Dec 22, Sydney

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, working with Lend Lease, saw off Foster + Partners, teamed up with developers Brookfield, in the competition to oversee the redevelopment of the $6bn (£3.3bn) former industrial and shipping site. Plans for the plot, which was previously known as East Darling Harbour...more

Dec 22, Atlanta

Regent Partners, one of Atlanta’s leading real estate development firms and winner of the Urban Land Institute’s prestigious “Project of the Year” for its development of the luxury high rise Sovereign, had, as of the end of 2009, leased close to 90-percent of its commercial real estate space at Sovereign. This success comes at a time when Buckhead...more

Dec 21, New York

In 2009 the most iconic building on the Manhattan skyline began to undergo a £340m ($550m) refurbishment project - not only to recreate its Art Deco grandeur but also make it a skyscraper fit for the 21st Century. The programme, which includes the replacement of all the building's windows, should lead to a 38% energy saving in future...more

Dec 21, China

This 98 storey, 439m high tower will be one of the tallest buildings in the world when completed  in 2010. It is a key feature of the Kingkey development masterplan design for 417,000m2 of mixed-use development. The mega tower consists of 210,000m2 of accommodation which includes one floor of basement retail connecting directly to a new metro station...more

Dec 21, Warsaw

In late 2009, developer Europlan applied to Warsaw City Hall for a planning decision concerning the development of a 180-meter tower on the capital’s Dmowskiego Roundabout, in the very heart of the city. The planned development would sit on three plots, two of which are currently occupied by a Cepelia store and the Metropol hotel...more

Dec 21, Rio de Janeiro

'Lighthouse tower' is a proposal by Mikou Design Studio for the brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. Designed as an arch at the entrance to the city, the tower is rooted on the island of Cotunduba and is accessible itself to the sea via a large jetty. It consists of observation points, an auditorium, skywalk, bungee jump platform, climbing tower...more

Dec 21, Tees, UK

Leading British designers, Heatherwick Studio to create biomass power station. The landmark building will stand on the banks of the River Tees and provide power for over 50,000 homes. Combining innovative technology and design, the power station will reduce carbon emissions by up to 80%...more

Dec 21, Milan

Italian architects De8 architetti and 2 architetti completed the Belvedere project which is situated on the Pirelli Skyscraper in Milan, Italy in late 2009. It is a refurbishment project following the restoration of the building after the tragic airplane accident in 2002, acting as a multi-functional space for public and local government events....more

Dec 21, Seoul

Asymptote's proposal for the 'dream hub' in Seoul, Korea, was one of the shortlisted projects for the future development of the Yongsan International Business District in the metropolitan Korean city. Their concept was influenced by the Korean cultural landscape, drawing on the architecture, nature and the arts of the country, with themes of elegance...more

Dec 21, New York

In the first six months of 2010, about 6,000 employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will take a break from their spreadsheets and move across the southern tip of Manhattan to a new 43-story, steel-and-glass skyscraper. The building was a bargain - and not just because the final cost is expected to be $200 million less than...more

Dec 20, Kolkata

It's still a far shot from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur or the Burj Dubai.But Kolkata may soon join the list of cities with awe-inspiring skyscrapers. A real estate group has recently submitted a plan to Kolkata Municipal Corporation authorities to sanction its plan for a 65-storey building...more

Dec 18, London

Speedy Hire, the U.K.’s largest tool and equipment rental company entered into an agreement to provide an onsite rental facility to Mace, the construction company building the Shard development in London. Speedy will be the preferred supplier for a range of tools, equipment and training for the 310-meter (1,017-foot-) tall building...more

Dec 18, Frankfurt

Work starts spring 2010 on the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, Germany, designed by Austrian architects Coop Himmelb(l)au. Coop Himmelb(l)au won a competition to design the bank’s new headquarters in 2005 with their 185 metre tall, double-towered proposal. The bank is due to open in 2014...more

Dec 18, Seoul

In the South Korean capital of Seoul, they are taking waviness to new heights with a 24 floor tower that's being built by contractor, Daerim Engineering. With a height of 130.05 metres, Seocho Kims Tower is intended to offices with 52,257 square metres of internal space. It won't stand alone either, a similar tower is also planned next door...more

Dec 18, Leeds

Carey Jones Architects has become the latest practice to submit plans to replace the derelict CASPAR pre-fab housing scheme in Leeds. The original development, designed by Levitt Bernstein and completed in 2000, was evacuated in 2005, after the discovery of ‘potentially catastrophic structural problems’...more

Dec 17, New York

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has agreed to sell a 23-story lower Manhattan skyscraper for about $105 million, or less than $100 a foot. The price sets a new floor for Manhattan real estate because the 1.1 million-square-foot property, called Four New York Plaza, is more than half-leased to J.P. Morgan, guaranteeing some steady income...more

Dec 17, Portland

Portland is often called the greenest city in America, its new architecture included. Three daring new office buildings—Twelve West by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects (ZGF), Ziba headquarters by Holst Architecture, and bSIDE6 by Works Partnership Architecture—have brought this local ethos to commercial construction...more

Dec 16, Kuala Lumpur

Permodalan Nasional Berhad will only move forward with plans for a 100-storey skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur if it benefits the country's property sector and if its shareholders stand to gain. PNB Group president and chief executive said anything was possible for Malaysia, and that included a 100-storey building which could rival the iconic 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers...more

Dec 16, Seoul

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill has broken ground on the $1.7 billion Digital Media City Landmark Tower in Seoul, South Korea. With a planned height of 2,100 feet, it is expected to be East Asia’s tallest tower by the time it’s completed in 2014. The 725,000-sqft skyscraper appears to swell slightly as it rises, evoking traditional Korean pottery that is slender at the base and flared at the top...more

Dec 16, Manchester

With the recession still burning a hole in the finances of most, student housing has been one of the few areas of development to continue with business as usual. Hodder and Partners, a local Manchester firm has designed this new 106 metre tall student tower that has its height accentuated by the local hill it stands on...more

Dec 16, Paris

The dainty pyramid outside the Louvre museum in Paris looks set to gain a giant sister. Towering at a height of 180m, the new pyramid, known as Projet Triangle, will be nine times the size of the edifice that greets visitors to the main courtyard of the Palais du Louvre. No skyscraper has been built in the French capital for almost 20 years...more

Dec 15, San Francisco

Located in the heart of San Francisco’s trendy SoMA district, the 60-story Millennium Tower is the tallest residential building west of the Mississippi. The new Millennium Tower redefines the art of luxury living and offers residents immediate access to the city’s finest attractions and local landmarks...more

Dec 15, Busan

California-based DRDS, in collaboration with Ilshin Architecture and Engineering have won the Invited National pre-qualified competition to design a broadcast headquarters and cultural media facility – KNN Media Center. The project aims to become a new landmark in Busan’s Centum City...more

Dec 15, New York

The building boom has proven to be as much about what got built—40s Bond and Mercer, One Bryant Park, the High Line—as what hasn’t—our Gehry Guggenheim, ample affordable housing, so much of the World Trade Center, not to mention Dubai. Curbed New York have put together a run-down of their top 10 projects that never got built...more

Dec 15, Liverpool

Peel Group has submitted what it claims is the UK’s biggest planning application – the £4.5 billion Wirral Waters scheme. The firm, which operates Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is seeking to build a high-density and partial high-rise development to provide 13,000 homes at Birkenhead Docks on Merseyside...more

Dec 15, Shanghai

Bank of Taiwan (BOT), may, if able to locate big enough land for reasonable price, build a high rise to house its business in Shanghai, S.L. Chang, chairman of BOT, disclosed at a Cross-strait financial forum. Chang said that the financial exchanges between Taiwan and China would be enhanced after the financial memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by the two sides in November 2009...more

Dec 14, Warsaw

Warsaw City Hall has accepted national postal service Poczta Polska’s proposal to develop a 130 meter tower in Warsaw at the intersection of Al. Jerozolimskie and ul. Żelazna. The site previously hosted a historic postal railway station. This was demolished at the beginning of 2007 in order to make room for a modern development...more

Dec 14, Dubai

Dubai said that it has received $10 billion from Abu Dhabi, another member of the United Arab Emirates, sparing the city-state from defaulting on a $3.52 billion bond. The announcement ends weeks of speculation about whether Dubai would make good on the most immediately pressing of the obligations it incurred during years of freewheeling spending...more

Dec 14, Chicago

Ever since it opened in 1997, the office building at 300 East Randolph St. has served as a kind of oversize text message display for Chicago, capturing in one line of letters (or two) the city’s mood. The project, located just northeast of Millennium Park, is the most extensive piece of add-on architecture ever done in Chicago, architectural historians say...more

Dec 14, Birmingham

The government’s design watchdog has called for ‘a fundamental rethink’ of Aedas Architects proposed 200m-tall Regal Tower in Birmingham. CABE said it was ‘uncomfortable about the proposed height’ of the mixed-use hotel, apartment and retail skyscraper, which seemed ‘to be generated by value rather than urban design considerations’...more

Dec 14, Mumbai

A severe water shortage has prompted the Maharashtra state government to ban water supply to new high-rise buildings in Mumbai until 2012. The restriction, which applies to new buildings over seven storeys and also to new residential “townships”, has dealt a body blow to the city’s real estate developers...more

Dec 12, Milwaukee

The Chicago office of Perkins Eastman joined Saint John's On the Lake to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new independent living building for seniors in Milwaukee, WI. The new 21-story, 88-unit tower will energize Milwaukee's Prospect Avenue at the street level and offer an exciting new option in high-rise senior living...more

Dec 12, San Francisco

Mayor, Gavin Newsom announced that SF’s landmark Transamerica Pyramid Building, will now be classified as one of the greenest in the nation! That’s right, the famous San Francisco landmark was awarded LEED Gold certification, boosting San Francisco ahead of New York or Los Angeles in terms of cities with the most green buildings...more

Dec 11, South Padre Island, Texas

The Ocean Tower in South Padre Island, Texas was to be a 31-story condo, promising startling views of the Gulf of Mexico and proximity to the most exclusive neighborhoods in the popular vacation destination. But after topping out last year construction was halted because one side of the building sank 14 or more inches into the underlying clay stratum...more

Dec 11, Abu Dhabi

In an effort to accelerate the development of cost-effective, sustainable concrete, Masdar, the developer of the planned carbon and waste-neutral Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, is holding a concrete mix design competition. The first prize is $150,000, for a sustainable concrete production method. The second prize is $50,000 for the lowest-carbon-footprint concrete mix...more

Dec 11, Chicago

An electric kitchen appliance probably started the deadly high-rise fire in Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood, according to the preliminary finding of fire department investigators. The fire is renewing safety concerns about the building. The city requires a sprinkler system for residential high-rises built after 1975. 260 E. Chestnut St. was constructed in the mid-1960s...more

Dec 11, London

Thank heavens for the recession. It may have all kinds of deleterious effects, but at least it has prevented Peter Rees, city planning officer of the City of London, losing interest. Rees has overseen an enormous change in the built form of the City, and of its atmosphere, bringing in not only a crop of tall buildings, but also retail and nightlife to what, to many, felt like a stodgy office monoculture...more

Dec 10, Guangzhou

Another megastructure is set to rise in China that will join the world’s greatest engineering and architectural marvels of the modern times. The Guangzhou TV & Sightseeing tower, scheduled to be unveiled in time for the 2010 Asian Games in October, is not only the world’s tallest television tower rising 610 meters, beating Toronto’s CN-tower at 535 meters, but is also said to be one of the most beautiful structures...more

Dec 10, Beijing

'BUMPS in Beijing’ is an integrated project with four residential buildings, as well as a commercial building. Traditionally, residential buildings in China are oriented south and north. With the increase in the density of the buildings, the traditional method causes buildings to be too close to each other. ‘BUMPS’ is rotated by 45 degrees from the north-south axis to provide optimum sunshine for each building...more

Dec 10, Moscow

The management of MIRAX GROUP Corporation has made a decision to reduce the number of floors from 94 to 64 of Tower East of the Federation business center in the MIBC. The decision to reduce the number of floors of the Federation Tower is explained in the first place by the fact that the rates offered by banks for completing the construction are no lower than 25%...more

Dec 10, Rotterdam

Twelve years after the first performance plan in 1997, the largest construction project of the Netherlands is still a reality. Construction started on Rem Koolhaas' (OMA) proposed 'vertical city' project. This refers to the large, under the name 'de Rotterdam' marketed high-rise development in Rotterdam (Original article in German)...more

Dec 10, Nanjing

The energy may have gone out of Dubai but in China the supertall boom continues, this time with a 485 metre tall skyscraper designed by Aedas on Hunan Lu in the Chinese city of Nanjing. Developed by the Suning Group, the star of the show is a 105 floor mixed-use building which is inspired by Pan Long...more

Dec 10, Mexico City

Foster + Partners has revealed its designs for a 71-hectare teaching and medical facility in Mexico City upon notice of their appointment to the project. Campus Biometropolis masterplan in the south of the city will integrate care facilities with high tech teaching spaces, research institutions and laboratories...more

Dec 10, Middle East

Hyder Consulting Middle East, whose project portfolio includes the Burj Dubai and Dubai Fountain, has been named MEP Consultancy of the Year. The firm has been involved with these major projects for about five years. The design and construction team for the Burj Dubai alone has been one of the largest ever established for a single construction project...more

Dec 10, London

Foster + Partners and HKR Architects controversial Ealing Arcadia scheme in West London has been rejected by Communities Secretary John Denham. The decision follows a public inquiry into the high-rise £500 million project backed by developer Glenkerrin which would have created 567 homes...more

Dec 9, Shanghai

A castleton firm of architects has come up with a cutting edge design as part of a £1 billion redevelopment of an historic part of Shanghai. CJ Partnership Architects, has been involved in the Media Street Project in the Jing An district of the city. The firm was employed as a consultant to provide urban planning and conceptual designs for the redevelopment...more

Dec 8, Milan

The growing skyline of Milan in Italy looks set to get another tall building development, this time however with some unusual projecting frames that mark it out from the crowd.The 149 metre tall Solaria Tower is planned to stand 38 floors tall with an adjacent shorter tower of a similar design...more

Dec 8, Honolulu

Frigid seawater pumped in from the ocean’s depths will soon help cool more than half of the buildings in Honolulu’s downtown. Honolulu Seawater Air Conditioning LLC, which is undertaking the $240 million project, expects its technology to cut the Hawaiian city’s air conditioning electricity usage by up to 75 percent...more

Dec 8, Las Vegas

Plans for the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox as part of CityCenter, a new 67-acre urban resort destination have been unveiled. Atop a luminous, multi-use base containing ballroom and retail space, the iconic Mandarin Oriental hotel and residences, which comprises 392 rooms and 225 branded condominium residences...more

Dec 8, Tel Aviv

Six high-rise buildings are due to sprout up on Eilat Street in South Tel Aviv as part of a new business center being planned there by the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipality. The advent of hundreds of apartments in local projects and dozens of new businesses in an area that is already congested is no trivial matter when it comes to transportation infrastructure there...more

Dec 8, London

Foster + Partners’ Bishop’s Place scheme has been given the green light by the Mayor of London. The £500 million project from developer Hammerson was approved by Hackney Council in September 2009 and has since been awaiting final approval from the Greater London Authority...more

Dec 8, Canberra, Gold Coast

The Gold Coast council planning committee revealed a development, which had been approved for the largest apartment complex in Surfer's Paradise on the famous tourist strip of Queensland's Gold Coast. The 700 million Australian dollar (639 million U.S. dollar) development will cover nearly 11,500 square meters of land...more

Dec 8, Moscow

An experimental residential compound featuring a recreation green floor is to be raised at the junction of Fonvizina and Dobrolyubova streets in Moscow. Head Architect of Moscow Aleksandr Kuzmin said that the multipurpose high-rise residential compound would be erected within the New Ring of Moscow program aimed at developing high-rise structures...more

Dec 7, Chile

An investment of US$200 million was announced by holding firm Cencosud, enabling construction work to resume January 2010 on Santiago’s Costanera Center project. The firm’s president Horst Paulmann announced to local press that the new investment would also coincide with government support for road construction around the site...more

Dec 7, Kuala Lumpur

Three sites in the city have been identified for the development of iconic structures to spur growth in the economy. Sources say they are Dataran Perdana in Jalan Davis, the area surrounding Stadium Merdeka and the vicinity of the Matrade Centre in Jalan Duta. Even though the actual designs of the three structures have not been finalised, two appeared to have a 100-storey building each...more

Dec 7, Vancouver

High-rise towers are being pitched for the West End despite concerns from residents that the city has no community plan in place for the neighbourhood. Although the city has drafted so-called "visions" for other neighbourhoods, including Dunbar, Fraserview and Mount Pleasant, it hasn’t yet designed a plan for the West End or the downtown core...more

Dec 7, San Francisco

The recession has pummeled San Francisco’s real estate market, but don’t tell that to the city. The Planning Department unveiled a new downtown plan - the first since 1985 - that adds seven new skyscrapers and designates the area around the Transbay Terminal as the city’s new downtown...more

Dec 6, Hawaii

The Trump International Hotel & Tower at Waikiki is the newest major addition to the famed Oahu skyline. A sparkling new addition to Waikiki for those who see the skyscraper rimmed beachfront as America's answer to Copacabana Beach in Rio. Rising out of a lot between Saratoga Road and Beach Walk, the building is restrained by Trump's standards...more

Dec 5, Mumbai

The policy makers’ dreams to make Mumbai another Shanghai may remain unfulfilled. The  infrastructure and little attempt by the government to improve it, has drawn criticism from Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Antony Wood, CTBUH’s executive director, said that Indian cities were on the path to greater urbanisation, and to cope up with this, decisions about infrastructure ought to have been taken some 30-40 years ago...more

Dec 4, Dublin

The former tallest building in Ireland, Liberty Hall, is set to be replaced with a new design that will push its height up by three floors and 24 metres. At 59.4 metres tall, Liberty Hall overlooks a key position on the River Liffey but despite its landmark location is little more than an obsolete and blandly designed sixties tower in desperate need of refurbishment...more

Dec 4, Pune

With the intention of promoting tall buildings as the right solution to the increasing levels of urbanisation in the country, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is set to open its India office early 2010. Antony Wood, Exec. Director of the Council told media persons that the Council will work as an organisation which will try and create public opinion mainly by holding technical sessions, seminars and meetings in favour of tall structures...more

Dec 4, Groningen, The Netherlands

As part of its research into solving the housing needs of the UK’s ageing population, the government-commissioned Happi panel visited the visionary Maartenshof scheme in the Netherlands with an apartment tower by Arons en Gelauff Architecten and community hub by Team 4 Architects...more

Dec 3, Shanghai

Three enterprising gentlemen have put together a Google map that allows you to track ongoing skyscraper projects in and around Shanghai. Construction sites are helpfully identified by color-labeled tags -- yellow indicates projects higher than 150m and red denotes Gigantors more than 300m tall...more

Dec 3, Tianjin, China

Leading architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli is working on one of the tallest supertall buildings planned for China, the Xiaobailou Union Plaza in downtown Tianjin. The development features as its main attraction, a 488 metres supertall skyscraper with approximately 108 floors above ground...more

Dec 3, Vienna

Zechner & Zechner emerged as winners from the two-stage planning competition to work alongside structural engineers, Thomas Lorenz and building services engineers, Moser & Partner on OBB's Corporate Headquarters in Vienna, which will be built in the immediate vicinity of the planned new Vienna main station...more

Dec 3, Tel Aviv

While attempting to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at Tel Aviv University have accidentally discovered a new nano-material that can repel dust and water and could give rise to self-cleaning skyscraper windows and highly efficient solar panels. Using a variety of peptides, the researcher found a novel way to control atoms and molecules of peptides...more

Dec 3, Las Vegas

Infamous for it's lack of sustainability, Las Vegas is slowly being greened one tower at a time by a long line of architects, the latest of which are KPF. The architecture practise has designed the new luxury hotel for Mandarin Oriental in the City of Sin that once built will contain 392 rooms, plus a further 225 apartments run by Mandarin Oriental...more

Dec 3, Dubai

The opening of the Burj Dubai, the world's tallest building, will bring Dubai's era of exuberant expansion to a juddering halt as hundreds of other building projects are already mothballed. Plunging property prices and weak demand had already put a dampener on new schemes even before the announcement by Dubai World that it wants to halt debt payments for six months...more

Dec 2, Hefei, China

Woods Bagot has designed these twin towers to stand in the Chinese city of Hefei, a little known place outside the Peoples Republic that's a veritable boom town. The latest plans show a couple of landmark buildings designed by the Australian-based architecture firm of around 75 and 85 floors...more

Dec 2, London

The tallest tower in London’s main financial district to open 2010 won’t house bankers or office workers - it’ll be a student dormitory. The 33-story building’s owner is Blackstone Group LP, the world’s largest private-equity company. Blackstone entered the U.K.’s student-housing market 2005 and has so far invested more than 400 million pounds ($665 million)...more

Dec 1, Chicago

Rolf Jensen & Associates, Inc. is pleased to announce that the firm has been licensed by the UAE Civil Defense Committee to serve as a ‘House of Expertise’ in Abu Dhabi, UAE. This licensure is required for a company to act as a registered fire consultant in Abu Dhabi as well as in other areas in the UAE...more

Dec 1, Moscow

An excursion for journalists around MIBC Moscow-City was organized by the Moscow company JSC. Participants were able to visit the Capital City Complex, being constructed by the Capital Group Company and Central Core Complex. Nearly 20% of the total volume planned to be built within the Business district is already in operation...more

Dec 1, Riyadh

Apparently not affected at all by a lack of money which seems to be plaguing many neighbouring countries, approval has been given for a new skyscraper for Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Set to be the centrepiece for the King Abdullah Financial District, the tower will be the new headquarters for the Capital Market Authority who will occupy the top floors of the 385 metre tall tower...more

Dec 1, Toronto

A warning to all those who complain nothing ever happens on Toronto's waterfront: Moshe Safdie is designing a major mixed-use complex for a site on Queens Quay, just east of Sherbourne St. Safdie is the Montreal-trained architect whose first waterfront project, Habitat at Expo 67, made him world-famous...more

Dec 1, China

Inspired by mountainous Chinese landscapes and the traditional villages built their hillsides, MAD Architects has unveiled plans to create a towering vertical Urban Forest. Designed for Chongqing, China, the projects consists of a stacked vertical forest set in the heart of the city, designed to bring more nature and open space in a dense and compact way...more

Dec 1, Gold Coast

High above the Gold Coast's concrete jungle, rooftop gardens are expected to start popping up on our high rises as the State Government moves to copy the rest of the world in tackling climate change. The State Government announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore so they can steal their ideas for growing vegetation on high-rise buildings in a move to reduce heat and improve air quality...more

Dec 1, Singapore

During Singapore Design Week 09, WOHA presented 'Architects Save the World and Bring Joy to the Millions', a masterplan for Singapore for the year 2050. The projects were compiled into a newspaper titled the 'Strange Times' which had a science-fiction approach throughout, and included stories on the various structural developments of Singapore's future...more

Nov 30, London

Super bank, JP Morgan has finally made some solid indications it is going to occupy the Riverside South development in London, the largest single office development under construction in Western Europe. The twin towers, which have been designed Rogers, Stirk Harbour + Partners, are under construction and once complete will be amongst the tallest towers in London...more

Nov 30, Chicago

Chicago Spire developer Garrett Kelleher is scheduled to meet with leaders of AFL-CIO pension investment trusts in what is being characterized as "advanced" talks regarding the planned skyscraper's funding. Under discussion is a potential $170 million land loan that would retire Shelbourne Development Group Inc.'s loan from Anglo Irish Bank, pay off liens and restart work on a project dormant for more than a year...more

Nov 29, Las Vegas

M. Arthur Gensler serves as executive architect on CityCenter, an $8.5 billion mixed-use development on the Strip that is being touted as largest privately financed project in the United States history. Gensler oversees a small army of designers, architects and engineers responsible for crafting an 18 million-square-foot complex of hotels, residences, and entertainment space...more

Nov 29, Oslo

A formal application is expected to be made for the next part of Oslo's massive Barcode Project. Covering over approximately 200,000 square metres of building space, the project so named due to the way the buildings are set parallel and their varying sizes which somewhat resembles a barcode is the work of various internationally renowned architectural...more

Nov 29, New York

A fortress tower has risen in Turtle Bay, surveying its neighborhood with a suspicious glower. The concrete-paneled pillar opens grudgingly as it rises, transitioning from a blank wall to perforations just wide enough for an archer, to vast executive windows near the top. The structure embodies the latest in security doctrine and technology...more

Nov 28, Dubai

In 2005, when developer Hiranandani announced the 23 Marina skyscraper project in Dubai, the emirate was the place to be in. In 2009, after nearly a year’s lull in the economy, and as his 90-storey tower reaches completion, Hiranandani has suspended plans for a second similar project though he had tied up land in the city’s prime Business Bay area for it...more

Nov 28, Chicago

College and high school students around the nation are preparing to show they have what it takes to become the next generation of design/build professionals. Ambitious student architectural design teams will present their tall building projects before the world's top design professionals April 2010 in Chicago...more

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