May 27, Sofia, Bulgaria Few companies in Bulgaria have managed to prove the adage that a crisis presents opportunities, but drug maker Sopharma is among them. Among the large-scale construction projects announced or started just before the economic recession hit, Sopharma Business Towers is among the handful that were not put on ice... more

May 27, Germany Documents discovered in a German archive reveal the hitherto unknown colossal building projects that Adolf Hitler planned. He was obsessed to build everything higher, wider and deeper than anything in America. For Hamburg, he wanted to build a skyscraper that had to be taller than the Empire State Building... more

May 27, London Concept designs for an abstract new gateway to England’s capital have been presented for the second time. Affectionately termed “The Octopus” because of its undulating profile and multiple protrusions, the 49.5-meter high complex will enclose a number of offices, a public sky garden and advertising space... more

May 26, Tokyo Japan needs to stop building skyscrapers after the March earthquake traumatized office workers and residents in tall buildings, said Akira Mori, the president of the Mori Trust. The government should consider setting a standard height for new buildings at about 100 meters (328 feet)... more

May 26, South Korea Buzz and hype have surrounded China’s recent building boom, but to the east, South Korea is becoming the next hot spot for international architecture. South Korea is positioning itself to be the East Asian country that grows not only faster but also smartest... more

May 25, Panama City Hard Rock International plans to open the Hard Rock Hotel Panama Megapolis in December as its 16th property and its first in Latin America. The 66-story hotel will offer panoramic views of Panama city and Panama Bay. The hotel will have 1,499 guestrooms, including a 2,659-squarefoot Rock Star Suites... more

May 25, Dubai Emaar Properties has joined hands with the LEGO® Group to unveil the Architecture Series model of Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building. The model joins the prestigious line-up of the LEGO® Architecture collection and is the first building in LEGO Architecture series from outside the United States... more

May 25, Melbourne Planning Minister Matthew Guy ignored the advice of independent consultants commissioned by the Department of Planning when he approved a 25-story tower in Footscray, with the development more than double the recommended height. It will dominate the skyline of Melbourne's when completed in 2013... more

May 25, Christchurch Demolition of the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Christchurch will begin in the next few weeks, but bringing it down will be a delicate and complex operation. The 26 story hotel is the tallest building in the city and was severely damaged in the February earthquake. There have been fears it could collapse during an aftershock... more

May 25, Boston A sight long missing from Midtown could be slowly returning: major new office buildings under construction. Boston Properties announced that it has signed law firm Morrison & Foerster as an anchor tenant for its planned 39-story office building. The developer intends to go ahead with the building as soon as this fall... more

May 24, Chicago The Chicago Spire was going to be one of the world's tallest buildings. But the financial downturn torpedoed its funding, and now it is all but dead. Robert Bruegmann, of the University of Illinois, considers the fate of supertall buildings in the US, and explains why he believes the spire may yet be built... more

May 24, Pittsburgh The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. has announced that it plans to construct what it says will be the world’s most environmentally friendly skyscraper. The Tower at PNC Plaza will be roughly 40-story building and about 800,000 square feet. The skyscraper would be PNC’s largest Pittsburgh building... more

May 24, Dubai The office block, known as the Swiss Cheese, is wrapped in a 40-centimeter thick "exoskeleton" of white concrete punched with 1,300 holes. The outer wall was designed to mimic Arabian screens known as mashrabiya, creating a veil around the building to provide shade and block the desert's heat and glare.... more

May 23, Grand Rapids, USA River House is the tallest building in Grand Rapids, standing at 412 feet tall. But how does it stand up to the high winds? River House is built to withstand 95 mph winds, the strength of an EF-1 tornado. The tornado that struck St. John's Hospital, Joplin was an EF-4 with wind gusts of between 166 and 200 mph... more

May 23, Buenos Aires A hybrid skyscraper zoo creates exciting city sightseeing over Buenos Aires’ skyline, Influx Studio propose a whole new zoo experience inspired by modern safaris, in which visitors drive their own vehicles to observe and photograph wildlife animals roaming freely, rather than viewing them in small enclosures... more

May 23, Kuala Lumpur The 35-story office tower has been awarded the Green Mark Gold Certification (Provisional) by the Singapore Building and Construction Authority as well as the provisional certification from the Malaysia's Green Building Index, making it the first dedicated office tower in the country to receive both awards... more

May 23, Birmingham, UK Birmingham's skyline could soon be transformed as two controversial applications for high-rise buildings go before councilors this week. Lee Longlands has submitted two proposals to create either a hotel, student accommodation or retail space in locations on Broad Street and the corner of Tennant and Granville Street... more

May 23 Supertall buildings pose unique challenges to engineers. As the number of these buildings increases, there is a greater demand for specialized engineers with high-rise expertise. Lighting power densities have dropped, due to the impact of ASHRAE 90.1, LEED, IECC guidelines and requirements... more

May 22, Dubai Realty Capital has obtained the final completion certificate after wrapping up construction work of its center piece “i-Rise” tower. This certificate officially confirms that the “i-Rise” is complete and ready to be occupied. It has been revealed that high-profile tenants start to move into the luxury-oriented business tower... more

May 21, Dallas With the building downturn, the construction cranes have flown the coop from Dallas’ Uptown district. But don’t expect them to stay away for long. Because the Uptown area didn’t get dramatically overbuilt, commercial builders are betting the area will come roaring back over the next couple of years... more

May 21, Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is a car culture. The vast distances between destinations, the extreme heat and sand storms, the quality of the existing public transportation systems, and the current low cost of petrol in the UAE make the automobile the default means of transportation... more

May 21, Atlantic City Visitors to Atlantic City can walk indoors block after block, casino to casino, without ever smelling the ocean or seeing sunlight hit the sand. With business down and competition for casinos from neighboring states heating up, state leadership was concerned that the city’s prime assets was being overlooked... more

May 20, New York One World Trade Center, slated to become the new headquarters of Condé Nast will be one of the most technologically sophisticated buildings in the world, officials say. Condé Nast will pay an estimated $2 billion over 25 years to become the anchor tenant of the building, which will become New York’s tallest upon completion... more

May 20, London The new London Bridge Tower is the talk of the town, bumped for a few days by a local wedding, it’s now back with a vengeance. You can’t get away from it. On the train you will overhear the conversations; someone will be excitedly pointing, telling a friend about the building’s impressive stats... more

May 20, Hong Kong Three buildings by Arup were honored at the Structural Excellence Awards 2011. The International Commerce Centre claimed the top prize in the Hong Kong Projects Category for its engineering and design excellence. Canton Tower, a new urban landmark in Guangzhou, won in the Mainland/Overseas Projects Category... more

May 20, Singapore OCBC Center has been awarded a Green Mark Gold Award for sustainability efforts; it is the oldest historic site to receive the prize. OCBC has worked to retrofit the building with features like more efficient air-conditioning and water consumption management systems since 2001... more

May 20 The reputation often prescribed to skyscrapers - all the water use and CO2 emissions - is pretty dim. But these towering beauties prove that green doesn't have to mean unsightly. For World Environment Day, we created a sustainable skyline of some of the most eco-friendly superstructures on the globe... more

May 19, Dubai Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties PJSC, has been selected as one of only six members in the International Awards Committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), the world’s leading body in the field of tall buildings and the recognized source of information on tall buildings... more

May 19, London Arsenal has submitted a planning application for the development in Hornsey Road, Holloway, through its developer Ashburton Trading Ltd. The skyscraper, which would include 450 rooms and a 24th level viewing area, will feature the Arsenal colors and house students from various universities... more

May 19 New York Manhattan developers are planning the city’s biggest decade of office construction since the 1980s, betting on rising demand for modern space even with tenants unsigned and the availability of financing more limited. More than 25 million square feet of projects are under construction or may be built in the next nine years... more

May 18, Brisbane The view from Brisbane's highest offices was on show today as the $700 million One One One Eagle Street skyscraper officially celebrated its “topping out.” The nearly completed tower boasts panoramic views of the city, out to Moreton Bay in the east and to the ranges in the west... more

May 18, Mississauga, Canada This series of construction photos shows the towers’ progress and that glass installation has reached the top floors of the Absolute World Towers 4 and 5 condominiums in Mississauga, Ontario.  Fernbrook Homes/Cityzen is developer of the 56-story, 430-unit project with six levels of underground parking... more

May 18 Anyone scared of heights need not apply. A new photography craze known as “Rooftopping” is sweeping across the globe. Those brave enough to give it a try go to the tops of the world's tallest buildings, shimmy to the edge and then hang off skyscrapers in a bid to capture the perfect shot... more

May 18, Brisbane The site of the failed Vision Tower in the Brisbane CBD has been earmarked for what is being touted as Brisbane's tallest building. The property new owners have lodged a development application for a 297-meter tall development proposing two towers for the site. The project will be known as 111+222... more

May 18, Istanbul Alain Robert, who is internationally known as “Spiderman,” climbed Turkey’s tallest building, the 261-meter Sapphire Istanbul. Robert started the climb at approximately 12:30 p.m. and finished by 2:20 p.m. Upon reaching the top of the building, he waved the Turkish flag for spectators... more

May 17, India International architecture and design firms are finding the US$12 billion Indian real estate market to be extremely lucrative. Growing at up to 15% per annum, the sector holds growing potential for construction materials and technology firms, as well as architecture and design companies... more

May 17, Sydney This is Sydney's real urban jungle. Racing to claim the title of the city's largest office tower garden, One Bligh Street's developers craned four majestic Banksia trees up to its rooftop oasis. The tower's green space is now so large, it requires its own sewer mining license just to water the thousands of plants... more

May 16, Dubai The comparison between Abu Dhabi and Dubai has been a consistent source of debate over the years. With Dubai’s recent financial crisis calling for the support of its economically thriving counter-part it could easily be assumed that the competition between the two emirates was over... more

May 16, London A dash for office space among some of the City's major players was expected on May 16 as insurer Aon agreed to lease nearly a third of British Land's 47-story Cheesegrater skyscraper. Aon has agreed heads of terms for 191,000 square feet when the tower is completed in 2014... more

May 16, Dubai If you've spent any time in London, you may think that you're seeing double. Dubai's twin Park Towers stand 49 stories high, are fully glazed, and are reminiscent of London’s iconic Gherkin tower, except – in true Dubai style – here there are two of them side by side... more

May 16, Liverpool The GBP 5.5 billion Liverpool Waters scheme would cause “significant damage” to the city’s World Heritage Site – according to a scathing new report. Peel Holdings wants to regenerate the city’s northern docklands with a series of skyscrapers claiming it will create more than 25,000 jobs and 14,000 apartments... more

May 15, New Jersey Despite harsh economic times, officials and developers cut the ribbon for the tallest residential building in New Jersey, and now all it needs are the city's residents to fill its 524 apartments on the Hudson River. The Monaco, a two-tower, 50-story building at 475 Washington Blvd, is 30% leased and looking for more tenants... more

May 15, Dubai Tameer Holding has completed the superstructure on its 91-story Elite Residence project in Dubai Marina. The superstructure rises to a height of 355 meters, with the tower set to reach a final height of 381 meters. The Dh1.7 billion ($463 million) project is on track to be completed later in 2011... more

May 15, Hollywood Two New York developers unveiled their plans for a nearly $1 billion mixed-use project that would rise up around the iconic Capitol Records Tower on Vine Street in Hollywood. The proposal requires city of Los Angeles approval in order to move forward; it takes about two years to gain authorization for such a project... more

May 14 Davis Langdon has announced the formation of the Tall Buildings Group which is designed to leverage experience from around the world within the Aecom. The group will be led by CTBUH Advisory Group member and tall building specialists Steve Watts of Davis Langdon and Aecom's senior vice-president Hamid Adib... more

May 14, Chicago K Station is the mega-development that never quits. The two Alta at K Station towers were among the last high-rises to go up at the end of the last construction boom, and it looks like Fifield Companies could be one of the first to get a shovel in the ground during the upcoming mini-boom to build a 33-story tower at 353 N. Halsted... more

May 13, New York Just as the building has really gotten moving over the past year, ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this fall, it is reported that plans for a prismatic base to the building was quietly cast aside. The idea was to mask the concrete base that is intended to protect the building from future threats... more

May 13, Shenzhen China's newest landmark tower, the TFP Farrells' designed Kingkey Finance Tower, known as the Kingkey 100, has topped out at a special ceremony to mark the occasion. The 442-meter, 100-story tower will be the tallest building ever completed by a British architect... more

May 13, Toronto The project manager for The Madison, a 644-unit condo to be built on the site where the York Theatre used to operate thinks that the stretch of Eglinton between Yonge and Mt. Pleasant could use a bit of livening up. The Madison will have two glass towers, one 33 stories and the other 30... more

May 13, London A plan to build this 25-story tower at the Shoreditch end of Bethnal Green Road has drawn opposition from local residents. Residents collected over 1,000 letters in objection to the scheme. Amanda Levete, formerly a partner at Future Systems has designed the tower and it would be Levete’s first skyscraper in London... more

May 13, Gold Coast, Australia Sunland Group’s founder launched a broadside at the Gold Coast City Council for allowing the coast to be “hijacked” by intoxicated nightclub revelers, low-cost tourists and criminals. Sunland has been behind most of the city's biggest high-rise projects of the past decade, including the Palazzo Versace, Q1, the Aria and Lumiere... more

May 12, Copenhagen The opening of Scandinavia’s largest hotel symbolizes not only the identity of Copenhagen, but also marks the city’s increasing importance on the international scene with the two towers reaching up 76,5 meters, and leaning out at a staggering 15 degrees in each direction (11 degrees more than the leaning tower of Pisa)... more

May 12, Chicago During the boom, Wabash Properties announced plans to build an enormous hotel near the Cermak-Chinatown Red Line station, as well as a 14-story condo building at 1349 S. Wabash in the South Loop. Amazingly, after both of those projects stalled, it announced plans to build a condo-hotel near the Dan Ryan Expressway... more

May 11, Rome FOLDSC(R)APE, GOMMAdesign’s conceptual skyscraper for eVolo 2011 competition, explores the geometrical results of applying the “Oblique Function” to the verticalization of the city. The most important challenge of the project was to avoid losing the special aspect of Rome’s urban life system... more

May 11, Mumbai  Air traffic control (ATC) towers that are also architectural statements in their own right have come to define airports in the past decade. Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport boasts the tallest ATC tower in the world, the one at Abu Dhabi is drawn upon Islamic culture. And soon, Mumbai airport, too, will be part of this trend... more

May 11, Ho Chi Minh  A house in District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City collapsed on May 8 caused by the on-going construction of an adjoining 34-floor building. While the construction in the basement of the new building was being done, the basement walls broke causing the adjoining house to collapse... more

May 10, Chicago  A 49-story apartment tower is scheduled to break ground this summer at Lakeshore East, the master planned high-rise development on the Chicago River east of Columbus. The planned tower is the work of architects Brininstool Kerwin + Lynch. It's the first major project by the 17-month-old partnership formed in early 2010... more

May 10, Washington Heights, USA  A developer behind a controversial plan to build skyscrapers in Washington Heights has released its proposed changes to the small park that abuts the space. One that would have 2 towers within existing zoning laws and leave the green space as is, the other that would renovate the park with towers taller than the currently allowed... more

May 10, Bangalore  A 15-story building is coming up overlooking the Raj Bhavan which, apart from hosting the governor and VIPs with Z-category security, has a suite reserved for the President. It is quite a mystery how it received the requisite sanctions from civic and fire authorities... more

May 9, China  Having won the Shanghai Yangpu Waterfront urban design competition in 2010, Heller Manus has now been awarded the architectural design contract for a project located on the Yangpu waterfront in Shanghai. They have also been leading the design of the International Fashion Center in Guangzhou... more

May 9, New York  After 9/11, it took nearly a decade to locate and kill Osama bin Laden, perhaps giving the nation some sense of closure. It will take much longer than that to heal the gaping wound in the Lower Manhattan cityscape. But after spending much time on cleanup and foundation work, progress is ever more visible... more

May 9, London  Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s dozens of brave souls abseiling down a Canary Wharf skyscraper to raise money for charity. More than 150 people took a 230-foot leap of faith down 20 Cabot Square last week in a mission for London’s Air Ambulance... more

May 9, Toronto You will soon be able to take a hands-free walk along the outside of the CN Tower’s main pod – 356 meters up in the air. EdgeWalk is billed as the highest full circle walk on a 1.5-meter ledge in the world, visitors will be attached to an overhead safety rail with a trolley and harness system and will travel in groups... more

May 9, Dubai By January 2012 Dubai will likely be home to the tallest four residential towers in the world, when the Princess Tower and 23 Marina completed. The list, compiled by the CTBUH, currently puts The Torch, Dubai in the top position; Q1 Tower, off Gold Coast, in second;  and HHHR Tower in Dubai in third place... more

May 9, Winnipeg Two office buildings in downtown Winnipeg that are examples of the city's mid-20th century modernist architectural heritage are getting a face-lift.The 15-story, glass-paneled building at 363 Broadway is getting a new curtain wall that will give the structure a new appearance and increase its energy efficiency... more

May 9, Manila From the roof deck of the Banyan Tree Tower, the sight of the glittering Manila Bay and the striking Makati skyline greeted well-wishers, future residents and company executives as Federal Land celebrated the topping off ceremonies of the first of the three towers at Bay Garden Club and Residences in Metropolitan Park... more

May 8, New York Architect David Childs lost a colleague in the attacks of 9/11, a calamity he watched unfold from his office nearby. Mr. Childs, tapped almost two years later to design the signature skyscraper at the new World Trade Center, always had that memory in his mind... more

May 8, Celje, Slovenia Two Slovenian architectural offices joined to win a competition for Herman’s Square Building in Celje. The site for this new business residential building is located in a part of a larger degraded non-built up area, which was somewhat forgotten for decades and exempt from the development of the city... more

May 7, Sydney Cox Richardson Architects are showcasing the potential of transport-oriented development, with three residential towers going up above Chatswood Station. The initial design concept crowns Chatswood’s Transport Interchange with distinct diadem created by the folding blades atop each tower... more

May 6, Paris The French capital has unveiled its tallest skyscraper in the La Defense business district. At 231 meters high, the Tour First is just 21 meters taller than the city's previous tallest office building; Tour de Montparnasse. Tour First still comes in shorter than the city's tallest and most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower... more

May 6, New York Tommy Hilfiger, the designer known for his blue blazers and varsity sweaters, has signed a contract to buy the landmark MetLife Tower for $170 million and plans to convert the building into a hotel, according to an executive briefed on the deal... more

May 6, Hanoi The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Vietnam Cement Industry Corporation Headquarters was held in Hanoi recently. The building, which is comprised of a 5-story pedestal building and an approximately 135 meter high tower, is the first project for Jürgen Engel’s architectural studio in Vietnam to be built... more

May 6, London The Shard has been the focus of agonized reflection as it takes shape, in advance of its completion next year. Is it too big? Is it too ugly? Does it interfere with protected views across London? But critics' worries about how it will affect the view of St Paul's Cathedral don't mean much to the people of Bermondsey... more

May 5, Edmonton, Canada Calgary has The Bow, Encana's new headquarters. At 59 stories, it's the tallest skyscraper in Western Canada. Vancouver is abuzz over Telus Corp.'s scheme to build a new 22-story headquarters and 44-story condo tower. And yes, Edmonton has its own marquee downtown project – the 28-story Epcor Tower... more

May 5, Cebu, Philippines A 53-story residential condominium building will soon tower over Cebu City's skyline with its opening set for the third quarter of the year. The developer said that Horizon 101 is the firm's most important and biggest project so far. The tallest building in Cebu at present is the 40-story Crown Regency Hotel Cebu.... more

May 5, London Fears of a threat to the Walkie Talkie skyscraper, sparked by the controversial “rights of light” issue, have led to a call for the City of London to step in. The concern follows the Heaney case, where the court ordered a mandatory injunction to remove part of the top two floors of a recently completed office block... more

May 5, Sydney Resembling an ice block on a wooden stick, this “Paddle Pop” tower could become Sydney's tallest building – poking through the skyline above the rest in its bid to redefine the strict CBD height cap. Documents before Sydney City Council reveal the developerplan to go 10% above the 235 meter restriction... more

May 4, Taipei The annual run-up race at the Taipei 101 skyscraper, one of the world's tallest buildings, will be open to 6,000 people this year, the highest number ever, an organizer said Tuesday. The event, which will take place on June 5, was previously open to only 2,000–3,000 runners on average in the past... more

May 4, Christchurch Many of Christchurch's tallest buildings remain in limbo more than two months after the earthquake, such as the Forsyth Barr building and Clarendon Tower, remains unclear with no timetable for repairs or possible demolition. So far, 241 buildings had been approved for total demolition... more

May 4, Melbourne The design of a 35-story apartment tower squeezed on to a 20-square meter block on a busy central Melbourne street corner continues a trend towards taller but smaller buildings. CK Designworks gained approval for The Crystal, a $80 million-project that will feature 10-meter tall trees in communal gardens... more

May 3, Pittsburgh A $10.1 million aluminum skyscraper sold in under a minute on yesterday for less than $2,000. First Commonwealth Bank, which held the mortgage, was the lone bidder on the 31-story Regional Enterprise Tower and 2 adjoining properties. The price: $1,706.46, or the amount it cost to advertise the property sale... more

May 3, Chicago With a bankruptcy auction looming for the old Chicago Motor Club Building and its future in limbo, city officials are taking a step to protect the small skyscraper from the threat of demolition. The city will ask the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to grant preliminary landmark status to this Art Deco gem... more

May 2, Malacca, Malaysia The state is poised to witness another skyscraper built in the historical city when a RM 500 million mixed-use development is completed in 2014. Called “Hatten City,” the project will complement Hatten Square and Dataran Pahlawan shopping complex, as a must-visit site overlooking the Straits of Malacca... more

May 1 Some of the most ambitious efforts to transform city skylines around the globe are nearly invisible. That is because the changes, aimed at drastically reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in tall buildings, are happening in places most people never venture - in subterranean boiler rooms, behind radiators... more

May 1, Moscow As a pioneering project in Moscow, Capital City has forged many new pathways for the city’s real estate and construction industries. Through its integrated design and engineering, the project provides a model for mixed-use development, which remains rare in the city, and further establishes a new identity for Moscow... more

May 1, Coney Island, USA A new proposal for Coney Island seeks to anchor the west end of the boardwalk with nearly 500,000 square feet of mixed-use development called Ocean Dreams. The three residential towers with over 400 market rate condos, range from 14 to 22 stories and rest atop 25,000 square feet of retail and 400 parking spaces... more

April 30, Pune, India The first of Pune's skyscrapers has started making a mark on the city's skyline. Among the earliest to enter the 100-metre tower arena is  SBC's project christened “God's Blessings”, which will be the tallest residential tower in Pune. Last week, the company announced the completion of this sky scraper in Koregaon Park... more

April 30 If the S.M.A.R.T. tower appears to be in constant motion, it’s only because the structure is covered by a swarm of 100,000 robot bees. Using CAD and LPS (Local Positioning System) data, the bees can be programmed to augment the structure virtually, turning virtual information and data into physical realities... more

April 30, China Despite a diminished head count at its London headquarters, the global engineering firm Arup has opened overseas architecture offices for the first time in its 65-year history. The three new offices, which were inaugurated in early April, are located in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China... more

April 29, Los Angeles LA City Council has given the go-ahead to developer J.H. Snyder to begin construction of the Vermont, a 464-unit high-rise apartment project at a long-vacant site at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue. The council vote followed a recent vote of approval by the Community Redevelopment Agency... more

April 29, Portsmouth, UK It will stand more than 300 feet tall and dwarf the buildings around it – but a controversial new addition to Portsmouth’s skyline has been given the go-ahead. Portsmouth City Council has given its seal of approval to the 33-story ‘Blade Tower’ – a student halls of residence block in the city centre... more

April 29, Seattle A new method for strengthening concrete shear walls has the potential not only to remove significant quantities of costly reinforcing steel, but also to make construction faster and easier. This approach – never before used in the US – is being planned in a Seattle high-rise residential tower... more

April 29, Hangzhou Foster+Partners has begun their first project in Hangzhou, China. The building’s design is inspired from the traditional "Ding" vessel that symbolizes wealth, dignity and stability. This 100-meter high skyscraper is intended to be an eco-friendly project... more

April 28, Dubai Dubai's has had its share of tall claims, with many of them never making it beyond the drawing board. But this developer has certainly delivered on its promise. At 348 meters, the Torch in Dubai Marina has won formal recognition as the world's tallest residential tower, surpassing the earlier claimant, the Q1 Tower in Australia... more

April 28, New York The Empire State, the world's most famous office building, will celebrate its 80th anniversary on Sunday, May 1, 2011. Soaring 1,454 feet above Midtown Manhattan, it has served as one of the most recognizable and beloved attractions. The building has accomplished many milestones over the last 80 years... more

April 28, London London's high-rise architecture has a culinary bent of late. First there was the “Gherkin,” now there is the “Cheese Grater.” The city's next major high-rise, mothballed for three years during the foundation stage but about to spring to life, got its nickname thanks to its silvery leaning south facade... more

April 27 Growing with stringy tentacles off a rectangular tower is the Sky Cloud, a skyscraper that winds and grows from the ground into a twisting structure that resembles, at the top, an aquatic tail or fin. The design presents a building which skin and shape are “experimentations of deformation with portals and cellular growth"... more

April 27, Makkah PCT has supplied the uppermost 370 meters of the clock tower, a construction that involves over 60,000 square meters of composite cladding. This includes the four epoxy glass fiber clock faces, as well as the 23-meter carbon clock hands and the 23-meter self-supporting carbon Hilal... more

April 27, Pisa After 20 years of thorough stabilization efforts the scaffolding has been removed from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, meaning that the throngs of tourists that flock to the bell tower every day can now appreciate the column in all its glory. The architectural masterpiece now stands at 56 meters tall at its highest point... more

April 27, Abu Dhabi Project delays could play out favorably as Abu Dhabi's property market hopes to slow down the decline in values. If all 22,000 new units projected to be delivered this year are completed, the market would have to settle for much lower property prices. But Abu Dhabi has now come to accept a three to six-month delay... more