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Frank Gehry is back in Toronto − at least via Zoom. At 91, the world’s most famous architect is actively working on a major project in the city where he was born: two towers on King Street West that are the biggest and the tallest buildings of his career.
After more than eight years of discussion, this complex project is advancing. The developers say they will begin sales on its condo apartments in 2022.
— The Globe and Mail
The Frank Gehry-designed towers for a massive downtown Toronto development have come a long way since they were first proposed in 2012. Image: Gehry Partners Gone are the dramatic curves of the initial Mirvish+Gehry Toronto plan — the latest design updates propose two stainless steel-clad... View full entry
With a street frontage of just six metres, the Pencil Tower Hotel is barely wider than a terraced house. [...]
Planning documents for the $35.6 million hotel, which are on exhibition until February 2, describe the “improbably narrow” tower as a “skyscratcher” because it is too thin to be regarded as a skyscraper [...].
— The Sydney Morning Herald
The proposal for a 33-story new hotel tower in Sydney's Central Business District is catching attention for its ambitiously skinny proportions: designed by Sydney-based Durbach Block Jaggers Architects to stand 110 meters (361 feet) tall, the structure will occupy a narrow site that is only six... View full entry
A 390-meter-high (1,279 feet) skyscraper inspired by a flaming torch is set to become Japan's tallest building when it opens in 2027.
Standing above a new plant-filled public plaza in Tokyo, the tower will also feature a soaring observation area from which visitors can enjoy views over the capital and nearby Mount Fuji.
— CNN
In a recent set of Instagram posts, Sou Fujimoto revealed that his team was designing the top section of Japan's future tallest skyscraper, dubbed Torch Tower. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sou Fujimoto (@sou_fujimoto) View full entry
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has published its latest annual web report, Tall Buildings in 2020, with plenty of facts and figures on the state of the skyscraper construction industry during a year full of pandemic-related uncertainty. With 106 completions of buildings... View full entry
In a new paper published in Nature Materials, the researchers showed that the diagonally-reinforced square lattice-like skeletal structure of Euplectella aspergillum, a deep-water marine sponge, has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than the traditional lattice designs that have used for centuries in the construction of buildings and bridges. — Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
Matheus Fernandes, a graduate student at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences said in a statement: "We found that the sponge's diagonal reinforcement strategy achieves the highest buckling resistance for a given amount of material, which means that we can build... View full entry
Silverstein Properties closed on its $430 million deal to buy US Bank Tower, an iconic Downtown Los Angeles property whose purchase price was far below initial expectations. [...]
In a statement, chairman Larry Silverstein said: “I believe in the future of Downtown Los Angeles.”
— The Real Deal
The 73-story US Bank Tower, designed by Henry N. Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River until the recently completed Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles and later the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco took over that title. The 36-foot-long... View full entry
Work has officially begun on what will soon be a 312.5 metre-high (1025 foot) skyscraper in Toronto, the tallest residential condominium tower ever built in the country.
SkyTower, from Pinnacle International, is part of a multi-tower development that’s now under construction at 1 Yonge Street — the iconic Toronto address is also the inspiration behind the project’s namesake, Pinnacle One Yonge.
— Toronto Storeys
SkyTower, designed by Toronto firm Hariri Pontarini Architects in collaboration with Vancouver-based Pinnacle International, is set to become the city's second-tallest building overall behind the iconic CN Tower. Rendering courtesy of Pinnacle International. The building is the second of three... View full entry
A 1.1 million-square-foot office tower complex designed by Johnson / Burgee is currently for sale in Dallas, Texas. Organized as a trio of conjoined 19-story towers topped with mansard roofs and connected by arch-topped skywalks, the office complex rises behind a low-rise hotel designed in a... View full entry
[...] tall buildings are still sold on the basis that they are good for the environment. Mostly the argument is about density – if you pile a lot of homes or workplaces high on one spot, it is said, then you can use land and public transport more efficiently. There’s some truth in this, but you can also achieve high levels of density without going above 10 or 12 storeys. — The Guardian
The Observer's Rowan Moore dissects a list of the usual arguments in favor of ever taller buildings around the world and concludes that not much of it passes the reality test of urgent climate crisis, resource scarcity, wealth distribution, city planning, global pandemic, and ultimately, good... View full entry
Today's featured virtual event happenings, from Archinect's Virtual Event Guide, are hosted by UC Berkeley and the Chicago Architecture Foundation. Are you hosting a virtual lecture? Presentation? Tour? Interview? Happy Hour? Submit it for consideration by clicking here. Are you an expert in... View full entry
A buff stone-clad supertall tower designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA) in New York City is nearing the final stages of construction. The 950-foot-tall building, 220 Central Park South, rises from a site directly opposite Central Park's southern edge as a relatively modest 18-story... View full entry
Over the years, architects have not been the only ones to inscribe New York’s skyline — the signature image of the last American century — across the urban ether.
Among others, structural engineers, practical poets of often towering imagination and import, have also figured out how to scale those heights. Skyscrapers are team efforts, after all.
— The New York Times
For his latest feature in a series of virtual strolls exploring iconic Manhattan skyscrapers with noteworthy building experts, NYT architecture critic Michael Kimmelman invited engineer Guy Nordenson to join him for a closer look at the midcentury, Eero Saarinen-designed Black Rock/CBS Building... View full entry
One of the most anticipated annual design challenges just revealed the top entries of this year's edition: 3 winners and 22 honorable mentions were selected from 473 submitted projects at the 2020 EVOLO Skyscraper Competition. The winning teams from China, the United States, and Taiwan... View full entry
A 43-story tower designed by Australian firm Koichi Takada Architects proposed for a site in Downtown Los Angeles has gotten a new look and an updated set of uses. Initiated by Australian developers Crown Group, the glass-wrapped tower features a domed top with a crown decorated in... View full entry
In a $30 billion deal, Aon is buying Willis Towers Watson, a rival in business insurance and risk consulting, but it raises one question in the mind of most Chicagoans: What will happen to the Willis Tower name now that we’ve gotten used to calling it that?
The deal between the two London-based companies was announced Monday. Executives said the combined operation will use the Aon name, not Willis.
— Chicago Sun-Times
Willis Tower, which once reigned the skyscraper ranking as the world's tallest building for nearly 25 years under its former name Sears Tower, will likely not be renamed again anytime soon as the naming rights contract with Willis Towers Watson insurance does not expire until March... View full entry
