Since the beginning of this century, the trends in urban development have accelerated, as well as the demands for professional designers and planners have also been changed. Therefore, the rapid development in tall buildings has brought many challenges and issues that required systematic research and development. One of the major issues of the tall building to the structural designers is the wind load effect. Thus, the building shape and configuration should be determined based on the considerations of building's form and function for wind effect. Various approaches are required to maintain the functional needs for reducing the vortex shedding phenomenon of the wind, such as aerodynamic modification techniques, which cause discomfort for the occupants. Aerodynamic modifications are classified into two categories; corner modifications, like rounded corners, recessed corners, chamfered corners, etc, and outer shape modifications, such as taper, set-back, twist of building form, etc. This paper reviews the aerodynamic modification techniques for tall buildings; recession and set-back type are the most effective among these modifications. It concludes that design modifications must be evaluated earlier in the design stage to mitigate the wind load and address serviceability concerns as per recommended, as well as to set the optimal building's shape. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.