The idea of massively tall buildings is intriguing to many. Tall buildings and skyscrapers have only truly existed for about a century, since anything before the invention of the elevator, mass-produced steel, and common electricity consumption would make such a building heavily impractical or impossible to build.
Sometimes these buildings extend for miles into the sky, and sometimes in Science Fiction, extend into space. However, such a structure would deal with many issues that tend to go unmentioned.
1) Such a tall building would require building a foundation that is architecturally impossible with modern methods, since the building would almost definitely collapse under its own weight.
2) Even if such a building could be built, this trope proves that Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale. The distance between sea level and the Karman line (the scientifically accepted boundary between the atmosphere and outer space) is 62 miles (100 km). To put that in perspective, that is the distance between New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. While not all these buildings in these stories are built on Earth, there is always the implication that these planets have Earth-like atmospheres, and the distance between the ground and space is still dozens of miles. It is very difficult to imagine why such a large structure would need to be built, other than just Rule of Cool...which in fiction, is still a good reason.
