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But the building has proven controversial for other reasons. The 50-storey portal may be the tallest picture frame in the world, but its architect wants to add another title to the stats: for him, it is the biggest stolen building of all time.
“They took my project, changed the design and built it without me,” says Fernando Donis, the Mexican architect whose frame proposal won an international competition in 2008 for a “tall emblem structure to promote the new face of Dubai”.
— The Guardian
The controversial Dubai Frame opened to the public yesterday, finally offering tourists a 360-degree view of the city. While construction only began in 2013, the new 150 meter landmark has been a decade in the making, blighted by controversy surrounding its stolen design. Beginning with a... View full entry
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
New fire hazards have been found in San Francisco's infamous Millennium Tower, making the luxury high-rise that has sunk 17 inches since 2009 even less safe than previously thought. According to a December 2016 assessment carried out by building consultants Allana Buick & Bers Inc., gaps... View full entry
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is out with the latest edition of its annual web report, the 2017 Tall Building Year in Review, and it's a real treat for every serious skyscraper geek: interactive charts, rankings, and plenty of visualized data about all 144 buildings of... View full entry
Tomorrow, Nov. 28, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission will vote to consider calendaring Philip Johnson's AT&T Building for a landmark designation hearing. 550 Madison Avenue, formerly known as the AT&T Building or the Sony Tower, is an iconic postmodern skyscraper located in Manhattan... View full entry
"We’re trying for one tower that seems like two from some angles...to create a much more vertical expression, and not just be another slab," said Mark Donahue of Lowney Architecture — San Francisco Chronicle
Pinnacle RED Group announced today submittal of plans to the City of Oakland for a high-rise mixed-use building, 1261 Harrison, with a dual-tower look in a single structure. At 440 feet to the roof-deck (460 when adding the architectural screening element) and 36 stories in height, it would be... View full entry
300 Biscayne, one of several planned towers that would be Miami’s tallest at 1,041 feet above ground, has launched its website and unveiled a batch of exterior renderings, notes The Next Miami. [...]
Another large residential project comprised of nearly 700 “smart apartments” is planned to rise next door at 400 Biscayne by the same development team, Greybrook Realty Partners and Property Markets Group.
— Curbed Miami
Downtown Miami may soon gets its very own supertall stacked-boxes tower; and at a height of 1,041 feet, 300 Biscayne can — according to its website — claim the title of "tallest residential tower south of New York." Rendering: ArX SolutionsRendering: ArX SolutionsRendering: ArX SolutionsAll... View full entry
Toronto's skyline will soon see the addition of five new buildings, all united in one massive development spanning two city blocks. Designed by Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects in collaboration with Vancouver-based Pinnacle International, the project, dubbed One Yonge, will reportedly... View full entry
Dutch firm, UNStudio, has completed their largest single building to date—the new Raffles City mixed-use development described by the firm as "a sustainable urban hub for living, working and leisure." Back in 2009, the firm opened their Shanghai office to oversee the complex's design and... View full entry
With an expected completion date of March 2019, the 18-story, 80-meter-tall-plus building in Brumunddal, Norway known as the Mjøsa Tower will soon become the world's tallest wooden structure, a coveted title among those designers who favor wood over more traditional tall building materials... View full entry
The project, at the cost of more than $800 million, is set to break ground in early 2018 and transform a mostly vacant two-square-block area bounded by Monroe, Bates, Cadillac Square and Randolph.
The project will include 818,000-square-feet of office space, 170,000-square-feet of retail space and 482 residential units. Original plans called for a 20-story office tower, but the latest details show plans for 35 stories.
— The Detroit News
Bedrock released new renderings of the Monroe Blocks project in downtown Detroit, which will include a 35-story office tower fronting Campus Martius. Described by the developer as “Detroit’s first high-rise office tower in a generation with over 480 residential units, full of public spaces and... View full entry
Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter was appointed as advisor and architect for the new mixed-use headquarters of fashion company Bestseller in Brande, Denmark. Located in the company's hometown of Brande, the project will accommodate retail spaces for up to 30 shops, areas for offices, education, and public... View full entry
Building within the 2.3 square-mile Dubai Creek Harbour complex, Emaar is looking to eclipse its most famous creation the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure since 2010. To do so has required laying 236ft deep foundation piles—a world record—set to be capped with 1.59 million cubic feet of concrete. When completed, the 3,045ft tower will best the Burj by a massive 322ft. — CNN
The Emaar Properties and Dubai Holdings joint venture is inspired by the lily flower and mosque minarets, say its developers, and will feature a 68-mile array of supporting cables. Swiss-Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava has designed a 360-degree observation deck and a capacious Hanging Gardens... View full entry
Construction of the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Leeza SOHO mixed-use tower in Beijing is making progress as newly released photographs document. Once the 46-story structure reaches its final height of 207 meters (679 feet) in September of this year, it will be home to the world's tallest... View full entry
The Dubai Frame is quickly taking shape in the heart of the city, providing breathtaking views of 'old' and 'new' Dubai.
A Dubai Municipality delegation on Thursday has given residents a sneak peek into one of the upcoming iconic structures in the city. [...]
The work has already started on the frame's glass bridge, and the cladding is expected to be completed by the end of this year, a top senior Dubai Municipality official had told Khaleej Times earlier this year.
— Khaleej Times
Construction work on Dubai's latest gilded landmark appears to be making progress as the Dubai Municipality documented today in a new social media video of a city government delegation visiting the site. The design of the 150-meter-tall Dubai Frame structure isn't without controversy: the concept... View full entry
...So today's engineers battle not only the force of gravity but the the whirling pockets of wind, known as vortices, that can cause towers to shake or vibrate. Failure to do so would make the motion of the building — or "acceleration," as engineers call it — uncomfortably noticeable. — Chicago Tribune
Tunnel tests for Chicago's future third-tallest skyscraper showed that the plan for the building—three thin, interconnected high-rises designed by Studio Gang—would not be able to withstand high winds. According to the engineers, the design for the Vista tower "would result in building... View full entry
