The CTBUH Global News Archive is the primary place to get all the latest news on tall buildings, urban development and sustainable construction from around the world. The CTBUH also disseminates this information via our Monthly e-Newsletter, CTBUH Journal, and through books and reports.
To view global news from previous months/years, please see our archive at the bottom of the page. |
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January 31, Qatar
Unique Ecoscraper Planned in Qatar
Qatar National Hotels Company (QNH) have gained approval for a unique new project which will be located in the Marina district of Lusail City. Designed by American based architect Haddi Samaan the project consists of two 45 storey towers which will come with a price tag of approximately $500 million...More |
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January 31, London
Prince Charles: Planners vandalise our skylines
The Prince of Wales has launched his fiercest attack on the nation's planners for 20 years, criticising them for preparing to allow a rash of tall buildings to "vandalise" the historic cities of London, Edinburgh and Bath...More
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January 30, Property Weekly, p.53
Developers Resisting Green Norms are sure to Struggle for Survival in the Future
Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director, explains how new projects need to adopt sustainable concepts at the design stage itself...read more
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January 25, Gulf News, p.48
Better Building Designs and Green Initiatives Critical to Cut CO2 Levels
The right mix of appropiate design and greater use of energy saving technologies can substantially reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the building sector, which accounts for 30-40 per cent of global energy use according to Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director...read more
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January 24, Phnom Penh
Cambodia to get first skyscraper
Cambodian officials have attended the official sales launch of the first-ever skyscraper in the capital, Phnom Penh. The twin towers are to be 42 storeys high - almost three times higher than the current tallest building...More
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January 24, Atlanta
Aquarius Tower: Greenest Skyscraper on the Atlanta Skyline
Just when you thought green towers couldn’t get any greener (or more towering), there’s a new kid on the block. The Aquarius Tower, a 500-foot tall condominium to be built in Atlanta, is the latest to join the burgeoning ranks of iconic green hi-rises...More
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January 23, The Big Project, Januray 2008, pp.65 - 86
Green or Grey: The Aesthetics of Tall Building Sustainability
This article, by Antony Wood, outlines the viability of the tall building as a sustainable element in our future cities and examines several 'sustainable' case studies such as the National Commerical Bank (Jeddah), Bahrain World Trade Center (Manama) and the Conde Nast Building (New York)...read more
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January 21, Singapore
A Magnetic Presence in the Heart of Orchard Road
Located in Singapore's most premium shopping strip, ION Orchard will boast a striking 117-metre frontage along Orchard Road. Media architecture will wrap around its entire facade to showcase the mall's retail brands, as well as serve as a fluid canvas for multimedia art and 'live' telecasts of events...More
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January 21, East London
Stratford skyscraper gets green light
Architect Stock Woolstencroft has won planning permission for its most ambitious scheme yet in Stratford, East London. A 43-storey tower and a cluster of smaller buildings will be built on the edge of the Olympic site at 150 Stratford High Street. The curved tower will be flanked by five mixed use buildings and the restored Warton House...More
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January 21, Engineering News-Record, 2008, p. 22 - 25.
San Francisco's 590ft Skyscraper Lifts Seismic Design's Stature
This article examines the performance-based seismic design of the Infinity Towers and One Rincon Hill in earthquake prone San Francisco and looks at the pioneering involvement of structural engineer and Immediate Past Chairman of the CTBUH, Ron Klemencic....read more
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January 18, Pakistan
Pakistan turmoil hits Mott MacDonald
Planning work on Mott MacDonald’s £245m Karachi Port Tower in Pakistan has been hit by political unrest in the country. Mike Barker, a director at the consultant engineer, said work was suspended for three weeks in the wake of the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, when normal business life in the country came to a halt...More |
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January 18, New York
Overhaul Is Sought in Monitoring Of High-Rise Construction Sites
City officials are calling for an overhaul in how high-rise construction sites are monitored after a fatal accident at the Trump SoHo building this week. Manhattan's president, Scott Stringer, yesterday proposed that the city create an inter-agency task force to make surprise visits to construction sites...More
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January 18, Shanghai
Unique Fun Ride Approved For Shanghai Expo
Approval has been given to what could become one of the best fairground attractions going. 2010 World Expo hosts Shanghai plan to turn a 165-meter chimney that was once part of an old power plant into an observation tower...More
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January 18, La Defense
Stern Seizes the Day: Tour Carpe Diem by Robert A.M. Stern Architects
The skyline of La Défense, once considered by many to be a rather bleak business district on the outskirts of Paris, is undergoing a major transformation. Things really started heating up when the La Defense Management & Development Office (EPAD) launched an ambitious development plan called "La Defense 2006-2015."...More |
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January 17, Beijing
China puts twist on traditional skyscraper
As Beijing races to radically redesign its skyline for the summer Olympics, one of the most striking new structures is the headquarters for China's national TV broadcaster. It's billed as the second-largest office building on Earth — second only to the Pentagon...More
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January 17, Dubai
Towering Vision In Dubai
Construction work is well under way on Dubai Properties landmark project, the Vision Tower. When complete it will stand at a height of 260 metres and will be located at the main entrance of Business Bay, just off Sheikh Zayed Road...More
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January 17, Arabia
1001 towers face identity challenge
Like leafing through the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights, a highly exuberant landscape emerges all over Arabia, filled with glittering, shining cities embedded with towering structures reaching the skies, like jewelled spikes and sharp needles supporting amazing revolutionary developments...More
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January 16, London
New Design To Join Gherkin On London Skyline
A cluster of three glass prisms will soon join the cityscape near East London's iconic Swiss Re tower – nicknamed 'the Gherkin' —following approval by City of London. The £350m Trinity.EC3 multi-let estate, developed by Beetham Organisation and designed by Foreign Office Architects, is due to be complete in 2012, according to Beetham...More |
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January 16, Warsaw
Zaha Hadid designs the Lilium Tower in Poland
The proposed addition to the Warsaw skyline is a light, transparent structure with a strong sense of identity and character. Rising to a height of 240 meters, the tower’s slender form complements the Palace of Culture and other towers in the vicinity...More
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January 16, New York
Troubles Mount As New Trump Tower Grows
Donald Trump introduced the gleaming Trump SoHo on his TV show "The Apprentice" and hosted a red-carpet press event in the half-built skyscraper four months ago, announcing that it was already a big success. Behind the glitz and fanfare, though, there were problems...More
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January 16
Cities of the Future, Part 1: The Hyperstructure Concept
For decades, sci-fi writers have painted a picture of utopia as a crystal-domed city appointed with shiny-steel accents, ultra-modern furniture and gadgets ranging from food replicators to floor-hugging maintenance drones...More
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January 16
Bill Gleeson: The age of the skyscraper has finally ended
Shopping channel QVC needs a new head office and broadcasting base. While its call centre and warehouse are located in Knowsley, the head office and broadcasting base are currently in London. But the lease on their London premises expires in 2012, so QVC is evaluating its options...More |
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January 15, Doha
Dohas Horny 600m Tall TV Tower
National pride in something is a wonderful thing. So proud is Qatar of their national animal, the Oryx, that proposals have been put forward to build a super-tall skyscraper to honour it. Named non-surprisingly the Oryx Tower, it will stand an impressive 600 metres if it gets built and comes from the drawing board of Austrian architect Gerfried Ramsauer...More |
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January 15, Mumbai
Symbol of prosperity and pride for India
Construction has started on India Tower, a new 60-storey (301 meters) world-class hotel, retail, and residential tower designed by FXFOWLE ARCHITECTS, an internationallyrecognized architecture firm with offices in New York City and Dubai. Located in South Mumbai, India, and developed by D B Hospitality Private Limited...More |
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January 15, Mumbai
New retail and office block nears completion
The 60-story Elphinstone Mills complex in downtown Mumbai includes Class A office space and a pedestrian friendly retail podium. The building is designed to a LEED Platinum standard and will create a new icon in the skyline of Mumbai. Every floor of the office tower features outdoor terraces and multi-story garden atria...More
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January 13
Tale of early skyscraper builder provides lessons for today
In an economy awash in credit card delinquency, the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and a short memory of the savings and loan debacle in the 1980s, Kamensky provides a financial history lesson in this tale of Andrew Dexter Jr. -- a dreamer and schemer who built the first skyscraper at the turn of the 19th century...More
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January 13, New York
Jack Brod, Early Tenant of Skyscraper, Dies at 98
Jack Brod, a businessman who over nearly eight decades gradually worked his way from the 7th floor of the Empire State Building to the 76th, where he reigned as the skyscraper’s last original tenant, died last Sunday at his home in Manhattan. He was 98...More
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January 11, Shenzen
Shenzens Avic Plaza
Busy architect firm SOM, has designed yet another skyscraper for the the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Sited in the Avic Plaza that runs along one of Shenzhen's major arterial highways, the tower will be the signature for the Plaza and is hoped to become a major landmark for the city...More
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January 10
Skyscrapernews 2007 International Greatest Hits
Its that time of year again, everyone is transfixed to the seasonal misery of the soap operas, despairing over the extortionate price of a TV licence to have the torture of sitting through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...It's also time for the Skyscrapernews end of year look back at some of this year's most interesting international projects, so it's not all bad...More
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January 10, Detroit
Detroit reaches for the skyscraper
The decades-long quest to bring major retailers back downtown received an encouraging boost Wednesday with the formal launch of a $150 million skyscraper project planned for the heart of the city. Cadillac Centre, intended to fill an empty city-owned block east of Campus Martius Park, aims to be a new downtown architectural icon...More
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January 10, New York
Cracked Windows at NY Times Tower Under Investigation
The New York City Dept. of Buildings is expected to send inspectors to the recently completed New York Times building on West 40th Street and 8th Avenue Jan. 11 to determine what caused seven of the 52-story structure's windows to crack on Wednesday afternoon...More
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January 10, Manhattan
Merrill Lynch Delays Manhattan Building Project
The credit market crisis is forcing Wall Street firms to rip up even some of their best-laid plans, the latest example being Merrill Lynch's decision to postpone the building of a hi-tech skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. The investment bank is understood to have asked instead for an extension of its downtown lease...More
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January 9, Liverpool
Liverpools King Edward Tower Gets Funding
Scotching claims that a global credit crunch could affect Liverpool's future tallest building, the King Edward Tower, has taken a crucial step forwards in being realised. The joint developers of the skyscraper, Y1 Developments Ltd and Richmont Properties, have secured the funding they will need to construct the £130 million project...More
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January 9
Report: High-Rise Towers Don't Always Mean High Profits
Just how much profit are these developers making off these new downtown high-rise towers? Not as much as you might think, according to the figures calculated under the Downtown Austin Plan. The city's consultant on the plan, ROMA Design Group, was asked to calculate a cost-benefits ratio for the concessions Council...More
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January 8, Dubai
Dubai Gets Rocked
Yet another super-cool, super-tall skyscraper has been approved for Dubai's ever expanding skyline. Named the Hard Rock Hotel it is surprisingly the work of Hard Rock International in a joint venture with the Tasameem Group...More
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January 5, Construction Week, Issue 203, pp.20 - 24
A Tale of Tall Cities
Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director, discusses the sustainability credentials of Dubai, Chicago, Franfurt and London, the technical achievements of the Burj Dubai and the possibility of incorporating skybridges between tall buildings...read more
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January 3, Inazawa
Japan's world's tallest elevator testing tower
The 173m-high (567ft) structure is called Solae and dominates the skyline of Inazawa City. The company says it will use the tower to conduct research into high-speed elevators to serve the next generation of super-tall buildings...More
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January 2
William McDonough’s Treescraper Tower of Tomorrow
What would you call a skyscraper that works like a tree, makes oxygen, distills water, produces energy, and changes with the seasons? Perhaps it’s time to propose a new word: treescraper! Biomimicry - the art of drawing inspiration from nature’s designs - is a strategy often found in green architecture...More
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January, New York
High-Rise Residential Construction Keeps Going
New York and the tri-state area are now feeling the impact of the national subprime mortgage crunch and slowdown in new home construction and residential high-rise projects, but the boom here is far from over...More
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January
ENR Award of Excellence Winner: Clyde N. Baker Jr.
For the 43rd time, ENR recognizes achievement in construction with the acknowledgement of our 24 Newsmakers of 2007 and the selection of geotechnical engineer Clyde N. Baker Jr., as the Award of Excellence Winner. ENR and the construction industry congratulate all of these achievers...More
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