CTBUH Global News

Wind turbines being installed in London’s Elephant & Castle Strata tower

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:36:00 GMT

March 12, London

Work to install three wind turbines at a huge new Hamiltons-designed tower in south London is due to be completed. The turbines are designed to contribute 8% of the 43-storey Strata building’s total energy consumption when the 408-apartment block at Elephant & Castle is completed in May, 2010...more

JDS architects unveil new project in Guadalajara

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:34:00 GMT

March 12, Guadalajara

In Guadalajara, JDS architects will be designing a 280,000 m2 mixed-use master plan complex, which is meant to consolidate the new urban center of the city and will hopefully become an important symbol of growth and power in the second largest city in Mexico...more

Pearl Dubai partners with Sotheby's

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:30:00 GMT

March 12, Dubai

Developers of the 20 million sq ft Dubai Pearl have announced their collaboration with Singapore Sotheby's International Realty to encourage international funding for the €2.6billion luxury project. Pearl Dubai FZ LLC is to commence a road show across key Asian hubs and seek high net-worth investors...more

Shenzhen’s Wind Friendly Tower

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:28:00 GMT

March 11, Shenzhen

Another unusual looking skyscraper is to start construction in the Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen situated near the border between the Peoples Republic and Hong Kong. The Coop Himmelb(l)au design for the China Insurance Group will be 200 metres tall and 49 floors when complete...more

Bangalore masterplan launched

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:27:00 GMT

March 11, Bangalore

Bangalore’s latest urban expansion, designed by Andy Fisher workshop, was launched as a blueprint for future sustainable developments by Patel Realty. The 50 hectare development has been formulated to encompass environmental strategies, business incubators, commercial facilities, social, recreational and lifestyle needs...more

Frank Williams, Architect of Skyscrapers, dies at 73

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:31:00 GMT

March 10, New York

Frank Williams, an architect whose sleek towers incorporating crisp geometric shapes in many of their facades made a significant mark on the New York skyline, died on Feb. 25 in Manhattan. He was 73. In a career of more than four decades, Mr. Williams was the lead architect or collaborated with other prominent designers on 20 buildings in Manhattan...more

Victory Towers To Rise In Kyiv

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:27:00 GMT

March 10, Kyiv

The Ukraine may be in something of an economic funk right now, but despite that skyscraper building continues in the country's capital regardless. Part of this stream of projects is Victory Towers, a twin 229 meter tall development with 55 floors in each of the skyscrapers and a huge shared basement between them...more

London’s 2012 Eco-tower at Royal Docks

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:16:00 GMT

March 10, London

Studio RHE have submitted planning drawings to the Borough of Newham, one of London’s poorest boroughs, in an effort to develop the area with a new residential Eco-tower. The sleek 24 storey building named Silvertree is wrapped with coloured panels on 2 sides, which provide not only solar shading but also...more

Tallest Indian skyscraper gets its act together

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:12:00 GMT

March 10, Mumbai

Eight years after construction began in 2002 at the Imperial twin towers project in Mumbai, its developers have finally received the mandatory occupancy certificate to start handing over homes to buyers. The Rs1,200 core project, India’s most expensive residential address, has been bogged down by legal issues over the dangers its construction...more

Bruce Graham, architect of Willis Tower and John Hancock Center, dies at age 84

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:09:00 GMT

March 10, Chicago

The CTBUH is saddened to learn of the recent passing of architect Bruce Graham, formerly with Skidmore Owings and Merrill. His influence on the Council’s hometown of Chicago was profound; one cannot look upon the city skyline without seeing the influence of Graham’s legacy, including the Willis Tower and John Hancock Center...more

Water Purifying Skyscraper Cleans up Jakarta’s Rivers

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:07:00 GMT

March 10, Jakarta

This water purifying skyscraper, dubbed the Ciliwung Recovery Project (CRP), was designed for the rivers of Jakarta. The project provides housing and features an integrated filtration system consisting of a series of tubes that pump and purify waters from the region's polluted rivers...more

Qatar: Colossal KEO design completes

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:46:00 GMT

March 10, Qatar

KEO has announced the completion of their designs for a mixed use development on a 70,000 sq m waterfront site in Qatar. 130,000 sq m of office space; 30,000 sq m of retail space and 640 residential units will be provided at Diyar Al-Kuwait in Lusail. KEO describes the design composition as being inspired by traditional courtyard planning...more

Tallest Trends and the Burj Khalifa

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:30:00 GMT

March 10, Chicago

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has received and examined detailed drawings of the Burj Khalifa submitted by building owner Emaar, and can now confirm the official building height at 828.00 meters (2716.54 feet), as well as the title of “The World’s Tallest Building”. With the official completion of the building on January 4th...more

Oak Park readies to discuss--and vote on--the plan for its tallest skyscraper

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:26:00 GMT

March 4, Oak Park, Chicago

Oak Park's village board will hold a special meeting to discuss--and, in all likelilhood, vote on--the controversial plan for a 20-story hotel and condominium tower that is proposed for a prominent downtown corner, just down the street from a cluster of homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright...more

Bogota Skyscraper Steps Up

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:24:00 GMT

March 4, Bogota

Stepped skyscrapers have long been popular, but few designs have taken it quite as far as this new tower planned for Bogota in Columbia. The development is actually a collection of three interlinked towers called BD Bacata after the area it will stand in. They will be 240 metres, 200 metres, and 120 metres in height with the main tower rising to 66 floors...more

Itty Bitty Cities: 22 Models That Miniaturize the World

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:22:00 GMT

March 4

Model cities are used all over the world for urban planning, architectural proposals and research. But while miniature cities are useful, they’re also a unique kind of art. Older models give us a very real glimpse into what cities looked like in past generations, while new models can help us to visualize what our surroundings will look like in the future...more

Things are starting to look up for a revamped Hollywood high-rise

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:21:00 GMT

March 4, Los Angeles

Hollywood's tallest tower has shed its bones and skin -- and hopefully its reputation as the most cursed building in town. The slender 20-story Sunset Vine Tower that was Los Angeles' first modern skyscraper when it opened to international acclaim in 1963 at Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street has been converted into a luxury apartment building...more

Dubai: World Record: Final word awaited

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:19:00 GMT

March 4, Dubai

Dubai: Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) says Burj Khalifa builder Emaar has not shared blueprints in order for the 828-meter Dubai skyscraper to be truly certified as the world's tallest structure. "No, we haven't got a blueprint yet, but we'll probably get one sooner or later," Jan Klerks, CTBUH spokesman...more

Sydney’s Barangaroo towers breach height limits, says design architect

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:17:00 GMT

March 4, Sydney

Almost all the towers in the Lend Lease's proposed $6 billion redevelopment at Barangaroo breach height limits, according to the first publicly available architectural drawings of the scheme. The drawings show the hotel planned for construction on a public pier will be about 10 storeys higher than allowed under the concept plan for the area...more

Dubai: Over the Top

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:16:00 GMT

March 3, Dubai

More than a dozen of us filed into the dark elevator, ready to be whisked up 1,483 feet to the observation deck of the newly minted tallest building in the world. The smooth 60-second ride delivered us to the Burj Khalifa’s 124th floor. People of all ages were making their way around the viewing platform...more

Doubts Surface On London’s Lewisham Gateway Plans

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:14:00 GMT

March 3, London

Plans to regenerate the center of Lewisham in east London have taken a major hit following the revelation from local councillors that changing economic conditions have made the proposals unviable. The Arup planned project consists of a number of buildings including two towers that should be about 70 and 77 meters in height...more

New York: I.M Pei on the Hyperboloid

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:12:00 GMT

March 2, New York

Watch an animation of, and hear I.M Pei talk about, the Hyperboloid – the building that wasn't built. The Hyperboloid was designed in 1954 for Manhattan. Though never built, the plans inspired organic structures around the world...more

Chicago: 860-880 Lake Shore Drive refurbishment by Krueck & Sexton

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:09:00 GMT

March 2, Chicago

Chicago office Krueck & Sexton have completed the restoration of two apartment towers in Chicago by German-American architect Mies van der Rohe. Called 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, the 26-storey glass and steel towers were built between 1949 and 1951. The refurbishment involved re-coating the steel frame facade and...more

The greening of the Empire State Building and other topics

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:07:00 GMT

March 2, New York

The 2010 March/April issue of Preservation magazine has some stories that explore the related, but occasionally conflicting, agendas of saving old buildings and saving the planet from global warming. Preservation senior editor Sudip Bose examines the greening of the Empire State Building, a project comparable to the greening of Chicago's Willis Tower...more

Rem Koolhaas Loses His Star Designer

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:01:00 GMT

March 2

Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture announced that Ole Scheeren, the Rotterdam-based firm's envoy to Asia and its acknowledged superstar young designer, has split to start his own studio. Scheeren was the director of OMA's Beijing office, and oversaw the CCTV tower project, among others...more

Proposed Newark high-rise would become city's tallest building

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:50:00 GMT

March 2, Newark

Newark, once home to New Jersey’s tallest high-rise but overtaken time and again by the waterfront towers along Jersey City’s Gold Coast, is poised to get back in the game. Carl Dranoff, the Philadelphia developer who unveiled plans in 2008 for a 28-story luxury apartment high-rise, pegs his new Two Center Street at 44 stories...more

Bill Baker to receive Institution’s Gold Medal Award

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:04:00 GMT

March 2, Chicago

William F. Baker, PE, CE, SE, FIStructE, FASCE is to receive the Institution of Structural Engineers' highest accolade, the Gold Medal, for his work as an internationally acclaimed structural engineer. The Gold Medal is awarded to an individual for ‘exceptional and outstanding contributions to the advancement of structural engineering’...more

New York: The Height of Sustainability

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:02:00 GMT

March 2, New York

April 2009, a crowd gathered on the 80th floor of the Empire State Building to hear of a plan both ambitious and audacious, the details of which had largely been kept secret. The journalists and other parties assembled that day already knew that the Empire State Building was undergoing a $550 million restoration. What may have come as a surprise...more

Riyadh: Nikken sign contract to design SAR1 billion Saudi Stock Exchange

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:01:00 GMT

March 2, Riyadh

Nikken Sekkei has beaten 31 international companies to secure the design and engineering consultancy contract for a new, highly sustainable Saudi Stock Exchange Headquarters building. The SAR1 billion (€179 million) development will rise 50 stories high in new financial heart of Riyadh...more

Traditional moorings inspire Doha realty plan

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:58:00 GMT

March 1, Doha

Call it Qatar's two-track real estate development strategy. The gleaming new high-rises in the upscale West Bay enclave answer to Qatar's need for a swanky real estate profile that is in tune with its soaring global aspirations. At the same time, the Gulf state is not about to let go of its traditional moorings, and a newly unveiled development - Musheireb...more

With new name, tenants and amenities, the shine is back on Chicago’s Willis Tower

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:55:00 GMT

March 1, Chicago

Amid the worst office real estate market in memory, Willis Tower has mounted an improbable comeback. With lower rents and investments in attention-grabbing upgrades that followed a refinancing deal, Willis Tower added leases totaling 880,000 square feet with new and existing tenants and halved its vacancy rate to almost 10%...more

London’s Heron Tower sprouts over Tower 42 to take top spot in the city

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:53:00 GMT

March 1, London

Lee Polisano’s Heron Tower, which will stand 755 ft tall upon completion, is the tallest building in the City of London after surpassing Tower 42’s 600 ft height. Set for completion in March 2011, Heron Tower’s 46 stories will provide over 40,000 sq m of office space in the center of London in an innovative 3-floor village structure...more

Oasis Tower is a Spiraling Vertical Farm for Dubai

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:50:00 GMT

March 1, Dubai

Dubai is emerging from the desert sands and more people are moving into the famed city. With limited land available for agriculture, Dubai may soon be in need of an alternative solution for growing food for its residents. One solution could be this Oasis Tower vertical farm designed by Rahul Surin...more

Developer Henry Taic constructing high-rise, hotel on Tel Aviv beachfront

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:47:00 GMT

March 1, Tel Aviv

Yet more high-rises with luxury apartments will be sprouting up on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The project, called David Promenade Residences, envisions two towers connected by a ground-level glass structure. One of the towers is to be 25 stories tall and have about 70 apartments...more

The end of the high-rise shortfall

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:45:00 GMT

Feb 28, Denver

A city is sized up by its skyline, both its might and its imagination. When we look at tall buildings from far away, we don't care about their science — if the elevators are fast or how much energy they consume. We take in how they shape the urban outline, if they are innovative or traditional, if they give the city a personality...more

International Tourism Complex Hangzhou by Steven Holl Architects

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:43:00 GMT

Feb 28, Hangzhou

Steven Holl Architects of New York have won a competition to design a major urban quarter on a former industrial site beside a lake at Hangzhou, China. The project, which includes several residential towers and an exhibition center, is based on Shan-Shui – “mountain-water” – a Chinese landscape painting style...more

Kohn Pedersen Fox Architects: One Central Macau

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:40:00 GMT

Feb 28, Macau

International architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) has finalized construction for their 'One Central Macau' project. The luxury 400,000 square foot retail facility is part of a grand scale mixed-use development designed by KPF, and completes another key milestone in the city’s continued growth...more

Fujian's tallest building in the making at Xinglin Bay

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:48:00 GMT

Feb 26, Fujian

A 262-meter-high skyscraper, which will be the highest building in Fujian Province, as well as another two 150-meter-high office buildings, will stand up on the north bank of Yuanboyuan (Expo) Garden in Jimei District of Xiamen. The skyscraper will be located inside the phase II of the Xinglin Bay Business Operations Center, in the mainland districts of Xiamen...more

Canary Wharf Has 25 Churchill Place Redone

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:46:00 GMT

Feb 25, Canary Wharf

Ever since News International decided they weren't interested the site has been mothballed, but now Canary Wharf has been working on a new design for 25 Churchill Place, the last available plot in the original estate. As before the scheme comes from the pens of KPF but this time features a 108 metre tall mid-rise tower...more

London: Land Securities relaunches skyscraper

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:44:00 GMT

Feb 25, London

Land Securities restart talks for building 20 Fenchurch Street ‘Walkie Talkie’ tower. Shelved for 18 months, the provocative plans for an office tower at 20 Fenchurch street in London, penned by Rafael Viñoly, are being ‘dusted down’ in the hope of a possible restart, according to a spokesperson for property giants Land Securities...more

Last beam laid on Long Island City skyscraper

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:41:00 GMT

Feb 25, Long Island City

A 21-story office building in Long Island City which has been in the works since late 2008 is structurally complete. Workers placed the final beam on the Gotham Center tower, topping off what will be Long Island City’s newest skyscraper. The top floors still need to be glassed in, and the interior is not yet finished, but the 28th-Street facility is on track to open in 2011...more

Mexican Tower Takes Diagrids To New Heights

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:40:00 GMT

Feb 25, Mexico City

Reforma 432 is a newly planned residential skyscraper to stand in Mexico City with a façade that is nothing if not distinctive. The front of the building which faces on to an existing circular public plaza, Paseo de la Reforma, is based on a triangular framed pattern with glass and steel in a manner similar to that of the corners of Foster's Hearst Tower in New York City...more

High-rise recycling success

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:37:00 GMT

Feb 25, Glasgow

Councils could increase recycling rates if they put more focus on high-rise and multi-occupancy homes - historically the hardest-to-reach areas for this service - research for recycling and waste container firm Taylor suggests. The study, conducted by Professor James Baird of Glasgow Caledonian University, surveyed residents of 1,000 North Lanarkshire Council flats...more

Architect backs plan for Plymouth city centre tower

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:36:00 GMT

Feb 24, Plymouth

Barcelona architect David Mackay has given his backing to plans for a tall building on the site of the old Woolworth's store in Plymouth city center. But the author of the 2003 Vision for Plymouth has called for the city's Design Panel to be recalled to make sure the planned 20-storey tower block is of a good design...more

Kokkugia: Fibrous Tower

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:32:00 GMT

Feb 24, London

Kokkugia is an architecture studio based in New York and London. Fibrous tower is one of the studio’s projects exploring structures based on fibrous skeletons. The series of studies is based on algorithmic design methodologies, exploring ornamental, structural and spatial order through this lens...more

How Would You Design London’s Skyline

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:30:00 GMT

Feb 24, London

This new tool from Hayes Davidson, the imaging company who come up with so many of those visualizations of London in the future, allows you to play with London's skyline. Showing one of the views towards St Paul's Cathedral from north London that's protected, it allows you to see the London skyline looked like in the past...more

Sands to open part of Singapore resort in April, 2010

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:27:00 GMT

Feb 23, Singapore

Las Vegas Sands Corp. said it will open a portion of the $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on April 27, 2010. The project's nearly 3-acre SkyPark, which sits atop the hotel-casino's three 55-story hotel towers, will open June 23, 2010 as part of the overall grand opening celebration...more

Hope Rise For Leicester Business Gateway

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:24:00 GMT

Feb 23, Leicester

One of the final hindrances to the development of a new business quarter in Leicester looks like it will finally be resolved. Leicester City Council has given planning permission for a replacement building on Charter Street that is being offered to Royal Mail as part of a £9 million deal, although the would-be tenant has yet to agree to moving there...more

Faulders Studio: Geotube for Dubai

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:19:00 GMT

Feb 23, Dubai

Geotube is a building proposal designed by the California based architecture firm, Faulders studio for the unique environment of Dubai. The building features a large super structure which will, over time, grow a skin façade on its own. The system utilizes a vertical salt deposit growth system that uses water from the adjacent Persian Gulf...more

Sydney’s Harbor high-rise breaks all the rules

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:24:00 GMT

Feb 23, Sydney

The Premier, Kristina Keneally, has endorsed a plan to build one of Sydney's biggest hotels more than 100 meters out over the harbor. And the British architect behind the Barangaroo proposal, Richard Rogers, said he had ''no reservations'' about going where no private developer had been allowed to develop before...more