner, and a developer, who are seriously interested in executing the project; with a professional design and planning team which has passed the conceptual design stage of the project. In addition there must be appropriate paperwork filed with the Department of Buildings. Finally, reliable independent sources must have reported on it so proper citations can be added to verify the information.

Keepin' it real: Proposed skyscrapers can be added, but they must be well sourced. The section is for buildings that are actually likely to built, not some random idea you heard about the other day.

Q6: "This article is long!"

A6: Well it kind of is, and it kind of isn't, and that isn't really a question anyway. In terms of prose the article is actually fairly short. Now, the main list is long in that it does require a lot of scrolling on any size screen due to all the entries, but if we made the rows smaller it would make the article much harder to read, and shrink the images to the point where it would be hard to see any detail.

Keepin' it real: New York City has a lot of tall buildings; you should expect to do some scrolling.

Section sizes

Section size for List of tallest buildings in New York City (17 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	27,056	27,056
History	7,589	7,589
Tallest buildings	143,250	154,191
Tallest buildings by pinnacle height	8,535	8,535
Tallest buildings in each borough	2,406	2,406
Tallest under construction or proposed	46	34,339
Under construction	15,394	15,394
Approved	8,716	8,716
Proposed	10,183	10,183
Tallest destroyed or demolished	6,879	6,879
Timeline of tallest buildings	8,239	8,239
See also	619	619
Notes	43	43
References	17	233
Citations	36	36
Sources	180	180
External links	758	758
Total	239,946	239,946

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

List of tallest buildings in New York City is a featured list, which means it has been identified as one of the best lists produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
June 26, 2008	Featured list candidate	Promoted

Architecture High‑importance

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New York City High‑importance

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New York (state) High‑importance

	New York (state) portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject New York (state), a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of New York on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.New York (state)Wikipedia:WikiProject New York (state)Template:WikiProject New York (state)New York (state) articles
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Skyscrapers Top‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Skyscrapers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of articles that relate to skyscrapers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SkyscrapersWikipedia:WikiProject SkyscrapersTemplate:WikiProject SkyscrapersSkyscraper articles
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Make Images Clickable

Just an idea 65.175.106.2 (talk) 00:54, 22 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

That would take a lot of effort. And every time an updated photo is added all the work would have to be redone. 71.62.176.24 (talk) 19:36, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

One Manhattan West Missing in Main List

In the main list you omit One Manhattan West, which should appear as #16. Oddly enough, you include this tower in the list further down, titled "Tallest Building by Pinnicle", you have it listed as #18. I'm also still puzzled as to why it's #18 in that list and not #17 with the addition of 4 Times Square? Something doesn't add up? 2603:7000:BE01:D600:AD22:970:85E0:6EF2 (talk) 15:58, 27 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think I fixed it. 38.93.246.202 (talk) 16:41, 28 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Empire State Building

Why is Empire State Building listed by roof height and not total height? It should be fourth tallest to be consistent with how other buildings on this list are measured. Pfotsch (talk) 15:03, 16 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

U are correct but it will take too long to fix the whole list to pinnacle height 2607:FEA8:FDC0:8179:60D1:9A25:F2A1:FB3A (talk) 19:01, 7 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You are getting pinnacle and architectural height confused. The architectural height of the ESB is 1,250 ft, and for 1WTC is 1,776 ft. Presently, as of 2024, pinnacle height for the ESB is 1,454 ft, and for 1WTC is 1,792 ft. Pinnacle height includes antennas and other elements that can be swapped or added/removed. The ESB's antenna has been previously swapped out as prior to 1985 it was instead 1,472 ft to its pinnacle. Whereas architectural height includes permanent elements of the skyscraper only. In short only architectural height is used, and the permanent spires of the BOA Tower and 1WTC are just a larger percentage of their height. Previously roof-height was sometimes used instead to avoid this confusion, however skyscrapers, such as he Burj Khalifa, have no clear delineation as to where the roof ends and the spire begins, and so that has largely fallen out of favor. Height to highest usable floor is still in widespread use however. 71.62.176.24 (talk) 19:33, 1 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Need help adding a photo

I tried adding a photo of 262 Fifth Avenue (Cell 407) but i keep breaking the table. Can anyone try it and let me know what i might be doing wrong. i copied the formatting from other imges on the table like "[[File:One Chase Manhattan Plaza 1.jpg|150px|alt=]]". i'm using the visual editor. BruceSchaff (talk) 04:08, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, User:BruceSchaff, there is a help page, Help:Images, but usually when I run into trouble like this I just use the source editor and copy paste the formatting from the next cell up and just change the file name, ctrl+f still works to find the cell quickly when using the source editor.

Update: I just took the image from the bottom of the 262 Fifth Avenue page and added it here and using that trick and it worked just fine.2601:84:8681:6430:3419:EA4C:F3FC:8FF9 (talk) 17:53, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]