When First Canadian Place was built in 1975, owner Paul Reichmann boasted the tower would be clad with "16 miles of marble."  "It was a mark of distinction for the building," recalls banker Richard O'Hagan, who worked at First Canadian Place shortly after it opened for business.  The Reichmanns imported 45,000 slabs of Carrara marble from Italy and as a result, First Canadian Place is said to have more Carrara marble than any other building in the world...more.

Keith Williams has won permission for his controversial 24-story tower for Vauxhall after a four-day planning inquiry.  Lambeth council rejected the scheme in February 2009 on the grounds it would damage the setting of the World Heritage Site across the river.  There were also objections from Westminster City Council, English Heritage and local residents.  However, the planning inspector overturned Lambeth’s ruling...more.

Having completed the design of the Northern Axis of China’s third largest city, Heller Manus Architects has been awarded the contract to design Guangzhou’s Southern Axis as well. Selected from entrants by both a jury of 9 experts and the general public, Heller Manus will now develop their plans for 14.78 sq km of the city incorporating waterfront and transit oriented development with a ferry terminal, central government districts...more.

The UN's cultural watchdog has called on Russia to stop a 400m (1,312 ft) skyscraper being built in historic St Petersburg's city centre.  Unesco said the planned $2.4bn (£1.5bn) Okhta business centre tower would "damage the image of Russia".  Local authorities have approved construction of the building, which will house offices of the state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.  St Petersburg's city center is listed by Unesco as a world heritage site...more.

Hey, Mr. Beanie Babies. Have I got a deal for you!  In fall 2008, as the economy was racing downhill faster than an Olympic skier, the promoters of the Chicago Spire announced that Ty Warner, the reclusive founder and chief executive officer of Westmont-based toymaker Ty Inc., had signed a contract to buy the sprawling 10,000-plus-square-foot penthouse on the Spire's 141st and 142nd floors.  The asking price was $40 million...more.

St Regis, the six star hotel chain is aiming at moving into the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur with a hotel designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.  Developed by One IFC, a joint venture between CMY Capital Sdn Bhd and Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd, the scheme is being designed to accommodate not only the 200 room hotel but also 200 apartments that will also be managed by St Regis, a brand that has a butler service you can call on...more.

At 60 m tall, the Breakwater Beacon provides an unmissable centerpiece for the US$7billion King Abdullah University for Science & Technology (KAUST), inaugurated at Thuwal Point in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  Designed by HOK, KAUST encompasses a total area of more than 36million sq m, the University campus occupies about 16 million sq m on land, and the remaining area is a vibrant offshore ecosystem...more.

There will be an observation deck on the 818-metre Burj Dubai, on the 124th floor of the 160-floor building, officials have announced.  In addition to a 360-degree glass observation deck, an open-air balcony will also be available for those who have no fear of heights.  Shaun Killa, a Dubai architect and member of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, said that observation decks were the most important part of any giant skyscraper...more.

Sahinler Holdings in Turkey are working on this new development that once built will reach a height of almost three hundred meters to the tip of its spire.  The scheme, Ipek Yolu, tops out at 60 floors and contains a main 73,000 square meter largely residential tower with 475 apartments, plus 90 office suites. Attached to it is a massive new shopping mall with 295,000 square meters of planned space within and an open-air central court...more.

Some of the lights are on in the high-rise residential towers that have opened in downtown San Jose since 2007. But not many.  Sales at the four buildings — Axis, The 88, Three Sixty Residences and City Heights — are still far from what the developers expected several years ago, when their dream of filling downtown's skyline with sophisticated urban dwellings seemed like a sure bet...more.

Developer Sun Explorer is seeking to build a new 26 story building on a brownfield site in central Belfast on Castle Street called Vetro.  Designed by BOX Architects, the scheme will reach almost 100 meters in height making it the tallest building in the city if built. It's been custom-planned to accommodate a luxury hotel brand, which currently remains unnamed. It's unknown if the developer has a client to fill the hotel...more.

Green walls are green roofs gone vertical. PNC Financial Services Group has unveiled its new, six-story tall green wall, complete with the corporate logo. The wall is located on the building’s headquarters at Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The wall encompasses 2,380 square feet made up of 602 2x2 square foot panels with 24 plants per panel. Each of the panels will offset the carbon footprint of one PNC employee...more.

Innovative Glass Corp.’s smart E Glass® will be featured in the “Mile High Skyscraper” episode of a new television series for Discovery Channel called Mega-Engineering.  The program, which is scheduled to first air on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 10PM ET, explores whether humans could build “Extopia” – a mile-high skyscraper – in the future, and emphasizes the strategic role that Innovative Glass’s E Glass® product line could have...more.

A planning application has gone in for the design revisions to Bishops Place, the huge development by Hammerson to stand near the edge of the City of London in Hackney.  Following the previous application which was deferred by the local council a number of modifications have been made to the scheme that keep it broadly the same, whilst tweaking it and making a few more noticeable revisions...more.

This Mexican Capital’s iconic skyscraper, Torre Latinoamericana, built in the mid-20th century, will undergo a complete makeover to house a hotel by the year 2010 that will occupy 20 of its 44 stories.  The prime objective of this plan, well received by the city government, is to begin in November 2009 and finish in 2010, the bicentennial year of Mexico’s independence and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution...more.

The world’s worst skyscraper disaster is still fresh in our minds, and every year sees a new calamity in our global obsession with building story after story, higher and higher. You would think that all architects would be careful to make their buildings look as stable as mountains. You’d be wrong. Thanks to modern building materials and behind-the-scenes architectural wizardry,  the new field of precarious-looking urban architecture is on the rise...more.

OAO Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas exporter, won final approval from the city of St. Petersburg to build what may become Europe’s tallest skyscraper, overcoming objections from local residents and UNESCO.  St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko awarded Gazprom exemptions to the former czarist capital’s zoning laws that allow for the 400-meter (1,300-foot) Okhta Center project to proceed...more.

Halted in November 2008, mid-construction, the Filene development in downtown Boston is currently barely even a shell of a building. The bones of the building are up, but sub street level a giant hole leaves a gouge in the city’s plan. Undaunted, Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Squared Design Lab teamed up to design a vertical tower of prefabricated “eco pods” filled with bio-fuel producing algae for the space...more.

Associated Architects has completed the £25 million overhaul of the University of Birmingham’s landmark 1970s Muirhead Tower.  The practice worked alongside Philip Dowson of Arup Associates, the building’s (1971) original architect, on the revamp. The 12,000m² scheme for the University’s School of Social Sciences incorporates a new lecture theatre, exhibition space, student café and improved lifts and staircases...more.

In what's a good piece of news showing that the construction of tall buildings is finally starting to pick up again, work is now underway on the 82-metre tall Alberta House project and its adjacent blocks in the London borough of Tower Hamlets.  Developed by the Swan Housing Association, who are clearly not wracked by the funding problems of some of their rivals, the scheme stands to the immediate west of Ballymore's New Providence Wharf...more.

Dubai's two star developers said they will take part in the emirate's highly anticipated property expo, reversing an earlier decision to pull out.  Nakheel, and its rival Emaar Properties, had unexpectedly pulled out from the Cityscape show, long one of the highlights on the erstwhile boomtown's business calendar before property prices began to collapse in 2008.  The canceled participation of the two developers, famous for projects likes massive man-made islands...more.

A new Kimpton Palomar Hotel is getting ready to open in the River North neighborhood of downtown Chicago. Construction of the 36-story building, which began in early 2008, will be finished in the last quarter of 2009. The hotel will formally open to the public in January 2010.  A lot is packed onto the small site. Lively hotel and residential lobbies occupy the street level, along with a premier restaurant along Illinois Street...more.

In 2003, MVRDV, together with Norwegian firms Dark and A-lab, won the competition for the Bjørvika waterfront development and designed a dense urban master plan along Nyland Allé, the Oslo Barcode, that will be developed and realized by OSU in phases.  The international Norwegian financial institution DNB NOR decided to concentrate their twenty office locations currently dispersed over the city in the Barcode.  In 2007, the master plan team...more.

On the drawing board is a new hotel tower planned to stand on the site of the Theatre Royal, Manchester's oldest surviving theatre.  With this site history in mind, the development has proven a controversial idea for many who work in heritage but the tower has been designed to go above, over, and around the theatre preserving it for future generations.  At the insistence of English Heritage, the rules on the retention of parts of the theatre have been strict...more.

Listed developer Sta Lucia Land Inc. has launched its first condotel project in Metro Manila targeted for the middle-income market.  The company will be spending P500 million for the 22-story development located on Mother Ignacia St. in Quezon City, said Exequiel Robles, Sta. Lucia Land president.  Robles said this was the fifth vertical project of the company following its three projects in Cebu and the Splendido project in Tagaytay City...more.

The ‘W’ that BIG, Bjarne Ingels Group, has designed for the city of Prague doesn’t represent anything. It’s  just a ‘W’. Nothing more. A random letter from the Latin alphabet. It has no assigned virtue, the iconography of the building. The ‘W’ could refer to the name of the project, ‘Walter Towers’, but just like that it couldn’t. In his statement the architect doesn’t reveal anything. No word, not even a letter...more.

Many long time residents of San Francisco are both shocked and fascinated by our changing skyline. Once Sutro Tower, The B of A building, the Transamerica were kings. Now we see them dwarfed by high rises that seem to come shooting up directly from the bay.  The logic of high rises is fairly obvious. San Francisco suffers at once from a housing shortage and from space to put it. Thus vertical construction makes sense. What makes less sense...more.

Prolific Gold Coast developer the Howard Group has moved to sell or find a joint-venture partner for another of its high-rise development sites.  The group, led by Canadian-born Mark Howard, listed a 971sq m Surfers Paradise parcel, earmarked for a 23-story tower, on the market in a offers-to-purchase campaign, which closes on October 16, 2009.  The beachfront, two-title property is at the northern entry to the Surfers beach strip, at 158-162 The Esplanade...more.

Chicago architect Jeanne Gang's 82-story Aqua tower isn't done yet, but somebody out there sure likes it: The group that's been known to throw paint on the furs that women wear.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is giving Gang and her firm, Studio Gang Architects, an award for the bird-friendly design of Aqua. The group says that birds are less likely to kill themselves flying into Aqua's windows because of the skyscraper undulating curves...more.

While there’s talk the recession may be over, Oregon’s real estate market is still struggling.  Prices in the Portland metro area are down 13 percent since 2008. And while low-end properties are starting to sell, the luxury market is still feeling the pinch.   Kristian Foden-Vencil visits a 23-story glass tower in Portland, originally billed as a luxury complex, where dozens of condos are going to auction at bargain basement prices...more.

It is said that the skyline of a great city tells you a lot about its mood.  In times of wealth, it soars higher and higher, buildings compete to be the biggest and the best.  In bad times, the skyline stays cautiously still.  Yet just weeks after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 signaled the greatest economic recession of living memory, work started on what was for decades the world's tallest building.  This might have seemed a crazy project to go ahead with...more.

The Seager Distillery is under construction in London's Deptford, eight years after it was originally proposed.  At the time of proposal, an 82 metre tall residential tower was substantial, and indeed nothing of that height and use had been built in the 1980s or 1990s, but almost a decade on it seems hard to believe how impressive the project originally sounded when the likes of the Landmark and Pan Peninsula have been constructed...more.

In a city desperate for good economic news, workers put the final beam in place for a 31-story building on Boston’s waterfront.  When Russia Wharf is completed in 2011, the $500 million glass and steel complex on the Fort Point Channel will be the new home for Wellington Management Co., which has leased 450,000 square feet of office space.  “Despite the global economic recession, Boston is still moving forward,” said Mayor Thomas M. Menino...more.

If you're in an office building when there`s an emergency, you better hope you're in 777 Third Avenue. This 38-floor midtown office building has two backup generators that can quickly transport tenants to safety in the event of a crisis.  In this economy, most realtors are focusing on cost per square foot to close a commercial real estate deal. They feel that everyone wants a bargain so they attempt to impress renters with complicated price negotiations...more.

A developer’s vision for a stunning, hourglass-shaped skyscraper at the corner of 57th Street and Second Avenue is moving forward, albeit in an ill-defined form.  The city’s Educational Construction Fund, which is working with luxury residential developer World-Wide Group on the project, filed plans with the Department of Buildings on Sept. 10 for the project’s first phase: an 11-story building, containing 240,549 square feet for the two public schools...more.

With the environment and a need to find alternative fuel sources becoming an increasingly more pressing issue the globe over, the designers at Croatian architectural firm UPI 2M have designed a new tower to address just those problems.  So successful has the design been from a theoretical point of view it has been placed on the short list for Future Projects at the World Architecture Festival which is to be held in Barcelona in November 2009...more.

A glimmer of light has been shed over the gloom of Dubai's construction industry as contractors have been appointed to work on the world's tallest residential tower, set to grace the skies of Dubai in 2012.  Pentominium, designed by Dr Andrew Bromberg, Executive Director at Aedas, is currently the 6th tallest building under construction but not topped out according to statistics from the Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Once completed...more.

A Santa Monica architect known for his high-rise designs is working on what may be the ultimate "spec" building -- a 224-story skyscraper with green ambitions that would be the tallest structure in the world.  The tower is envisioned for a man-made island in Abu Dhabi, if leaders of the oil-rich emirate decide they want to make a statement to rest of the world and perhaps one-up neighboring Dubai...more.

Chinese firm Studio Pei Zhu has won the competition to design an office building in Ningbo, China.  The 'Skybond' tower is located in the new city center of Ningbo next to the main canal.  The natural twist is a reaction to the different edges of the site and the various view corridors into and from the site.  The uniform skin creates soft reflections of the surrounding city and sky...more.

If you fancy wading in a pool that makes it seem like you are flying off the edge of a tall building, you will get a shot at that soon.  The Marina Bay Sands (MBS) integrated resort will have a 150m-long infinity pool which overlooks the city skyline on top of its three 55-storey hotel towers. At a height of 200m above ground, it is the highest hotel pool in Singapore.  Swissotel The Stamford has two pools on its eighth floor at 30m above ground...more.

Though it looked as if it might be something of a nail-biter, the New York State Senate ultimately passed a landmark energy efficiency and green jobs bill.  The implications of the bill, which has already passed the state Assembly and appears likely to be signed by the governor, might seem profoundly local. But like similar endeavors quietly unfolding across the globe, the New York legislation aims at one of the most intractable...more.

Senior Central Leader Pervez Elahi has blamed the provincial government for showing lukewarm interest towards foreign investors, and thus dissuaded them from investing in the province.  Included are those who had agreed to invest billions of dollars in mega development projects such as Mubarak Center, in Punjab. These investors came from the UAE, China and other countries...more.

High-rise condos in Alabama? You bet - right on the Gulf of Mexico.  Developer Brett/Robinson received a $2.5 million benefits package from the city of Orange Beach, AL in 2004 to build Phoenix West I, a 29-story, 1.1-million-square-foot, 295-unit luxury condominium community on Romar Beach.  The development cost of the tower itself was $140 million.  The developer has repaid the city all but $450,000 of the money...more.

Few, if any, architects in this generation can match Adrian Smith’s imprint on Chicago.  As a partner at the powerful and prestigious firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Smith led the design for the renovation of State Street, the basic outlines of Millennium Park, the NBC and AT&T buildings and the soon-to-be-completed Trump International Hotel & Tower. Yet the public knows his buildings better than they know him...more.

The metal frame of the future 1776ft Freedom Tower now rises 105ft above street level. The planned iconic tower was controversially renamed "1 World Trade Centre" when a Chinese company signed up as the first commercial tenant. The tower, which will have an observation deck at 1362ft topped by a broadcasting mast, will be the highest building in Manhattan.  The first of the two planned reflecting pools with waterfalls...more.

If the great Greek chronicler and "father of history" Herodotus were still alive, he would have whiplash. In less than a lifetime, we have seen the rapid rise of a host of dynamic new global cities--and the relative decline of many others. With a majority of the world's population now living in cities, what these places do with their new wealth ultimately will shape this first truly urban century.  In 1984, when you walked down the Bund in Shanghai...more.

Some people like suburbia for the wide open spaces, yards, and the sense of privacy, but the ‘burbs are not nearly as efficient as urban centers are. What if there was a way to bring all of the positive qualities of exurbia into the city while keeping all of the efficiency of an urban core?  What about stacking blocks of suburban space onto blocks of urban space, similar in theory to vertical farms, creating modular gardens, orchards, parks, playing fields...more.

A much anticipated planning application has started to go in in Birmingham for what could be the tallest skyscraper ever built outside of London.  Called Regal Tower, the scheme is situated on a site that's bounded by Sheepcote Street, Broad Street and Oozell's Way to the south-west of Birmingham city centre between it and mass of mid-rise buildings along Hagley Road.  Regal Tower is the work of Aedas Architects...more.

The “Year of Big” goes on. But in Fall 2009, the focus won’t be on the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s grand plans for Chicago. It will be on big skyscrapers—very big skyscrapers. Are they good or just big? We’ll see, as the some of last giants of the prerecession building boom come on line.  Burj Dubai--The biggest of them all, is expected to open late this year, though the developer, Emaar Properties, won’t say when...more.

There has been a slump in the number of companies in Russia buying and renting offices in the capital, Moscow.  Hundreds of thousands of square metres of skyscraper-style properties are standing empty, while some are sold to banks to pay for debts.  However the crisis has given an opportunity for some people to move to cheaper, better premises...more.

Despite being one of the largest cities in Africa, Lagos is yet to have a single building over 100 metres in height with the current record holder being a mere 83 metres. All of this is changing however with the construction of the new InterContinental in the city.  Developed by the Milan Group, the project features a 22 storey tower of 100 metres in height with 230 normal rooms each coming in at a whopping 42 square metres...more.

The city of Rotterdam released a bevy of green designs for a new mixed-use city hall building that will become “the most sustainable in The Netherlands”. The city challenged designers to create something spectacular, something that will be super energy efficient, use sustainable materials, be useful for various people and events, generate its own energy, recycle and take out its own trash. Well, ok maybe not take out its own trash, but you get the drift...more.

There's more chaff than wheat in a new exhibit about the future of Chicago, but I still recommend that you see it, if only for the sheer fun (or dread) of contemplating some truly out-of-the-box visions of the future.  My favorite in the sunny, George Jetson genre of future-casting comes from architects Brad Lynch and David Brininstool (below). They envision public vehicles powered by an umbrella of magnetic energy that would float over the city...more.

High-rise sales have recorded a surge in growth with 97 properties sold in the June 2009 quarter.  The latest results from the Midwood Queensland Investment report show the sales mark the highest quarterly figure on the Gold Coast in the past 12 months.  But the sales boost is a mere shadow of the 369 properties sold in the same quarter in 2007 and the 149 sold in August 2008.  Brisbane's rise was even higher with the sale of 174 apartments...more.

Does Manhattan have a future as a great metropolis?  If you hope the answer is yes, you will be disheartened by the City Planning Department’s decision to chop off 200 feet from the top of a proposed tower next door to the Museum of Modern Art on 53rd Street in Manhattan.  Designed by Jean Nouvel, the building would have been as tall as the Empire State Building minus its antenna, a fact that probably made planners tremble...more.

When Xcel Energy opted to fork over thousands of extra dollars in rent each month to land new energy-efficient office space in Lower Downtown Denver, it was an affirmation that going "green" is today's business mantra.  Companies are hot to position themselves in buildings certified for their energy efficiencies — "green" in enviro-speak and "LEED" in business gab — in part to score valuable marketing points with key clients...more.

The Loampit Vale mixed scheme, a partnership between Lewisham Council and Barratt Homes, will provide almost 800 new homes.  The centrepiece is a distinctive leisure centre by LA Architects working with artist Phil Coy.  Its street-facing facade is intended to act as an art installation in itself and is made of illuminated multicoloured glass panels backed by a smart LED lighting system...more.

A glance at the World Trade Center site from Greenwich Street tells a lot about progress there: Eight years after the Twin Towers fell, a 10-foot-tall, barbed-wire fence still surrounds the 16-acre void in the heart of Lower Manhattan.  Squabbles over designs and funding have caused severe construction delays. With the exception of the SOM-designed 7 WTC, a 52-story tower completed in 2006...more.

Are living green buildings just around the corner? A report released by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers suggests that sealed containers of algae photobioreactors could be integrated into the sides of buildings to produce biofuels and sequester carbon, adding a whole new meaning to the term ‘green building’. As the algae grows it sucks up CO2 from the surrounding air which can then be stored...more.

A public consultation has been held to discuss proposals that are to be put forward for a new development consisting of two new towers on Tidal Basin Road in the Royal Docks area of London.  Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the project would be located at 28 - 34 Tidal Basin Road, which at present is currently occupied by semi and totally derelict buildings, would act as a gateway to the area and is hoped to prompt further regeneration...more.

The concept plan for Goyang New Town, the ‘City of Rivers’, envisions a new, sustainability-integrated city for 200,000 inhabitants along the historic Han River in Seoul, South Korea. The client sought a connection to the river, currently separated from the land by a series of barriers; a site for a new university campus; and a wide range of residential and commercial neighborhoods, all on existing agricultural lands one hour north of downtown Seoul...more.

Nowhere has the greening message had a bigger impact than in the building industry. Green or sustainable architecture is all the rage—as well it should be, because buildings use a lot of energy. The construction and operation of residential and commercial buildings consume as much as 40 percent of the energy used in the United States today.  The calculation of a building’s total environmental impact must factor in everything...more.

If all had gone according to plan, construction cranes would hover above San Francisco, erecting towers where no towers had gone before.  Instead, we'll be contemplating a much different scene: a life-size reminder that skylines are like cities - they grow in fits and starts, and never  according to plan.  Viewed from this perspective, San Francisco's four newest and tallest condominium towers aren't simply shafts that scrape the sky...more.

Construction work has begun on a new project in Tokyo, Japan. Tentatively named the Shibuya Shin Bunka Gaiku Project, the 34 storey tower forms part of a redevelopment plan centered around Shibuya Station elements of which has been penned by renowned architect Tadao Ando.  Rectangular in shape, the tower sits on a columned base and rises skywards to several flat roofs. Despite its shape, the tower is not one plain box-like affair...more.

Construction of the 618-metre-tall Pentominium tower - one of the world's tallest man-made structures - in Dubai Marina will not only boost investor confidence, but also help Dubai reinforce its position as the city with one of the largest collections of skyscapers.  When completed, the residential tower will host 120 floors above ground. Designed by architects Aedas and funded by developers Trident International Holdings (TIH)...more.

The government has decided to make mandatory installation of solar panels in case of highrise buildings having more than 10 floors in Dhaka and other major cities in a bid to ease the nagging power crisis.  Also, in view of the dwindling groundwater levels, construction of safe and suitable water reservoirs on rooftops of the highrises would be ensured to harvest rainwater.  The planning ministry has already issued a circular in this regard...more.

The U Condominiums are a residential skyscraper scheme planned for the Canadian city of Toronto developed by the Pemberton Group and designed by Alliance.  Located on a site bordering St. Mary Street and Bay Street, the towers have identical 750 square metre footprints marking them out in terms of dimensions as twins. The shorter West Tower rises to 45 storeys and 154 metres in height whilst the taller East Tower reaches 55 storeys...more.

The city of Wolverhampton, England, enters the architectural history books in September 2009 as residents move into Victoria Hall, their brand new high-rise modular apartment building. At 25 stories, Victoria Hall is the world’s tallest building built with off-site construction methods.  A mixed-used apartment complex for students at the University of Wolverhampton, Victoria Hall consists of four buildings, three of which have just been completed...more.

Robert LiMandri, New York's Buildings Commissioner has announced that concrete tests are to be carried out on 82 New York buildings following safety concerns arising from the indictment of Testwell Laboratories in January 2009 and a further firm in July 209. Testwell were accused of falsifying concrete mix design reports for the high profile Freedom Tower project (now 1 World Trade Center), Yankees Stadium, Jet Blue Terminal...more.

BIG, in collaboration with ARUP and Transsolar, was awarded first-prize in an international competition to design Shenzhen International Energy Mansion, the regional headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company.  The purpose of the international design competition was to find a sustainable and efficient solution for the Shenzhen Energy Company office headquarters...more.

Kuehn Malvezzi won the first prize, a highly paid special award, at the Berlin castle competition for a site in Berlin-Mitte. For part of the so-called banana, namely the site, Alexander Street / Stralauer road opposite the Jannowitzbrücke, the architect designed a block-edge development, growing from a 65-meter-high hotel and office tower. The building is conventionally shaped and covered with a stone facade...more.

Architects Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) have unveiled new images of a residential project for Singapore, comprising long low apartment blocks stacked in hexagonal configurations. Called Interlace, the project will consist of 31 interconnected six-storey blocks stacked around communal gardens, containing 1,040 apartments...more.

Faced with intractable shop owners, the developer of a new luxury hotel tower to stand in the middle of Glasgow has been forced to try and seek compulsory purchase orders (CPO) so that the scheme can go forward. The 92.5 metre tall scheme has been designed by Ian Simpson Architects. Work on what would be the tallest building in Glasgow was originally scheduled to get going in 2009, but this has been dragging due to issues over ownership of the site...more.

In twenty years since the Loma Prieta earthquake, how has the Bay Area improved its seismic readiness? A new website helps answer that question with a map of retrofitted buildings from Sacramento to Santa Cruz. The site allows anyone to post information and photos on an interactive map. The results, say the site's developers, show two decades of progress, one building at a time...more.

Jakarta residents should not have to be worried about an earthquake while working at high-rise buildings, following the statement by Indonesian Architect Association (IAI) and ASEAN Chartered Professional Engineer Coordinating (ACPEC) citing that the high-rise buildings in Jakarta are safe from collapsing, since building construction there has an earthquake resistance value reaching 10 on the Richter scale...more.

A master plan by Kamehameha Schools to remake 29 acres of its land in Kaka'ako into a largely high-rise residential community was approved on Wednesday, 2 September 2009, by the state agency that oversees the area. Overall, the buildout of the nine blocks between Restaurant Row and Ward Centers mauka of Ala Moana is anticipated to take 15 years and produce up to 2,750 homes with seven towers as well as low-rise buildings, some retail and park space...more.

Plans seem to be going full steam ahead to alter Karachi’s skyline. Apparently President Zardari thinks that Karachi deserves a modern skyline boasting skyscrapers, in keeping with its status as one of the world’s largest cities. Foreign consultants are being hired, while a High Density Zone Board has been established by the Karachi Building Control Authority. Legislation is due to be tabled in the Sindh Assembly to regulate the construction of skyscrapers...more.

The climber nicknamed "Spiderman" has scaled the 88-storey, 452-metre (1,483ft) Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the third tallest building in the world. Alain Robert, who ended up in police handcuffs, almost disappeared into the smog above the Malaysian capital on Tuesday , 1 September 2009, in the latest of the escapades that have made the 47-year-old Frenchman the greatest daredevil of modern times...more.

When imagining a “high-rise office building”, most people think of an enclosed glass and steel box, stripped of detail, perfect in its photogenic, modernist simplicity. African architect Mick Pearce has tried to change that model, demonstrating his ideas in two signature buildings, the Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe, and the Council House 2 Building in Melbourne, Australia. Both buildings employ common-sense passive systems for climate control based on gradients and inspired by the work of a tiny insect, the termite...more.

One of London’s iconic Victorian railway buildings is being brought back to life after developers almost had it bulldozed. The Light Bar is being ‘preserved’ and turned into a symbolic part of the new development at Shoreditch. The preserved former power station that generated electricity for the Great Eastern Railway when Liverpool Street station was built in the 1880s had been standing in the way of developers’ controversial plans for a skyscraper complex of offices, hotel and housing...more.

It was nice while it lasted, but now, it seems, the dream is over. The long-awaited, much-feted eco-city of Dongtan, described by environmental campaigner, Herbert Girardet as ‘the world’s first eco-city', has bitten the dust. After four years of presentations, proposals and puff, the universal praise has proven to be a little premature...more.

This design for the Cheongna City Tower by Emergent is based on creating an innovative spatial, structural, and energy production device which will become an operational symbol of the future for the IFEZ Cheongna region. Located at the intersection of the main pedestrian passageway from east to west and the main artificial waterway from north to south in Lake Park, the 400-meter tall Tower is intended to be a hub of urban activity and a new destination for the region...more.

Vatika Infotech City is an 800-acre greenfield township near Jaipur, a historic city in Rajasthan, India, famous for its Royal Palaces and handicrafts but also is an emerging IT hub. Infotech City, a WAN Awards 2009 - Urban design entry, is a response to all of the above. It provides the contemporary response, inspired by old markets, screen walls, and sandstone buildings which have effectively dealt with the harsh desert climate...more.

Police arrested a French climber nicknamed "Spiderman" on Tuesday, 31 August 2009, after he scaled Malaysia's iconic 88-story Petronas Twin Towers. Alain Robert sneaked past security early Tuesday to climb to the top of Tower 2 of the landmark buildings in Kuala Lumpur before he was detained. Robert has already tried to climb the Twin Towers twice but only reached the 60th floor both times before he was arrested. His last attempt was in 2007...more.

Recent inspections of a Beltline office tower where two pieces of glass fell 18-storeys on the weekend of 30 August 2009 found nothing amiss, the province and city say. Work on the Palliser South highrise at 201 10th Ave. S. E. will remain suspended until the city receives an engineering report examining how and why the two panes of glass, installed about 10 days earlier, fell to the ground...more.

As the 1928 promotional brochure for The Penobscot Building declared, the finest materials and state-of-the-art construction were used in an effort to express man’s progress and Detroit’s great destiny. At its completion it was the eighth tallest building in the world and remained Detroit’s tallest building for nearly 50 years. The 47-story limestone and granite structure joined the Buhl Building and Ford Building, along with the later Guardian Building, to form what is known as “Detroit’s Wall Street” of skyscrapers...more.

Goettsch Partners has designed this hotel with a hole in it to stand in the Saudi city of Riyadh in the King Abdullah Financial District. The building features a 3-storey podium containing the various services of the hotel whilst supporting the main 17-storey section of the tower above. One of the big challenges for the architects has been to deal with the huge amount of heat that the building will get, particularly in the height of summer, which will stress it to its limits...more.

Even as the global real estate sector attempts to recover from economic downturn, Mumbai’s realty sector has gradually started looking good. For the metropolis, recovery is not just limited to constructing new buildings, but in a complete redevelopment. Lalit Gandhi, Chairman of Remaking of Mumbai Federation spoke on the status, opportunities and challenges of the redevelopment process in the Island city...more.

The Federal Building in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, features an extensive use of natural light to illuminate offices and a white roof to reflect heat. It has LEED certification, the country’s most recognized seal of approval for green buildings. But the building is hardly a model of energy efficiency. According to an environmental assessment in 2008, it did not score high enough to qualify for the Energy Star label granted by the Environmental Protection Agency...more.

Hoping to be selected as the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the City of Chicago is actively planning for new facilities to accommodate the games. Those plans currently threaten a complex of post-World War II buildings on Chicago’s lakefront, the Michael Reese Hospital Campus, largely planned and co-designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. With demolition partially underway, time is running out on a full-scale rescue plan...more.

It takes just seconds for tall buildings to collapse during powerful earthquakes. Knowing precisely what’s happening in those seconds can help engineers design buildings that are less prone to sustaining that kind of damage. But the nature of collapse is not well understood. That’s why researchers at the University at Buffalo and Japan’s Kyoto University teamed up to try an innovative “hybrid” approach to testing full-scale buildings collapse...more.

With all the luxury residential development that has taken place in Manhattan over the course of the past few years, there are many options for the discerning buyer seeking the quintessential living experience in New York. But few equal the cache of Manhattan House, a mid-century modern masterpiece on Manhattans’ Upper East Side credited with giving Modernism a foot hold in the city...more.

Artificial trees that absorb carbon dioxide at thousands of times the rate at which real trees do are the top recommendation from mechanical engineers for possible solutions to the threat of climate change. The report, by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, calls on the government to put more money into “geo-engineering” options that could combat rising temperatures, rather than focusing simply on emissions reduction and the renewable energy...more.

Cities are looking for green building methods they can cost-justify and bypassing those they cannot. Should a city that's committed to environmentally friendly construction pay $825,000 for a job that was expected to cost $248,000? No, Edina officials decided when they got a bid that high for a new geothermal heating and cooling system for their new public works building...more.

Foster + Partners, together with PHA and mobility in chain, has won an international competition to design the masterplan for the expansion of the Incheon free economic zone, an extensive mixed-use scheme encompassing the islands of Kanghwa and Onjin-Gun, to the northeast of Seoul.  Conceived as a self-sufficient, sustainable development, the 300 square-kilometer masterplan will extend organically from a central transportation spine...more.

The Mayor of London has ‘called in’ a planning application for a 63-storey skyscraper, in a landmark move which could overturn Tower Hamlets’s decision to reject the tower earlier this month.  It is the first time the new power for intervening in local planning decisions, which only came into force at the beginning of Boris Johnson’s office, has been used.  If the Mayor approves the Columbus Tower scheme in the city’s Docklands...more.

St. Petersburg is in danger of losing its status as a United Nations world heritage site because of OAO Gazprom Neft’s plan to build a 400-meter (1,050- foot) skyscraper in Russia’s second-largest city.  The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization renewed “its grave concern that the proposed Ohkta Center Tower could affect the outstanding universal value of the property and requests the state party to suspend work on this project...more.

Giant umbrellas, with a design based on the principles of sunflowers, will provide moveable shade in the day, store heat, then close and release the heat at night in the plaza of a new eco-city in the United Arab Emirates.  The ‘sunflower umbrellas’ are one aspect of the winning design by the international practice Laboratory for Visionary Architecture [LAVA] for the city centre for Masdar in the UAE - the world’s first zero carbon, zero waste city...more.

Designed to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of financial devastation in the City of London is the Heron, a residential tower formerly called Milton Court to stand near the Barbican that is being developed by the property company it takes its marketing name from.  Ground works have been carried out by Ardmore and they are expected to bid next month for the full construction contract alongside three other construction giants...more.

Police have reopened Eagle Street in the CBD after glass plummeted from a high-rise building overnight.  A police spokeswoman said it was believed the glass was from part of the pool fencing on level 39 at Riparian Plaza.  She said the falling glass was reported to police about 3.15am. No injuries have been reported; it is believed hot and gusty conditions may have contributed to the incident...more.