He has a vision of a future where his company makes a third of the world's buildings – all modular, all steel, and all green.

“The biggest problem we face in the world right now isn't terrorism or world war. It's climate change,” he says. — bbc.co.uk

Despite seeing completion last October, following orders from leader Kim Jong Un, only half of the units of a major apartment complex built near Pyongyang’s Taedong River are currently occupied. [...]

“The elevator runs only during breakfast, lunch, and dinner hours, so for long spans of time it will be impossible to get to the 40th floor,” the source said. “There isn’t even a place for people to put their bicycles, which are the most fundamental tools for people’s livelihoods.” — dailynk.com

KONE has initiated the first stage of elevator and escalator installations at Saudi Arabia’s 1km-tall Kingdom Tower.

The Finnish lift firm is currently fitting elevator guiderails at the project, which is being developed by Jeddah Economic Company (JEC) and is set to become the world’s tallest building on completion. — constructionweekonline.com

The current race to the top of the skyline is the most impressive in New York City’s history, with ever-taller skyscrapers sprouting from the Financial District all the way to 57th Street. And YIMBY has now learned that 217 West 57th Street, aka the Nordstrom Tower, received a height boost between April and June of last year, pushing the tower’s pinnacle to 1,795 feet. That will make it the tallest building in New York City, the United States, and the Western Hemisphere. — newyorkyimby.com

Renzo Piano's versatility continues to win the hearts of NYC developers, and it looks like the starchitect is finally getting his chance to flex his muscle in the residential realm. Piano—who just cut the ribbon to the new Whitney to rave reviews—has been chosen by Michael Shvo and Bizzi & Partners to design a brand new 290-foot tower at 100 Varick Street in up-and-coming Hudson Square bordering Soho. — 6sqft.com

Architect Juan Gabriel Moreno is teaming up with Chicago's International Latino Cultural Center to build a new downtown headquarters in the form of a wild-looking $50 million complex. Announced during the most recent edition of Chicago Latino Film Festival that took place this month, the organization announced its ambitious new "Ibero-American Tower" which would house a number of components [...]. — chicago.curbed.com

There's another project coming to Manhattan that's even thinner: 303–305 E. 44th Street, designed by Eran Chen of ODA Architecture.

At 47 feet wide, this one's the narrowest of the bunch. Developed by Triangle Assets, the tower will rise about 600 feet high, creating 115,000 square feet of residential space. [...]

The design for 305 E. 44th is predicated on a stack of volumes; nested between them are the project's signature amenities, private gardens. — citylab.com

Last August, Miami voters gave a developer permission to lease land on the city's sparkling downtown waterfront to build a 1,000-foot, hairpin-shaped tourist tower [...]. There was one key promise: No public money would be spent on the $430 million project.

Now, the city and county are being sued by Raquel Regalado [...] Why? Because developer Jeffrey Berkowitz is seeking $9 million from an existing county economic development fund to pay for infrastructure improvements [...]. — miamiherald.com

Yet as Berlin’s property values continue to soar - rising faster than any German city over the past five years - residential developers are set to challenge the Park Inn’s elevation supremacy. Two international builders have unveiled plans to erect skyscrapers at Alexanderplatz that will stand nearly 500-feet high[...]

Though the new designs have triggered intense public reaction for their girth and ambition, they are being joined by more than 20 new residential properties in the planning[...]. — abcnews.go.com

The outlines of what could be Chicago's third-tallest skyscraper came into sharp focus Monday when the project's developers unveiled their latest plan for the riverfront tower — a trio of interconnected high-rises that would bring stacks of undulating glass to the city's skyline. [...]

Details about the plan, designed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang and her firm Studio Gang Architects, were revealed at a community meeting called by Ald. Brendan Reilly, 42nd [...]. — chicagotribune.com

The Eiffel Tower, one of Paris's most visited attractions, welcoming almost seven million visitors per year, was completed 126 years ago today - and there's a Google Doodle to mark the anniversary. — telegraph.co.uk

The technology of supertall buildings is a bit like genetic testing or nuclear energy: a volatile form of power. Technological capacities have outpaced our judgment. We know we can do it, but we don’t know when not to do it. And so some endlessly wealthy mogul [...] will eventually move into a preposterously expensive penthouse so far above the Earth’s crust that the air is thin and gales hammer at the glass. A mile’s not science fiction. It’s not even an outer limit.  — nymag.com

Blackstone Group LP agreed to buy Chicago’s Willis Tower, the second-tallest building in the U.S., and plans to upgrade the retail and observatory space in a bet on growth in the city. [...]

On a per-square-foot basis, the valuation for the more than 40-year-old Willis Tower is lower than deals for newer buildings. The Blackstone price is about $342 a square foot, based on about 3.8 million square feet (353,000 square meters) of rentable space. — bloomberg.com

Chicago’s Willis Tower, once the world’s tallest building and one of the city’s top tourist attractions, is up for sale. [...]

The 1,450-foot (442-meter) building, formerly known as the Sears Tower, is the second-tallest in the U.S., and was the world’s highest from its completion in the early 1970s until 1998 [...]

“It’s iconic in the size and how it dominates the skyline, [...] As an office building, however, it’s 1970s construction.” — bloomberg.com

A wooden skyscraper that Austrian architects say will be the tallest of its kind in the world is to be built in Vienna next year. The 84-metre (276ft) HoHo project in the Seestadt Aspern area, one of Europe’s largest urban development sites, will house a hotel, apartments, restaurant, wellness centre and offices, and is expected to cost about €60m (£44m). — The Guardian