Why Does the Jin Mao Tower Have 88 Floors?

Tim Ferriss says the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai has 88 floors because the client wanted an auspicious number. Architect Adrian Smith said the client chose that count for that reason. The tower also has an octagonal core and eight main superframe columns, so eight is both a symbol and part of the structure. Towers built around that number are common around Asia.

The same preference shows up in ordinary apartments. A study of sales in Chengdu from 2004 to 2006 found that apartments on floors ending in eight resold at a premium of about 7 percent. In the new-apartment market, where prices were uniform, those floors did not cost more, but they sold about a week faster. Buyers with more eights in their phone numbers were more likely to buy the lucky floors.