Nov 27, Seoul

High-rise apartments are getting fancier and more luxurious and becoming status symbols in Korea. The most expensive high-rise apartment in Korea is Tower Palace in Seoul's Dogok-dong with a price tag of W6 billion (US$1=W1,154) for a 334 sq. m space. An icon of new wealth, Tower Palace grabbed headlines when the builder handpicked applicants for apartments one by one rather than opening individual units up for public viewing...more

Nov 26, Dubai

The sun never sets on Dubai World - or so their tagline reads, but Dubai's flagship company, which encompasses property investment firm Nakheel, requested a debt standstill to last until the end of May 2010. The request represents the clearest sign yet that the Dubai economy is still in the thick of the financial crisis...more

Nov 26, Sydney

The following proposal evolved from a university project and was constrained by a practical brief of specific commercial expectations and standardized planning controls. The proposal however extends beyond such limitations to understand the larger issues and public concerns of Sydney’s development. The Sydney CBD is infiltrated with issues...more

Nov 26, China

The Beijing Centre for the Arts shows the exhibition 'Green Projects II, Three Dimensional City: Future China' featuring work of Paolo Soleri and MVRDV. The centre piece is an installation by MVRDV, 'China Hills': a scale model of a future Chinese city. On a hypothetical site of 1x1x0.5 km the plan offers space to accommodate up to 100,000 inhabitants and a well balanced mix of urban program and nature, agriculture and energy production...more

Nov 25, Mecca

Gensler Architects has released images of its proposed 1km² Darb Al-Khalil redevelopment in southern Mecca. The practice has drawn up plans to develop the historic southern approach to Mecca, Islam’s Holiest city, on a site known as Darb Al-Khalil.The redevelopment plans stretch over a 1km² built area, half of which is designated for hotels. The remaining half will house furnished apartments, shops, indoor praying areas and government facilities...more

Nov 25, Dallas

The winner of the Re:Vision Dallas competition to create a completely sustainable community on a run-down city block in downtown Dallas was announced.  “Fowarding Dallas,” submitted by Portuguese-based architectural firms Atelier Data and Moov took the grand prize with their hillside-inspired design that consists of a series of peaks and valleys, runs completely on renewable energy, is covered in vegetation, and can even grow its own food...more

Nov 25, Mid Valley City

Property developer IGB Corp Bhd is planning the last phase of development at Mid Valley City (MVC), which will feature two high-rise office towers worth an estimated RM1 billion. The two towers, which will be built similar to the existing 35-storey The Gardens North and South Office Towers, will offer 600,000 net sq ft of commercial space...more

Nov 25, Stockholm

Stockholm-based company Oscar Properties, in conjunction with world famous architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, have put forward proposals to rejuvenate a disused Gasklockan dating from 1932 in Djurgarden city, Stockholm into 170 metre tall skyscraper housing 500 new homes. The design of the tower mimics the cylindrical shape of the gas tank, once used to store gas for the town...more

Nov 24, Buenos Aires

Costanera Sur is a proposal for a vertical zoo in Buenos Aires that transforms a pile of rubble into a towering pillar of falling water. Designed by Visiondivision, the project aims to reclaim debris left over from the construction of Buenos Aires’ decades-old highways, is entirely self-sufficient, and could theoretically provide water and energy to surrounding structures...more

Nov 24, India

Emaar Properties PJSC, the developer building the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai, plans an initial share offering in India. “India has done extremely well for us, and that’s why we are going public in India.” said Chairman Mohammed Alabbar in an interview. "The banking system is solid and India is still a conservative environment that suits us well."...more

Nov 24, Vancouver

The city, which has a population of 578,000, has long listed the area as a target for redevelopment, but some community groups have balked because of concerns about displacing low-income residents. The first step in that redevelopment is under way. The mixed-use Woodward's project is at the edge of a rundown neighborhood in Vancouver...more

Nov 24, Dublin

Long-caricatured as resource destroying monsters clad in steel and glass, the skyscraper has never been viewed positively by Irish eyes. There are valid criticisms to be made of skyscrapers but the form is not going to go away. Pragmatism dictates that architects and engineers must address sustainability concerns within the form because they are going to become an increasingly common part of the built environment...more

Nov 24, Chicago

Officials at Roosevelt University are moving forward with a plan to build what they say would be the second-tallest university building in the nation.  Construction on the 32-story, $110 million building is set to begin in February 2010 on the site of the old Herman Crown Center in the 400 block of South Wabash Avenue. The groundbreaking will begin once demolition of the old building is complete, with the center itself slated to open in January 2012...more

Nov 24, Beijing

Tianjin will be the third special economic zone in china, after the city of Shenzhen in the 1980's, and Pudong district in shanghai in the 1990's.  Sinosteel, China's nationalized steel giant, commissioned MAD to create two towers within the Binhai economic district in Tianjin: an office tower of 358 metres, and a 95 metre hotel (358,886 sqm in total; tower A 228,638 sqm /358; tower B 69,216 sqm / 95 m)...more

Nov 24, Toronto

A surge in office construction in Toronto’s downtown may push the city’s vacancy rate higher than New York and Boston after developers added space during the first recession in since 1982. The proportion of empty space in Toronto’s office market, lower than the 12 largest U.S. business districts last year, will more than triple by 2011 to 13.6 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Brookfield Properties Corp...more

Nov 23, Copenhagen

The Entasis architects concept for the development of Carlsberg's old industrial plot in Valby/Copenhagen, was won from 221 entries the international competition and featured at MIPIM 2008. 'Carlsberg – our city' is a network of public spaces that offer themselves to users in the form of gardens, squares, axes, streets, alleys, passages and a number of privately owned but publicly accessible buildings...more

Nov 23, Guangzhou

Explosive industrial and urban growth has helped make Guangzhou the third-largest city in China, with more than 10 million residents in the metropolitan area. Located 75 miles (120 km) northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is the main  political, commercial, and industrial center for the Pearl River Delta, providing a vast array of textiles, steel, paper, chemical products, electronics, and consumer goods to Asia and the world...more

Nov 23

This project is a design for a sustainable skyscraper, in that the building not only reduces it energy consumption it also produces much of the energy it uses. The outer skin of this double skinned building is made up of Photovoltaic film “printed” onto glass. The dual skin system allows for passive cooling and greatly reduces the solar gain for the building.  This patterning is taken directly from the forest canopy...more

Nov 23, New York

Is the Freedom Tower at the World Trade Center still going to be 1776 feet tall? And does it matter if it isn't?  When architect Daniel Libeskind won the "innovative design study" for rebuilding the 16 acres at ground zero, one of the hallmarks of his plan was the rather kitschy notion of making the site's tallest skyscraper  1776 feet high--a literal reference to the year of America's independence...more

Nov 23

The Zerofootprint Foundation is offering the $10 Million ZEROprize™ to the design team who can take an older concrete high-rise structure and, using reskinning along with other retrofitting technologies, reduce its carbon, water, and energy footprint to net zero while also maintaining the highest architectural design standards. To secure the ZEROprize™, a candidate building will be required to have an audited net zero footprint for one year...more

Nov 21, Winnipeg

A plot of riverfront land has proven to be a little too electrifying for the developer hoping to build downtown Winnipeg's first highrise apartment tower since the 1980's.  Rubin Spletzer, who was convinced to walk away from a deal to build apartments next to Upper Fort Garry in 2008, has discovered a 66-kilovolt hydro line running straight through the Assiniboine Avenue property he purchased this year in a second attempt to build a downtown highrise tower...more

Nov 20

CTBUH member Dan M. Frangopol, the Fazlur R. Khan Endowed Chair of Structural Engineering and Architecture and Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Lehigh University, received the lifetime title of Honorary Professor of Tongji University on September 22, 2009.  This title is considered Tongji’s highest academic honor for professors, and for this reason the selection process for the award is very strict...more

Nov 20

CTBUH member US Life Safety, Inc., announced recently that it has received a major contract award for their company’s unique emergency preparedness management system, Life-Counts. The Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency selected US Life Safety, Inc. of Houston, PA to provide their Life-Counts service for multiple FEMA facilities within the National Capitol Region...more

Nov 20, Cincinnati

The Great American Tower at Queen City Square has landed a gold level of pre-certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program.  The certification is recognized across the real estate industry as confirmation that a building includes environmentally friendly designs and construction practices...more

Nov 20, Chile

Costanera Center sits half-finished at the heart of Santiago’s financial district, its exposed concrete and reinforcement bars contrasting with the glass-faced skyscrapers surrounding it. A banner at the silent, empty building site says “Icon of Latin American development.” Once a symbol of Chile’s soaring copper-driven economy, the stalled project became an emblem of its decline after work ground to a halt in January...more

Nov 20, London

Campaigners, including a group of architects, have called for an investigation into how Hackney Council handled the planning application for Foster & Partners’ Bishops Place development. Councilors approved the controversial £500 million scheme on the border between Shoreditch and the City earlier this month, against advice from Cabe that the plans should be rejected. Local architect Mark Willingale, who drew up a rival scheme on behalf of local protesters...more

Nov 20, New York

When you catch your first glimpse of 100 Eleventh Avenue, a new apartment tower in Chelsea designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, its curving façade, an abstract arrangement of windows slanting in multiple directions, looks like a gimmick. The building clatters; it jangles like a bracelet. Beside the smooth, milky-white exterior of Frank Gehry’s I.A.C. Building, across Nineteenth Street...more

Nov 19, Milwaukee

A Milwaukee construction company executive made a behind-the-scenes critique of plans to build a downtown apartment high-rise financed partly with city loans — while failing to mention his ties to a developer of a competing project. Dennis Klein, chairman of KBS Construction Inc., made critical comments to a key alderman about the Moderne in late October. Developer Rick Barrett is building the high-rise...more

Nov 19, Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv has 59 skyscrapers more than 100 meters tall and ranks no. 50 in terms of high-rises among world cities, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international organization. The leading urban center in terms of high-rise construction is Hong Kong, which has 2,354 skyscrapers 100 meters tall or more, followed by New York, with 794. The Israel Engineers Association for Construction and Infrastructure...more

Nov 19, Helsinki

According to new plans, ten high skyscrapers are to be built in Helsinki’s district of Pasila, on the southern side of the Pasila railway station. The tall buildings would be Finland’s first real skyscrapers and the plan is to build them in 2020. The tallest structure would be about 170 meters above sea level. The tallest building itself would be more than 150 meters high, with a panorama café open for all on the top of the building...more

Nov 19, New York

Construction workers hoisted a 10-ton bucket of concrete — adorned with an American flag — to the top of the city's tallest residential skyscraper Thursday to mark the final stages of development. Developer Bruce Ratner and architect Frank Gehry signed their names on the massive silver container, stood by as it was pumped full of concrete and watched it soar 867 feet to the top of the Beekman Tower...more

Nov 19, China

Atkins has made its first appointment as part of its plan to recruit talent from design-led practices by poaching a partner from Foster & Partners for its China operations. The firm has begun a recruitment drive for senior staff to join the company and has unveiled Peter Ridley as its first high-profile catch. Ridley will now spend his time between the capital, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen in his role as senior design director for architecture...more

Nov 18, London

Vertical lines are definitely back if this newly planned skyscraper by Formation Architects for the City of London's eastern fringe gets the go-ahead. Standing on 15-17 Leman Street to the immediate south-east of the new urban park on Aldgate, the scheme has been developed by Pinehill Capital and consists of a 23 story hotel with all the usual services including a bar and restaurant. Previously submitted as 26 stories and 317 bedrooms...more

Nov 18, Bahrain

The Atkins designed Bahrain World Trade Center Wind Turbines has been selected by the NOVA Awards Jury to receive the 2009 NOVA Award in Innovation. The award, instituted by the Construction Innovation Forum in 1989 is a distinction that illuminates the innovations that have made important contributions to the international construction industry. In 2009 a total of 641 international entries vied for recognition...more

Nov 18, Birmingham

Due for completion in mid 2010, this city center mixed-use development now has its external cladding of bronze and aluminum panels in place. When complete, The Cube will house a three story stacking car park system; four floors of retail and restaurants; five floors of offices; nine stories of buy to let and buy to live apartments; a boutique hotel and a skyline restaurant let to D&D London, formerly Conran...more

Nov 17, Zorlu Levent, Turkey

A winner has finally been chosen to build a brand new office tower in Istanbul, Turkey in the emerging Levent Cluster close to the Sapphire Tower. Currently named the Zorlu Levent office tower the winning design chosen from seven entries comes from the drawing boards of local architectural firm Tabanlioglu Architects, and when built will stand at a respectable 196 meters in height...more

Nov 17, Chicago

Donald Trump's just-completed Trump International Hotel & Tower just leaped from the world's seventh tallest building to the world's sixth tallest. And the New York developer hasn't done a thing to change the Chicago skyscraper.  The reason for the shift: The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the global arbiter of height standards, has changed its criteria for measuring skyscrapers...more

Nov 17, London

Another planning application has been filed for a tall building on Stratford High Street, this time penned by Levitt Bernstein.  Sitting on 206-214 High Street, Stratford, it is called Three Mills West. The scheme stands on a site bounded by Jupp Road and Carpenters Road in the gateway area to the 2012 Olympic Games with James Riley Point almost next door...more

Nov 17, Manila

High-rise living has become more popular in Manila after killer storms caused massive flooding in the Philippine capital.  Businesses are also moving to higher ground to avoid a repeat of the devastation from storms, which killed more than 1,100 people in Manila and other parts of the island of Luzon.  Tropical storm Ketsana dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila on September 26, 2009, leaving more than 80 per cent of the city flooded...more

Nov 16, New York

Is the borough’s tallest building also its ugliest?  As much as I love the skyscraper, I have to admit that The Brooklyner, the narrow, 51-story on Lawrence Street in Downtown Brooklyn that is just a few inches taller than the Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower, had apparently earned both titles.  Unlike that stately Art Deco edifice, with its unique design elements, I couldn’t help but feel let down by The Brooklyner...more

Nov 16, Beijing

Work rest and play were to be accommodated at CapitaLand’s Raffles City in Beijing, but Sparch were tasked with creating more than just a functional arrangement, they were to create a visual spectacle to entice visitors and make their journeys surprising, memorable and enjoyable. The completed master-plex is the first Raffles City development on a new architectural scale, soon to be followed with projects by Raphael Vinoly...more

Nov 16, Mumbai

You might have blinked and missed it, but currently under construction in the Indian city of Mumbai is a new 320 meter tall residential tower with the Bondesque name, Palais Royale.  With an octagonal floor plate that dictates the overall appearance of the tower and follows through Vastu philosophy, the scheme has a white Corian clad frame with balconies and recessed floor to ceiling glazing behind it...more

Nov 15, Abu Dhabi

Sorouh Real Estate PJSC, one of Abu Dhabi’s leading real estate developers, is delighted to announce that its Gate Towers project has been awarded “Best High Rise” by The International Residential Property Awards. The Award follows the success at the CNBC Arabian Property Awards where Sorouh was the only UAE based developer to receive three five star awards and two international nominations...more

Nov 15, West Bank

Dusk has fallen on a terraced hillside and workers clearing the red earth hurry to finish planting trees in the twilight, their labor the initial step in the construction of the first-ever planned Palestinian city.  The city, with a construction price tag of some $350 million, already has its city limits registered, a name -- Rawabi, Arabic for hills -- and funding from the government of Qatar. It’s located about five miles north of Ramallah...more

Nov 14, Toronto

There's nothing unusual about the appearance of a new tower in Toronto, but a new office tower is something different. After a break of almost a decade, the corporate skyscraper is back.  Suddenly it seems the slick facades of highrise corporatism are everywhere.  In October 2009 it was the opening of the Bay-Adelaide Centre, a tall glass box wrapped around the remnants of an office block from an earlier era...more

Nov 13, San Francisco

The 117-unit project at 1415 Mission has been approved, with a few strings attached, including an exploration to better transition the building's height to its neighbors to the south, and to explore building a vertical green wall. The pitched battle to chop the height of the building in half, led by a petitioning neighbor, focused particularly on two points of contention: the lack of "transition" in heights between the north side of Mission Street...more

Nov 13, London

HSBC is selling its 44-story London headquarters, Britain's second-tallest skyscraper, for 772.5 million pounds (nearly $1.3 billion).  HSBC Bank PLC said it struck the all-cash deal with the National Pension Service of Korea. HSBC will continue to occupy 8 Canada Square, in east London's Canary Wharf financial district, paying the new owner 46 million pounds in rent per year for 17 1/2 years...more

Nov 13, Kyiv

A geological study is proceeding in the European Square, where the European Plaza Kiev 48-floor complex will be built. Luxury class offices, a five-star hotel with 200 suites and over 40 apartments (presumably on the top floors) will be situated in the 180,000-square-meter building.  The complex must be commissioned in 2012. Currently Kyiv's highest building is office complex Parus...more

Nov 13, London

Mitchell Taylor Workshop has won the competition to transform Richard Rogers’ stalled “cheese grater” site into public space. The young Bath practice’s city farm proposal has been selected from an invited shortlist of 13 to find a new use for the site on Leadenhall Street in the City of London for up to four years...more

Nov 13

Design and engineering innovations have had a dramatic impact on our ability to create beautiful, environmentally sensitive structures that help contribute to a more sustainable future. A dramatic example of the confluence of design, technology and environmental sustainability can be seen in the proliferation of innovative bridge designs around the world...more

Nov 12, Phnom Penh

For a city that had virtually been depopulated, Phnom Penh has been making a come-back ever since, and one that will perhaps be epitomised by its first ever skyscraper, Golden Tower 42.The name is perfectly descriptive of the project itself which has been planned to stand 42 storeys high and will be clad in golden glass curtain walling...more

Nov 12, Mumbai

Every city in the world has at least one unique, tall structure, which becomes a symbol of the city. Apart from the glamour aspect, there is another reason why Mumbai needs to go vertical. Demand for habitable land is increasing, while available land is limited, but advances in engineering technology and the need to keep space for development of infrastructure and civic systems are equally important...more

Nov 12, Bangkok

Influenced by Thai tiles, textiles and timber panelling, the concept behind The Met was to explore ideas of how low-rise tropical housing can be applied to create outdoor-indoor spaces in the sky. With the aim of creating a better lifestyle for metropolitan living, The Met was developed less from Western temperate models and more on the possibilities of low-wind, tropical climates in dense urban conditionst...more

Nov 12, London

PLP Architecture was set up following a headline-grabbing fracture within Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects (KPF). Yet the new practice, led by the US giant’s London founding member Lee Polisano and partners David Leventhal, Fred Pilbrow, Karen Cook and Ron Bakker, already boasts a 60-strong workforce and an enviable client list...more

Nov 11, Dallas

Future sustainable urban living will depend largely on man’s ability to create holistic architectural solutions that harvest the regenerative power of a site’s natural systems. This project offers a self-sustaining, 'off-the-grid' urban community using a full city block in downtown Dallas, Texas. The design team’s analysis concluded that the optimum choice for a renewable energy source was a novel geothermal cogeneration plant...more

Nov 11, Birmingham

The Regal Tower in Birmingham is a 200 metre plus skyscraper planned by Regal Developments and designed by Aedas Architects to stand in the centre of the city. If built it will be the tallest building by a whopping 50 metres, something that will make it a major landmark on the skyline, and as befits this status much thought has gone into how it could look, not only at a day but at night too...more

Nov 11, Singapore

Singapore's first waterfront public housing project in Punggol will offer 1,200 flats that feature sky terraces, roof gardens and panoramic views of the Punggol Waterway. The 4.9ha plot will feature three blocks in a unique design that is 'stepping down' towards the waterway, from 18 levels down to six...more

Nov 11, Leeds

Feilden Clegg Bradley’s £50 million new arts and humanities complex for Leeds Metropolitan University has been completed. Broadcasting Place features 33,528 sq m of new teaching and office space as well as 240 student rooms housed in a 23-storey tower. The development, in the city centre, is clad in the same alloy, Cor-Ten steel, which was used on the Angel of the North and oxidises over time to give a deep-red colour...more

Nov 11, Guangzhou

American architecture firm Heller Manus has dreamed up this enormous plan for Guangzhou, one of the largest cities in the People's Republic of China. Their winning design is a masterplan for the southern axis of Guangzhou that covers an enormous 14.78 square kilometers of land that will stretch through the centre of much of Xinjiaozhen incorporating a waterfront at its far southern end and then working its way north...more

Nov 11, London

A giant "digital cloud" that would "float" above London's skyline has been outlined by an international team of architects, artists and engineers. The construction would include 120m- (400ft-) tall mesh towers and a series of interconnected plastic bubbles that can be used to display images and data...more

Nov 11, Rochester, NY

Some people think it’s art. Others think it’s just plain ugly. A high-rise apartment building on Mt. Hope Avenue is drawing stares and plenty of opinions for its colorful new paint job. “It's meant to be a signature. It's meant to evoke a response from people,” said Robert Boyd of the South Wedge Planning Committee. Workers are almost finished putting up the multi-hued panels on The Hamilton, a 202-unit subsidized housing project...more

Nov 11, London

Proposals by Squire and Partners for a new 352 room hotel in London have been formally filed with Hackney Council. Designed for client Art'otel as their first hotel in the United Kingdom, the site stands firmly in Hoxton on what is very much an under-utilised site. Taking advantage of the prominent position it occupies overlooking a junction, Squire and Partners has designed a circular tower overlooking the corner of the site with two lower-rise wings running from it...more

Nov 10, Dubai

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest building, which is being developed by Emaar Properties, is nearing completion, following the dismantling of the last high-altitude crane used in the tower’s construction. Having also completed the external cladding, the Burj Dubai construction team is now concentrating on the interiors and landscaping...more

Nov 10, New York

It's either been a lonely or very exclusive three years for the occupants of 10 apartments in this fancy high-rise Bronx condo. After years of being battered by a slumping economy and stagnant sales, developers of the swanky Solaria in Riverdale are hoping the market is back by trying a new sales technique.  They are putting 54 of the long-empty condos on the auction block - with starting bids around half the original asking prices...more

Nov 9, Las Vegas

Finishing touches are being made to ready MGM Mirage’s new blockbuster development, CityCenter, for its Las Vegas debut in December. The $8.5 billion project, part resort part urban development, is the largest commercial construction project in the US and, as one writer put it, "the biggest thing to hit Las Vegas since the slot machine". But as the up-scale project prepares to open its doors, it faces enormous challenges and an uncertain future...more

Nov 9, Barcelona

The cubic shape of the 113 m high tower is the result of a simple set of volumes stuck to each other, each box representing a specific function. While Barcelona can be "read" as a horizontal city, built along the geometric guidelines of the Cerdá plan, it can be also read as a vertical city with examples of architecture like the "Sagrada Familia", the Olympic Village towers and above all, the suburbs set on the hillside around the telecommunications tower and Tibidao...more

Nov 9, San Francisco

Thanks to the real estate plunge, high-rise visions for San Francisco can seem so 2007. But the city's Planning Department will release plans for what it calls the Transit Center District - the blocks around the Transbay Terminal where towers as tall as 1,000 feet might be allowed. The rationale: letting a handful of towers rise past the current limits would make room for future jobs while raising funds from taxes and land sales to build a new terminal...more

Nov 9, Stockholm

When plans for a new high-rise development in downtown Stockholm were unveiled, the critics predictably lined up to slam them. But there were also those who enthusiastically embraced the project, indicating a sea change in how Stockholm residents view their city. The new development, Stockholm Waterfront, has come under fire from conservationists largely because of its height – twice the city average, and with a 25-story tower block...more

Nov 9, Shanghai

7 million visitors are expected to attend Shanghai's World Expo 2010. The conference's theme - 'Better City, Better Life' - can be no better exemplified than in the architecture exhibited by the 200 participating countries. Comprising six cone-shaped 'Sun Valleys' which form a canopy over the activities below, the Boulevard is being constructed on a gigantic scale, with each Valley standing 40 m tall...more

Nov 9, Sydney

Big-hitters Norman Foster and Richard Rogers are going head to head for a huge project in Sydney Harbour, Australia. The pair are down to the last two in the contest to oversee the redevelopment of the 22ha former industrial and shipping site. Plans for the plot, which was previously known as East Darling Harbour, include parks, new ferry terminal, offices and up to 1,500 new homes...more

Nov 8, Surat, India

Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is prepared to add one more feather in the city's cap. The civic body has decided to develop Gujarat's highest skyscraper in the city at cost of Rs500 crore under the public private partnership (PPP) model. The edifice with 30 floors will have all ultra-modern amenities including diamond shaped restaurant, helipad, amphi-theater and park...more

Nov 6, Taipei

“How to fight against global warming” has become a significant issue worldwide, and the world’s tallest building TAIPEI 101 is not absent from saving our environment. TAIPEI 101 announced that it will apply for the LEED certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) aiming to become the first skyscraper obtaining the LEED Gold certification for existing buildings...more

Nov 6, Hong Kong

TaiKoo Place is an office campus situated in east Hong Kong Island. This complex is a gradual transformation from an industrial estate since the 1970’s. With a height of 308m, One Island East (OIE) is the tallest building in TaiKoo Place. The site used to be occupied by two old factory buildings. The reduced footprint of the new building released the congested urban fabric and improved the streetscape at pedestrian level...more

Nov 6, London

Panter Hudspith Architects look set to make its high-rise debut with this 22-storey tower in London’s Elephant & Castle. The 69m-tall south London scheme, known as 88-93 Newington Causeway, would replace a soon-to-be-demolished bank building and house 38 new homes, two floors of offices and a small café/kiosk unit at ground floor level...more

Nov 5, Havana

This proposal has been done from the dialogue between the WTC Accessory International LTDA Brazil and the architects from Aflalo & Gasperini Arquitetos. The intention was to implant in Havana a significant landmark to the establishment of technical and cultural importance of Cuba in the context of the Americas...more

Nov 5, Shenyang

Hot off their ambitious plans for a supertall tower in Korea the conglomerate the Lotte Group is turning its eyes towards the People's Republic of China and the city of Shenyang. The massive scheme for eight skyscrapers arranged around the perimeter of a massive central shopping have been designed by RTKL and Junglim Architecture with the scheme including not one but three supertall towers...more

Nov 5, Chicago

The spire atop the Trump International Hotel and Tower, Chicago has finally being lit at night. People who live in the skyscraper report that the lights change from green to purple to red...more

Nov 4, Dubai

Visitors will have to wait until early 2010 for the opening of the world's tallest building in Dubai. The media office of the city-state's ruler said the hulking Burj Dubai will now debut on Jan 4th, 2010, a month later than expected. The new opening date is timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's appointment as ruler of Dubai...more

Nov 3, Abu Dhabi

Capital Gate, Abu Dhabi’s iconic leaning tower, has topped out its central core and reached its final height of 160 meters, marking one of the most significant milestones in its construction. Capital Gate leans an incredible 18 degrees –14 degrees more than the famous leaning tower of Pisa. The tower forms the focal point of the Capital Center development, an AED8 billion business and residential micro city...more

Nov 3, Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City building officials gave the 22-story high rise at 222 S. Main a certificate of occupancy, but it looks like few workers will be occupying it for now. The building's developer, Hamilton Partners of the Chicago area, has only 20 percent of the building leased, said Bruce Bingham, a founding partner of Hamilton. Despite the low occupancy rate, Bingham remains optimistic about what will be one of the tallest buildings in Salt Lake City...more

Nov 2, New York

Located two blocks from the last G-train stop before Queens, this project is being designed by marquee firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Adjacent streets would be transformed into parkland. Piers would be built to accommodate historic ships, ferries, and Water Taxi service. A new beach would offer sorely needed waterfront access. And all of these perks would help blunt community concerns about the project’s blockbuster proportions...more

Nov 2, Gateshead

The Derwent Tower in the Dunston area of Gateshead – beset with problems and condemned as ‘all that was wrong with the past’ – is to be pulled down. Nicknamed the Rocket, the 29-storey ‘brutalist’ tower was designed by the Owen Luder Partnership. English Heritage has now backed plans to pull it down and clear the site and surrounding area for a major redevelopment...more

Nov 2, China

China Holdings, Inc., an asset holding company in China, announced that the Company has contracted award-winning planning and architecture firm Perkins Eastman to provide planning and architectural services to the Master Planning of 100 sq km land for "China Vegas - A New World Resort City" in Inner Mongolia, in the People's Republic of China...more

Nov 2, New York

A result of a nine-month competition sponsored by the museum and the Design Trust for Public Space, the show focuses on seven visions for the future of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx that range from urban farms to high-tech sound barriers for a nearby freeway. Much of the work is by students, and it reflects the kind of earnest idealism that has always been a staple of graduate studios...more

Nov 2, London

For years it has stood unvisited and was considered an unfashionable 1960s monolith with an uncertain future. But with the flick of a switch, launching fireworks and a new 500ft-high Olympics countdown screen, central London’s BT Tower has been given a new burst of life.And it seems the rotating restaurant – its crowning glory until it was closed 30 years ago – will reopen to the public...more

Nov 2, Monaco

A consortium consisting of Vinci Construction France and Solétanche SAM, the local subsidiary of Solétanche Bachy, has signed a contract to construct the Principality of Monaco's tallest tower for Marzocco, a Monegasque property developer. The Odéon Tower will be 170 m-high. As mixed-use tower it will have 48 storey's of housing and offices above ground, with 10 levels below ground...more

Nov 2, New York

The Woolworth Building, the neo- Gothic Manhattan skyscraper that was once the world’s tallest building and a symbol of American capitalism, may gain Italian owners. Sorgente Group is in talks with the owners to acquire a 51 percent stake. Sorgente owns a stake in the Flatiron Building in New York City. A group including the Witkoff Group Inc. and investor Rubin Schron owns the Woolworth Building...more

Nov 2, Mumbai

The Wadhwa developer, which has got the clearance to build a 73-metre tall building, will be constructing the highrise on a 32,000 sq mt plot (admeasuring 66,000 sq mt as he has purchased additional FSI). He bought it two years ago at an astronomical rate of Rs46,000 a sq ft. The developer had initially planned to build a unique egg-shaped office building, but changed the plan as his finances took a hit during the recession...more

Nov 2, Taipei

Taiwan's landmark skyscraper Taipei 101 is seeking to become the world's tallest green building, announced its owner Taipei Financial Center Corporation (TFCC). The chairman of TFCC, said that the company plans to apply for the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) certification for the building.  To obtain that certification, Taipei 101 will invest NT$60 million (US$1.8 million) to undergo hundreds of building modifications...more

Nov 2, New York

The GM Building may not be the GM Building for much longer. Naming rights are up for grabs now that the automaker has gone bankrupt. And it's quite an opportunity: "This is the first time since 1968, when General Motors completed construction of the 50-story tower at 767 Fifth Avenue, that the rights to dub perhaps the single most coveted skyscraper in the country...more

Nov 2, Philadelphia

This 1.25 million sq ft headquarters for the Comcast Corporation rises 58 stories, with typical floor plates ranging between 23,000 and 28,000 gsf. A 975-foot-high faceted obelisk, the tower is clad in silvery high-performance glass with ultra-clear, low-iron glass at the building's corners and crown. Comcast Center and its south-facing, half-acre plaza straddles the underground tracks and concourse of Suburban Station, Philadelphia's primary commuter rail gateway...more

Nov 2, Chicago

Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, is managing a $200 million to $300 million project to "green" the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The building was completed as Sears Tower in 1973, the heyday of energy ignorance, which means the skyscraper has single-pane windows that leak around the edges and let in hot air in summer and cold in winter, lights everywhere and inefficient electric heating throughout...more

Oct 30, Miami

Every major global city has a site with the potential and location to be that city’s epicenter; where the city’s most identifying landmark or trophy building should be found. One Bayfront Plaza is that site and will become Miami’s signature building. This premier location, is situated at the south end of the widest section of Miami’s main thoroughfare, Biscayne Boulevard, overlooks both Biscayne Bay and Bayfront Park...more

Oct 30, Toronto

Mixed-use highrises often come with construction challenges atypical of one-use towers. Toronto’s 53-storey Ritz-Carlton is a prime example. The tower consists of four different structures made up of different grids (varied concrete column and shearwall spacing): the underground parkade, the hotel, the permanent residences and a four-storey transition space (floors 20-24) between the hotel and the condo floors...more

Oct 30, Mumbai

FXFOWLE’s winning design for a competition for a new 60-storey (301 meter) mixed-use tower located in India’s South Mumbai centres on creating a premier international hotel, retail, and residential tower within India’s emerging new economy. The tower’s rotated form emerges in response to the 3-acre (1.2-hectares) site, the building’s functional requirements, and its mixed-use program that changes with each rotation of the tower...more

Oct 30

How do we feed a burgeoning human population without trashing our environment? Build vertical farms in city high-rise buildings, according to Dickson Despommier. Writing in the November 2009 edition of Scientific American, the Colombia University professor of public health and microbiology suggests that it will be less risky and more efficient to move some farming indoors, as close as possible to population centres...more

Oct 30, Fuzhou, China

The brief set to MulvannyG2 was that the design of their new headquarters was to enhance the image of the company from an outdated, bureaucratic utility to a modern innovative energy producer. Likewise, they wanted to express the company’s commitment to alternative energy research, and instil pride in the local citizenry. The response to these issues came in the form of a 31-storey building design that combines both sustainable and aesthetic elements...more

Oct 30, Chicago

A Chicago architect is producing a holistic planning approach to reduce carbon emissions in dense urban cores. The fledgling urban replanning effort, which Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture is developing for the 550-building Chicago Loop area, is a process that starts with a survey of existing buildings in a district to assess age, use, condition, energy consumption...more

Oct 29, Hong Kong

At 118 storeys high, the International Commerce Centre (ICC) in Kowloon district is set to be the tallest building in Hong Kong. And when it opens at the end of 2010, Ritz-Carlton will occupy the top 17 floors of the upcoming building. ICC is slated to be Hong Kong's next financial centre. So apart from its hotel business, the Ritz-Carlton also hopes to become a major venue for social events and business gatherings...more

Oct 29, Chicago

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has named Linked Hybrid by Steven Holl Architects as the “Best Tall Building Overall” for 2009. With its rich pallet, appropriate scale and consistency in architectural language, Linked Hybrid adds a level of high quality architecture to the city of Beijing...more