Honest Horizon Awards

Each year the Tallest Buildings Council recognises buildings where the gap between architectural top and highest occupied floor is under 5%. We call this the Honest Horizon threshold. Below 5%, a building's marketed height is essentially indistinguishable from the height you can actually experience. That is unusual. It deserves a trophy.

Most supertalls do not qualify. The global average Vanity Ratio among the top 100 buildings by architectural height sits well above 5%. A building that wears its full height honestly has either forgone the spire entirely or confined its decorative structure to a genuinely modest portion of its profile. Either way, the occupants get the view the brochure promised.

A building qualifies for Honest Horizon consideration when its Vanity Ratio - the gap between architectural top and highest occupied floor as a percentage of architectural top - is below 5%. For buildings where the highest occupied floor data is unavailable, we defer consideration until the data is verified.

Occupied floors must be genuinely occupiable: offices, residences, hotel rooms, observation decks, or any space where a member of the public or a tenant can be present. Mechanical floors with no public or tenant access do not count. Read the full methodology for edge cases.