Chicago, NYC taunt each other over tallest U.S. building

The battle over the tallest building in the U.S. ended Tuesday with the crowning of New York's One World Trade Center, but a war of words between New York City and Chicago is just getting started. We've collected the best reactions to the news from both cities, and there are taunts aplenty on either side.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat — yes, such a thing exists to argue about architecture — announced Tuesday that a 408-foot spire atop One World Trade Center would count toward the height of the building being erected at the site of the 9/11 bombings. The ruling means 1 WTC, which is expected to be finished next year, would officially be a symbolic 1,776 feet tall, several hundred feet higher than Chicago's Willis (formerly Sears) Tower, which is 1,451 feet tall.

New York Magazine gleefully quoted this explanation:

“Even though the cladding was taken off the spire, you can still see that is is an architectural element,” said the Council’s executive director Antony Wood. “It is not just a plain steel mast from which to hang antenna or satellite dishes.”

Without the spire, or more accurately, if the spire were considered a mere antenna, the building would be 1,368 feet tall or the height of the original North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Both American marvels are far smaller than the world's tallest building, the 2,722 foot tall Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.

NBC News reported that Tuesday's decision was unanimous among the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat's 25 members.

Less unanimous? Reaction to the news.