Trivia Question

[reldnahkram]

Which state has the shortest tallest building, and how tall is it?

Comments

[mikekn]

I'd say Florida. It has a single story building which is 526 feet tall. Or is that the tallest shortest building?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Each state has a tallest building. Which state has the shortest building of these buildings, and how tall is it? No peaking.

[mikekn]

Ah, got it. I still like my tall short build :)

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

My source also considers the Gateway Arch to be a single-story structure, and that's almost 100 feet taller than your Florida building.

[mikekn]

I didn't consider the Arch a "building". :) The Florida building is the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

[think-too-much.livejournal.com]

Are we including things like radio towers?

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Inhabitable structures. Though my source considered the Gateway Arch to be the tallest building in Missouri, which I think is questionable.

[ccommack]

My initial answer would be "some dorm on the U of Wyoming campus". Or possibly a South Dakota analogue.

The fact that you are asking leads me to believe that this is incorrect.

I already know enough to not ask if the District of Columbia counts as a state for this purpose; despite the height law, there are exceptions to the Uniform Banality of our national Capital.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

A dorm at U Wyoming is third shortest. South Dakota is second, but it's an office building.

[eclectic-boy.livejournal.com]

I'll guess Sikkim, just because it has the lowest population.

[ccommack]

....well played.

I'm guessing Baja California Sur may have that beat.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Wyoming has them both beat.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Per the most recent census data, Sikkim is more populous than Wyoming.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Totally cheating. Comment screened so others may continue to guess.

[allectofromlj]

Then I apologize.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

No worries.

[uncleamos]

Oh, um, let's see, without peeking, wild guess: Alaska and 150 feet.
Second guess would be Wyoming and 300 feet.

[uncleamos]

I peaked at both the answer and the rest of this thread, and I must say I feel pretty happy with my Wyoming guess even if it is wrong.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

Anchorage is surprisingly large, and the oil industry needs office space.

[think-too-much.livejournal.com]

So, I cheated. But I will say that Wyoming was my first guess, my second guess was a little too clever by half, and my third guess, very similar to the second, was right.

What states have the tiniest largest cities? Surely there is correlation.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I was already working on this when this comment showed up. R-squared values in the low 60s based on ranking the states based on city population of largest city. Correlation gets slightly, but probably not significantly, stronger if you remove the 11 states where the tallest building is not in the largest city, though I'm tempted to include Nevada (tallest is in Paradise) and maybe Jersey (tallest is in Jersey City).

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

I guessed correctly on the state, though I didn't bother to pick a height before checking my answer.

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Likewise. I think I have a bit of an advantage here, having been to most of that state's cities.

[jdh92.livejournal.com]

Same here.

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Also interesting: exactly one state's capitol building is its tallest building.