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Looking up at tower which has references to traditional pagoda forms and symbolism, with a green glass curtain wall; Taipei 101 was the first building in the world to break the half-kilometer mark in height. The building ranked officially as the world's tallest from 2004 until the opening of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in 2010. (As of 2014, it is now fifth tallest). Taipei 101 comprises 101 floors above ground and 5 floors underground. A multilevel shopping mall adjoining the tower houses hundreds of stores, restaurants and clubs. The tower is designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes by means of a tuned mass damper, a steel pendulum and sphere suspended from the center of the 92nd to the 87th floor. The pendulum sways to offset movements in the building caused by strong gusts. Its sphere, the largest damper sphere in the world, consists of 41 circular steel plates, each with a height of 125 mm (4.92 in) being welded together to form a 5.5 m (18 ft) diameter sphere. There are two additional smaller dampers in the spire. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 7/10/2014)