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Beijing is seeing the completion of two high-profile, record-setting skyscrapers this fall: while the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO Tower with its 623-foot-tall, full-height atrium (the world's tallest) will open to the public in November, the 1,732-foot supertall CITIC Tower already... View full entry
A giant rusty shipwreck, its bow reaching for the sky, cuts through the main building. Plants growing out of the hull seem to symbolise man’s creation slowly being reclaimed by nature.
According to Tomáš Císař, the lead architect of Black n´ Arch studio, which designed the structure, the building also serves as a pedestal for the ship.
— Czech Radio
While environmental activist Greta Thunberg reminded delegates at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York this week of our planet's dire future prospects, Czech developers Trigema have proposed a post-apocalyptic vision of an enormous rusty shipwreck sculpture leaning upright against... View full entry
Workers will soon begin assembly of the 100-foot-tall architectural spire, which will bring the project’s total height to 1,401 feet...the 77-story Midtown East tower will have a three-story indoor and outdoor public observatory situated at 1,020 feet above street level. Construction of the spire could conceivably finish before the end of the week... — New York YIMBY
Due to be the tallest building in Midtown Manhattan, the tower is expected to be completed next year. View full entry
Plans for what could become one of Downtown’s most unique-looking skyscrapers received unanimous approval today from the city’s planning commission.
With cantilevered swimming pools jutting out of its upper floors, the tower proposed for across the street from Pershing Square has been said to look like an in-progress game of Jenga. Commissioner Samantha Millman called it an “ambitious and audacious project.”
— Curbed LA
The Arquitectonica-designed 53-story hotel and condo tower with its precariously cantilevering glass-bottom swimming pools (hey, it's LA!) first appeared on Archinect last fall and quickly became the subject of much debate. Additional renderings were released in May this year. Image courtesy of... View full entry
A Robert A. M. Stern Architects-designed high-rise has recently reached completion. And with a timeline of almost three years, the project's realization has made it Chicago's tallest "strictly residential" skyscraper, with the program lacking hotel, office, and retail program types. The... View full entry
Ever since its opening in 2009 the Millennium Tower has been slowly sinking, so far it's settled about 16 inches on its southwestern corner, causing the entire to tilt around 14 inches. Residents applied for a permit to perform a retrofit back in December 2018 and a plan is now in place to... View full entry
“I didn’t expect to have the opportunity to build in Manhattan,” said Mr. Siza, 86. “Now, at my age, I thought I had lost the opportunity. I was very happy to be invited and thought, ‘Well, let’s see if I still have energy for this project.’” — The New York Times
The NYT writes about the first project opportunity in the United States for and by Portuguese master architect, and 1992 Pritzker Prize winner, Álvaro Siza. The slick 37-story residential tower at 611 West 56th Street is a joint venture between Sumaida + Khurana (the developers that also... View full entry
[...] the Erection Co. topped out Seattle’s 850-ft-tall Rainier Square Tower, with its radical composite steel frame dubbed “speed core,” in only 10 months. Steel erection began last October in the lowest basement.
The retail-office-residential building is on course for substantial completion next Aug. 13, according to Andy Bench, project manager for the developer, Wright Runstad & Co.
— Engineering News-Record
The NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower recently became Seattle's new second-tallest skyscraper after construction height passed 772 feet. Now its developer, Wright Runstad & Company, also celebrated the structure's official topping out at a height of 850 feet. Today we celebrated the Rainier... View full entry
Rising high in the skies over New York City, Chicago, Hong Kong, and other great metropolises are tall towers that appear impossibly slender. Fueled mostly by market demand from wealthy clients who desire spectacular views, the design and construction of these superslim, generally residential skyscrapers also depend on engineering advances over recent decades in building materials and damping technologies as well as careful coordination by the design teams. — Civil Engineering Magazine
"Slender" towers are beginning to pop up all over the world, notably, in cities like New York, where real estate is scarce, but the desire to maximize ROI is strong. "The limited space for new buildings in places like New York City generally involves small parcels of land, which means that these... View full entry
Central Park Tower, aka 217 West 57th Street, has surpassed the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower (née Sears Tower) to claim the title of highest roof in the Western Hemisphere. The Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill-designed supertall is being developed by Extell and will soon top-out at 1,550 feet tall over Billionaires’ Row. — New York YIMBY
Once the world's tallest building from 1974 to 1996, the 1,450-foot-tall Willis Tower in Chicago is, little by little, kicked out from top placements in various height-record categories by the new kids on blocks all over the world. After losing the overall height crown to the twin Petronas Towers... View full entry
On Friday, as construction crews added another layer of steel to the building, the skyscraper passed 772 feet, the height of Seattle’s former second tallest building, 1201 Third Avenue. Construction crews are expected to top out Rainier Square Tower at 850 feet later this month, according to a spokesperson for Wright Runstad, the building’s developer. Columbia Center, at 937 feet, is the only building taller in Seattle. — The Stranger
NBBJ-designed Rainier Square Tower will be a 1.7-million-square-foot "mix of ground-floor retail, underground parking, 722,000 square feet of office space, and 200 luxury apartments." Upon completion, it will become the seventh-tallest building on the west coast. View full entry
Which is the world's most vertical city?
You might think of Hong Kong, given its famous skyscraper skyline, but by different measures of verticality other cities come out on top
— The Guardian
"According to building data research company Emporis," writes Matthew Keegan for the Guardian Cities series, "Seoul in South Korea has more high-rise buildings, with 16,359. Emporis defines a high-rise as a building at least 35m, or 12 storeys tall. In second place is Moscow, Russia, with... View full entry
A free climber has scaled the Shard, one of the tallest buildings in Europe. [...]
Onlookers posted footage of the climber, who, according to the Daily Mirror, made most of the ascent without ropes or suction cups.
— The Guardian
"Police were called at 5.15am on Monday 8 July following reports of a free climber on the Shard. Emergency services attended and the man went inside the building where he was spoken to by officers. He was not arrested," The Guardian quotes a section of the Metropolitan police report from this... View full entry
When the project was first announced in 2014, many waited in anticipation as renderings of L'Arbre Blanc tower surfaced. The 17-story tower is said to be modeled after the shape of a tree with balconies 'branching out' from the cylindrical shaped building. Located in Montpellier, France, Sou... View full entry
The final New York City building to be designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid may be changing course, according to plans filed with the city’s Department of Buildings.
The structure at 220 11th Avenue, developed by Moinian Group, was first announced back in 2016, just months after Hadid’s untimely death at the age of 65.
— Curbed NY
Revised permit filings indicate a change from the originally proposed eleven-story mixed-use building to a nine-story commercial structure in West Chelsea. New York YIMBY reports that STUDIOS Architecture is listed as the architect of record. View full entry