Dec. 24, Ansan Proposals by architects MAD, BIG, INABA, and Mass Studies for an urban plan for the city of Ansan in South Korea are on show at the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art in Ansan. Each of the four projects is meant to be viewed at two scales - as proposals for monumental buildings in the city and as furniture in the gallery where they are displayed....more

Dec. 24 Dixon Despommier, the Col­umbia University professor of public health, sees putting crops into skyscrapers as a better way to feed a hungry world. Professor Despommier’s website, verticalfarm.com, features architectural concepts of high-rise buildings that could grow fresh produce in urban areas while at the same time being much more environmentally sustainable than conventional agriculture....more

Dec. 23, Paris In September, the Paris council voted to drop the 1977 ban on new buildings taller than 25m (82ft) in the centre, 37m (121ft)farther out. “Paris is on the move,” the deputy mayor, Anne Hidalgo, says. Height will no longer “be a taboo subject”. On the cards are several new skyscrapers...more

Dec. 23, London A series of minor design revisions by Raffael Vinoly Architects have been proposed for one of London's most famous unbuilt buildings, 20 Fenchurch Street, better known as the Walkie-Talkie. Most of the changes are subtle and would not immediately be visible to the untrained eye only becoming plain when comparing the past set of elevations with the newer versions....more

Dec. 22, UK Building projects crunched by the economic downturn, architectural heroes and villains...more

Dec. 22, New York Much chatter followed Two Trees (David and Jed Walentas's) proposal for an 18-story residential building near the Brooklyn Bridge in DUMBO. The building would include a public middle school and "dozens of units of below-market-rate housing," but the Brooklyn Paper reports that neighborhood folk don't want to "block some views of the historic span."...more

Dec. 22, Hong Kong Hongkongers are set to breathe in an extra 404 tonnes of carbon dioxide over the Christmas and New Year season because of the festive lights on both sides of the harbor. Yet more than 320 tonnes of this could have been prevented had the buildings had switched to energy- efficient lighting, according to Tai Po Environmental Association chairman Yau Wing-kwong....more

Dec. 22, Madrid Herzog and de Meuron have been very busy lately designing some amazing new buildings in Europe, like their Project Triangle in Paris. Their newest design for the Spanish banking group BBVA will be built on the outskirts of Madrid as early as 2013. The verdant green headquarters will feature luscious gardens and will create it’s own microclimate by using natural ventilation, evapotranspiration, and the shade of the gardens and buildings to create a cool artificial oasis on a desert-like site...more

Dec. 20, Dublin Opponents to a high density retail and residential plan more suitable "to Shanghai than Dublin" have moved to block the proposal. The ambitious blueprint, which aims to transform the Naas Road's industrial zone into an upmarket avenue, received a partial thumbs-up from Dublin City Council last month. The Fitzwilliam Partnership wants to construct the development at the Royal Liver Retail Park....more

Dec. 20, Mecca Earlier this year Guardian's Riazat Butt revealed that the Saudi government was planning a 130-skyscraper redevelopment project in Mecca. Recently, those plans became concrete – pun intended – when it was announced that the firm of Foster and Hadid has been chosen to massively expand the mosque compound that houses the Ka'bah – Islam's holiest site and the locus of the hajj pilgrimage....more

Dec. 20, Calgary One of the more popular urban myths in Calgary is the Bow, designed to be the tallest office building west of Toronto, won't survive the economic chill and thrust its 58 storeys of steel and glass toward the heavens. That myth is likely to gain currency after work on the construction site ceased last night as the developer announced a two-week work stoppage...more

Dec. 20, Cardiff They were to be Cardiff’s crowning glory but now the developer behind the giant Bay Pointe towers has confirmed they are unlikely ever to be built. Developer Chris Hamilton said the plan to give the Welsh capital “a New York skyline” had been scuppered by the credit crunch. He said a future development on the International Sports Village site was more likely to involve townhouses than giant 33-storey towers with 1,800 flats...more

Dec. 19, London The revised plans for the Arcadia Centre in Ealing, West London, have been approved by the local council despite much howling from residents who oppose the scheme. With an 85.7 metre tall tower designed by Foster and Partners and a series of lower rise buildings by HKR, the proposals replaced an earlier much larger tower that would have stood 143 metres tall. Marking a substantial height increase...more

Dec. 19, Lahore The Gulberg Town administration and the Forest, Fisheries and Livestock secretary have sent a report to Chief Secretary (CS) Javed Mehmood about illegally constructed high-rise buildings in the town, officials concerned told Daily Times on Thursday...more

Dec. 19, London Plans to scale back a 1,000 ft skyscraper planned on the site of the Battersea Power Station have been labelled a “diversion” by campaigners. The skyscraper, nicknamed “the Dyson”, is the centre piece of developer Treasury Holdings’ £4billion scheme to revamp Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s Grade II* listed masterpiece. Rob Tincknell said it was reducing the tower’s height by 50 metres from 300 metres to 250 metres and its diameter by seven metres, from 32 metres to 25 metres when he presented the revised plan to Mayor of London Boris Johnson...more

Dec. 19, Dallas Ray Hammer's shopping list is a bit longer than usual this season. He needs 14,000 bed pillows, 5,000 lamps and 2,000 flat-screen TVs."Just the pillows will fill four 18-wheelers," said Mr. Hammer, the general manager of downtown's Sheraton Dallas hotel. The 1,840-room property – the biggest hotel in town – is getting a $90 million makeover...more

Dec. 18, Dubai This week, it was reported that the Palazzo Versace hotel - the Emirate's latest offering for those still in the market for exorbitant luxury - will boast, when completed in 2010, a refrigerated 820sq metre swimming pool and a beach with artificially cooled sand to protect its guests from the excesses of a climate that can see summer temperatures exceeding 50C. Wind machines will even be on hand to provide a gentle breeze...more

Dec. 18, Chengdu Just seven months ago 4.8 million residents in China were made homeless and more than 69,000 killed by the Sichuan earthquake which measured 7.9 on the Richter scale. Chengdu was the worst hit city, being just 80 km away from the epicentre, but is now set to be the location of a new urban community, named 24 City, which will house 60,000 new residents...more

Dec. 18, Hyperbad Unfortunately, India does not have any tall structure which can be epitomised as a skyscraper. If plans work out according to schedule, Hyderabad may become the first Indian city to have an iconic superstructure. A 450-metre tall structure is at present being constructed in Manchirevula, on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The 100-storeyed building is being constructed by Andhra Pradesh Infrastructure Corporation, and will be called APIIC tower. ...more

Dec. 18, Seattle The Eco•Laboratory is an exemplary green complex designed around a vibrant community garden In Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. Conceived by Weber Thompson, the project recently won the Natural Design Talent Competition at Greenbuild. The innovative design focuses upon energy systems, natural ventilation, community aspects, renewable energy, and indoor air quality, resulting in a spectacular example of what green building is about - interdisciplinary teams designing living buildings...more

Dec. 17, New Town Starwood, one of the world's largest hotel and leisure companies, has decided to check in at New Town when the township's first five-star property is commissioned for 2011. The twin towers, designed by Spanish architect firm Cervera & Pioz, will be Kolkata's first. The taller of the two will be 42-storeys and 142 metres high. ...more

Dec. 17, Oklahoma City Oklahoma City is closer to the largest downtown improvement project ever. A new 54-story, 925 foot tall Devon Energy World Headquarters is set to be built in the metro. Construction on Devon's Headquarters would begin around November 2009...more

Dec. 17, New York Earlier this year Related Companies sealed the deal on New York’s Hudson Yards development, and we’re excited to announce that the competition to design Hudson Park and Boulevard is now coming to a close. Although the Hudson Yards Development Corporation has yet to formally announce a winner, Related has let slip that Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates will likely be the designers of the approximately 4-acre site!...more

Dec. 17, New York Expected to land LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, the 35-story Visionaire is designed by architect Rafael Pelli of Pelli Clark Pelli Architects and developed by the Albanese Organization, in partnership with Starwood Capital. Interiors of the 251 studio-to-three bedroom residences are designed by interior designer Tim Button of Stedila Design. Visionaire is located in Battery Park City...more

Dec. 17, China Despite the downturn, China is still the place to be for Western architects seeking large-scale work and a meaningful role in the global architectural dialogue. Amara Holstein checks in with California firms doing business in this complex, frenetic market, and finds that technology helps them thrive, yet also opens the door to new challenges amid Asia's fast-forward culture of building....more

Dec. 17, London Cranes all over Britain have frozen. Construction workers are flooding home to Poland. Grand designs are on ice for a year or two, or three. But one architect's cranes are swinging away above London Bridge station. “No, nobody thought it would happen,” Renzo Piano says in his soft, sing-song Italian accent. “But we have surprised them all!”...more

Dec. 16, Zagreb Planned by architects, Hrvoj Bakran, Drazen Plevk and Zdravki Krasic, this is the winning entry of 8 finalists of a skyscraper competition to design the tallest building in the city of Zagreb. With an overwhelmingly minimalist approach, it features a smoothly glazed near pure black box rising 160 metres tall with 41 floors that will tower over the skyline like a sentinel...more

Dec. 16, Birmingham International architects Denton Corker Marshall have been granted planning approval for another new major court building in the UK - the proposed new Magistrates’ Court in Birmingham. The practice was recently nominated for the RIBA Stirling Prize with their Manchester Civil Justice Centre...more

Dec. 15, Almere The city of Almere design competition for urban villas and a residential tower for the Cascade park has been won by FARO. The designs needed to fit within the ambition to develop the Cascade park as a ‘window of sustainability’: an inspiring example for ecological, social and economical sustainability...more

Dec. 15, Liverpool Following decisions by the local council, it's come to light that construction of tall buildings in Liverpool city is to be restricted to only two cores in order to preserve the city's precious World Heritage Site (WHS) status. UNESCO, the body responsible for protecting iconic areas, ordered that a masterplan be drawn up to ensure the protection of the city's historic waterfront as well as sites surrounding it...more

Dec. 15, Madrid The Spanish architecture studio A-cero has been appointed for designing the interior space of the Mutua Madrilena tower, in the former Real Madrid's sports complex known as "Ciudad Deportiva". The skyscraper was designed by the prestigious Argentine-American architect Cesar Pelli, author of projects like the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or the World Financial Center in New York....more

Dec. 15, Moscow Work is slowly progressing on a new city hall for Moscow. Currently the government departments are spread throughout the city in separate buildings, so while the city is undergoing a building boom it was decided quite wisely to put everyone under almost one roof. The new City Hall will consists of four towers standing at 308 metres all interconnected with sky bridges, the uppermost ones set out in such a way as to create an M for Moscow...more

Dec. 15, Boston Boston is striving to become a leader in green building. But glass siding and atriums, common features of green architecture, carry an unintended side-effect: a mortal danger to birds. An estimated 5 percent of the country's bird population - or about a billion birds - die each year by crashing into buildings they cannot see, according to Daniel Klem, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania...more

Dec. 15, St Petersburg A major new master plan has been developed on the edge of St Petersburg aimed at regenerating the eastern fringes of the historic city. The master plan, created by HOK, covers 60 hectares and sets out the blueprint for city’s first Techno Park....more

Dec. 14, Dubai One of the solutions to Dubai’s problematic carbon footprint may be glaringly obvious. The sun shines here all year round, so why not make use of it to help the environment?...more

Dec. 14, Chicago Chicago's downtown condominium developers got all the loans they wanted during the real estate boom. Now they're asking lenders for something else: time. A growing number of high-rise developers, including Donald Trump, have sought or already received extensions on construction loans coming due. ...more

Dec. 13, Manama A bid to push through a multi-storey project in one of Manama's busiest neighbourhoods has been blocked by councillors for the second time. They have refused permission to increase the height of the government-backed project from five storeys to 40 - and now want to pressure the Cabinet into using the land for government housing instead...more

Dec. 13, Chicago High winds forced contractors working for New York developer Donald Trump to abandon the helicopter installation of the spire atop Trump's 92-story Chicago skyscraper Saturday morning. The company in charge of erecting the spire was to decide later today whether the chopper would try again Sunday morning when the forecast calls for conditions that could be just as bad--or worse...more

Dec. 12 Anybody involved in real estate is probably aware of how the current financial crisis is slashing construction starts worldwide. Yet another alarming indicator shows up in the database of Emporis GmbH, the world's largest provider of global building data. Looking only at skyscrapers, which Emporis defines as buildings at least 100 meters tall, work has stopped on 8.7% (124 of 1431) of tall buildings already underway worldwide....more

Dec. 12, Chicago The Chicago Tribune's graphics department has put together a highly informative piece, published in today's print edition, explaining how the Trump Tower spire was designed, how its fiberglass exterior was made, and how the spire will be supported from within. Click on the graphic to enlarge it...more

Dec. 12, Shenzen Construction is well underway on what will be the Chinese city of Shenzen's tallest tower. Reaching an impressive height of 439 metres, the tower will be called the Kingkey Finance Tower and will form part of a two phase mixed-use development in the heart of the city's financial district...more

Dec. 12, Dubai He has been involved in Emaar Properties' Burj Dubai project since Day 1 but Malaysian Nor Shaharom Mansor never fails to be awestruck by the sight of the architectural marvel making its way upward towards the heavens....more

Dec. 12, New York Citigroup Inc., the global bank that got a $45 billion government bailout, faces another indignity: Its name will be stripped from the Citigroup Center in Manhattan after 30 years. Building owner Boston Properties Inc. will rename the tower 601 Lexington Ave. next year after completing lobby and plaza renovations, said Arista Joyner, a spokeswoman for the real estate company...more

Dec. 11, Chicago The spire atop Donald Trump's Chicago tower, the tallest building in America since Sears Tower, could be lifted into place by a helicopter this weekend, but only if city and federal officials give final approval, an executive who works with the New York City developer said Wednesday...more

Dec. 11, Busan Construction is underway on a set of new towers for the Korean city of Busan designed by architect Daniel Libeskind. The project named Haewundae I'Park Marina, will consist of four skyscrapers ranging in height from 72 storeys to 34 storeys and two teeny buildings at 10 storeys and a meagre 3 storeys....more

Dec. 11, London It's a scheme that has been floating about for years, and now 2 Pier Road, also known as Royal Pavillion, in North Woolwich has had another design revision.T he scheme now features a tower of a similar appearance to approved proposals from 2005, but it has now been increased from 17 floors to 23 by the architects giving it a less stumpy and more graceful appearance...more

Dec. 11, Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi, armed with oil wealth and a $500 billion spending plan, is providing the escape route for British engineers as their bets on Dubai’s construction boom turn sour. ...more

Dec. 10, London A row over the decision to build a 39-storey skyscraper taller than the London Eye next to Old Street roundabout could see a height limit put on buildings in Islington....more

Dec. 10, New York Here's a timeline for developer Vornado's planned 21-story glass skyscraper at 125th Street and Park Avenue. January: Announce that Major League Baseball will be the anchor tenant. July: Reduce the size of the building to 14 stories, because of financial concerns. August: Reports that MLB will bail the building, because Vornado wanted MLB to take more space and pay more in rent...more

Dec. 10, London New plans have finally been publicly announced for what is one of the most contentious development sites in central London, Potters Fields, called One Tower Bridge. Located near the southern end of Tower Bridge, the famous Victorian Gothic structure, previous plans by Berkeley Homes had seen a cluster of towers designed by Ian Ritchie nicknamed "Daleks" after their resemblance to the Doctor Who baddies....more

Dec. 10, Abu Dhabi Work is underway on a new World Trade Centre for Abu Dhabi, the essential accessory for any up and coming city. Located in Al Dana, one of the eleven zones that will form the Raha Beach complex, the structure will at its highest point be approximately 31 storeys high and at its lowest, a mere seven storeys...more

Dec. 9, USA The last decades have seen some recognition that we have to change our way of doing things: specifically, replace carbon-based fuels, build more with fewer resources and produce healthy environments for people and all other species we share the planet with. We call these intentions "green" and "sustainable," but what we mean is not clear and not often measurable...more

Dec. 9, Dubai Ten years after the opening of the Burj Al Arab, Dubai has plans for tourism that would make its architect quake. Not only is the once-iconic hotel now dwarfed by the Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper, but it is significantly shorter than almost every new building in sight. And, with 15 to 25 per cent of the world’s cranes currently in operation in Dubai, that is a lot of buildings...more

Dec. 9, London Foggo Associates' 90m-tall commercial building in the City of London has won planning approval, despite objections from Cabe and the City Heritage Society. The building, nicknamed the “can of ham”, will replace two existing buildings on St Mary Axe in the east of the city....more

Dec. 9, Tokyo Work is underway on what will be the world's tallest communications tower in Tokyo, Japan. Formerly called the Sumida Tower and now named the Tokyo Sky Tree, the structure will stand at a record-breaking height of 611 metres, 57 metres taller than the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada....more

Dec. 8, Dubai Entering what is set to become a much more responsible and forward thinking era for the construction industry, Dubai is to take sustainability into its remit with its latest island development ‘The Universe’. Situated inshore from the ‘World’ islands and depicting the Universe with a sun, stars and planets, the Universe is to be one of the flagship developments for Dubai’s new ‘Blue Communities’ initiative launched by Dubai’s largest developer, Nakheel...more

Dec. 8, Seoul Dutch architect MVRDV has won a design competition for a new town near Seoul in South Korea. Located 35km south of the capital, this series of overgrown hill-shaped buildings would make up one of two centres for the new settlement, Gwanggyo. MVRDV, which produced the design with British engineer Arup, said each floor of the buildings would have a terrace planted with box hedges, creating a recognisable park feature....more

Dec. 8, Salt Lake City One of the first modern high rises in Salt Lake City has received The Outstanding Building of the Year or TOBY Award from Building Managers and Owners Association's Utah Chapter. The building, known as 170 South Main, had been known as First Interstate Plaza and then as the Wells Fargo Building. ...more

Dec. 8, London HSBC are one of the few who have turned a profit on a property deal in the past 10 months, thanks to their ability to buy back their own headquarters in London at 8 Canada Square at a massive £250 million profit from the much troubled Spanish property company Metrovacesa...more

Dec. 8, London Architects, Make have had their dreams of building a new tower at 36-48 Albert Embankment on the south bank of the river Thames dashed with planning permission being refused by local Lambeth Council...more

Dec. 5, Philadelphia Ever since developers unveiled their design for a 1,500-foot office tower called the American Commerce Center, supporters have been behaving like teenage girls at the opening of Twilight. When the Philadelphia Planning Commission held a hearing on the project recently, fans swarmed the meeting room, hoisting printed signs as if they were rally towels...more

Dec. 5, Dubai Formed around a circular marina and establishing the commercial heart of the 10.5-kilometer Al Raha Beach development is Al Dana, a stunning mixed-use waterfront project. Al Dana is set to offer the highest quality of living - mixing commercial and residential properties with superior entertainment, dining and leisure activities...more

Dec. 5, Dubai Every cloud has a silver lining and for the world it literally will be The Burj Dubai. The global financial crisis has ensured that the super-tall skyscraper, already the region's pride, will cement its place as the world's tallest building for at least a decade...more

Dec. 4, Philadelphia A developer hoping to build the 1,510-foot American Commerce Center at 18th and Arch streets has fielded many questions as the project has moved through the city's bureaucracy since June. The unanswered question: What companies would call the $1.1 billion skyscraper home?...more

Dec. 3 As architects, we recognize that any undertaking as substantial as the construction and subsequent operation of buildings naturally consumes considerable natural resources. The questions are, how can we, as leaders of the design team, create buildings which are better integrated in our world, and how we can place less strain on our environment through the process of building?...more

Dec. 3, Nashville A Nashville developer aiming to construct the tallest building in the city says he is downsizing his reach for the sky. Developer Tony Giarratana tells The Tennessean the recession has hurt his plans for a 70-story Signature Tower condo and hotel project in downtown with 600 condominiums. Now he is hoping for no more than 100 condos units. Prices for the luxury condos and a timetable for construction have not been set....more

Dec. 3, Florida The market might not be ripe for a mega-development, but a landowner on a major corner downtown is ready for the next wave of construction. City commissioners Tuesday evening unanimously approved conceptual plans for a hotel, condo and office complex to be built on the southeast corner of Broward Boulevard and Southeast Third Avenue....more

Dec. 3, New York In a city full of steel and glass, a green tower like the 54-story skyscraper proposed by architect Daniel Libeskind — who won a bid to be the overseeing architect for the World Trade Center reconstruction — would certainly shake things up. His proposed condominium, standing over 900 feet tall, would make use of sky gardens on many of the floors, and a glass-tube-enclosed vertical garden running up the center of the skyscraper...more

Dec. 3, Moscow Sibir Energy is set to acquire the key real estate assets of Shalva Chigirinsky, an entrepreneur owning the Russia Tower, for $340 million...more

Dec. 3, Abu Dhabi HKS have revealed the design for a groundbreaking hospital in Abu Dhabi which will also provide a hotel and spa. United Eastern Medical Services (UEM) selected HKS, Inc. to provide architectural services for its new state-of-the-art 160-bed women’s and children’s hospital, Um Danat Al-Emarat, “Pearl of Emirates"...more

Dec. 3, Boston Initial plans have been put forward for a sizeable redevelopment of 1 Congress Street Boston, USA. The proposals could see a scheme that features a 214 metre tall tower and a 168 metre tall tower with many smaller buildings centering around a site that's owned by the Raymond Property Co....more

Dec. 2, Stockholm A joint project between the Swedes at Nod Landscape Architects and Danes at BIG Architects is set to transform Slussen, Stockholm’s city center, with a massive pedestrian-friendly makeover...more

Dec. 2, Paris Currently in a flurry of activity, one the older towers in Paris' La Defense district, Tour Gan, should soon be getting a facelift to bring it bang up to date. Originally erected in 1974, the skyscraper is the work of architects Harrisson & Abramovitz and J. P. Bisseuil and stands at a respectable 187 metres making it one of the tallest buildings of the cluster....more

Dec. 2, Mecca Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid have been lined up to take on one of the most high-profile projects on earth – the redevelopment of Mecca. According to sources, the scheme for Islam's holiest city could create a huge new structure around the central Haram mosque that will eventually be capable of holding three million people, making it the 'highest occupancy' building in the world. ...more

Dec. 2, Dallas The Dallas skyline will soon likely have a new addition. Along with renovating a vacant historic building into a five star boutique hotel and the creation of a three-acre park, a slender skyscraper full of condominiums is planned for downtown...more

Dec. 1, London Plans have been released by CZWG for a complete overhaul of the Rathbone Market site in east London's Canning Town. There will also be 639 new apartments in a whole series of buildings including a landmark 22-storey tower....more

Dec. 1, Shenzen Approval has been given for a new supertall tower for the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Named the Shenzhen World Finance Centre the tower will stand at an impressive 368 metres and 68 storeys with a smaller annexed tower that will act as a gateway building with a height of 68 metres....more

Dec. 1, New York Anish Kapoor's huge stainless steel balloon sculpture floats gently out of the Manhattan sky to land on-site at 56 Leonard Street, where it is compressed into final form under the descending weight of architects' Herzog & de Meuron's twisted-glass and steel 57-story hi-rise residential tower...more

Nov. 30, Toronto Façadism - The term describes the practice of demolishing every part of a heritage building but its exterior walls. Every major city – Paris, Dublin, New York – does it. It's just that Toronto does it so often....more

Nov. 29, UAE The UAE's annual celebration of National Day takes place on Tuesday, marking the 37th anniversary of the historic formation of the country. These 37 years have witnessed unprecedented growth and development. And the future is positive. Emirates Business considers what the next 37 years hold for the UAE....more

Nov. 28, London Due for completion in autumn of 2010 the much anticipated Landmark development in London's Canary Wharf has announced it's going to be greener or perhaps more literally, browner. The revised plans will now see the roofs of the buildings made brown.This will be used to attract wildlife like Black Redstarts and other flying things that are known to inhabit the area....more

Nov. 28, New York A developer’s plan to build a 40-story tower on the Greenpoint waterfront — 10 stories higher than current zoning allows — won a preliminary thumbs-up from a key local group. Community Board 1’s land-use committee signed off on builder Dean Palin’s proposal to construct the 422-unit skyscraper and three six-story buildings, voting 7-0 in favor of the project on Nov. 25, with one abstention....more

Nov. 28, Philadelphia What has been a parking lot of over 20 years between 18th and Arch in the centre of Philly might soon become the location of the tallest skyscraper in the East Coast city. The new design promises to join the ranks of superstructures of the world and become the 3rd tallest skyscraper in the USA, behind the Chicago Spire and the Freedom Tower...more

Nov. 28, UAE The founder of the green buildings model being used around the world to ensure efficient energy use in modern and buildings of the future is setting up partnership in the UAE. David Gottfried, founder of the Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design (LEED) rating system for green buildings, has formed a joint venture with the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development....more

Nov. 28 In December of 1999, as a whimsical exercise to entertain stockbrokers during the Christmas lull, a Hong Kong-based property analyst named Andrew Lawrence created the Skyscraper Index, which sought to correlate the periodic naming of the world’s tallest buildings with spectacular market crashes...more

Nov. 28, Shanghai Groundbreaking ceremonies were held today to mark the start of construction on the Shanghai Tower. The 632 meter high building will be the tallest in China upon completion in 2014, ahead of the currently under construction 600 meter-tall 'China 117 Tower' in Tianjin and the recently completed 492 meter-tall 'Shanghai World Financial Center' which sits adjacent to the Shanghai Tower site...more

		Nov. 26, Malta Malta should aim to have “fewer but better clusters of tall buildings”, according to a Fulbright scholar who drew up a report for MEPA. “Good architecture and urban design do not necessarily depend on tall buildings and there should not be any illusion that a city can achieve great urban status only by building many tall buildings,” Prof Mir Ali of the University of Illinois said....more

		Nov. 26, Phnom Penh Blaming the global financial crisis, a major South Korean developer will dramatically reduce the scale of its proposed one billion U.S. dollars 7-skyscraper complex along the Tonle Bassac River to just three buildings at half the original price, national media said on Wednesday.  ...more

		Nov. 26, Sao Paulo This project required the design of two very economic office towers, but with great visual impact as a response to its context, a point of great visibility within the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It also required an extreme maximization of private floor areas in relation to the total built area, as well as the best possible relation between common and private floor areas, configuring a typical and strict real state equation....more

		Nov. 25, Toronto In RBC Centre, all the hot/cold air, water and wiring flows through a half-metre thick space under the floor. At regular intervals are little round vents. Each office worker can open or shut the vent to regulate their own workspace. The bathrooms have water-saving, dual-flush toilets: flush up for liquids and down for solids. Rain water from the roof flushes the toilets on the first six floors...more

		Nov. 25, Chicago The proposal consists of a multi-story tall building, 10,000ft in height, consisting of three or more towers which are the primary structure, enclosing multiple floor spaces for many uses – including condos, military areas, observation, hotels, restaurants, retail, and offices. An aircraft landing deck or platform is attached to the very top of the structure...more

		Nov. 25, Copenhagen 3XN present their competition entry for Denmark capital’s LM Project - a competition which was recently won by Steven Holl Architects. The towers and the bridge constitute one single, floating dynamic movement, characterized by the bold span across the harbor entrance in terms of both the plan design and the facade...more

		Nov. 24, London Standing at a maximum of sixteen floors tall, the proposals are split vertically into three sections above ground floor retail that will restore the traditional street-line obliterated by the 1960s redevelopment with the neighbouring buildings finally visually connected again. Within there will be 2,322 square metres of office and retail on the lower floors with 106 apartments on the upper floors. ...more

		Nov. 22, Shanghai The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has named the Shanghai World Financial Center the winner of its annual "Best Tall Building" award for 2008...more

		Nov. 22, London This is the first image of a 27-storey skyscraper that could go up in the heart of Barking. The massive structure with striking zigzagging contours could be built by Swan Housing in Cambridge Road near Barking Station. HLM Architects have designed the new tower set to comprise commercial units on the lower levels with private and affordable flats above....more

		Nov. 22, Malta Malta is planning to reach for the skies with 25 pending applications for the construction of towers, yet there is no policy or vision in place to see which direction such development should take. A debate on whether tall buildings should be embraced or if these blurred the island's historic skyline was raised during a seminar yesterday, which brought together engineers, architects and non-governmental organisations....more

		Nov. 21, Shanghai Shanghai World Financial Center has been named ‘Best Tall Building Overall’ at the CTBUH international Tall Building Awards last night. The Centre, designed by KPF, was commended at the awards ceremony in Chicago for its “clear and elegant form, dramatic at all scales through a connection metaphorically of the earth and sky”...more

		Nov. 21, Dubai It has finally happened: the Dubai bubble has burst. Architecture-spotters like myself have looked on in amazement, or rather incredulity, at the way the tiny emirate has continued to unveil ever grander construction projects – taller skyscrapers, huger hotels, vaster artificial islands – in apparent defiance of the global credit crunch. Now, that crunch has hit home...more

		Nov. 21, Shanghai Shanghai World Financial Center has been named ‘Best Tall Building Overall’ at the CTBUH international Tall Building Awards. The Centre, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox, was commended at the awards ceremony in Chicago for its “clear and elegant form, dramatic at all scales through a connection metaphorically of the earth and sky” The CTBUH also announced the structural design as ‘revolutionary’...more

		Nov. 21, Moscow The Russian company building Europe's tallest building has halted work on the project, citing the global financial crisis. The Norman Foster-designed Russia Tower being built in Moscow's new central business district by developer Russian Land would be 600m (1,970ft) high. Company head Shalva Chigirinsky said that work was being halted because of the credit crunch. ...more