I love when scientific interest articles pop up on the front page like this. It's really amazing to me that one of the things that holds skyscraper maximum hei

I love when scientific interest articles pop up on the front page like this. It's really amazing to me that one of the things that holds skyscraper maximum height back is the practical concern of lift height. That's simply not the first thing I would think of if someone asked me the question. But while that's cool, I don't think we necessarily should be building taller skyscrapers. They're not very practical. If they were, we'd have quasi-Coruscant cities where all the buildings were as tall as the Empire State Building or Willis Tower. Instead, what tends to actually happen is the buildings become landmarks that attract a lot of attention but comparatively little real estate. Furthermore, when cities expand they generally need to build upwards quickly and forsake extravagance for practicality. If it takes 10 years to build a monolithic structure higher than the skyline, that's a project that's burning money for a long time until it's profitable.