Committee to say whether NY tower tallest building

[November 12, 2013]  CHICAGO (AP) -- An expert committee of architects is set to announce whether New York's new World Trade Center tower or Chicago's Willis Tower is the tallest building in the U.S.

The Height Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is expected to announce its decision Tuesday morning in Chicago.

The committee is recognized as the final arbiter of building heights around the world. It has been weighing whether a design change means the needle atop 1 World Trade Center is part of the actual building or merely the equivalent of a broadcast antenna.

The tower built on the site of the 9/11 attacks is a symbolically important 1,776 feet tall with the 408-foot needle. It would be 1,368 feet tall without it. That's shorter than the 1,450-foot Willis Tower.

[Associated Press; By DON BABWIN]

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