In general, tall buildings, some of which are termed as &ldquo / skyscrapers&rdquo / , are among the typical and almost unavoidable features of the metropolitan cities. There is a competititive race of constructing higher and higher buildings since the birth of the infamous Home Insurance Building in Chicago which is still considered to be the pioneer of the modern tall buildings. Recently, an efficient service core design is strongly needed and inquired with the increase in height and capacity of tall buildings. Such needs and demands are primarily due to the circulation volume of occupants since height has an adverse effect on the size and capacity of the service core. This thesis investigates the features of service cores that play an important role in the planning considerations of tall building design, and their effect on architectural, structural and sustainable design. Within this context, a classification of service cores based on their location in architectural design is proposed.