Big engineering no longer exciting?

[Taipei 101 - Tallest Building of the World]

"THE FUNCTION AND THE ASTONISHING DESIGNS THAT SEEM TO CONTRADICT THE RULES OF STABILITY WILL OVERTAKE THE TRIVIAL FACTOR OF HEIGHT!"
-yvesdominic-

Just shortly I came across the above statement in a text on the fact that nowadays people are not really knowledgeable anymore on which high-rise makes the list of tallest buildings as #1. The same article also claims that the magic of skyscrapers has vanished and that the world's tallest buildings present awesome symbols of power and prestige. Well, the latter has been the case since the beginning of human constructions.

Now, it is true that probably many would not know that the Taipei 101 is the current tallest building of the world. They might not even be able to recognize it when seen, though, it does indeed have a distinctive form.

I agree with the fact that people aren't anymore as familiar with high-rises as they used to be. But I highly disagree that the engineering of skyscrapers has lost its fascination (and not only because I might be more interested in this subject than others).

First, those buildings have lost their importance regarding 'brand positioning'. Considering the Empire State building we know that it has been featured in King Kong, Sleepless in Seattle, and so forth. Yes the Empire State has been the the tallest building for some time after its construction and it has also been built in a time when such tall constructions became possible through new engineering techniques (as most of us know the elevator played a significant role not only regarding transportation). And some of the original problems still exist today: Stopping towers from inducing nausea by swaying too much at the top and the difficulty of getting enough elevators to service the buildings.

Second, there are not anymore only a handful of such constructions and additional proposed future projects make the media although their construction is rather unrealistic. It is not anymore only New York, Chicago and Kuala Lumpur that hold such prestigious buildings, but other cities some of us might not even be familiar with.

Now, the engineering is a different aspect. And this is the point where I personally completely disagree that it has lost the magic, fascination, and interest.
The goal is not anymore only to propose a project in that field that offers an even higher building. Rather the design, material of construction and also very important the use it offers to the environment have become a maybe even more important role.

I have been talking about Green Buildings (I think I will draw upon this topic again and again as it seems) and this is exactly what I am driving at with the posts earlier.