Only a select few businesses find themselves atop the skyscraping office suites of downtown L.A., where ears pop on the way up, gourmet meals are served, VIP clients are entertained and earthquakes occasionally shake things up.

Working in these prestigious locations on the top floor of the city's five tallest towers are a big law firm, a metal service company, an investment management firm, a mutual fund company and a computer services firm involved in Japanese pornography. — latimes.com

The bid to design an $81 million, 28-story residential tower on the site of Indianapolis' former Market Square Arena just went to RTKL (together with developer Flaherty & Collins Properties). The winning design was chosen by a panel of local government, real estate and community leaders and prevailed over five other competitors. — bustler.net

Yin Zhi, head of Beijing Tsinghua Urban Design Institute, said, "The technique that Broad Group uses has no precedent in the world, and the cost they promised is very low. So they either have some record breaking techniques or it’s a lie. They are gambling. If they win, they will change the history of world architecture, but that's one chance in a million." — news.xinhuanet.com

Warped skyscrapers keep trending: global architecture firm Aedas announces its recent competition win in Shanghai – the Xuhui Binjian Media City 188S-G-1 Tower and Podium. — bustler.net

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has announced the four regional winners in the race for the title Best Tall Building Worldwide 2013. The top regional towers include The Shard in London (Winner Europe); CCTV in Beijing (Winner Asia and Australia); Sowwah Square in Abu Dhabi (Winner Middle East and Africa); and The Bow in Calgary (Winner Americas). — bustler.net

OMA has been announced as winner of the design competition for Tors Torn in Stockholm. The proposed pair of towers with its facetted facade was designed as the third tallest twin skyscrapers in Sweden. — bustler.net

Last week, Broad Group announced it has received approval from the Chinese government and will break ground on the project next month, though according to Quartz's Lily Kuo, Broad Sustainable Building has pushed the building's schedule to a more modest seven months. — theatlanticcities.com

It was built for stockbrokers and bankers in their thousand dollar suits to make million dollar deals, but for nearly two decades it has held the less impressive title of the world’s tallest squat. Welcome to the Centro Financiero Confinanzas, more commonly known as the Torre David (the Tower of David) in Caracas, Venezuela, an unfinished skyscraper which has now been colonised by an ad hoc community of over 700 families. — messynessychic.com

Winners have been announced recently at the fifth annual Mock Firms International Skyscraper Competition, organized by Chicago Architecture Today. [...]

The top title of International Skyscraper and Mock Firm Champion (a combination of architectural and marketing efforts) was awarded to the team AZAHAR Architecture composed of five architecture students and one professor from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. — bustler.net

Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture has unveiled plans for Imperial Tower, which would become Mumbai's tallest building and surely one of the world's most slender skyscrapers, should it come to be built.

The 116-story, 400-m (1,300-ft) tall residential skyscraper has a distinctive curved shape, which AS+GG says has been designed to "confuse the wind." — gizmag.com

Soundscrapers could soon turn urban noise pollution into usable energy to power cities.

An honourable mention-winning entry in the 2013 eVolo Skyscraper Competition, dubbed Soundscraper, looked into ways to convert the ambient noise in urban centres into a renewable energy form.

Noise pollution is currently a negative element of urban life but it could soon be valued and put to good use. — DesignBuild Source

The Ping’an Finance Center is planned to top out at 660m, making it not only China’s tallest building but the second-tallest building in the world after the Burj Dubai. 80m has been built so far, but construction has been halted in the wake of the revelation from Shenzhen’s Housing and Construction Bureau that substandard sea sand concrete had been used in its construction. — wired.com

Tokyo has a new skyscraper: the Japan Post Tower, a 38-story high-rise building designed by Helmut Jahn's Chicago firm in collaboration with Mitsubishi Jishu Sekkei, will hold its official grand opening for all commercial space Friday, March 21, 2013. — bustler.net

Our friends at eVolo Magazine just announced the winners of the 2013 Skyscraper Competition. The annual award, established in 2006, recognizes design visions that rethink the conventions of vertical living and the use of technology, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations. [...]

The winners were selected for their creativity, ingenuity, and understanding of dynamic and adaptive vertical communities. — bustler.net

Viennese practice Söhne & Partner Architekten has shared with us their competition entry for the new United Bank building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The tower design with the dragon-scale facade was conceived in collaboration with Ethiopian firm BET Architects. — bustler.net