047 Fight for the World’s Highest Residential View

We’re going to quickly slip this one in, because this Australian contender will soon lose its title, forever.

We’re going to quickly slip this one in, because in 2009 the world’s tallest residential building, currently a proud Australian contender, will lose its title forever.

Depending on which architecture nerds you believe, there are two current claimants to the title – both Australian. Melbourne’s 91-storey Eureka Tower has a roof height of 297m, but the sneaky 78-storey Q1 on the Gold Coast has a 97.7m spire, giving it a superior pinnacle height of 322.5m. Rumours abound of plans to install an antenna atop Eureka to rectify this – but time will tell if they are just that: rumours.

Interestingly, there’s an entire governing body in the US given over to tracking these things, and in fact the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has a range of qualifying terms like Highest Occupied Floor to keep people from quibbling and bickering. But there will always be quibbling and bickering.

Anyway, the whole thing’s moot since Dubai’s 414m Princess Tower, due for completion in 2009, will dwarf both Q1 and Eureka, spire or no spire. Still, it was fun while it lasted.

Where // Melbourne’s Eureka Tower is in the city’s Southbank precinct, while Q1 is in Surfers Paradise. For either of these buildings, if you want to find them, just look up.

Did you know? // While you can’t quite see to Sydney from atop Q1, if you unwound the electrical cabling in the tower’s lifts, they would easily stretch that distance from the Gold Coast – and more.