Skyscraper Collection

Is there a type of exercise that you know is great for you, but you just don’t like doing very much?  For me, that type of exercise is climbing stairs.  I take the stairs in real life as often as I can, but it takes some serious effort and mental rallying to get on the StairMaster at the gym.  So I created a way I can celebrate my StairMaster workouts and encourage me to hop on the StairMaster again:  I started a skyscraper collection.

Here’s how it works:  Every time I use the StairMaster, I note, at the end of the workout, how many floors I climbed.  Then, with the help of the internet, I find a skyscraper somewhere on the planet with an equivalent number of floors.  Just finding pictures of these buildings, often the tallest ones in their city or country, are hugely inspirational – they’re tall!  And, in my own way, I climbed them!  I keep a chart of all the skyscrapers in my collection (which you’ll see below).  Here are just some of the skyscrapers I’ve climbed:

MY SKYSCRAPER CHART:

(Organized by number of floors, with the tallest building on top.  You can click on any building’s name to read the blog post about that workout – most of them include a little information about the skyscraper as well!)

• Aon Center, Los Angeles, CA (63 stories, climbed 3/31/12 – though not the tallest, this building’s at the top of the list because I climbed it for real, from sidewalk to roof, during a charity stair climb. Read the full recap and see photos here.)

• Burj Khalifa, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (163 stories, climbed 5/5/12 – This climb was a fundraiser that brought in over $1,600 for Whaley Children’s Center in Flint, Michigan. I made a 3-minute video of the event – watch it here.)

• Abraj Al Bait, Mecca, Saudi Arabia (120 stories, climbed 3/19/12)
• International Commerce Centre, Hong Kong (118 stories, climbed 4/13/12)
• Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower), Chicago, IL (108 stories, climbed 3/7/12)
• Empire State Building, New York, NY (102 stories, climbed 2/18/12)
• Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan (101 stories, climbed 4/9/12)
• John Hancock Center, Chicago, IL (100 stories, climbed 3/28/12)
• Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago, IL (98 stories, climbed 2/11/12)
• 32 Marina, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (90 stories, climbed 2/25/12)
• Petronas Tower 1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (88 floors, climbed 1/23/12)
• Petronas Tower 2, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (88 floors, climbed 1/25/12)
• Aon Center, Chicago, IL (83 floors, climbed 8/5/11)
• Q1, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia (80 stories, climbed 3/10/12)
• The Index, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (80 stories, climbed 3/4/12)
• CITIC Plaza, Guangzhou, China (80 floors, climbed 12/1/10)
• Chrysler Building, New York, NY (77 stories, climbed 4/28/12)
• Moscow Tower (City of Capitals), Moscow, Russia (76 floors, climbed 3/23/12)
• Columbia Center, Seattle, WA (76 floors, climbed 12/7/11)
• JPMorgan Chase Tower, Houston, TX (75 floors, climbed 3/9/11)
• Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI (73 floors, climbed 6/19/11)
• US Bank Tower, Los Angeles, CA (73 floors, climbed 10/2/11)
• Four Seasons Hotel & Tower, Miami, FL (70 floors, climbed 4/30/12)
• The Sail @ Marina Bay, Singapore (70 floors, cilmbed 11/9/10)
• Yokohama Landmark Tower, Yokohama, Japan (70 floors, climbed 4/11/11)
• 900 North Michigan, Chicago, IL (66 floors, climbed 4/1/11)
• Vista Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (62 floors, climbed 7/2/11)
• Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt, Germany (56 floors, climbed 8/19/11)
• One Shell Square, New Orleans, LA (51 floors, climbed 5/2/12)
• Mirante do Vale, Sao Paulo, Brazil (51 floors, climbed 1/13/12)
• 1000 de la Gauchetiere, Montreal, Canada (51 floors, climbed 11/3/10)
• Carlton Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa (50 floors, climbed 5/2/12)
• 801 Grand, Des Moines, IA (45 floors, climbed 10/15/11)
• Hotel Arts, Barcelona, Spain (44 floors, climbed 8/12/11)
• 1999 Broadway, Denver, CO (43 floors, climbed 8/29/11)
• U.S. Bank Center, Milwaukee, WI (42 floors, climbed 4/30/12)
• Ernst & Young Building, Los Angeles, CA (41 floors, climbed 10/3/10)
• City Place I, Hartford, CT (38 floors, climbed 5/11/11)
• Westin Virginia Beach Town Center, Virginia Beach, VA (38 floors, climbed 5/2/12)
• AEGON Center, Louisville, KY (35 floors, climbed 4/24/12)
• Ocean Towers, South Padre Island, TX (31 floors, climbed 1/20/11)

CUMULATIVE STATS:

• Number of buildings in my collection: 41
• Number of US States represented: 14 (New York, Illinois, Washington, Texas, Michigan, California, Iowa, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Florida, Virginia)
• Number of countries represented: 16 (USA, China, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Germany, Canada, Spain, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Africa)
• Number of continents represented: 6 (North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa)
• Total number of stories climbed: 2,966
  
• Average number of stories per workout: 78
  

Keep checking back… because this is a chart that I’ll keep adding to!

KEEP IT UP, DAVID!