Oct 27, Birmingham

A UK property developer has unveiled plans to build one of the UK's tallest skyscrapers in Birmingham.  Regal Property Group has submitted a planning application to Birmingham City Council to build the £125 million Regal Tower, which could create a number of construction jobs.  If granted permission, the tower will be the UK's tallest building outside of London...more

Oct 27, Beijing

In July 2009, Steven Holl Architects’ “Linked Hybrid” towers in Beijing, China were named 2009 “Best Tall Building” in the regional category ‘Asia & Australia’ by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Award recipients had to possess seamless integration of architectural form, structure, and building systems, as well as exhibit sustainable design qualities working to preserve the quality of urban life...more

Oct 26, Abu Dhabi

If there is one city that shouldn’t have to worry about impending ecological disaster it is Abu Dhabi. It holds massive reserves of oil, about 8 per cent of what’s left. It sits in the middle of a harsh, barren desert, sweltering in searing heat. It has no clean water, its sea is polluted and there is no topsoil, just a covering of sand. It is also the biggest per capita consumer of fuel, massively reliant on cars, power-hungry desalination and air-conditioning...more

Oct 26, Barcelona

Located on the Nova Bocana (the “new entrance”) of the Port of Barcelona, which “opens” the city’s historic center to the Mediterranean, W Barcelona is near the world famous boardwalk La Barceloneta and Barcelona’s Old Town and Las Ramblas.  The slender 26-story hotel sits perpendicular to the dock to allow for unprecedented sea and city views from virtually every guest room. This volume is inserted in the low atrium building...more

Oct 26, Beijing

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was awarded the contract to create a stunning new Central Business District in Beijing. The project will integrate into the existing downtown urban district and will improve transportation infrastructure while introducing energy-efficient buildings and green public space. The plan also provides a framework for new sustainable growth that would result in eliminating 215,000 tons of CO2 per year...more

Oct 26, Bangalore

The Silicon City’s skyline should have gone the way of Mumbai, with redefined heights for highrise classification making it easier to build taller. Red tape is stopping Bangalore from reaching greater heights, but the BDA’s Masterplan 2015 is trying to increase these limits.  Until now, any building with a height of 15 meters or more (ground plus four floors) was classified a highrise; the new zonal regulations have increased the threshold to 24 meters...more

Oct 26, Birmingham

Extraordinary plans for a 200m-high vertical theme park in Birmingham will be submitted to planning experts in spring 2010, according to developer VTP Global.  The news comes more than three years after the scheme, designed by RTKL, was first unveiled.  Despite being privately slammed by CABE in 2007, the developer intends to press on with the sky-high tourist attraction, now known as the VTP200 (previously the Pinnacle)...more

Oct 24

Many consider Chicago the birthplace of the skyscraper, and Chicago architects continue to lead the field in tall building design both at home and abroad. Tall buildings offer spatial efficiencies in a world that grows more urban by the day, and today's skyscrapers are breaking new ground in height, innovative design, and optimal densities. This article peels back the skin and design process of four projects currently underway by prominent Chicago offices...more

Oct 24, St. Petersburg

Opposition to the Okhta Center, the $2 billion glass skyscraper the Russian energy giant Gazprom seeks to build in historic St. Petersburg, has been mounting since the project's inception.  Locals in Russia's cultural capital worried the 400-meter-high skyscraper -- known derisively as "kukuruzina" (the corncob) -- would destroy the integrity of the city's famed neoclassical architecture...more

Oct 23, New York

Contributing to a sense of wonder lies at the heart of what Hani Rashid wants to create. “If you open people’s eyes... bring back that sense of wonder we had as a child..., “ muses the architect of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Hotel, “... we all want to be inspired – and feel alive...” Whether you’re gazing at it from a distance or standing inside it, the Formula 1 circuit’s spectacular centerpiece has exactly that effect...more

Oct 23, Seoul

At 640 m high, Digital Media City Landmark tower in Seoul, South Korea will be around 180m shorter than the Burj Dubai, but it is projected to be the second tallest building in the world when it completes in April 2015. Having broken ground this week, the SOM designed tower costing 3.3 trillion won (€1.9billion), will now rise 133 floors in height.  The Landmark is to be the visual 'light' for what could be the most technologically advanced district in the world...more

Oct 23

Croatian architectural firm UPI-2M have designed 'biooctanic' a series of crop production towers used for the production of bio fuel and city air recuperation. The idea was to place the towers on positions of existing petrol stations in cities. Their research led them to the conclusion that algae and bamboo would give best production results in these locations...more

Oct 22, Asia

Even as many building sites have been idled world-wide in the wake of the financial crisis, construction workers are expected to start work in 2010 on the foundation of a 123-story tapered glass tower in Seoul that is vying to become South Korea's tallest building.  The project could still run into delays. But if it proceeds on schedule, the 1,821-foot Lotte Super Tower 123 would be the latest example of Asian projects that are providing a financial lifeline...more

Oct 22, New York

In the late-19th century, cast-iron architecture was a fashion expedient: If your Greek Revival facade was outdated, you could melt down the iron, have it cast in another style, and then rebolt it to your building. More than a century later, Edward Durell Stone’s First Canadian Place is getting an analogous, albeit high-tech, treatment—a facelift in custom-designed, white-fritted glass.  Completed in 1975, the 72-story tower...more

Oct 22, London

National Grid’s plans to redevelop a ‘landmark’ gasholder in Battersea could proceed following a decision by DCMS to grant the site immunity from listing.  Make’s scheme for the site, which features four mixed-use towers and a public courtyard, would involve the demolition of an ‘impressive’ 1930s gasholder, which was granted immunity from listing despite the government noting it’s ‘prominence as a local landmark’...more

Oct 22, Dublin

Architects Skidmore Owings and Merrill have been working up designs for a new tower to grace Dublin's rather modest skyline.  To be located at North Wall Quay on the north bank of the River Liffey, the tower which is still in the visionary stage of design. Occupying a six acre site, if built the tower would stand at anything up to 130 metres, although gaining approval for such projects in the area has proved notoriously difficult in the past...more

Oct22, Dallas

Covering six acres of an eight-acre site at the corner of Harwood and Young streets in downtown Dallas, adjacent to the 2.1 million sq ft Dallas Convention Center, the Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel marks the beginning of a new, revitalized downtown Dallas.  Attached to the Dallas Convention Center, rising 23 stories with 1,016 rooms, the hotel aims to reposition the city as one of the nation’s top convention locales...more

Oct 22, London

The team behind the City of London’s Pinnacle skyscraper has revealed it is sticking with original architect Kohn Pedersen Fox rather than switching to breakaway practice PLP.  KPF is behind the design of the 288m-high building, also known as the Helter Skelter or Bishopsgate Tower, which is to be completed in 2013.  Main contractor Brookfield Construction confirmed that PLP, many of whose staff were responsible for the scheme...more

Oct 22, Istanbul

After being put on hold, construction work has begun again on a new high rise project for the Turkish city of Istanbul.  Named the Zorlu Centre it is located at the junction of the Bosphorus Bridge European connection and the Buyukdere axis which connects the city with the Maslak Business District.  The site which is owned by Zorlu Property is one of the few remaining locations in the city that face south giving views of the old city...more

Oct 21, New York

Riverside South, like so many of Donald Trump’s projects, is not particularly known for its architecture. Beginning in 1997—after decades of plans, deals, and legal wrangling—the first of nearly a dozen faux-Park Avenue towers began to rise above the West Side Highway. In 2005, Extell Development bought the final undeveloped parcels at the southern tip of the project. But instead of more bland luxury...more

Oct 21, Seoul

The project of what will be the tallest skyscraper in Asia is one step closer to completion. New York City-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates finished its conceptual design for the Lotte Super Tower 123.  KPF won the assignment in 2009, beating out two other companies vying for the job. KPF design principal James von Klemperer says his company’s design won because, “We made a point of balancing powerful imagery with strong constructional logic...more

Oct 21, Chicago

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has named John Portman, Founder and Chairman of John Portman & Associates (PORTMAN), the 2009 Lynn S. Beedle Award Winner. The award was presented on October 22, 2009 at a special awards dinner hosted as part of the CTBUH`s annual conference held this year in Chicago.  The Lynn S. Beedle Award honors an individual who has made extraordinary contributions...more

Oct 19, New York

Georgica is a new 20 story glass condo building located on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Named after a pond in the Hamptons, the project promotes a privileged lifestyle to families who covet the neighborhood's excellent schools, fine restaurants and world class museums.  Designed by Cetra/Ruddy, the building contains 58 apartments, ranging from two to four bedrooms, with no more than four to a floor...more

Oct 19, London

Boris Johnson’s draft London View Management Framework (LVMF) has been slammed by local authorities worried it will hinder redevelopment. Elements of the proposals, released for consultation as part of the London Plan, have been described as ‘blunt and inflexible’ by Southwark Council and ‘inappropriate’ by the City of London Corporation. The LVMF sets out safeguards for 26 strategically important views across the capital...more

Oct 19, Dubai

As the princess tower gears up to become the tallest residential building in the world, this article looks at the progress on the 420m-high development and discovers what makes building a tall tower different from any other project. The Princess Tower consists of approximately 580 apartments. It has gymnasiums and swimming pools on levels five and six, and has six floors of parking below ground and four above...more

Oct 19, Chicago

Jupiter Realty Company announced the "topping off" of their 50-story apartment tower in Chicago's Loop. Don Smith, a Jupiter principal, noted "the pouring of the 50th and final floor of the 389-unit building marks a significant milestone in the construction process for what is on track to become the newest and one of the few LEED certified high-rise rental residences in Chicago and the first apartment building to be built in the central Loop in 15 years."...more

Oct 19, Dubai

It will be the world's tallest building, with the most floors (164) and the world's highest and fastest building. As the project is metaphoric for the strength of Samsung Construction, the company itself symbolizes the growth of South Korea onto the world stage. A country once devastated by war and still divided by north and south has rebuilt itself into a modern capitalist democracy with companies with a global reach such as Samsung...more

Oct 19, Los Angeles

Deutsche Bank AG, has reached a tentative lawsuit settlement with a group of Cosmopolitan homebuyers, sources familiar with the deal say. Clark County District Court Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez is expected to rule on the proposed pact on Oct. 20. The agreement only applies to plaintiffs for Cosmopolitan's 600-foot-tall, 1,322-unit West Tower. The $3.9 billion development at 3700 Las Vegas Blvd. is tentatively scheduled to open in late 2010...more

Oct 16, London

It's been a long time coming but firm plans are starting to surface for one of the key undeveloped site in the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea that could well see the construction of a new 40 floor tower rising 128 metres tall. The plans draw on justifying the tower by stating that there is already the Chelsea Harbour Tower in the area along with approved plans to build two towers at Lots Road power station...more

Oct 16, Chicago

There's an important conference coming up in Chicago. It's called "Evolution of the Skyscraper: New challenges in a world of global warming and recession." If it turns out to be more than a show-and-tell session of big projects--some finished, others dead in their tracks, still others (like Russia's planned Gazprom Tower) generating opposition--it could help evolve new models for skyscraper design once the economy picks up again...more

Oct 16, Atlanta

While mayors come and go, John Portman is forever. Portman walked Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin through the High Museum, exploring three floors of models, drawings, paintings, sculpture and photographs detailing the career of the architect who, in a large measure, built this city. The exhibit includes views and models of 15 architectural projects, including some vastly ambitious works, such as the Songdo Landmark City master plan, South Korea...more

Oct 16, Boston

Developer Don Chiofaro has bowed to community opposition and will reduce the height of his harborside Boston Arch tower complex, designed by KPF. Formerly at 1.5 million square feet, the building will shave off 10 to 15 percent of its bulk, including the loss of the distinctive “skyframe” that gave it its name. The frame, which rose to 780 feet, is gone, leaving the towers behind, also at reduced heights. Final designs are still in the works...more

Oct 16, Toronto

Toronto will have to wait until the Ritz-Carlton building opens on Wellington Street West to see whether the accommodations in this hotel and condominium tower live up to the chain's luxury brand. The 156 ample residential suites, ranging in size from 1,100 sqft to 10,000 sqft, are selling at around $1,000 a ft. And the ratio of staff to guests in the hotel component, about two to one, will be high enough to insure that everyone will be pampered to the max...more

Oct 16, Chicago

Dublin developer Garrett Kelleher’s company Shelbourne faces eviction from a lavish sales centre set up to market the troubled Chicago Spire skyscraper. Shelbourne has not paid rent  and owes more than $316,000 (€211,000), according to a complaint filed in court. Mr Kelleher’s firm rented an entire floor of the NBC tower and invested $10m to kit out the centre with a full-scale model of one of its apartments, conference rooms and meeting areas...more

Oct 16, Seoul

The construction of the world's second tallest building starts in Seoul on Friday, October16th, 2009. The ground-breaking ceremony for the 133-story skyscraper tentatively called the DMC Landmark Tower will be held at Digital Media City in Sangam-dong, northwestern Seoul. Construction is to be complete in 2015. Built on a 37,280 sq.m plot, the ultra high-riser will stand 640 m tall, the world's second tallest after the 160-story...more

Oct 16, Cardiff, Wales

If IT had been built 5,000 years ago, it could have been the tallest building in the world – today, it would become the tallest in Wales. Planning permission has been granted for a hotel tower which will pierce the sky at 127m above sea level in Cardiff’s International Sports Village. Although it is still smaller than Cairo’s Great Pyramid of Giza, which stood 146m high when it was completed in 2,750BC...more

Oct 16, Rotterdam

While the harbor city of the imagination is an exciting metropolis with a lively waterfront, such cities frequently prove, in reality, to be introspective places. This certainly is true of Rotterdam, a city where a band of dykes and quay structures have precluded any possibility of building on the edge of the River Maas. After the city’s bombing in the second world war, urban planners created “a window to the river”...more

Oct 16, New York

The controversial Trump Soho condo-hotel at Spring and Varick Sts. is expected to open in February, nearly four years after developers first announced the ambitious high-rise project. The glass-paneled, 42-story building — which has weathered protests from neighborhood preservationists over its size and operation, lawsuits from local civic organizations and the death of a construction worker at the site in early 2007...more

Oct 15, Toronto

Most condo highrises in Toronto are clad in window-walls, but a few developers are going with more expensive unitized curtainwall systems normally associated with office buildings. Two downtown projects currently on the rise, the Ritz-Carlton Toronto and Trump International Hotel & Tower (both with large residential components), are good examples. There are plenty of reasons for selecting a curtainwall system...more

Oct 15, Pyongyang, North Korea

Infamously ugly and unfinished, the shell of the Ryugyong Hotel dominates North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. But work on the skyscraper began again in the summer of 2009 after a 16-year hiatus and, as the company behind it tells the BBC's Matthew Davis, an end may finally be in sight. A three-sided pyramid with walls that jag upwards at 75 degrees, capped by a series of concentric rings...more

Oct 15, London

Eric Parry, the principal of the firm responsible for the design of 5 Aldermanbury Square, explains in this video the history of the site and the rational of the design. He discuses the progression of the design and displays a series of models which explain the firm's thought process and issues. The Architects' Journal has published short films which document each of the projects nominated for the Sterling Prize...more

Oct 14, Qatar

MEED reported that state run downstream energy company Industries Qatar is planning to build a 460 meters tall tower that will be the second tallest building in Qatar. The 83 storey tower, known as the IQ Tower will be built in the West Bay area of the corniche opposite the Sheraton hotel. Industries Qatar, a holding vehicle for the downstream activities of state run oil company Qatar Petroleum will use the 71,000 square meters building...more

Oct 14, Germany

Electric cars, intelligent washing machines, mini power plants in your basement: Germany is on the verge of an energy revolution. SPIEGEL ONLINE looks at the latest developments in the smart grid and how it will change the relationship between consumers and energy suppliers. The power grid of the future is one of humanity's boldest visions. Gigantic wind farms in the sea and enormous solar fields in the desert are to generate...more

Oct 13, Chicago

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) presents the 2009 Chicago Conference, "Evolution of the Skyscraper: New challenges in a world of global warming and recession," on Thursday, October 22, and Friday, October 23, in IIT's Hermann Hall, 3241 S. Federal St., Chicago. Key conference speakers include Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, His Excellency Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the owner of Burj Dubai...more

Oct 13, Toronto

The financial district of this city, the fifth-largest metropolitan area in North America, with a population of 5.4 million, is the scene of an exceptional flurry of development, especially in light of the recession. Three green towers with a combined 3.1 million square feet of office space are opening before the end of the year in the downtown financial district. In addition, within a 20-minute walk, three high-rise condominium-hotel towers...more

Oct 13, New York

Imagine New York City’s UN Headquarters building transported from its stuffy midtown location to a trendy downtown spot, kinked in the middle, rotated 90 degrees, and balanced over an elevated rail-line-cum-popular parkland and you’ve got the Standard New York. The latest incarnation of hotelier André Balazs’s chain of hip, “anything but standard” accommodations is the first he built from the ground up...more

Oct 13, London

It's surprisingly hard to decide on the tallest building in the world. Architects are much like Hollywood stars in their tendency to try to add a couple of sneaky inches. The people at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, who adjudicate on these matters, have had to ban all kinds of Cuban-heel equivalents, from enormous radio masts to metal "guy-ropes" holding up towers that would otherwise collapse in strong winds...more

Oct 13, Paris

With 150,000 employees flocking to its high-rise towers daily, La Défense is Europe's biggest business district by office space and Paris's main asset in its competition with London as a leading financial center. Less than a kilometer west of Paris, the district was launched in 1958 to respond to growing demand for office space without disfiguring the historical center of the French capital...more

Oct 13, Brisbane

A funding rescue package from a foreign bank will finally result in some building activity on the stalled Vision Tower site in Brisbane's CBD, developers have promised. The Bank of Scotland, a mortgagee for the troubled $1 billion skyscraper project, has thrown developer Austcorp a financial lifeline with funds to bail it out of a $500,000 unpaid council rates debt. The company said today an unspecified sum...more

Oct 13, Ipswich

The Jerwood DanceHouse, a major new international centre for dance developed by national organisation DanceEast, opened in late 2009 as the cultural heart of a £70 million redevelopment of the waterfront in Ipswich. As the first cultural development to be opened in Ipswich in over a decade, the £8.9 million DanceHouse designed by John Lyall Architects, provides 2,500 sq m of state-of-the-art facilities for dance, among the best in Europe, featuring...more

Oct 12, Qatar

KEO International Consultants have released their monumental designs for BARWA’s prestigious Financial District Project in Doha, Qatar. The comprehensive designs for the mixed use complex will create a new business community within Doha and a new landmark for the city. Raj Patel, Principal Designer at KEO describes the design as: “Two nautilus forms spiraling in opposing directions which create dynamic flow of mass and space...more

Oct 12, London

The long expected planning application has gone in for a series of new towers at 3 Millharbour and 6-8 South Quay Square in London's Docklands. Featuring nine buildings in total, first part of the application relates to the four proposed buildings on what's dubbed the Millharbour Quarter have been designed by Foster + Partners with input from Skidmore, Owings and Merrill into the masterplan that corresponds with the overall vision for the area...more

Oct 12, San Diego

Built in partnership with Affirmed Housing Group, Centre City Development Corporation (CCDC), US Bank, and Turner Construction Company, Ten Fifty B is pleased to announce that it has topped out. The 23-story, $91 million development in the heart of downtown San Diego will feature 229 affordable apartments in studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom designs, and 14,000 square feet of commercial space...more

Oct 12, Hamburg

With a focus on connecting workers and visitors to nature and providing a green ambiance, this proposal for an office building in Hamburg talks the talk and walks the walk. Designed by Düsseldorf-based firm Greeen! Architects for the Building and Environment Authority (BSU) of Hamburg, the Eco Towers provide a very low use energy structure with gardens and green roofs scattered all over for use by workers and the public...more

Oct 12, London

The government has rejected the controversial £1 billion Three Sisters tower scheme on London’s South Bank. Secretary of State John Denham said the proposals for P&O and Morgan Stanley Real Estate, which would see the redevelopment of the existing Elizabeth House near Waterloo Station ‘fell short of the excellence expected’ and lacked ‘the balanced, sculptural [and] elegant qualities crucial to the success of tall buildings...more

Oct 12, Delhi

Plans for a new and exclusive private township in Gurgoan, part of the Indian city of Delhi has been given the go ahead. The project named Ireocity, located at the junction of Golf Course Road and Sector 58 the 500 acre will be developed by IREO Management PVT LTD and will be made up of four 30 storey towers and a signature tower not so originally named the Grand Arch which will stand at 22 stories...more

Oct 11, Omaha, Nebraska

The developer of the planned high-rise condominium Wall Street Tower said the project remains in the works, despite the continuing recession. Jason Townsend said he continues to be optimistic, despite delays that have pushed construction back from its original starting date last year. "We're moving forward," he said. Townsend said he recently met with Mayor Jim Suttle to update him on the project...more

Oct 10, UAE

The UAE real estate market might be struggling through a severe contraction, but building green is still high on the agenda for those looking to save the big bucks. As developers replace project launches with cost-cutting programmes, have environmental issues gone out the window? Industry players say no, claiming that going green is increasingly becoming a cost-saving measure...more

Oct 9, Chicago

Dreams die hard, especially those of the jumbo skyscraper variety.  When Santiago Calatrava was in town in October 2009 for a lecture titled “Beyond the Spire,” I figured he was ready to stick an R.I.P. sign on his plan for the Chicago Spire, the famously unbuilt condo tower that would have twisted 2,000 feet into the sky at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive.  Wrong.  Calatrava counseled patience...more

Oct 9, London

The simmering feud between Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and its former partners at new practice PLP Architecture reached boiling point as both practices fought for control of the Heron Tower.  The struggle for what will soon be London's  tallest tower ended with each side declaring victory after client Heron International made the surprise announcement that it would employ both firms...more

Oct 9, Paris

France's self-sytled Spiderman, Alain Robert, climbed a 152 meter high building in Paris with no ropes.  It took him just over half an hour to scale the 33-floor skyscraper.  Once down he was taken away by local police but no formal charges were brought against him.  Watch video of Alain Robert climbing The Ariane Tower here.

Oct 8, Manchester

Peel’s MediaCityUK has become the first development in the world to receive a BREEAM approved sustainable community status, incorporating leading technology and solutions into the design of the £500m development. Phase 1 of MediaCityUK has included many features to meet the BREEAM criteria, in particular using its greatest asset, water from the Manchester Ship Canal in the production of power, heating and cooling...more

Oct 8, Bangkok

Construction work is expected to begin early in 2010 on a new tower project to be sited on what were formally the gardens of the British Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.  Located on the Ploen Chit Road, one of the cities main arteries, the project named Central Embassy will be 30 stories at its highest point providing roughly 150,000 square meters of space. It comes from the drawing boards of British architectural firm Amanda Levete Architects...more

Oct 8, London

London Mayor Boris Johnson approved plans for Columbus Tower, a 63-story office building near Canary Wharf, overruling local officials who had rejected the skyscraper.  The tower will be among Britain’s tallest, about the same size as the Canary Wharf financial center’s One Canada Square, according to developer Commercial Estates Group Ltd. One Canada Square is Britain’s tallest building, though the Heron Tower, the Pinnacle and Shard of Glass...more

Oct 7, Rotterdam

In order to remain successful the harbor of Rotterdam needs to expand.  A new radar tower is required on the border of the land to guide the heavy traffic.  The port of Rotterdam organized a competition for architects and designers alike to develop a landmark through the tower, which also could be used as a viewing platform.  The actual radar will be positioned 70 meters above sea level...more

Oct 7, Dubai

At first glance, Graft Lab’s dazzling complex in Dubai may appear to have a cluster of sparkling geometric pools at its base. But upon further inspection, the web-like structures are actually something even more desirable than a place to take a dip in the hot desert – a means of collecting the scorching rays of the sun and transforming them into energy. Dubbed the Vertical Village, this multi-use building and accompanying massive array of solar collectors...more

Oct 6, Istanbul

When Marks Barfield dreamed up Skyhouse with its "petals" radiating from a central core, they were unlikely to have realized just how influential the basic design would eventually become,, even if it wasn't built in the U.K.  The latest of these buildings to feature this particular arrangement is the planned Tasyapi Seyrantepe Tower in Istanbul, a 255 meter tall, 75 story residential building designed by Hakan Kiran to stand above a new shopping mall...more

Oct 6, Abu Dhabi

Design world partnership (dwp) has won a contract from Aabar Investments to provide the architecture, environmental and interior design services for a 41 story luxury residential tower in Saraya Abu Dhabi. Saraya 1, as the tower will be called, will be situated near the Arabian coastline within the 'Lagoon' Precinct providing uninterrupted vistas of the waterfront and foreshore districts...more

Oct 6, Las Vegas

Despite the recession, CityCenter continues to rise on the Las Vegas Strip, with several buildings scheduled to open later in 2009. One project that certainly has not turned out as planned is the 400-room Harmon Hotel tower, designed by Foster + Partners, which will be nearly half its estimated height due to construction defects. The problems have escalated into finger-pointing between project parties, resulting in legal actions...more

Oct 6, Helsinki

American firm REX architecture received 2nd prize in the low2no sustainable development competition sponsored by Sitra, the Finnish innovation fund in Helsinki, Finland.  The structure contains 14,000 square meters of residential units, 8,000 square meters of headquarters and 13,200 square meters of 'urban infill'.  Evolving from Helsinki’s traditional perimeter block fabric, a new building typology re-injects population into the urban core...more

Oct 6, London

Novarc Studio has drawn up a masterplan for the area surrounding the Trellick Tower in West London.  The plans, produced with the local residents’ association, were needed after the demolition of part of the tower’s garage block and the neighboring Edenham Old People’s Home.  The North Kensington proposals include an ambitious public square as well as a new health centre, older people’s accommodation and community facilities...more

Oct 6, Lima, Peru

Berlin practice Hackenbrioch Architekten have designed an apartment block for Lima, Peru, where sections of the facade fold open.  Called Golf’s Tower, the building will have a view over a golf club on one side and the sea on the other.  Full-height windows in the facade fold away and open completely, combining with folding sunshades to transform the opaque block and open it to the surroundings...more

Oct 6, Charlotte

Construction is set to resume on The Vue, the luxury uptown condo high-rise that has sat stalled for a month.  The condo tower's general contractor, R.J. Griffin & Co., issued a statement saying it had been paid by the project's owner and that work on the uptown high-rise will resume "promptly."  R.J. Griffin abruptly stopped work on the nearly complete 50-story tower at Fifth and Pine streets Sept. 1, 2009, saying it had not been paid by the developer, MCL Cos...more

Oct 6, Melbourne

Australians are familiar with takeaway Chinese food, but future buyers into a northern suburbs high-rise could be the first to get takeaway Chinese apartments.  Melbourne developer Jack Haber is poised to ship almost 100 ready-made apartments - complete with kitchen appliances, built-in wardrobes, carpets and fresh paint - from a factory in China to be stacked together for a revolutionary Northcote project...more

Oct 6, London

English Heritage (EH) and Westminster City Council have decided not to carry on with its legal battle to try and stop Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands’ Doon Street tower.  EH said it decided not to appeal against the recent High Court decision to allow the practice’s contentious 43-story skyscraper near London’s South Bank.  EH mounted an ‘unprecedented’ legal challenge to torpedo the project...more

Oct 5, Dubai

The developer building the world's tallest skyscraper said it is committed to opening the Burj Dubai by the end of 2009, though a staggered rollout means only part of the silvery tower will be ready at first.  Ahmad al-Matrooshi, managing director of Emaar Properties' UAE operations, said the opening date is being kept secret to build excitement. But he insisted that major work is nearly complete and that the tower would meet Emaar's latest deadline...more

Oct 5, New York

HSBC agreed to sell its New York headquarters to Israel’s Koor Industries and Property and Building for $330m.  Koor and Property and Building are both subsidiaries of Israeli holding company IDB Holding, which said it would receive $45m in rental income in the first year while operating expenses will total $18.5m.  The bank will remain the main tenant in the 865,000 sq ft New York building for 10 years with an option to extend its lease...more

Oct 5, London

With the threat of a possible public inquiry hanging over it like the sword of Damocles, the planned tower of Eileen House in Elephant and Castle has been reduced again in height.  Concerns from English Heritage have seen the developer Oakmayne Properties have the architect, Allies and Morrison, slash another two floors off the height of the building to 128.25 metres from 137.5 metres...more

Oct 5, Liverpool

Airport and docks group Peel Holdings has welcomed a decision by Liverpool planners to allow skyscrapers in the World Heritage site buffer zone.  It paves the way for the city’s biggest-ever regeneration project, a £5.5 billion proposal to build high-rise buildings in the city’s northern Central Docks area.  The go-ahead is contained in a council report that was ordered by Unesco after the latter raised fears that the historic waterfront was not being properly safeguarded...more

Oct 3, Dubai

Oct 2, Calgary

A rare combination of factors caused two panes of glass to plummet from a highrise under construction to the street below, according to the city's chief building official.  The investigation into the accident at the South Palliser tower at the end of August determined proper practices were in place on the site, but a flaw at the edge of the glass, which spread due to pressure and temperature, caused it to crack...more

Oct 2, Seattle

NBBJ has been hired by Russell Investments as the architectural firm to design the interior space of its new global headquarters at 1301 2nd Avenue, a building also designed by NBBJ.  “In the following months we will work closely with Russell Investments to design a unique environment that fosters collaboration and inspires innovation—two key attributes that are consistent with Russell’s heritage,” says NBBJ Managing Partner Scott Wyatt...more

Oct 2, Riyadh

MEED reported that Saudi financial regulator the Capital Market Authority is to tender the contract to build the kingdom’s tallest tower at King Abdullah Financial District on the outskirts of the capital. As per report, the CMA is pre qualifying contractors to bid for the deal to build the 400 meter tall tower which will supersede the 309 meter tall Kingdom Tower in central Riyadh as the country’s tallest building...more

Oct 1, Middle East

Atkins’ engineering capability was recognised at the 2009 Middle East Architect Awards, winning the coveted honour of Engineering Firm of the Year. Of a possible 10 awards presented during the gala dinner in Dubai, Atkins was short listed as a finalist in three categories, Engineering Firm of the Year, Young Architect of the Year (Obada Adra) and Best Completed Project (Almas Tower)...more

Oct 1, New York

Sept 30, Amsterdam

Sept 30, Chicago

Sept 30, Honolulu

Sept 30, Dubai

Sept 29, London

Sept 29, Toronto

Sept 29, Chicago

Sept 29, New York

Sept 29, Chongqing

Sept 29, New York

Sept 29, Hong Kong

Sept 28, London