Why America is coming up short in the global skyscraper race

In 1956, Frank Lloyd Wright designed The Illinois — intended to be the world’s first mile-high skyscraper.Stretching to 528 stories, and with parking for 15,000 cars and 100 helicopters, The Illinois, which was planned for Chicago’s Grant Park on Lake Michigan, would have been four times the height of the Empire State Building (built in 1931) and five times taller than the Eiffel Tower (finished in 1889).Even today, it sounds audacious.The Illinois would also have been almost twice the verticality of the world’s current tallest building, the 2,379-foot Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and some 2,400 feet taller than Jeddah Tower — which will be the first-ever kilometer-high (3,300 foot) skyscraper when it’s finished next year in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.“Towers have always been erected by humankind,” Wright said, shortly before his death in 1959.“It seems to gratify humanity’s ambition somehow and they are beautiful and picturesque.”Though The Illinois was never built, Wright’s vision reflected an era when the US dominated skyscraper innovation, producing iconic towers like Manhattan’s Chrysler Building (1,046 feet), the Empire State Building (1,250 feet) and the North Tower of the original World Trade Center (1,368 feet). Today, however, the race to the sky has shifted to the Middle East, where state-backed investment and grand ambitions are driving a new era of architectural feats. At the forefront is the Jeddah Tower, which will become — no doubt temporarily — the world’s tallest building.In January, construction had already climbed past 80 floors toward its final total of 168.

With new floors being added every three to four days, it is on track to surpass 100 floors by the end of February. Once completed in August 2028, it will measure nearly double the size of New York City’s One World Trade Center, which, at a patriotic 1,176 feet tall, is currently the tallest skyscraper in the US.But even though the big money and big dream...