An abandoned 26-story building in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil, caught fire and collapsed early Tuesday, showering the surrounding streets with fiery embers and killing at least one person, firefighters said.

About 150 firefighters were battling the blaze, which started at about 1:30 a.m. local time. It is thought to have been caused by a gas explosion, according to reports. — NPR

Last December, plans were unfurled for 130 William, a reverential new skyscraper to jostle amongst the spired giants of lower Manhattan.

[...] we can note that the project has achieved two small construction milestones in its journey against the sky: crews have reached street level and standing upright is a red kangaroo crane that will bring the rectangular tower to its full 66-floor, nearly 800-foot-tall summit. — CityRealty

Azizi Developments will begin work on what will become the world’s fifth tallest skyscraper in the third quarter of the year.

Being developed at a cost of $816m (AED3bn) on Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road, the 570-metre tall, 122-storey residential and commercial tower will house residential apartments on the first 100 floors, and a luxury hotel on the remaining 22.

In an update, the Dubai-based developer said that it is currently consulting with Atkins to finalise the design based on its feedback. — constructionweekonline.com

Construction of The Conservatory sky bridge has given Raffles City Chongqing the title of development with the highest sky bridge linking the most number of towers. [...]

Designed by Moshe Safdie, Raffles City Chongqing also consists of a 350-m supertall skyscraper, which currently holds two records for being China’s tallest residential tower and Chongqing’s tallest building. — Business Insider

The design development programme for Dubai Creek Tower is fully complete. 

BMT, an international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, announced that it had taken the Emaar Properties project "to 100% design development".

Wind engineering experts from BMT have completed aerodynamic shape optimisation studies, wind loading analyses, and façade wind pressure assessments for the project. — constructionweekonline.com

Sumitomo Forestry Co. Ltd. has announced that it plans to build a 70-story 350-meter mixed-use skyscraper in Marunouchi, a central Tokyo business district, by the year 2041. [...]

The project [...] is estimated to cost 600 billion JPY (5.5 billion USD). This is almost twice that of conventional high-rise buildings using current technology, but the company hopes to reduce costs by making technological advances in wood-based construction. — Real Estate Japan

Construction of the world's tallest skyscraper in Jeddah is going ahead, the head of the consortium behind the $1.5 billion project said, despite the detention of some businessmen backing the plan in Saudi Arabia's crackdown on corruption. [...]

Construction has reached the 63rd floor and the superstructure - the concrete shell and the cladding - is to be completed next year, Jomah said, adding that delays in some areas were inevitable because of technical challenges. — Arabian Business

All of which makes for a nuanced tower, conscientious and self-assured even as it reorients the skyline and redefines San Francisco’s visual image. But there’s also an air of detachment, as if the creators were so busy being tasteful they forgot that big buildings can be fun.

In the works for a decade, and with plenty of work left to do, the 1.42 million-square-foot tower at First and Mission streets opened quietly Monday. — San Francisco Chronicle

An experimental tower over 100 metres (328 feet) high in northern China – dubbed the world’s biggest air purifier by its operators – has brought a noticeable improvement in air quality, according to the scientist leading the project, as authorities seek ways to tackle the nation’s chronic smog problem. [...]

The head of the research, Cao Junji, said improvements in air quality had been observed over an area of 10 square kilometres (3.86 square miles) in the city over the past few months [...]. — South China Morning Post

A developer looking to erect a hotel tower designed by Frank Gehry on Santa Monica’s iconic Ocean Avenue has reworked its plans and released a new rendering of the project.

Originally proposed five years ago as 22 stories, the hotel has been reduced to 12 stories—or 130 feet—to comply with the city’s new development plan for downtown. It’s just one part of a larger project that would also include a museum, shops, ground-floor open space, and 79 apartments. — Curbed LA

Plastic building blocks are once again reaching for the sky.

This time, it was the city of Tel Aviv that made an attempt to build the tallest Lego tower — or, officially, the tallest structure built with interlocking plastic bricks, not all of them made by the Danish toy giant.

[...] a joint effort between Tel Aviv City Hall and Young Engineers, an organization that promotes learning with toy bricks. The tower is intended to honor a child who died from cancer. — The New York Times

A 156m (511ft) skyscraper in northern Shanxi province has been listed on Taobao, China's largest e-commerce website, by a local court. [...]

Construction on the building first began in 2006 and was due to be completed by 2011, according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.

However, the developer ran into funding troubles. The building was eventually seized by the Shanxi Provincial Higher People's Court. — BBC

In a December 2016 assessment of the issue obtained by NBC Bay Area, Palo Alto-based building consultants Allana Buick & Bers Inc. trace the odors to openings between the building’s façade, or curtain wall, and the core structure.

The consultants point to the “excessive” settlement as a likely source of the issue, adding, “This condition may be more widespread than these two test areas and may be present in the entire stack. We recommend further investigation of this issue.” — NBC Bay Area