Feb 26, Kuwait The Empire State Building claimed the world’s-tallest title for four decades. Today’s record-holder, the more-than-2,300-foot Burj Dubai, will be lucky to keep it for four years. The Kuwaiti government is about to break ground on the City of Silk, a designed-from-scratch metropolis on the Tigris and Euphrates river delta with a 3,284-foot tower as its centerpiece...more

Feb 25 Amazingly, despite the collapse of credit, the skyscraper continues its march across the world as a symbol of modernity and commerce. From its origins in Chicago and Manhattan, its emergence as the truly American contribution to world architecture, the tower has swept the world from the Gulf, across Asia and back up to Eastern Europe...more

Feb 25, Shenzhen Steven Holl Architects have won a competition to master plan the Futian business district in Shenzhen, China. Steven Holl Architects’ design for the competition included four towers connected by a horizontal linking structure. The firm was awarded the design of the overall master plan, while the tower designs were won by Morphosis, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Atelier FCJZ, Hans Hollein, and MVRDV...more

Feb 25, Chicago Might Sears Tower, the brooding black mountain of the Chicago skyline, turn a shiny silver? Don't count on it, even if such an outlandish move might cut energy costs at the nation's tallest building. The skyscrapers' owners are looking at re-covering the tower in silver, a Sears Tower spokesman confirms that the owners want to improve the energy performance of the 110-story office building, but adds that "any details at this point would be speculative."...more

Feb 24, Abu Dhabi The first hints of the project are visible. A white wall stretches through the desert, like a chalk line on a dusty playing field. A bus with darkened windows stirs a low cloud, ferrying workers past a cluster of steel cranes, two portable drilling rigs, and a stand of concrete columns sprouting rust-colored rebar. A tall wire fence guards rows of solar panels mounted on concrete pads...more

Feb 24, London London towers policy is in chaos. Boris Johnson, elected on a pledge to stop the plague of towers promised by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, now wants towers everywhere. Hazel Blears, who has permitted towers that Johnson wanted stopped, is now stopping ones he wants built, notably two giants in Wandsworth and Ealing. There is no policy, no one in charge and certainly no ounce of aesthetic judgment...more

Feb 24, China When Zhangjiang Semiconductor Park's newest towers open in 2010, the flooring alone could cover 17 football fields. There will be 20 elevators and 750 bicycle parking spaces. Not to mention a conference room that doubles as a full-size basketball court. But in an office park that sprawls 16 square miles — or eight downtown Portlands — it won't be the scale of the four buildings that sets them apart...more

Feb 24, New York Later in 2009, a double-rigged crane will hoist a giant power turbine part way up One Penn Plaza, a black monolithic skyscraper next to Madison Square Garden. When the natural gas-powered generator on the 12th floor starts, it will not only produce some 6.2 megawatts of electricity — enough to power up to half the 57-floor building on a busy day — but it will also siphon off excess steam and use it to help heat and cool the 37-year-old skyscraper...more

Feb 24, Calgary International planning and design consultancy Broadway Malyan has been appointed master planner for the regeneration of East Village in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, their first Canadian project. Covering 55 hectares of city centre land in the western province of Alberta, the Vision proposes a sustainable urban living community for up to 12,000 new residents, with a focus on the provision of new arts and cultural facilities...more

Feb 24, Cape Town The relentless regeneration of Cape Town's CBD received yet another boost recently with the launch of the new look ABSA Centre at 2 Riebeek Street to the property broker community. The skyscraper has been a landmark in the city’s foreshore region since 1968; and on February 24, 2009, the owners, The Patrick Partnership, and the property managers, Rennie Property, revealed ongoing plans for a revamp of this iconic building...more

Feb 24, London Mace Group has secured the contract to build one of Europe’s tallest mixed-use developments, the Shard at London Bridge Quarter. It agreed the contract with Irvine Sellar’s Sellar Property, which is the development manager as well as 20% owner of the project. The contract only covers construction of the Shard and the terms and agreed costs have not been revealed...more

Feb 24, Beijing A new unique inter-connected scheme for Beijing in China (planned completion in late 2009) provides a total 750 apartments and also has an 82-room hotel. Named the Linked Hybrid, the project is the brainchild of Steven Holl Architects who have offices in Beijing and New York. Located close to Beijing's historic city walls, the project is being billed as "an open city within a city"...more

Feb 23, New York Michael Chesko is no architect. He's not a structural engineer or an urban planner either. But he just spent more than 2,000 hours constructing this highly detailed, nearly perfect scale model of midtown Manhattan. Chesko cut, sanded, and glued the mini metropolis—on exhibit at the New York Skyscraper Museum—using only an X-Acto knife, a nail file, and a Dremel (and lots of balsa wood)...more

Feb 23, Paris Can’t decide on a green roof or a vertical garden? No problem, just do both! R&Sie Architects designed the aptly-named ‘Lost in Paris‘ house for an ‘urban witch’ who feeds the house through 300 glass-blown pods. A potion of rainwater and plant nutrients nourishes 1200 ferns drop-by-drop throughout the year. The houseplants are entirely hydroponic, and completely engulfing the 1400 square foot concrete home...more

Feb 23, Qatar Qatar is set to become the newest member of the World Green Building Council (WGBC), under a new initiative which sees the formation of the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) - an independent non-profit organization committed to developing a sustainable property industry for Qatar. The initiative is supported by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (Qatar Foundation)...more

Feb 22, Tucson The companion skyscraper to the UniSource Energy Tower may never have been built, but it is for rent. Longtime Tucsonans may remember that when the 22-story building — originally called the United Bank Tower — went up in 1986, plans called for a sister tower to follow within the next three years. But instead of a bright, shiny office building at the corner of Stone Avenue and Broadway, what we have is a weather-beaten plywood shack...more

Feb 21, Beijing China will start construction as early as March 2009 on an experimental solar thermal plant capable of powering at least 30,000 homes. Asia's first 1.5-megawatt solar thermal power station will be built in a Beijing suburb at a cost of $14.7 million and start operating in 2010. The plant would be designed and operated by 10 Chinese institutions and companies, including the academy, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Huadian Corp. and Himin Solar Group...more

Feb 21, Toronto For the decade-and-a-half that ended in 2006, a concrete stump stood at Bay and Adelaide. The unfinished skyscraper, cut off by the 1990s recession, lingered as a token of its cruelty and of a lost decade of skyscraper-building in Toronto. A symbol of the recent (but now concluded) boom times has risen to take the stump’s place since it was demolished in 2006. The Bay Adelaide Centre will fill up with lawyers and accountants starting in July 2009...more

Feb 20, Dana Island Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai, UAE Specializing in architecture for the consumer, Architectonics International, a practice from Long Island, New York, generates most of their work from retail projects. Progressing in their advancements in architecture and engineering, the firm has now designed the Z10 Towers, conceived as a resort/vacation destination, located on the Dana Island Ras Al Khaimah UAE (manmade islands on hold for construction)...more

Feb 20, Chicago With millions of Baby Boomers nearing their 65th birthday and yuppies turning into “ruppies” (retired urban people), it was only a matter of time before the world got something like The Clare at Water Tower, a stylish skyscraper in which to grow old. But it took an architect with the skill and artistry of Ralph Johnson, a principal at the Chicago office of Perkins+Will, to ensure that this 54-story high-rise would nestle so deftly into the cityscape...more

Feb 20, Dallas After almost a year and a half of construction, the Ritz-Carlton condo tower with its elaborate exterior is already a local landmark in February 2009. It's one of three high-rises that have gone up at Uptown's main crossroad – the intersection of Pearl Street and Cedar Springs Road. A mid-price condo in the 23-story Residences at the Ritz-Carlton goes for $1.5 million, and buyers have spoken for almost two-thirds of the units...more

Feb 20, Evanston City officials were reviewing materials late Friday, February 20, 2009 that were submitted by developers of a proposed high-rise tower at 708 Church St. At the City Council meeting on February 23, 2009, members may consider a plan commission recommendation to rezone the parcel to allow a 35-story building...more

Feb 20, Baltimore A hotel and office skyscraper planned for one of the last prime undeveloped parcels at the Inner Harbor is on indefinite hold, a victim of the recession, the project's developer said. But UrbanAmerica, the developer and owner of the parking lot near Harborplace at 300 E. Pratt St., still intends to build the tower once the economy shows signs of recovery...more

Feb 19, Dubai Traffic in Dubai is still nightmarish by most standards, but it is starting to lighten as foreign professionals leave the country amid layoffs and cancelled or halted construction projects. “There is no question that Dubai has slowed down,” says one American architect working in the region. “Everyone is seeing the impacts of the global crisis now.”...more

Feb 18, London Rafael Viñoly's controversial Walkie Talkie tower at 120 Fenchurch Street has been redesigned, making it appear “more curvaceous”, according to the mayor of London's planning office. The architect has made light-touch changes to the 38-storey tower, which increases its floor space from 94,379 square m to 100,008 square m. The building's overall height and massing remain unchanged...more

Feb 18, Gulf of Mexico Morris Architects, a Houston-based architecture and design firm, recently took top honors for two of their submissions in the Radical Innovation in Hospitality design competition. The grand prize winner, the Oil Rig Platform Resort and Spa makes use of one of 4,000 oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico and transforms it into a luxurious eco-resort and spa...more

Feb 18, Bochum, Germany A 98 tons Bauer BG 28 piling rig has been lifted to a height of 22 meters by a telescopic crane into a former high-rise Second World War bunker in the Ruhr District city of Bochum, Germany. While inside the bunker, the rig installed the foundation piles required for the construction of the "Exzenterhaus" - a 90-meter tall office building - to be constructed on top of the listed circular high-rise bunker...more

Feb 18, Chicago In 2007, Chicago’s Northwestern University medical center opened the doors of the new Prentice Women’s Hospital, a $550 million facility that combines state-of-the-art care with the amenities of a pretty decent hotel. Women giving birth at Prentice have private rooms with 42-inch flat-screen televisions, hair-dryer-equipped bathrooms, and sleeper sofas for family members...more

Feb 18, London Property developer Hammerson has put on indefinite hold their plans to build a new skyscraper at Northgate on the northern fringe of the City of London next to the Broadgate Tower. Bishops Place is designed by Foster and Partners and featuring a whole cluster of buildings including a 161-meter tall tower...more

Feb 18, Chicago A nearly $39-million mortgage has come due on a Streeterville site where developer Christopher Carley has proposed a 107-story skyscraper anchored by a Waldorf Astoria hotel, while architectural firm DeStefano & Partners Ltd. has sued to collect nearly $711,000 in fees for its distinctive, angular design...more

Feb 17, Shenzhen The jury for the “Shenzhen 4 Tower in 1” Competition chaired by Mr. Arata Isozaki, selected Coop Himmelb(l)au's design for Tower C, the new “Headquarter of China Insurance Group” as the winning scheme. Other participants include Morphosis, Steven Holl Architects, Hans Hollein, MVRDV and FCJZ Atelier...more

Feb 17, Dubai A growing agreement of opinions among architects worldwide holds that almost everything that could have been done with conventional construction techniques has been done. As proof, we have the City of Culture, in Galicia, Spain, a mind-boggling architectural complex, and the newest innovation, the first rotating, energy-efficient skyscraper in the world, envisioned by David Fisher...more

Feb 17 Modern urban centers from Manhattan to Hong Kong now boast neighborhoods that house well over 100,000 people per square mile, while providing their inhabitants an excellent quality of life. As world civilization voluntarily and inexorably urbanizes, new megacities will be built everywhere...more

Feb 17, New Orleans A developers' lawyer says a proposed $400 million New Orleans high-rise involving real estate mogul Donald Trump is on hold pending the recovery of the national economy. Attorney Stephen Dwyer said Tuesday, February 17, 2009 that developers hope to resume the high-end condominium and hotel project by the end of the year. Dwyer says it's not a matter of if the project will go forward but how big it will be when it does...more

Feb 17, Berkeley A proposal to dramatically expand the section of downtown Berkeley where high rises could soar hit a rough spot on February 11, 2009. Four commissioners, including Chair James Samuels, had written their own revised Land Use chapter, which would remove the 220-foot maximum building height as well as open most of the city center to a soaring skyline...more

Feb 16, London Long before it became a real estate commodity, the High Line was considered a blight on its neighborhood. But since the construction of a park on the rail trestle received the Bloomberg administration’s approval in 2002, and the West Chelsea rezoning passed three years later—allowing for higher density residential development along the park—the High Line has morphed from eyesore to eye candy...more

Feb 17, Guiyang, China Architects MAD have revealed a master plan created when they invited 11 young architecture practices - including BIG, JDS, Mass Studies, Serie and Sou Fujimoto Architects - to design conceptual projects for Huaxi city centre in Guiyang, China. The architects took part in a three-day workshop in Huaxi in summer 2008 and each provided an independent design for part of the master plan...more

Feb 16, New York As the world’s population continues to skyrocket and cities strain under the increased demand for resources, skyscraper farms offer an inspired approach towards creating sustainable vertical density. One of three finalists in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project envisions a future New York City interspersed with elegantly spiraling biomorphic structures...more

Feb 16, Frankfurt Deutsche Bank has announced plans to give its two 155-meter high flagship office towers in Frankfurt, Germany an environmental makeover designed to cut energy bills by an estimated 55 percent. The company said the towers will be fitted with a new façade, state-of-the-art energy efficient interior fittings and an entirely new green technical infrastructure, as part of a major project to be undertaken by technical services provider Imtech and completed by 2010...more

Feb 16, Santiago South America's tallest tower, under construction since 2006, has been halted at 22 stories, its developers blaming the current economic climate. Designed by the same architects responsible for the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the iconic One Canada Square tower in London's Canary Wharf, Pelli Clarke Pelli, the 60 storey tower was due to complete in 2010 and stand at 300 meters...more

Feb 16, Bulgaria Green buildings have become the norm rather than the exception as businesses worldwide become aware of the positive environmental and societal affects of sustainable construction. The construction and building sector industries are believed to be responsible for the most of the CO2 emissions. But, as we cannot eliminate the construction industry, developers and builders have to find the solution within the problem...more

Feb 14 Green buildings have become the norm rather than the exception as businesses worldwide become aware of the positive environmental and societal affects of sustainable construction. The construction and building sector industries are believed to be responsible for the most of the CO2 emissions. But, as we cannot eliminate the construction industry, developers and builders have to find the solution within the problem...more

Feb 13, Ealing, UK In what many have found a surprising move, the Secretary of State for Communities, Hazel Blears, has called in the HKR and Foster designed Arcadia Centre for a public inquiry. The scheme which was approved in December 2008 by Ealing council to sit in their town center contains an 85.7-meter-tall tower with curving louvers designed by Foster and Partners...more

Feb 13, New York The annual Skyscraper Competition organized by eVolo has become an important architectural prize with high media attention. The 2008 edition was published by more than ten architecture and design magazines and by several news, fashion, and art publications. The eVolo Book has received excellent reviews and has been included in the catalog for the Book Expo America, Frankfurt Book Fair, and Beijing Book Fair...more

Feb 13, Utrecht The Cepezed-designed Westraven Office Complex in Utrecht, the Netherlands, has been enthusiastically acclaimed at the festive Dutch Construction Gala on Wednesday, February 11, 2009. The project architect, Cepezed's Ronald Schleurholts, and the commissioning Government Buildings Agency were awarded the Dutch Construction Award 2009 for the project's excellence in different aspects...more

Feb 12, New York After six months and nearly $4 million, New York City’s Department of Buildings on Feb 3, 2009 recommended 41 measures to increase regulations for crane, concrete and excavation work. But industry experts say the standards, if implemented, may create more headaches and unnecessary costs. The city assembled a team of more than 30 engineers, including experts from Skokie, Ill.-based forensic consultant CTL Group...more

Feb 12, Oslo Local architects MAD (Modern Architecture and Design), not to be confused with the Chinese firm of the same name, have come up with this proposal to stand next to Oslo's railway station. The scheme, Biskop Gunnerus Gate 14B, features a 36 floor tall building that will contain 65,000 square meters of office space and rise to a height of 127 meters. It comes in the form of two rectangular blocks angled towards each other...more

Feb 12, Houston There's something new in downtown Houston - a building that can officially be called "green." The 33-story tower at 717 Texas has won LEED Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It received a Silver Certificate for existing buildings for doing such things as having a "green” and reflective roof on the parking garage, purified-water systems, low-flow restroom fixtures, and recycling...more

Feb 12, Glasgow International architectural practice, Aedas, has received planning consent for its master plan, architectural and landscape design for Bothwell Plaza, in Bothwell Street Glasgow. Conceived as a driving force of the continued regeneration of the area, the completed scheme will be the tallest commercial building in Glasgow. The 60,000 sq m, 18-storey development will comprise a mixed-use scheme including office, retail and leisure space and a five-star, 320-bed hotel...more

Feb 12 The top ten list of the most innovative companies in architecture, including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid, Rem Koolhaas's OMA, Steven Holl, Foster + Partners, Renzo Piano, Christian de Portzamparc, Kieran Timberlake, and Olsen Sundberg Kundig Allen...more

Feb 12, Shanghai Atlanta-based John Portman & Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce the ground-breaking for Jian Ye Li in Shanghai, an adaptive re-use, mixed-use development that will serve as an international destination featuring residential, retail, and restaurant spaces. The nearly 18,000-sq.-mt. Jian Ye Li site is located in a historic and cultural protected area of Shanghai...more

Feb 12, Mumbai Set to be the tallest building in Mumbai standing 301 meters or 1000 ft tall, Shreepati Skies or the dancing lady shaped building promises to be unlike any other structure in the India’s or Asia’s Skyline. The master mind behind this structure is no stranger to tall buildings - renowned Architect Reza Kabul has to his credit the tallest completed building of India...more

Feb 12, Gold Coast, Australia The Gold Coast's first high rise - a modest 27m tall building once described as a 10-storied "giant" - has been added to the Queensland heritage list. The Kinkabool apartment building, constructed in 1959 in the heart of Surfers Paradise, has been labelled a place of significant cultural importance by the Queensland Heritage Council...more

Feb 11, Beijing Public anger had been simmering over the TV network's spending and government-slanted news coverage. The fire at the Mandarin Oriental site in Beijing offers an outlet for the rage. Even before it was revealed on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 that an unauthorized fireworks display organized by China Central Television caused the spectacular fire that destroyed one of Beijing's new glass-and-steel landmarks...more

Feb 11, Nagoya, Japan Scholastic architecture doesn’t get much better than these stunning Mode-Gakuen Spiral Towers in Nagoya, Japan. The shimmering towers corkscrew 36 stories (170 m) above the busy streets of Nagoya, Japan, and house educational facilities for three different disciplines in three tapered ‘wings’ - fashion design, computer programming and a medical support...more

Feb 11, New York When Bruce Ratner hired Frank Gehry in 2004 to design a wrinkled-looking 76-story residential skyscraper in New York near the Brooklyn Bridge, the market for eye-popping luxury condominiums was booming, and the world-class architect's multimillion-dollar fees probably seemed relatively insignificant...more

Feb 11, Bahrain The Bahrain World Trade Center (BWTC) has announced the official certification of the building's wind turbines by Bahrain's Electricity Distribution Directorate (EDD). The turbines were inaugurated in April of 2008, since then they have been undergoing daily safety and regulatory testing, and were commissioned to mark Bahrain's National Day in December 2008...more

Feb 11, Moscow Mirax Group aims to complete a Moscow skyscraper planned as one of the world's tallest buildings but frozen amid the financial crisis. "We are proposing to the mayor's office that we build the Russia Tower to its original specification," Mirax Group chief Sergei Polonsky told reporters on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, adding that the company had already consulted investors on the project...more

Feb 11, New York On the heels of the much heralded One Bryant Park in New York (the Bank of America Building), which was developed by the Durst Organization as the first LEED Platinum Certified skyscraper in New York City, Boston Properties had touted its one million square foot office tower at 250 West 55th Street in Manhattan (near Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Center), stating that it would achieve LEED Gold Certification status...more

Feb 11 There's an uncanny, if unscientific, correlation between financial crises and efforts to build the world's tallest building. Look no further than Kuala Lumpur in 1997, Chicago in 1974, New York in 1930 and the Tower of Babel in biblical times. The human propensity for architectural overreach has been a surprisingly reliable omen. It's not a stretch to think of such projects as visual punctuation marks...more

Feb 11, Dubai It is time to reassess the extreme clichés about Dubai. To many, it is a fabulous place, fast-forwarding into the future with stunning, drop-dead architecture and stupefying engineering driven by a can-do mentality that casually obliterates Guinness records. Alternatively, it is the quintessential dystopia sprung from unfettered development, environmentally and socially unsustainable, and an architectural zoo in a playground for the super-rich...more

Feb 11,  New York The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously to give landmark status to One Chase Manhattan Plaza and the Consolidated Edison Building in Manhattan. One Chase Manhattan Plaza, an aluminum-and-glass-skinned skyscraper between Nassau and William Streets in Lower Manhattan, was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and was the sixth-tallest building in the world when it was completed in 1961...more

Feb 10, Las Vegas What if they had shortened the Empire State Building by a couple of football fields? Or gave the Great Pyramid a flattop? Or built the Eiffel Platform? Size certainly isn’t everything when it comes to buildings, of course. But the impact of many iconic structures is in their sheer stature. That is why it’s so startling - disappointing, even - that the Harmon hotel, CityCenter’s gateway to the Las Vegas Strip, has suddenly been cut down to about half its intended size...more

Feb 10, Dublin The Dublin skyscraper project has been thrown into doubt after officials refused planning permission. Mountbrook Group has been told that the long-awaited redevelopment of the D4 Hotels site at Ballsbridge, Dublin, has been rejected by the local council. First proposed in 2005, the skyscraper development was to see leisure facilities, offices and 536 apartment homes...more

Feb 10, Sunrise, Florida Two developments that will create mini-cities of high-rise residences and shopping districts in Sunrise won the final blessing of Broward County commissioners Tuesday, February 10, 2009. The Metropica and Harrison Park/Westerra projects had been stalled since January 2009 after neighboring Plantation demanded it be reimbursed for the impact on its residents...more

Feb 10, Tel Aviv While Israeli tanks and bombs hit Gaza, a sales video for an apartment tower in Tel Aviv, 40 miles north of Gaza City, pitches the "Neve Tsedek White City Residence." As photos roll, the voice describes the tower in the heart of the "vibrant cosmopolitan city" of Tel Aviv; it cites "luxurious apartments," even a penthouse designed by Armani Casa, Milan, and a "sophisticated lobby, lounge, and business rooms" for new enterprises...more

Feb 10, Moscow The Russia Tower, planned as a 600-meter monument to the country's power and wealth, appears to have been brought back to Earth by funding woes and City Hall's desire to see a rapid conclusion to the Moskva-City business center. Development of the skyscraper, designed to be the tallest building in Europe, was frozen in November 2008 because of a lack of funding...more

Feb 9, Beijing A fierce fire consumed all 34 floors of a skyscraper in Beijing on February 9, 2009, shooting 30 foot flames into the air, but unlike the similarly-sized 47-story WTC 7, which suffered limited fires across just eight floors, the building in China did not collapse. The fire was burning from the ground floor to the top floor of the large building, the flames were reflecting in the glass facade of the main CCTV tower next to the hotel and cultural center...more

Feb 9 Tall buildings go up as the economy goes down, according to the skyscraper index that came to prominence in 1999 in a report penned by Andrew Lawrence, a former researcher at Deutsche Bank. Lawrence argued that skyscrapers preceded economic downturns. He cited the Chrysler and Empire State buildings that went up during the Great Depression, in 1929 and 1930, respectively...more

Feb 9, Kuala Lumpur As cities stretch to accommodate the world’s skyrocketing population, loyal Inhabitat followers are surely familiar with skyscrapers and other vertical solutions to cope with urban densification. Designed for the heart of Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, TROPICOOL @ KL envisions a series of self-sustaining mushroom skyscrapers that incorporate natural energy sources, rainwater harvesting, and bio-mass support for off-the-grid living in a truly green environment...more

Feb 9, Newark Newark Mayor Cory Booker's third state-of-the-city address on February 9, 2009 envisions a 24-hour downtown with 700 additional housing units in two high-rises and an added Seton Hall Law School dorm, the city's first recreational boat dock in half a century, and the state's first community court for low-level offenders...more

Feb 9, Philadelphia At City Hall, leaders of the nation's sixth-largest city are warning about painful cuts as the recession slices deeper and deeper into the budget: library cuts, pool closures, less snow removal and layoffs. But on an empty lot six blocks away, private developers are pushing ahead with plans to build a 1,510-foot skyscraper that would be one of the tallest buildings in the world...more

Feb 9, Southampton Developer Hammerson has reported pre-tax losses of £1.6 billion in 2008 and has ruled out starting construction on any of the major schemes currently on its drawing board. The news came as blow to a raft of high-profile architects working on Hammerson-backed schemes across the country, such as the Sevenstone regeneration project in Sheffield, which is being designed by Foreign Office Architects (FOA), Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, Hawkins\Brown...more

Feb 8, Boston Developer Don Chiofaro sits at the table in his conference room. On the table, lined up like troops on parade, are perhaps 10 or a dozen elegantly crafted wood models of a tower complex. This is a project he'd like to build on the site of the Harbor Garage, which he owns. It's a key location in Boston, between the New England Aquarium on one side and the center of the new Greenway on the other...more

Feb 8, Tel Aviv, Israel BST Development and Construction Company Ltd. in February 2009 has begun building a 136-unit 23-storey residential high-rise in Givat Shmuel near Bar Ilan University for Yessodot Yaniv Initiating 2004 Ltd. at a cost of NIS 100 million. The work is due to be completed by mid-2011. The new high-rise is located adjacent to Yessodot Yaniv's first high-rise in the area, which was the subject of legal disputes, lawsuits, and a criminal conviction...more

Feb 8, Seoul At a time when others are subtracting, the Lotte Group seems intent on building up. The economic turmoil has businesses all around shedding payrolls, trimming operations and lowering expectations, but this hasn't affected Lotte's zeal to expand its corporate empire, as evidenced by its takeover of Doosan Group's liquor unit and major leisure projects in Busan and Jeju Island...more

Feb 7, Shanghai A 632 m tower designed by Gensler breaks ground on February 7, 2009 in Shanghai to complete a trio of new super-tall towers revolutionizing China’s architectural record. Shanghai Tower will join and rise above the recently appraised ‘Best Tall Building Overall’ by the CTBUH, Shanghai World Financial Center and the Jin Mao Tower in the Luijiazui Finance and Trade Zone as China’s first ever super-tall district...more

Feb 6, New York Walking into the Empire State Building from 34th Street, it is hard not to notice that the building is going through changes. There are posters all around ground floor, and on the scaffolding outside, advertising rental space in the building. Restoration work continues on the marble lobby’s ceiling mural. On some higher floors, too, it’s easy to see that something is happening, but for another reason...more

Feb 6, Ho Chi Minh City In the past time, when the market economy has changed fast and the city is perfecting its team and management system of urban construction, difficulties and complex issues in the urban development process are indispensable. In many cases, in the center of a low-rise living quarter grows up a high tower, sometimes in the old and ancient streets of Sai Gon such as Pham Ngoc Thach road...more

Feb 6, New York Boston Properties Inc. has suspended the construction of another Manhattan skyscraper. The work at 250 West 55th Street was stopped after a law firm pulled out of a planned lease, the company announced Friday, February 6, 2009. The move came less than two weeks after Boston Properties pulled the plug on another tower, on West 46th Street...more

Feb 5, Santiago The construction of the future tallest building in Latin America, the 300-meter-tall Torre Costanera in Santiago, Chile, is on hold temporarily. According to the structural engineer, the frame now is up 23 stories...more

Feb 5, Mumbai Perkins Eastman unveiled two soaring green high-rises in Kohinoor CTL’s competition to design a sustainable mixed-use skyscraper for Mumbai, India. The proposals incorporate an abundance of green building strategies and will harness alternative energy for the buildings’ essential functions, harvest rainwater, make use of solar technology, and provide abundant planters and green spaces to filter and freshen the air...more

Feb 5, Tirana Work is underway on a new and unusual looking skyscraper for the Albanian Capital of Tirana. Named Tid Tower, it will stand at 85 meters when it is complete. The design comes from Belgian architectural firm 51N4E, which just goes to show once in blue moon the Belgians can do something apart from make chocolate. The tower will form part of a master plan dreamed up for the city which centers around the construction of ten new towers...more

Feb 5, Chelsea Bolles + Wilson is the latest design team to be sidelined in the long-running saga surrounding the redevelopment of West Cromwell Road near Earls Court, West London. Landowner Tesco and development partner Brookfield Multiplex have turned to London-based Benson + Forsyth Architects after coming under pressure from the local authority to change its high-rise designs...more

Feb 5, Philadelphia Towering over the Philadelphia skyline at an amazing 58 stories (975 feet), the city's new Comcast Center is a high-performance sustainable building, with an abundance of features that will conserve energy and reduce impact on the environment. Designed to receive LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, Comcast Center uses 40 percent less water than the average office building...more

Feb 4, Moscow Praised and admired at MIPIM 2008 for both its architectural presence and green innovation as the tallest tower with a natural ventilation system, Foster + Partners’ Russia Tower set to become a benchmark for sustainable high-rises. In November 2008 however, the Russian news agency Interfax reported that the project had been halted due to the credit crunch...more

Feb 4, Incheon At a time when many projects are getting shelved, work is under way on the Songdo International Business District, a self-sufficient city on the outskirts of Incheon, South Korea. Master planned by Kohn Pedersen Fox and developed by Gale International and Posco E&C, the 1,500-acre financial district will include 50 million sf of office space, 30 million sf of residential, 10 million sf for retail, and five million square sf for hotels...more

Feb 4, Łódź The squalid neighborhood of Łódź Fabryczna Station is going to be renewed. The station is going to be hidden underground. At the place of the old track, a new street is going to be created. New architecture is going to appear around the station. The old buildings are going to house art and science events. The very ambitious plan includes 90ha of city area limited by the following streets: Tuwima, Kopcińskiego, Narutowicza and Sienkiewicza...more

Feb 4, USA At the turn of the 20th Century, New York's Woolworth Building and Chicago's Monadnock Building set a trend that transformed the skylines of US cities. New construction methods - and the egos of America's top businessmen - meant that buildings could be higher than ever before. Through this collection of archive photographs, Professor David Reynolds, presenter of Radio 4's landmark series America, Empire of Liberty looks at the birth of the skyscraper...more

Feb 4, New York Two striking new hotels aim to engage the energy of the Meatpacking District and the East Village with ambitious architectural statements on the street level - not just in the bar and bathtub - while industrial zones citywide are proving unlikely hotspots for a hotel boom...more

Feb 3, Shenzhen The vastness of China can be witnessed from many perspectives; it is evident in maps, in its cultural make-up, its capacity for industrial output and, on a city level, in its architecture. In two cities roughly 1000 miles apart, Austrian architecture practice Coop Himmelb(l)au embarks upon separate projects which both replicate the monolithic scale of China...more

Feb 2, Missisauga, Canada The Absolute Condos is a five-tower glass, concrete and steel development on the north-east corner of the crossroads of Hurontario Street and Burnhamthope Road, a gateway to the Mississauga town center. Due to overwhelming success of the first MAD tower, the developers announced that a second 50 story tower, also by MAD, will be built as the fifth and final tower of the development....more

Feb 2, Liverpool Broadway Malyan has designed a new 18-storey building to sit on the edge of Liverpool's ever expanding central business district. The scheme called 30 Pall Mall sits on a site bounded by Prussia Street and Cockspur Street West. It is separated from the city's main cluster of tall buildings to its west by a series of car parks, and a distance of about 100 meters from the Sir John Moores Building, known as The Plaza...more

Feb 2, Baltimore “A good building can improve the educational mission of a university,” says University of Baltimore (UB) president Robert Bogomolny. With his school poised to invest four years and more than $100 million dollars into a new facility for UB’s law school, he should hope so. In late November 2008, an advisory panel voted unanimously to award Behnisch Architekten’s Boston office the commission to build a new glass-and-steel structure in downtown Baltimore...more

Feb 2, Saudi Arabia Paul Taylor, head of the Middle East team at UK Trade & Investment, on why Saudi Arabia is still a boom market for the UK construction industry...more

Feb 2, Austin A Cesar Pelli-designed office tower and art museum planned for downtown Austin, Texas, is one of the casualties of the economic downturn in 2009. Houston-based developer Hines Interests LP has shelved plans for a 30-story, 434,000-square-foot glass high-rise and accompanying museum. Construction was scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2009, with completion expected in early 2011...more

Feb 2, Dubai According to the international research group Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the average height of the top ten tallest buildings completed in 2008 rose to 319 meters – 31 meters above the previous highest average, set in 1998. The council went on to say that the 'most successful year of skyscraper construction ever' looks set to be repeated in 2009 and 2010...more

Feb 2, Kuala Lumpur Proposals have been put forward for a new skyscraper for Kuala Lumpur. Named the TNB Tower, it will become the new headquarters for TENAGA Nasional Bhd, Malaysia's largest power company, only if it gets built which is unlikely at the time because of the worsening economic climate. The design comes from the drawing boards of a Malaysian-based firm, Hijjaz Kasturi Architects...more

Feb 2, Moscow A Moscow skyscraper planned to be one of the world's tallest buildings will not be finished until at least 2016, four years behind schedule. Mayor Yury Luzhkov, who visited the Russia Tower construction site in the International Business Center on Saturday, January 31, 2009, pointed to major violations of the construction schedule. The developer later announced that the project, which was launched in September 2007, would be delayed until 2016...more

Feb 2, New York New York state officials are using a small wind turbine atop Albany's tallest building to test a big renewable-energy idea. The turbine stands 17 feet above the roof of the 41-story Corning Tower. Its 7-foot diameter blades can produce up to 1.5 kilowatts of electricity when spinning at full capacity. But the idea isn't to use the turbine to offset the tower's energy use. Instead, workers will use it to test the feasibility of larger urban wind-energy programs...more