May 25, Shanghai

Gensler has launched a Facebook page which provides news, updates and images of Shanghai Tower.  Shanghai Tower is a 632-meter supertall skyscraper designed by Gensler, a leading global architectural design firm. The tower, slated to achieve LEED Gold certification, is wrapped in public spaces from top to bottom...more

May 25, Seoul

For many Koreans, a home in one of the high-rise apartment buildings that dot Seoul is a lifelong dream. But to preservationists and some residents, these buildings are eyesores, devouring the city’s older neighborhoods like a flesh-eating virus. The Seoul city government has often been at least an enabler, helping developers to bulldoze older buildings...more

May 25, Latina, Italy

French firm Atelier Ramdam Architects designed 'Castle in the Sky', a water tower in Latina, Italy. The slender architecture of the water tower dominates a territory that is historically devoted to water management. It is enriched by a contemporary recreational program aiming to become a symbol for ecological issues...more

May 25, Mumbai

Realty giant DLF is planning to build a 90-story tall super luxury housing project, which it estimates will fetch Rs 15,000 crore, in this space-starved city. Each apartment here is expected to cost Rs 5-10 crore and would make it one of the country's tallest and most expensive housing projects, sources said. DLF is looking to launch this project in June 2010 at Lower Parel...more

May 24, New York

New York City's two tallest skyscrapers are going green. The Bank of America Tower, the second-tallest building, became its first commercial high-righ last week to win the top or platinum rating from the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council, according to Reuters. The 54-story building, completed in 2008 at a cost of $2 billion, has its own 4.6-megawatt co-generation plant...more

May 24, Milwaukee

The final approval for a federal loan guarantee to finance the planned downtown Moderne apartment high-rise is expected within 30 to 60 days, project developer Rick Barrett told a Milwaukee Common Council committee Monday. But that would be months after the scheduled February groundbreaking for the Moderne...more

May 23, London

Land Securities has confirmed plans to progress the 150m-high Walkie Talkie skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street in the City of London. Announcing its annual results, the developer said: “The changing dynamics in the office market lead us to believe that both Land Securities and the City of London will gain substantial benefit from this landmark development...more

May 22

The future is going to be an amazing place, if science fiction is to be believed; we will have space mining, super soldiers and TVs the size of buildings, and if some architects have their way, we will be watching all of this progress from the ocean or skyscrapers shaped like buckyballs covered in ferns. Designed to go up in Seoul South Korea...more

May 21, London

JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon faces an unenviable choice - splash out $3 billion on much-needed but lavish new London headquarters or cull the twin skyscrapers in a nod to the war on banking extravagance. The U.S. bank is dragging its heels on the glamorous plan, fearing it could rile regulators determined to bring mega-banks considered "too big to fail"...more

May 21, Houston

On May 20 Pelican Builders Inc. celebrated the grand opening of Highland Tower, a 16-story condo building that features 93 luxury units. The first six of 16 floors has been completed, and is ready for residents to move in. Thirty-five percent of the condos are spoken for. Highland Tower is located at 2109 Bancroft Lane, inside the 610 Loop between Westheimer and San Felipe...more

May 21, Miami

In many cities, the mix of retail, housing and parking is a ho-hum development formula. But in South Beach, Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have given it a tropical-modernist twist. Rising above Miami’s Art Deco Historic District, the five-story structure includes 300 parking spaces, retail and restaurant space, and Herzog-designed residences...more

May 21, New York

The U.S. Green Building Council gave the Bank of America Tower its highest rating for environmental performance and sustainability on Thursday, meaning New York City's second-tallest building is also its greenest. The 54-story building completed in 2008 at a cost of $2 billion became the first commercial high-rise to win the "platinum" certification...more

May 21, Buffalo, New York

HSBC Bank USA, one of downtown Buffalo's premier companies, is considering moving out of the city's tallest building, potentially leaving a huge hole in downtown's corporate fabric. The U.S. subsidiary of London-based HSBC Holdings PLC is exploring the property options for its vast Buffalo operations, putting its extensive downtown presence at risk...more

May 21, Dallas

The view of Dallas' skyline from Oak Cliff is undergoing a dramatic transformation. Drive across the Jefferson Boulevard Viaduct, and the huge new convention center hotel fills the foreground. Soon there will be a great blue-glass wall towering above the southwest corner of downtown. If things had worked out differently a few decades ago...more

May 21, Chicago

The whimsical winning design, titled "The Second Sun" and chosen from more than 150 entries submitted from around the world, proposed using the hole as a station for a yellow hot air balloon capable of carrying a circle-shaped swimming pool. The area around the hole would be transformed into a beach. University of Illinois at Chicago professor Alex Lehnerer...more

May 21, Moscow

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev supports the U.N. cultural agency's bid to halt construction of a glass-and-steel skyscraper among the baroque mansions of St Petersburg's historic centre, a leading newspaper said on Friday. The 403-metre (1,322-foot) tower, set to house state-run gas giant Gazprom's (GAZP.MM) offices by 2016, has caused an outcry among residents...more

May 20, Hamburg

In these grim recessionary times we could do with a bit of joy, so how better to get some than to have it erupt on a skyline in the form of two dancing towers. Now under construction in the St Pauli area of Hamburg are the 70 and 80-meter tall Dancing Towers, or Tanzende Turme if you speak German...more

May 19, Shenzhen

Adding to their impressive collection of super talls currently being worked on in China is Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates design for Ping An International Finance Center in the city of Shenzhen. The scheme is being built by and for the insurance company that have lent their name to it as its new headquarters...more

May 18, London

Form follows finance. This is the unspoken motto of architects, and the guiding principle of property developers working in the City of London. Perhaps it always has been. As the recession appears to lighten, high-rise buildings, put on hold for the past months, are beginning to reach for the London cloudscape all over again...more

May 19, New York

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is considering moving from its Manhattan headquarters and selling 1 Wall Street, the building it now occupies, Jeep Bryant, a spokesman for the bank, said in an interview. The company sent a request for proposals to New York City landlords seeking about 450,000 square feet of space...more

May 19, Hong Kong

At street level Hong Kong is a teeming cacophony. Double-decker buses weave around bicyclists toting chunks of meat from market butchers, while narrow sidewalks, inconvenient crosswalks and crowded luxury shops make walking a task best suited for the nimble and patient. But 1,600 feet above the hoi-polloi, the city seems different...more

May 18, Nashville

Despite having taken on as much as 6 million gallons of water during the flood, downtown's newest skyscraper reopened Monday, May 17th, two weeks after the rain stopped falling. Jimmy Barry, senior director of development at Barry Real Estate, the Pinnacle's developer, said there is damage in the below-ground parking decks, but things topside are shipshape...more

May 18, Denver

Westfield Co. recently opened 1800 Larimer St., the first high-rise office building constructed in Denver’s central business district in 25 years. According to a release, 1800 Larimer is also “one of the largest office buildings begun and completed in the US since the commercial real estate market crash started in 2008.”...more

May 18, New York

In three years time, Ground Zero in New York will boast a brand-new skyscraper, which will be the tallest building in America and a clear message to the perpetrators of 9/11. The building’s most famous tenant might just be the publishers of Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker. On a spring morning in April 2006, the heavy machinery finally rolled onto Ground Zero...more

May 18, Brisbane

The first hotel high-rise in the Brisbane CBD for more than a decade was approved in mid-May, 2010.  Brisbane City Council's planning sub-committee unanimously approved the $90 million, four-star Novotel Hotel for vacant land at 40 Elizabeth Street. The five-star Marriott Brisbane, which opened in 1998, was the last major hotel development in the city…more

May 18, London

British Land has dusted off plans for the construction of the Cheese Grater, a City of London skyscraper. The proposed 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall building, which has an estimated construction value of £290m was put on hold during the recession. But the developer said it is now “exploring interest from potential partners”…more

May 17, Chicago

The developer behind the Chicago Spire closed its posh sales office over the weekend, relocating the marketing arm for the long-stalled project to a much less grand office space nearby. Shelbourne Development Group, which has been battling the owner of the NBC Tower for nine months, consolidated the sales function into its own office space…more

May 17, Portland

The living building challenge was created by the Cascadia Green Building Council to guide commercial development that would be net-zero energy and net-zero water use. Based in Portland, the Oregon Sustainability Center has stepped up to the challenge as they are working to build the first high rise of its kind to follow this standard…more

May 17, Japan

London-based architect Daniel Widrig has recently unveiled the Lexus Tower, a 98,000 sqm development in Japan. The futuristic design will include apartments, shopping center, hotel, and recreational areas. One of the most fascinating aspects of the proposal is the structural skin that fuses with the landscape in a fluid and organic form…more

May 16, Dubai

As the desert sun burns through the morning haze, Peter and Alysha St. Germain admire the lofty 360-degree view of Dubai from the 124th-floor observation deck of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. “This is really impressive,’’ says Peter, formerly of Westhampton, now working in nearby Abu Dhabi…more

May 14, Manchester

What is perhaps the final nail has been knocked into the proverbial coffin of Crown Building in Manchester. The Ian Simpson designed building was being developed by Albany Assets, a troubled property company that now has the problem of its founder, Chris Nesbit, having been declared bankrupt following his inability to pay back a personal loan…more

May 14, Kansas City

Although modernism spans more than a century, from the first steel skyscrapers of the late 1800s to the present-day marvels of superstar architects, the period from the mid-1950s through the early 1970s was special. For that brief period, modernism became the predominant style for all architecture…more

May 14, Chicago

It was a deal they couldn’t refuse. Carlson Hotels Worldwide was looking for a one-of-a-kind project to introduce its flagship Radisson Blu franchise in the United States. What the Minnetonka-based lodging giant found was a premier location in downtown Chicago, in a building that’s become a new landmark of international architecture…more

May 14

This spiraling hollow structure is an exploration into a new prototype for a sustainable tower that may become a necessity if the planet heats up even more than it already is. Wrapped in a thin membrane of solar cells, the tower generates power for interior uses, while water is collected on the facade and then stored in a cistern underground…more

May 14, London

With there being a shortage of the most up-to-date and high-tech office space in the City of London thanks to a failure in the market to match demand, and the latest grade A offices fetching a premium, plans are now afoot to redevelop 200 Aldersgate Street off London Wall. The sprawling 91 metre tall office building was originally completed in 1992…more

May 14, London

The Shard had already climbed to 21 stories by the time 700 truckloads of concrete were poured to create its foundation. So what was stopping it from falling down? Over a gruelling 36-hour operation, 700 truckloads of concrete were deposited at the London Bridge site of the Renzo Piano-designed Shard tower…more

May 14, Leeds

The £225m Lumiere scheme in Leeds, which would include one of Europe's tallest residential buildings, was put on hold due to the economic downturn. Investors who put money into  the major building project are considering taking legal action against the developers after it was put on hold…more

May 14, Toronto

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) broke ground on a new Research & Learning Tower designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects, with HDR Inc. The 750,000-square-foot, 21-story building will consolidate research activity for 2,000 staff. It will be the largest high-rise research facility in Canada…more

May 14, London

Plans to erect a striking 380ft (116m) beacon as a monument to the Battle of Britain have been unveiled. The Battle of Britain Beacon will cost £80m and be taller than Big Ben. The structure will be built at the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, north west London, housing an exhibition on the World War II air conflict…more

May 13, Denver

A gleaming new office tower is open for business. The building at 1800 Larimer St. is Denver's first high rise to be LEED Platinum certified. Measuring 22 stories tall, the 500,000 square foot building is designed to conserve energy, save water and make the most of sustainable building materials…more

May 13, London

The proposals for a cluster of six buildings are a modification of previous plans that surfaced in early 2009. Responding to the urban industrial grain of the surrounding area, the facades of the buildings are to be clad in brick with set-back windows. Above this will be the three largely glazed tower elements with the tallest rising to almost 100 meters…more

May 12, Hollywood

LA architect Joey Shimoda is designing the new headquarters for Ametron Electronics, a major supplier of production equipment for the film industry. In a real feat of stagecraft, Shimoda said the 20-story, 218,000 square-foot building takes the inspiration for its form is Ametron owner Fred Rosenthal’s collection of sleek vintage microphones and radios…more

May 12, St. Louis

The harrowing trek of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark across uncharted America two centuries ago took perseverance — as did construction of an observation tower that overlooks the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and will bear their names. The 180-foot-tall building with twin towers will give visitors a panoramic gander at the spot…more

May 12, Lauchhammer

Originally the towers were used to purify waste water from the town's coking plant by way of internal trickling filters. The IBA and the country's monument preservation authorities believed that demolishing the bio-towers would represent a huge and irreplaceable loss. The renovations and conversions took about two years…more

May 11, San Francisco

Shanghai: High-Rise Architecture and the Remaking of China’s Gateway to the World, is a new exhibition at San Francisco International Airport, features models, drawings, photographs, and digital animation representing eleven architectural projects at the forefront of the transformation of China’s most modern, cosmopolitan city…more

May 11, Brisbane

Soon to be rising in the Australian city of Brisbane is the Infinity Tower, an approved 236 meter tall skyscraper that will rise 73 floors in height. Standing on Northern Herschel Street, it has been designed to accommodate 414 luxury apartments, 10,000 square meters of office space on the lower floors, and an enormous ten levels of basement parking…more

May 11, Tokyo

'Tokyo Mode' is a proposed architectural entry by Prop Studio for a fashion museum in Tokyo's Omotesando district. According to Prop, fashion in its purest form has always been about more than simply dressing the body. Prop's design approach to 'Tokyo Mode' looks at architecture as a progressive vision of the future while still referencing the common traditions of the past…more

May 11, New York

At times during the last decade, it felt as though every part of New York was constantly trying on new identities, and not always so comfortably. “The City We Imagined/The City We Made: New New York 2001–2010,” a new exhibit presented by the Architectural League in a storefront at 250 Hudson Street, chronicles that period of convulsive construction…more

May 11, Chicago

The Aqua skyscraper has snared a hotel operator, rebounding from the collapse of a high-priced deal despite the worst Chicago hotel market since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Kimpton Group Holding LLC, a San Francisco boutique hotel firm, is in negotiations to buy 15 floors in the wavy, 82-story tower…more

May 10, New York

A major milestone will be reached at Ground Zero when every project within the original World Trade Center site will be under construction -- a heartening leap forward for a venture that's been plagued by constant delays. The push comes as a result of a tentative deal between the Port Authority and developer Larry Silverstein…more

May 10, Abu Dhabi

The concept is based on the idea of deinstitutionalising the patient experience and reinventing traditional healthcare architecture. By situating the hospital, clinic, and administrative building around a large central plaza, the planning emulates an 'academic, village-like' setting…more

May 10, Manchester

Taylor Young Architects and the Manchester Modernist Society have created an interactive online map of 20th century Manchester’s architectural landmarks. Users can plot a walking route through the city depending on their preference for “brutal”, “beleaguered”, “beautiful” or “bold” buildings…more

May 10

Putting a wind turbine on top of a tall building is a highly visual way to shout about its green credentials, but minor changes in rooftop positioning can make a world of difference when it comes to actual energy generation. Built environment experts BRE have been putting their wind tunnel to good use…more

May 9, Niagara Falls

A plan is in the works to build a 57-story hotel and two more high-rise buildings on a prime piece of real estate overlooking the Horseshoe Falls in Canada. The developer maintains that the project being proposed for the property which has been home to the Loretto Christian Life Centre for 148 years will provide patrons with…more

May 9, New York

Equipped with a laser system, a plane collected highly precise images of the city, its rooftops, trees, wetlands and much of what lies in between. The flyovers are expected to yield the most detailed three-dimensional picture of New York City to date, with an emphasis on structures, elevations, sun and shade, and…more

May 9

Architect Vincent Callebaut unveiled a blue-sky plan for a high-flying fleet of self-sufficient  aircraft that are one part zeppelin cities and one part hydrogen-generating floating farms. Dubbed Hydrogenase, the algae-producing  airborne cities are 100% emission-free and are capable of generating hydrogen gas…more

May 9, London

Canary Wharf is in talks with Land Securities about teaming up to build a skyscraper in London’s Fenchurch Street. The Docklands developer has approached Britain’s largest property company about becoming the development partner for a £300m office tower, nicknamed the Walkie Talkie…more

May 7

If you want city planners to learn how to handle the serious problems metropolises face, let them play games. IBM’s CityOne is kind of like a SimCity for urban planners and city officials. The “serious game” sets up scenarios where players  deal with situations like water waste, rising energy costs and a growing population…more

May 7, New York

San Francisco architects IwamotoScott  have completed a design study for a tower (above, right) straddling a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The proposal was commissioned by New York’s Downtown Alliance as part of the Greenwich South project, a study into how to transform a 41 acre-site south of the World Trade Center site…more

May 7, Pimpri-Chinchwad, India

Pimpri Chinchwad will soon have a skyline dotted with highrises as the state government has approved construction of skyscrapers up to 70 meters in height, which is approximately 23 floors. The previous limit was 36 meters (around 12 floors)…more

May 6, Chicago

This is a tale of two outdoor plazas: The first, just completed by Donald Trump, could become one of Chicago’s great public spaces. The other, wedged between the two sides of the adjoining Wrigley Building, is an eyesore that looks even worse with Trump’s striking new space standing alongside it…more

May 5, Hanoi

As many as 15 contractors at the construction site of the Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Tower, Ha Noi's highest building with 70 storeys, have received fines of VND235million (US$12,000) for violating work safety regulations. The punishment was announced yesterday after a group of the city's building inspectors monitored work at the site for a month…more

May 5, Miami

A developer said little of substance about his proposal to build a parking garage topped by high-rise digital advertising towers next to the Arsht Center near downtown Miami. In a rambling presentation that left more than a few questions unanswered, developer Mark Siffin told a standing-room-only crowd…more

May 5, Newark

In early May 2010, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center publicly unveiled plans for an ambitious high-rise building in Newark for the fourth time. Sharing the stage with Gov. Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker, NJPAC officials showed off the — latest design and new name — of the estimated $190 million mixed-use high-rise to be built…more

May 5, Dallas

The 52-story Elm Place tower in downtown Dallas is the city's biggest empty building. Now it's up for grabs to the first buyer who comes up with $19 million. That's much less than the $35 million the building originally cost in 1965. At least that's the asking price real estate broker Colliers International has put on the property…more

May 5, New York

A sliver condominium project dreamed up a decade ago for the Upper West Side but stymied through years of litigation by city agencies cleared what could be its final hurdle last month when a review ruled in favor of the developer. The city's Board of Standards and Appeals decided in favor of Midtown-based Darkhorse Development…more

May 5, Tianjin

Skidmore Owings and Merrill has masterplanned this huge new development called COFCO to stand in Hedong, an area of the rapidly growing city of Tianjin that has yet to see full-scale modernisation with gleaming skyscrapers. The project set along the Lui Wei Lu corridor will run for a length of 1,350 meters…more

May 5, Vancouver

It’s hard to believe, but Arthur Erickson might be proven wrong after all. The legendary West Coast architect, who passed away last year, quipped famously in 2007 that Vancouver’s skyline was getting much too “blah.” While his frank assessment rankled some bureaucrats and local builders…more

May 5, Tokyo

International firm rocker Lange Architects proposal for a fashion museum in Tokyo’s renowned Omotesando district is not like conventional tower configurations. The design utilizes the concept of an expandable and differentiable ribbon as a continuous organizational strategy. The ribbon that resembles a trefoil knot…more

May 5, Chicago

Chicago’s skyscrapers may be famous for their technical achievements and functional expression, but they are often short on pizzazz. Now, Studio Gang has designed Aqua—a Niemeyeresque apartment and hotel tower whose architectonic facade of sensuously swerving, white concrete balconies jumps out from among its stolid brethren…more

May 5

The past year has not been easy for many Americans. Between layoffs and budget cuts, many industries, including structural engineering, are still feeling the strains of the 2009 recession. But through all of this, the structural engineers who responded to the Structural Engineering & Design 2010 State of the Industry poll remain optimistic that conditions will improve…more

May 4, Dubai

Damac Properties has announced that it has awarded the main construction contract for its Damac Heights project at Dubai Marina to Arabtec. The Dhs500m contract was signed and work is expected to commence on site as soon as Zetas complete the enabling works. Damac Heights will be one of the company's most iconic supertall projects…more

May 4, Singapore

With its three high-rise towers topped by a sweeping open-air SkyPark, the Marina Bay Sands casino, is a striking addition to the Singapore skyline. It also symbolizes an interesting, and potentially risky, new phase in the city-state’s highly successful government-led industrial policy…more

May 4, Toronto

Quadrangle’s renovations to 130 Bloor Street West/155 Cumberland Street include the addition of luxury condominiums above an original 1960s, modernist penthouse apartment and the conversion of two office floors below to create more residential suites. The design retains the principal components of the existing penthouse apartment while…more

May 3, New York

The new Goldman Sachs tower in Battery Park City is designed not to make a loud statement. There's little flashy or iconic about the 43-story tower, images of which have become a regular fixture on TV newscasts detailing the Goldman controversy. The neutral glass-and-steel skyscraper seems to melt into the downtown Manhattan skyline…more

May 2, Paris

Let us have the courage to innovate without ever forgetting our history and our people. In fact, a city is the reflection of the society which built it. It should be beautiful, gentle, ecological and it should express solidarity. It should not be based on speculative economic interests…more

May 2, Mexico City

Although not particularly known for its skyscrapers, Latin America will soon have their very own eco tower to add to the growing mix of green skyscrapers all over the world. Torre Reforma, designed by Mexico-based LBR&A Arquitectos, will be Latin America’s tallest building coming in at 244 meters (766 feet)…more

May 2, New York

Jean Nouvel’s Tower Verre was going to be the biggest thing to hit the midtown skyline since the Empire State Building. Then the city told him to chop off 200 feet. Scoffs the French architect: Why is Manhattan, of all places, afraid of heights?…more

May 1, Calgary

The third condo tower by Qualex-Landmark in the Beltline is underway, says the vice-president of sales and marketing for the B.C.-based developer. "We held an open house for realtors for our Luna tower, which is under construction, and the response was great," says Chris Colbeck, vice-president of sales and marketing…more

May 1, Pakistan

The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) has directed the proponent of a 40-storied commercial building being built at Clifton shore, the Dolman City project, to immediately halt any further construction on the project and submit all approved plans and details of all the project contracts to the environmental watchdog…more

May 1

Over half of the people in the world live in urban areas, and this planetary population trend shows no sign of stopping anytime soon – future skylines could even evolve to container everything from 3D skyscraper farms and other compact housing types that have not yet been imagined…more

April 30, Singapore

Singapore's Marina Bay Sands (MBS) designed by architect Moshe Safdie opened its doors to the public, at a Feng Shui approved time of 15:18pm on April 27th, 2010. This first phase of MBS includes 963 hotel rooms, parts of a shopping mall and convention center along with the resort's casino, restaurant and bars…more

April 30, London

The London skyline is to be transformed by the revival of more than a dozen “mothballed” skyscraper plans. Developers are pushing forward with schemes worth a total of more than £9 billion because of the shortage of new office space. The severity of the recession meant that nearly all building came to a halt from 2008…more

April 29, Stockholm

Work is getting underway on the construction of a 100 meter plus tower in the Swedish city of Stockholm. Continuing the tradition of developments outside the city center, the Victoria Tower is located in Kista approximately 6 miles north of the central train station. The scheme is notable for its triangular cladding consisting of two horizontal sets for each floor…more

April 29, Brisbane

A Kuwaiti sheikh is set to build the first hotel high-rise in the Brisbane CBD. The Melbourne-based subsidary of Action Group Holdings, owned by Sheikh Mubarak Abdullah Al Mubarak Al Sabah, has proposed to build a $90 million, four-star Novotel Hotel on a vacant block at 40 Elizabeth Street…more

April 29, Frankfurt

We've all heard the refrain: The greenest buildings are the ones that already exist. But what if a building is so hideous, so bland, so utterly devoid of beauty that, green or not, it's an affront to the very conceit of architecture? Deutsche Bank is set to become carbon neutral, starting with the world's first LEED Platinum retrofitted skyscrapers…more

April 29, New York

When it reopens in 2013, the newly-renovated, six-building, 2.6 million-square-foot United Nations complex will be 50% more energy efficient, 40% more water efficient and will look on the outside much as it did 59 years ago at the ribbon cutting. On the inside, though, the change on the office floors promises to be nothing short of profound…more

April 28, San Francisco

San Francisco is known as a city where it can be tough to get most anything built, and the fate of the condo tower known as 555 Washington has given that image a few more polishes. The proposed high-rise located next to the Transamerica Pyramid squeaked narrowly through the planning commission only to be rebuffed by the board of supervisors…more

April 28, Moscow

The symbol of postwar recovery and one of Moscow’s most impressive landmarks, Hotel Ukraine, has reopened its doors after three years of restoration work. Renovated into one of the most luxurious and expensive hotels in the city, the new Ukraine still has much its original design preserved…more

April 28, New York

Boston Properties Inc., the Durst Organization Inc. and Related Cos. are the finalists competing to invest in and manage One World Trade Center, said people familiar with the talks. The Port Authority, which owns the project site, will choose a partner by the end of May 2010, said Christopher Ward, the agency’s executive director…more

April 28, Qatar

Eversheds has advised Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Company (QGIRC) on a QAR2.5bn (pound 450m) project to construct four skyscrapers in Qatar. Eversheds is acting for longstanding client QGIRC, which is constructing the towers via its joint venture with Ezdan Real Estate and Al Sari Trading Company…more

April 28, Boston

Taking direct aim at Mayor Thomas M. Menino, developer Don Chiofaro accused the mayor of wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on a zoning review whose preconceived conclusion was to block his $1 billion plan to build two skyscrapers on the city's waterfront. A city study of property concluded that development on his parcel should be limited to 200 feet…more

April 27

“Global warming is bad, but it doesn’t make us feel nauseated or angry or disgraced,” wrote a Harvard psychologist. The environmental crisis doesn’t conspicuously threaten us in the course of everyday life, so we’re not as motivated to act, since we form stronger feelings around more-tangible things…more

April 27, London

Upchurch Associates has completed the design for phase 2 of Mast Quay, a dockside development in Woolwich, east London. The plan features a collection of tall buildings with 218 apartments and 738 square meters of commercial space plus landscaping between the buildings and under-croft parking…more

April 27, Dubai

A luxury hotel crafted by designer Giorgio Armani opened as the first landmark tenant in the world's tallest skyscraper. The 160-room Armani Hotel Dubai is a welcome bit of good news for Dubai's leaders after the troubled debut of the more than half-mile (828-meter) Burj Khalifa in January 2010…more

April 27, Oslo

In 2003 MVRDV, a-lab and Dark architects won the competition for Oslo’s new waterfront development along Bjørvika with the design of the ‘Bjørvika Barcode’ for Oslo S Utvikling. a-lab has built the first building of the master-plan, the Oslo Headquarters of Pricewaterhouse Coopers – PWC in 2009…more

April 26, Qatar

'The Pearl – Qatar' by international firm Callison, is a 14 million-square-foot, 2.5 billion USD island community off the coast of Doha, Qatar. Both a community and a tourist destination, the Pearl is the result of increased efforts to diversify the country’s economy. Built on a former pearl diving site, its name pays tribute to its strong historical and cultural ties to the sea…more

April 26, Sydney

Work is moving forward on Grocon's skyscraper to stand in the Australian city of Sydney on the site of the former John Boyd Tower following the completion of an $800 million Australian financing agreement and pre-lets. The 46 story building called 163 Castlereagh Street will contain approximately 54,000 square meters of grade A office space…more

April 26, Seattle

The developer of the luxury Bravern complex in downtown Bellevue, bowing to new market realities, is converting one of the project's two nearly finished condo towers to apartments. The 236 units for lease in the southern tower will be put up for sale as condos again if the housing market recovers…more

April 26, Kansas City

A plan to locate a proposed convention hotel on the same downtown block as the Power & Light Building got unanimous backing from the full city steering committee. A concept by developer Ron Jury calls for renovating the historic skyscraper at 14th Street and building a companion tower to the west to create a 1,015-room hotel complex…more