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The Largest Structure In History
More square feet than you can shake a stick at
When judging buildings in history, people like to focus on the height, whereas structures like the Empire State Building and the Burj Khalifa are praised for their groundbreaking achievements. People also like to focus on longevity which highlights buildings like the Great Pyramids and the Roman Colosseum, which have stood for thousands of years.
What people don't tend to focus on is overall size. Square footage. This is interesting given the fact that square footage is a metric that people are a) intimately familiar with and b) tend to prize in their own lives. But when you ask people what the largest building in the world is by total square footage, you are likely to get a blank stare. Even more interesting is the fact that the world’s largest building in terms of square footage is also likely the largest structure ever built by humans.
The building in question is the New Century Global Center which is located in Chengdu, China. This monstrous complex features 18.3 million square feet of space, which is by far the largest building on Earth. It dwarfs other mammoth structures like airport terminals and sprawling casino complexes. That amount of square feet is enough to swallow 9,150 average American homes or a whole subdivision.
Features
So what can you fit in all of that space? Quite a lot, actually. The New Century Global Center is home to a variety of different services, from a university to a water park. The space is multifaceted and multipurpose. It exists in the Tianfu New Area, which is a massive civil project that spans multiple cities and dozens of villages. This zone focuses on economic development, residential accommodations, and high-tech manufacturing. New Century Global Center is a hallmark and focal point of this economic zone.
The building stands 100 meters tall, which is extremely muted compared to some of the towering skyscrapers around the world. While people love when buildings jut straight upwards, they blink when they jut outwards.
