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A slew of innovative new condo towers are being proposed for Vancouver, as the city aims to take its arguably boring architecture to the next level. [...]
Vancouver's move into adventurous architecture arguably began back in 2013, when Danish architect Bjarke Ingels revealed his design for twisting tower Vancouver House, which is now under construction.
— cbc.ca
Related on Archinect:BIG’s 490-foot-tall Beach and Howe Tower for VancouverAnother case of "poor door" for proposed Vancouver high-riseInterview with Vancouver Art Gallery's director: how will Herzog & de Meuron's new museum impact Canadian architecture? View full entry
A masterplan has been unveiled for the Burj 2020 District, an upcoming megaproject set to include a skyscraper dubbed ‘the diamond of Dubai’ [...]
The centerpiece of the district, the Burj 2020 tower, will be designed by Adrian Smith and Gordin Gill (AS + GG), the architects behind the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia.
— meconstructionnews.com
"The demand that will be registering will dictate the exact height of the tower, but at the highest, it might go 700 plus," the Executive Chairman of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre, Ahmed Bin Sulayem, was quoted saying. "We are looking at a supertall tower, and we are looking at having one... View full entry
Mitsubishi Estate Co. says it will construct a 390-meter-high building, making it Japan’s tallest, as part of redevelopment project near Tokyo Station.
The structure will overtake the 300-meter-tall Abeno Harukas in the city of Osaka.
Mitsubishi Estate hopes the new building will serve both as a centerpiece of a major business district and tourist destination, officials said Monday.
— japantimes.co.jp
More recent Tokyo architecture news:It's lights out at the old Okura: reconstruction of the iconic Tokyo hotel starts next weekNot over yet: Zaha Hadid releases 23-minute film pushing for Tokyo Olympic StadiumTokyo begins farming produce beneath its subway lines View full entry
Canadian space and defense company Thoth Technology is attempting to make reaching the stratosphere as simple as riding an elevator up a tower about 23 times taller than the world’s tallest building.
The Thoth space elevator patent, approved by the US patent office on July 21, specifies that the tower could be built on any “planetary surface,” (i.e. not just Earth), a sign that Thoth is thinking pretty far ahead. [...] the top of the tower will serve as a rocket launch site.
— qz.com
In slightly more recent-technology elevator news:ThyssenKrupp's cable-free elevator test tower tops out in less than 10 monthsJapan's simple logic for putting toilets in elevatorsInstallation of UltraRope elevators begins at Kingdom Tower View full entry
the Pinnacle skyscraper grew to just nine floors before falling victim to financial wrangling. Often referred to as The Stump, its stunted lift core has stood as a concrete folly ever since work halted more than three years ago.
Its days are numbered. Scaffolding is now climbing up the core in preparation for demolition. The replacement building will have a very different design. The old core must be pummelled to rubble and a new one constructed.
— londonist.com
More from London's skyline:London's oligarch-transformation continues with a "sky pool"Artist Carsten Höller to wrap world's longest tunnel slide around the ArcelorMittal Orbit Tower in LondonWalkie Talkie Tower summons the elements again — this time it's wind!London is eating itself View full entry
They were once the tallest residential structures in Europe and a beacon of hope for residents of Glasgow’s slums. Now ... the remaining structures of the Red Road flats will, at last, be demolished. [...]
Built in the 1960s on Glasgow’s north-eastern edge, the flats were intended to house almost 5,000 people as part of an effort to ease overcrowding and combat slum conditions. But in the decades that followed, they were plagued by a range of problems, social and structural.
— theguardian.com
More news from Glasgow:Page\Park Architects to lead Glasgow School of Art restorationFaulty tower: Glasgow's £10m white elephantMackintosh’s best friend ...or worst foe? View full entry
This week, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London announced that “the world’s longest and tallest tunnel slide” will wrap around Anish Kapoor’s “ArcelorMittal Orbit.” When the sculpture went up in 2009 after winning a design challenge, it proceeded to receive mostly scathing reviews — and a spot on the shortlist of the 2012 Carbuncle Cup [...]. Today, Kapoor revealed that the slide is actually a work of art, designed by none other than Carsten Höller at Kapoor’s own invitation. — hyperallergic.com
In other artsy-slide-related news on Archinect:Artist Carsten Höller to install massive slides on London's Hayward GalleryCarsten Höller Is Installing a Slide at New Museum View full entry
You can still call it the John Hancock Tower, but the company that paid $930 million for New England’s tallest building can’t.
Now that John Hancock’s last lease in the office building has expired, owner Boston Properties Inc. can no longer use the financial services company’s name on the property.
— The Boston Globe
Related:Boston’s tallest new skyscraper in 40 years breaking ground todayBoston’s John Hancock Tower Receives the 2011 AIA Twenty-Five Year Award (on Bustler) View full entry
A new high-rise building called the Freedom Pyramid will change the face of Jerusalem’s downtown area. The project, conceived by architects Daniel Libeskind and Yigal Levi, will see a multi-purpose tower comprising commercial shopping and residential units atop the old Eden theater.
The idea for a high-rise at this location, adjacent to Mahaneh Yehuda market, first hit headlines in 2011. But a Jerusalem municipal committee only now approved the construction.
— israel21c.org
Correction: Studio Daniel Libeskind has informed us that the correct project title is "The Pyramid." The incorrect title "Freedom Pyramid" has been the result of an unauthorized press leak.Studio Daniel Libeskind also provided us with new renderings of the project as well as some more information... View full entry
Berlin has just said “yes” to Communist-era blocks and “no” to more new skyscrapers. On Monday, the city announced that it was listing some key Communist-era structures in Alexanderplatz, East Berlin’s central square, as historical monuments. It is an irremovable nail in the coffin of a 22-year-old plan to demolish the square and replace it with a “little Manhattan”—a set of 10 new 150-meter high towers. — citylab.com
"Alexanderplatz won’t stay entirely unchanged. Two new towers will still be built, one of them a twisting number from Frank Gehry."Previously:Berlin's Alexanderplatz high-rise developments continue to take shapeBerlin hopes Germany's tallest residential tower has the 'Bilbao effect'Berlin After... View full entry
Marina City, the iconic Chicago riverfront complex famed for its corncob-shaped towers, could soon be on the way to becoming an official city landmark. [...]
Goldberg's design, a poetic expression in concrete that combined residential, commercial and entertainment uses to form a "city within a city," is one of the most recognizable images on the Chicago skyline.
— chicagotribune.com
Other Goldberg buildings in Chicago weren't so lucky: the Prentice Women's Hospital could not be saved from the wrecking ball — despite enormous public outcry. View full entry
The City of London Corporation has promised a more "rigorous" assessment of developers' predictions of ground winds, following complaints about strong gusts outside the 20 Fenchurch Street Building, better known as the Walkie Talkie.
"I almost got blown over the other day walking up past the building," a sales assistant working nearby said earlier this year. "When I got around the corner it was fine. I was scared to go back."
— bbc.com
It's not the tower's first run-in with the laws of physics:Rafael Viñoly-designed "Walkie Talkie" skyscraper melts car with light reflections'Walkie Scorchie’ building given permanent sunshade View full entry
Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district will get a 230-meter high observation deck before the Olympics that could become more famous than its statue of Hachiko the dog or the “scramble crossing” by the train station, plans unveiled by Tokyu Corp. showed Thursday. [...]
Visitors will be able to see the capital’s other landmarks, including Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Skytree, as well as Mount Fuji on a clear day.
— japantimes.co.jp
The Ponte saga is a classic South African story. Once a Jacuzzi-filled playground for the segregated white elite in the apartheid era, then falling into chaos in the 1990s as the wealthy fled to the suburbs, then the object of failed luxury-condo schemes, the tower is now undergoing a renaissance as an icon of Johannesburg’s urban revitalization. [...]
The hollow core began to fill with garbage and rubble – several stories high.
— theglobeandmail.com
Tall buildings specialist Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) has been chosen by the master developer of Dubai’s Jumeirah Lakes Towers (JLT) district to design the Burj 2020 tower - set to be the world’s tallest commercial tower. [...]
The Council for Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat ranks New York’s One World Trade Center as the world’s tallest commercial tower, at 541 metres. The height of Burj 2020 is yet to be revealed.
— thenational.ae
