Editing Tower block (section)

==Developments by region==
===Asia===
{{multiple image
| align= center
| direction= horizontal
| image1= Hong Kong Isnald Eastern District Buildings 200909.jpg
| caption1= High-rise buildings, [[Hong Kong]]
| width1= 200
| image2= Vladivostok-view-august-2015.jpg
| caption2= Modern towers of [[Vladivostok]], Russia
| width2= 195
| image3= Abu Dhabi – Corniche 3 - أبو ظبي - الكورنيش - panoramio.jpg
| caption3= Road in front, skyline in background ([[Abu Dhabi]], Middle East)
| width3= 188
| footer=
}}{{Panorama
| image = File:Hyderabad ORR Wide angle (01).jpg
| height = 180
| caption = [[panorama|Panoramic]] view of the skyline in [[Hyderabad]], [[India]] with several high-rise residential buildings
| fullwidth = 5567
| fullheight = 918
}}Residential tower complexes are common in Asian countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Pakistan, Iran and South Korea, as urban densities are very high. In [[Singapore]] and urban [[Hong Kong]], land prices are so high that a large portion of the population lives in high-rise apartments. In fact, over 60% of Hong Kong residents live in apartments, many of them [[Condominium (living space)|condominium]]s. Of them in 2020, 2,112,138 were identified residents of public housing,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hong Kong Housing Authority|date=31 March 2021|title=香港房屋委員會年報|trans-title=Hong Kong Housing Authority Annual Report|url=https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/mini-site/haar2021/en/common/pdf/1_Key_Figures_ENTC.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220204121524/https://www.housingauthority.gov.hk/mini-site/haar2021/en/common/pdf/1_Key_Figures_ENTC.pdf|archive-date=4 February 2022|access-date=4 February 2022|website=housingauthority.gov.hk/}}</ref> which is 28% of the total population.

[[Sarah Williams Goldhagen]] (2012) celebrated the work of innovative architecture firms such as WOHA (based in Singapore), Mass Studies (based in Seoul), Amateur Architecture Studio (based in [[Hangzhou, China]]), and the New York City-based Steven Holl in the transformation of residential towers into "vertical communities" or "vertical cities in the sky" providing aesthetic, unusually designed silhouettes on the skyline, comfortable private spaces and attractive public spaces. None of these "functional, handsome, and humane high-rise residential buildings" are [[affordable housing]].<ref name=Goldhagen>
{{cite news
|first=Sarah | last = Williams Goldhagen|author-link1=Sarah Williams Goldhagen
|title= Living High
|newspaper=New Republic
|url=http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/103329/highrise-skyscraper-woha-gehry-pritzker-architecture-megalopolis?page=0,1
|date=18 May 2012
|access-date=28 June 2012
}}
</ref><ref name=Meinhold>
{{cite web
|last=Meinhold | first = Bridgette
|title=2012 Pritzker Prize Awarded to Wang Shu – First Chinese Architect to Win the Award
|url=http://inhabitat.com/2012-pritzker-prize-awarded-to-wang-shu-first-chinese-architect-to-win-the-award/
|date=25 May 2012
|website=inhabitat.com
|access-date=28 June 2012
}}
</ref>

====China====
[[File:山大乐水居小区.jpg|thumb|A modern ''[[xiaoqu]]'' in the city of [[Qingdao]]]]

The 2012 Pritzker Prize was awarded to Chinese architect Wang Shu. Among his winning designs is the Vertical Courtyard Apartments, six 26-story towers by his architectural firm Amateur Architecture Studio built in Hangzhou.<ref name=Meinhold /> "These towers were designed to house two-story apartments, in which every inhabitant would enjoy "the illusion of living on the second floor", accomplished by folding concrete floor planes (like "bamboo mats," claims the firm), so that every third story opens into a private courtyard. In the larger towers, the two-story units are stacked slightly askew, adding to the visual interest of the variegated façades (Goldhagen 2012)."<ref name=Goldhagen />

==== Japan ====
[[File:Grace_tower01s3200.jpg|thumb|[[Okayama prefecture]] "mansions"]]

[[Housing in Japan]] includes various traits coming from different eras. The word ''[[danchi]]'' now either means an employer-provided housing or has a meaning similar to "[[Public housing|projects]]". For modern hi-rises, there are two [[wasei-eigo|borrowed]] words to make a distinction:

* "''Apaato''" (アパート）is used to describe a rather small apartment, initially made to be rented;
* a large, modern apartment would be a "''mansion''" (マンション). The "mansion" nickname is used for both residential towers and for individual condominium apartments (for being roomy, spacey enough to compare to detached houses).

====South Korea====
In South Korea, the tower blocks are called Apartment Complex ({{Lang|ko|아파트 단지}}). The first residential towers began to be built after the [[Korean War]]. The South Korean government needed to build many apartment complexes in the cities to be able to accommodate the citizens. In the 60 years since, as the population increased considerably, tower blocks have become more common. This time, however, the new tower blocks integrated shopping malls, parking systems, and other convenient facilities.

[[Samsung Tower Palace]] in [[Seoul]], South Korea, is the tallest apartment complex in Asia.

In Seoul, approximately 80 percent of its residents live in apartment complexes which comprise 98 percent of recent residential construction.<ref>{{cite book
|chapter-url=http://www.holcimfoundation.org/portals/1/docs/f07/wk-norm/f07-wk-norm-cho02.pdf
|chapter=Two Houses in Seoul
|first=Minsuk | last = Cho
|title=Urban Trans Formation
|editor-first1=Ilka | editor-last1 = Ruby | editor-first2 = Andreas | editor-last2 = Ruby
|publisher=Ruby Press
|year=2008
|page=25
|access-date=28 June 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828234827/http://www.holcimfoundation.org/Portals/1/docs/F07/WK-Norm/F07-WK-Norm-cho02.pdf
|archive-date=28 August 2011
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> Seoul proper is noted for its [[population density]], eight times greater than [[Rome]], though less than [[Manhattan]] and Paris. Its metropolitan area is the densest in the [[OECD]].<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Hankyoreh|url=http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/393438.html|title=Seoul ranks highest in population density among OECD countries|date=15 December 2009}}</ref>

==== India ====
Several metropolitan cities in [[India]] have witnessed a surge in vertical development in the 21st-century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2025-04-14 |title=The Economics of Vertical Growth in India: Addressing Urban Density and Sprawl |url=https://www.archdaily.com/1028945/the-economics-of-vertical-growth-in-india-addressing-urban-density-and-sprawl |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=ArchDaily |language=en-US}}</ref> Most skyscrapers in cities like [[List of tallest buildings in Mumbai|Mumbai]], [[List of tallest buildings in Hyderabad|Hyderabad]], and [[List of tallest buildings in Delhi-NCR|Delhi-NCR]] comprise of residential units which are commonly referred to as "apartment complexes", "apartment socieities", or "gated societies".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Haidar |first=Faizan |date=2025-01-20 |title=Developers focus on high-rise development in Central Delhi as demand surges for residential complex |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/property-/-cstruction/developers-focus-on-high-rise-development-in-central-delhi-as-demand-surges-for-residential-complex/articleshow/117392906.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2025-05-30 |work=The Economic Times |issn=0013-0389}}</ref> These residential high-rise buildings are typically located in affluent neighborhoods and include recreational amenities for their residents. The tallest apartment complex in India is the [[Palais Royale, Mumbai|Palais Royale]] in Mumbai.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shaikh |first=Ateeq |date=Dec 25, 2024 |title=India’s tallest luxe building Palais Royale gets part OC up to 53 floors |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/indias-tallest-luxe-building-gets-part-oc-up-to-53-floors-101735068015813.html |url-status=live |work=Hindustan Times}}</ref>

Several commercial high-rise buildings also exist and are predominantly used as office spaces, often with multiple organizations sharing the various floors within the high-rise building.<ref name=":0" />

===Europe===
{{see also|Panelák|Plattenbau}}

====Central and Eastern Europe====
[[File:Endla street Tallinn.jpg|thumb|Refurbished 5-story [[Khrushchyovka]], in [[Tallinn]], [[Estonia]]]]
[[File:Jahodová od Pražské.jpg|thumb|Painted [[panelák]]s in [[Prague, Czech Republic]]]]
[[File:Osiedle Skocznia Warsaw 2022 aerial.jpg|thumb|right|Osiedle Skocznia in [[Warsaw]], Poland]]
[[File:Bloc P10, Bucharest.jpg|thumb|Renovated apartment building from 1963 in [[Bucharest, Romania]]. With the 2010s, renovation of older apartment buildings in Eastern Europe has become common, especially in countries which get [[Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund|EU funds]].]]

Although some [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]an countries during the [[interwar period]], such as the [[Second Polish Republic]], already started building housing estates that were considered to be of a high standard for their time, many of these structures perished during the Second World War.

In the [[Eastern Bloc]], tower blocks were constructed in great numbers to produce plenty of cheap accommodation for the growing postwar populations of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]] and [[Soviet Empire#The Soviet Union and its satellite states|its satellite states]]. This took place mostly in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, though in the [[People's Republic of Poland]] this process started [[Three-Year Plan|even earlier]] due to the severe damages that Polish cities sustained during World War II. Throughout the former Eastern Bloc countries, tower blocks built during the Soviet years make up much of the current housing estates and most of them were built in the specific [[Socialist realism|socialist realist]] style of architecture that was dominant in the territories east of the [[Iron Curtain]]: blocky buildings of that era are colloquially known as [[Khrushchyovka]]. However, there were also larger and more ambitious projects built in Eastern Europe at the time, which have since become recognisable examples of post-war [[Modernist architecture|modernism]]; such as the largest ''[[falowiec]]'' building in the [[Przymorze Wielkie]] district of [[Gdańsk]], with a length of {{convert|860|m|ft|2|abbr=on}} and 1,792 flats, it is the second longest housing block in Europe.<ref name="zupgra">{{cite book|last1=Sobecka|first1=Martyna|last2=Navarro|first2=David|date=2020|title=Brutal Poland|location=[[Poznań]]|publisher=Zupagrafika|isbn=9788395057472}}</ref>

In [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]], the mass construction of standardised housing blocks began in the 1950s and 1960s with the outskirts of the cities, some of which were made up of slums.<ref name="Elleh2014">{{cite book|first = Nnamdi | last = Elleh|title=Reading the Architecture of the Underprivileged Classes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nyzjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA212|date=28 November 2014|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-6786-1|pages=212–}}</ref> Construction continued in the 1970s and 1980s, under the [[Systematization (Romania)|systematisation]] programme of [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], which consisted largely of the demolition and reconstruction of existing villages, towns, and cities, in whole or in part, in order to build blocks of flats (''blocuri''), as a result of increasing urbanisation following an accelerated industrialisation process.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313679886 |title= Dezvoltarea urbană și ariile metropolitane |trans-title=The urban development and metropolitan areas |last1=Mitrica |first1=Bianca |last2=Grigorescu |first2=Ines |last3=Urucu |first3=Veselina |year=2016 |publisher= Editura Academiei Române |isbn=978-973-27-2695-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/urbanizarea-in-romania-secolului-xx-interbelic-vs-comunism |title= Urbanizarea în România secolului XX: interbelic vs comunism |trans-title=Urbanization in the 20th century Romania: interwar period vs communist period |first=Ionel-Claudiu | last = Dumitrescu |website=historia.ro}}</ref> In [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]] (now the [[Czech Republic]] and [[Slovakia]]), [[panelák]] building under [[Marxism–Leninism]] resulted from two main factors: the postwar housing shortage and the ideology of the [[Communist Party of Czechoslovakia|ruling party]].

In Eastern European countries, opinions about these buildings vary greatly, with some deeming them as eyesores on their city's landscape while others glorify them as relics of a bygone age and historical examples of unique architectural styles (such as socialist realism, [[brutalism]], etc.).<ref name="zupgra" /> Since the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], and especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s, many of the former Eastern Bloc countries have begun construction of new, more expensive and modern housing. The [[Śródmieście, Warsaw|Śródmieście]] borough of [[Warsaw]], the capital of Poland, has seen the development of an array of skyscrapers. Russia is also currently undergoing a dramatic buildout, growing a commercially shaped skyline. Moreover, the ongoing changes made to postwar housing estates since the 2000s in former communist countries vary – ranging from simply applying a new coat of paint to the previously grey exterior to thorough modernisation of entire buildings.<ref name="zupgra" />

In the [[European Union]], among former [[Warsaw Pact]] states, a majority of the population lives in flats in Latvia (64.4%), Estonia (60.6%), Lithuania (59.5%), the Czech Republic (50.9%), Bulgaria (46.7%) and Slovakia (45.3%) ({{As of|2024|lc=y}}, data from [[Eurostat]]).<ref>see section Source data for tables and figures, Housing statistics: tables and figures [https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_lvho01__custom_12697868/bookmark/table?lang=en&bookmarkId=f02b1ce6-d1ab-4138-ac5a-de96fb4b0224]</ref> However, not all flat dwellers in Eastern Europe live in Cold War-era blocks of flats; many live in buildings constructed after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and some in buildings that survived World War II.

====Western Europe====
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2020}}

In Western Europe, there are fewer high-rise buildings because of the historic city centres. In the 1960s, developers began demolishing older buildings to replace them with modern high-rise buildings.

In [[Brussels]] there are numerous modern high-rise buildings in the [[Northern Quarter (Brussels)|Northern Quarter]] business district. The government of Belgium wants to recreate [[Washington, D.C.]], on a small scale.

=====France=====
{{wide image|Panorama_La_Défense.jpg|900px|[[La Défense]] at night}}
There are some tall residential buildings in ''La Défense'' district, such as [[Tour Défense 2000]], even though the district is mainly "commercial". This allows the residents to walk to the nearby office buildings without using vehicles.

=====Great Britain=====
{{main|Tower blocks in Great Britain}}
[[File:Argylebuilding.jpg|thumb|[[Argyle Building, Glasgow|Argyle Building]] in [[Glasgow]]]]

Tower blocks were first built in the United Kingdom after the [[World War II|Second World War]], and were seen as a cheap way to replace 19th-century urban slums and war-damaged buildings. They were originally seen as desirable, but quickly fell out of favour as tower blocks attracted rising crime and social disorder, particularly after the collapse of [[Ronan Point]] in 1968.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/heritage/ronan-point |title=Ronan Point |work=The Open University |access-date=29 October 2015}}</ref>

Although Tower blocks are controversial and numerous examples have been demolished, many still remain in large cities. Due to lack of proper regulation, some tower blocks present a significant fire risk and even though there have been efforts to make them more safe,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pbctoday.co.uk/news/building-control-news/unsafe-cladding-removal-works-still-incomplete-on-over-300-high-rise-buildings-in-manchester-and-london/115651/ | title=Unsafe cladding removal works still incomplete on over 300 high-rise buildings in Manchester and London | date=16 September 2022 }}</ref> modern safety precautions can be prohibitively expensive to retrofit. The [[Grenfell Tower fire|Grenfell Tower]] fire in 2017 was partly caused by council ignorance, as a local action group complained to the council about the fire hazards of the tower several years before the incident, yet remedial work had not been carried out.<ref name="guardiansafety">{{cite news|last1=Wahlquist|first1=Calla|title=Fire safety concerns raised by Grenfell Tower residents in 2012|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/fire-safety-concerns-raised-by-grenfell-tower-residents-in-2012|access-date=14 June 2017|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=14 June 2017}}</ref> This fire further made tower blocks less desirable to British residents.

There are old high-rise buildings built in the 1960s and 1970s in areas of [[London]] such as [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets|Tower Hamlets]], [[London Borough of Newham|Newham]], [[Hackney, London|Hackney]], and virtually any area in London with [[Council house|council housing]]. Some new high-rises are being built in areas such as [[Central London]], [[Southwark]], and [[Nine Elms]]. In east London, some old high-rises are being gentrified, in addition to new high-rises being built in areas such as [[Stratford, London|Stratford]] and [[Canary Wharf]].{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

=====Ireland=====
[[File:Capital Dock, Dublin Docklands, June 2021.jpg|thumb|right|[[Capital Dock]], 22-story "mixed use" building in [[Dublin]], Ireland]]

; Republic of Ireland

The majority of residential high-rise buildings in the Republic of Ireland were concentrated in the suburb of [[Ballymun]], [[Dublin]]. The [[Ballymun Flats]] were built between 1966 and 1969: seven 15-story towers, nineteen 8-story blocks and ten 4-story blocks.<ref>{{cite news |title=Demolition of famous Dublin tower block |url=http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0313/ballymun.html |publisher=RTÉ News |date=13 March 2005 |access-date=19 May 2010 }}</ref> These were the "seven towers" referred to in the [[U2]] song "Running to Stand Still".{{cn|date=October 2024}} They have since been demolished. 

Inner Dublin flat complexes, typically of four to five storeys include Sheriff Street (demolished), [[Fatima Mansions (housing)|Fatima Mansions]] (demolished and redeveloped), St Joseph's Gardens (demolished; replaced by Killarney Court flat complex), St Teresa's Gardens, Dolphin House, Liberty House, St Michael's Estate (eight storeys) and O'Devaney Gardens and a lot more mainly throughout the north and south inner city of Dublin. Suburban flat complexes were built exclusively on the northside of the city in [[Ballymun]], [[Coolock]] and [[Kilbarrack]]. These flats were badly affected by a heroin epidemic that hit working-class areas of Dublin in the 1980s and early 1990s.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Residential tower blocks were previously uncommon outside of Dublin, but during the era of the [[Celtic Tiger]] the largest cities such as Dublin, [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Limerick]] and [[Galway]] witnessed new large apartment building, although their heights have generally been restricted. Some large towns such as [[Navan]], [[Drogheda]], [[Dundalk]] and [[Mullingar]] have also witnessed the construction of many modern apartment blocks.

; Northern Ireland

Tower blocks in Northern Ireland were never built to the frequency as in cities on the island of [[Great Britain]], but taller high-rises are generally more common than in the Republic of Ireland. Most tower blocks and flat complexes are found in [[Belfast]], although many of these have been demolished since the 1990s and replaced with traditional [[Social housing|public housing units]]. The mid-rise Divis flats complex in west Belfast was built between 1968 and 1972. It was demolished in the early 1990s after the residents demanded new houses due to mounting problems with their flats. [[Divis Tower]], built separately in 1966, still stands, however; and in 2007 work began to convert the former British Army base at the top two floors into new dwellings. Divis Tower was for several decades Ireland's tallest residential building, having since being surpassed by the privately owned [[Obel Tower]] in the city centre. In the north of the city, the iconic seven-tower complex in the [[New Lodge, Belfast|New Lodge]] remains, although so too the problems that residents face, such as poor piping and limited sanitation. Farther north, the four tower blocks in [[Rathcoole (Belfast)|Rathcoole]] dominate the local skyline, while in south Belfast, the tower blocks in Seymour Hill, Belvoir and [[Finaghy]] remain standing.

Most of the aforementioned high-rise flats in the city were built by the [[Northern Ireland Housing Trust]] (NIHT) as part of overspill housing schemes, the first such development being the pair of point blocks in East Belfast's [[Cregagh]] estate. These eleven-story towers were completed in 1961 and were the first tall council housing blocks on the island of Ireland.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Glendinning|first1=Miles|last2=Muthesius|first2=Stefan|year=1994|title=Tower Block: Modern Public Housing in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland|publisher=Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art|isbn=9780300054446|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWuBQgAACAAJ|page=288}}</ref> The NIHT also designed the inner city Divis Flats complex. The six-to-eight-storey deck-access flats that comprised most of the Divis estate were of poor build quality and were all demolished by the early 1990s.{{sfnp|Glendinning|Muthesius|1994|page=367}} Similar slab blocks were built by the NIHT in East Belfast (Tullycarnet) and Derry's [[Bogside]] area, all four of which have been demolished.

[[Belfast Corporation]] constructed seven tower blocks on the former Victoria Barracks site in the New Lodge district. While the Corporation built some [[mid-rise]] flats as part of [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] schemes (most notably the now demolished Unity Flats and the Weetabix Flats in the Shankill area), New Lodge was its only high-rise project in the inner city; there were three more in outlying areas of the city during the 1960s, two being in Mount Vernon in North Belfast and one being in the [[Clarawood]] estate, East Belfast. The [[Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast|Royal Hospital]] built three thirteen-story towers for use as staff accommodation, prominently located adjacent to the M2 Motorway at Broadway. Belfast City Hospital also constructed a high-rise slab block which since privatisation has been named Bradbury Court, formerly known as Erskine House. Queens University Belfast built several eleven storey towers at its Queens Elms student accommodation. Of the three sixteen-story point blocks of [[Larne]] Borough Council in the late 1960s, only one remains.<ref>Riverdale Flats, Larne (1) http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2313893</ref>

===North America===
====Canada====
{{See also|List of tallest buildings in Canada}}

In Canada, large [[multi-family buildings]] are usually known as ''apartment buildings'' or ''apartment blocks'' if they are rented from one common landowner, or ''condominiums'' or ''condo towers'' if each dwelling unit is individually owned; they may be called ''low-rise'' (or ''walk-up''), ''mid-rise'', ''high-rise'', or ''skyscraper'' depending on their height. Tall residential towers are a staple building type in all large cities. Their relative prominence in Canadian cities varies substantially, however. In general, more populated cities have more high-rises than smaller cities, due to a relative scarcity of land and a greater demand for housing.

However, some cities such as [[Quebec City]] and [[Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax]] have fewer high-rise buildings due to several factors: a focus on [[historic preservation]], height restrictions, and lower growth rates. In middle-sized cities with a relatively low population density, such as [[Calgary]], [[Edmonton]], [[Winnipeg]], or [[Hamilton, Ontario|Hamilton]] there are more apartment towers but they are greatly outnumbered by [[single-family house]]s. Most of the largest residential towers in Canada are found in [[Montreal]], [[Toronto]], and [[Vancouver]]; the country's most densely populated cities.

Toronto contains the second largest concentration of high-rise apartment buildings in North America (after New York). In Canada, like in other New World countries, but unlike Western Europe, most high-rise towers are located in the city centre (or "downtown"), where smaller, older buildings were demolished to make way in [[redevelopment]] schemes.

====United States====
{{See also|List of tallest buildings in the United States|List of tallest buildings in New York City}}
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2009}}
[[File:Central Park Tower from street 2020.jpg|thumb|[[Central Park Tower]] in [[Manhattan]], New York City, the tallest residential high-rise tower in the world, December 2020]]

In the United States, tower blocks are commonly referred to as "midrise" or "highrise apartment buildings", depending on their height, while buildings that house fewer flats (apartments), or are not as tall as the tower blocks, are called "lowrise apartment buildings". Specifically, "midrise" buildings are as tall as the streets are wide, allowing five hours of sunlight on the street.<ref>{{cite web|title=Avenues and Mid-Rise Buildings Study|url=http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=7238036318061410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD|website=City of Toronto|access-date=15 February 2016}}</ref>

Some of the first residential towers were the [[Castle Village, Manhattan|Castle Village]] towers in Manhattan, New York City, completed in 1939. Their cross-shaped design was copied in towers in [[Parkchester, Bronx|Parkchester]] and [[Stuyvesant Town]] residential developments.

The government's experiments in the 1960s and 1970s to use high-rise apartments as a means of providing the housing solution for the poor broadly resulted in failure. Made in the [[tower in the park]] style, all but a few high-rise [[Public housing|housing projects]] in the nation's largest [[cities]], such as [[Cabrini–Green]] and [[Robert Taylor Homes]] in Chicago, [[Penn South]] in Manhattan, and the [[Desire Projects]] in [[New Orleans]], fell victim to the "[[ghetto]]fication" and are now being torn down, renovated, or replaced. Another example is the former [[Pruitt–Igoe]] complex in [[St. Louis]], torn down in the 1970s.

In contrast to their [[public housing]] counterparts, commercially developed high-rise apartment buildings continue to flourish in cities around the country largely due to high land prices and the housing boom of the 2000s. The [[Upper East Side]] in New York City, featuring high-rise apartments, is the wealthiest urban neighborhood in the United States.

Currently, the tallest residential building in the world is [[Central Park Tower]] located in [[Midtown Manhattan]], having a height of {{convert|1,550|ft}} with the highest occupied floor at {{convert|1,417|ft}}.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.skyscrapercenter.com/buildings?list=tallest100-residential | title=100 Tallest All-Residential Buildings - the Skyscraper Center}}</ref>

===Oceania===
{{See also|List of tallest buildings in Australia|List of tallest buildings in Sydney}}
[[File:Waterloo towers 2.JPG|upright|thumb|Housing commission towers in Waterloo, Sydney, Australia]]

High-rise living in Australia was limited to the [[Sydney CBD]] until the 1960s, when a short-lived fashion saw public housing tenants located in new high-rise developments, especially in Sydney and Melbourne. The buildings pictured along with four other 16-story blocks were constructed on behalf of the [[Royal Australian Navy]] and were available to sailors and their families for accommodation. Due to social problems within these blocks the Navy left and the [[Department of Housing]] took charge and flats were let to low income and immigrant families. During the 1980s many people escaping communism in Eastern bloc countries were housed in these buildings. Developers have enthusiastically adopted the term "apartment" for these new high-rise blocks, perhaps to avoid the stigma still attached to housing commission flats.