When construction of China's Shanghai Tower began in 2009, filmmaker Joe Nafis made it his mission to capture the structure's rise above the rest of the city skyline.
Staking out an unobstructed view of the tower, Nafis followed its construction over four years, reports Gizmodo. His efforts – approximately 1,000 work hours and around 350,000 still photos – have now been packaged into an incredible timelapse, charting the 128-story structure from its very inception to the nearly finished product.
Though construction was completed in 2015, Shanghai Tower is not yet open to the public. At 2,073 feet tall, it is the second tallest tower in the world behind Dubai's Burj Khalifa.
