Wikipedia:WikiProject Skyscrapers/Tallest building lists

This page was created due to the amount of new tallest building lists created.

Title of list
Per WP:LIST, all tallest building lists need to begin with "List of..." This is followed by "tallest buildings in", and then the city name. No regional qualifier is added after the name of the city unless disambiguation is necessary; thus, the London tallest building list should be located at List of tallest buildings and structures in London, and not List of tallest buildings and structures in London, England. The same holds true for lists in the United States; state name qualifiers should not be added after the city name unless disambiguation is needed. Thus, the title for the Boston, Massachusetts tallest building list is List of tallest buildings in Boston, as that city is the primary usage for "Boston" and no disambiguation is needed. However, the tallest building list for Rochester, New York needs to be located at List of tallest buildings in Rochester, New York, as that city is not the primary usage for "Rochester".

Generally, tallest building lists for cities in the United Kingdom and France use the title "List of tallest buildings and structures in CITY" where applicable. However, for almost all other locales, including the United States, Canada, the People's Republic of China and Australia, "List of tallest buildings in CITY" is used as the title.

Lead
Each list should begin with an introduction that reads: This list of tallest buildings in CITYNAME ranks skyscrapers in CITYNAME, STATENAME by height. After this, the tallest building should be mentioned, followed by its height and a reference. A second very famous skyscraper, usually the 2nd-tallest in the city, can be mentioned afterwards.

The 2nd paragraph should contain material about the city's skyline history and, if applicable, skyline rankings. The building which is generally referred to as the "first skyscraper in the city" should be mentioned if possible, followed by the construction trend of the city that mentions which years saw the most, and which saw the least, construction. This should be followed by information regarding the city's skyline ranking. NOTE: This only applies to large cities, whose skylines are among the largest in the United States or in their respective region. In this section, include how many buildings over 500 feet (152 m) have been constructed in the city, and what the city's skyline is ranked nationally in terms of completed and under construction buildings over 500 feet (152 m). This information should be referenced with links to SkyscraperPage diagrams.

The final paragraph should contain information about the largest building projects currently proposed, approved, or under construction in the city, listing their height and giving references when applicable. Note that this should be the final paragraph in the lead; no building list lead should ever contain more than 3 paragraphs.


 * Examples of building list leads:
 * List of tallest buildings in Miami - FL that includes skyline rankings, as the city has a very large skyline.
 * List of tallest buildings in Providence - FL that does not include skyline rankings, as the city has a comparably small skyline that does not rank nationally.

As for the individual section headings, each subsection should have its own brief introduction stating the data cutoff point and the city name. These only need to be one sentence long.

Organization
Generally, for a city with only a few highrises and/or few building projects currently taking place in the city, the organization should appear like...

(Lead - general)
 * Tallest buildings
 * (Intro - subsection)
 * (List)
 * Tallest under construction, approved or proposed*
 * (Intro - subsection)
 * (List)
 * Timeline of tallest buildings
 * (Intro - subsection)
 * (List)
 * References
 * General
 * (general ref)-list of buildings
 * Specific
 * (specific ref)-individual buildings
 * External links
 * Templates, such as
 * - Template of city buildings, if one exists
 * US tallest buildings lists - Make sure to update this template upon completion
 * TBSW - If the city has a very large skyline, add this template
 * Categories, such as:

Note: Titles and/or subsections marked with a star are omitted if the city does not have a project that falls under that category.

For cities that have many projects under categories like under construction, proposed and approved, it may be necessary to split the Tallest under construction, approved, and proposed list into separate lists under separate subsections (see example below). The rest is the same.

The list
Each list will contain columns titled: Name, Height, Floors, Year, and Notes. The Tallest buildings list also contains a Rank column. The future building template should be included in the Tallest under construction, approved, and proposed section. in addition, in this section, the Year Column should be titled with  Year (est.) , to show that the information is uncertain. Every list on the article should be sortable in every column besides Notes. The notes column should include important information pertaining to the building and contain in-line citations to back the information.

The Timeline of tallest buildings section is formatted differently from the other lists. It should begin with a Name column, followed by Street Address, Years as Tallest, Height, Floors, and an unsortable Reference column. There should not be a Notes column; any extra information should be provided via asterisked notes or references. An example of this section can be found at List of tallest buildings in Dallas

Optional items
There are three optional sections that could be included in the building list depending on the nature and history of a city's skyscrapers. A Tallest buildings by pinnacle height is included if a city contains many skyscrapers with antennas and radio masts on their rooftops. If a city's skyscrapers are spread throughout a city, a Tallest building by borough / neighborhood / region lists the tallest building in each borough / neighborhood / region. Similarly, a if the city is the core city of metropolitan area with many suburban skyscrapers, a "Tallest buildings in CITYNAME's satellite cities" may be included. Cities that have experienced urban decay or terrorist attacks may contain a significant number of destroyed or demolished buildings. A Tallest destroyed section lists skyscrapers that are demolished or are undergoing demolition. The New York City list contains three of these optional sections: Pinnacle Height, Tallest building by borough, and Tallest destroyed. List of tallest buildings in Detroit contains the suburban skyscrapers option.

Inclusion of non-building structures in lists
Lists using the "List of tallest buildings and structures in CITY" title should always include non-building structures; these are usually listed in sections separate from the main tallest building list. For example, List of tallest buildings and structures in Salford has two main lists, one named "Tallest completed buildings" and a second called "Tallest structures".

Lists using the "List of tallest buildings in CITY" title should include free-standing observation towers only, such as the CN Tower and the Stratosphere Tower. These towers are included in the main tallest building list for comparison purposes, but are not ranked, as they are not technically "buildings".

Data cutoff and units
The data cutoff point should be between 45 and 90 m for cities with small skylines. Examples include Jacksonville, FL, Providence, RI, Bellevue, WA, and Oakland, CA. For cities with medium-sized skylines, the cutoff point should be between 90 and 120 m. An example is Detroit, MI. Cities with fairly large skylines should use the 120 and 150 m cutoff point. Examples include San Francisco, CA, Miami, FL, Seattle, WA and Los Angeles, CA. For cities that have extremely broad, expansive skylines, the cutoff point should be between 150 m (sometimes considered to be the lower limit of a skyscraper) and 200 m. Examples include Chicago, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and New York City. For compilations over a larger area (e.g. List of tallest buildings in the United States), an even higher value may be appropriate from 200 m and up depending on the region covered.

Meters and feet are the two most common units used in the building lists. Per Manual of style guidelines, the first instance a particular unit must be linked and fully spelled out, as seen in this example with feet and meter 2684 ft. Any other figure using feet or meter proceeding this figure must be abbreviated and unlinked (231 ft).

Building lists should generally have metric units placed first such as 183 m. However lists of tallest in the United States or other regions where the SI (metric) system is not preferred should have feet (or other unit as appropriate) placed first (e.g. 500 ft).

Referencing
Statements in both the general introduction and the notes section should include in-line citations. The reference section located at or near the end of the list should have two subsections: General [references] and Specific [references]. General references usually cite building lists (SkyscraperPage, CTBUH) and specific references cite individual buildings and/or complexes.

Templates
Each list should include a template that lists the city's individual buildings/complexes if one exists. That same template should also link to the building list. Cities with large skylines may include the TBSW template. The US tallest buildings lists‎ should be included for cities in the United States. However, for building lists outside the United States, US tallest buildings lists is replaced with an appropriate foreign building list template if one is available (China tallest buildings lists, Canada tallest buildings lists), and skyline rankings are not necessary in the lead.

Images
A picture of the full city skyline should be placed next to the general introduction if one exists. If a wide skyline image exists, it should be placed directly below the table of contents. In the list section, pictures of the individual buildings should be placed to the right of the list, ordered by height (tallest to shortest). Building lists should for the most part contain only free images. Each list can contain up to two fair use promotional images, one for the Approved section and one for the Proposed section. For lists that do not subdivide the Tallest under construction, approved, and proposed section, only one fair use image can be used, and this is only if no free images of under construction buildings can be obtained.

Example

 * See WikiProject Skyscrapers/Tallest building lists/Example