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I think all tall buildings, especially, have a kind of responsibility that goes beyond the program and the site. Because once you emerge into the skyline in a significant way, which this building will, the skyline is almost viewed, I think, by us New Yorkers as public property. If you put up a terrible profile on the skyline, everybody has to look at it from uptown, downtown, Long Island, New Jersey. And it’s very subjective. — The New York Times
The firm's forthcoming 1,002-foot supertall, which we first previewed back in February, is ramping up construction towards completion in 2026. Its language of setbacks and arches is a nod to other towers shaped by the famous 1916 zoning envelope mandate that produced the Chrysler Building and many... View full entry
CNN is reporting on the resumed construction of Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Tower, the Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS + GG) project that will become the world’s tallest structure once completed in 2028. Progress had been stalled at roughly one-third the height of the 3,280-foot building... View full entry
The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced the departure of President and former CEO Antony Wood after 20 years. Wood, who led a tenfold increase in membership during his tenure, said he was lending to a "future generation of leaders" in stepping down... View full entry
The Tower of London’s status as a world heritage site may be at risk due to the influx of new skyscrapers in central London. UNESCO has requested that the UK government submit a State of Conservation Report that addresses the historic site’s preservation and the threat of increased high-rise... View full entry
The Tribune recently asked why mass timber construction is so lagging in Chicago while nearby Milwaukee and other cities in the Pacific Northwest and Europe are making strides to embrace the movement by altering their building codes and fire safety regulations. Even after an amenable update to its... View full entry
Get ready for another record-breaker, Milwaukee. The city has reentered the race to build the world's tallest mass timber building with a proposal for a new, 50-story tower designed by Michael Green Architecture. Details of the reportedly $700 million project include a mixed-use design with... View full entry
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill has announced a new partnership with the Swiss energy storage company Energy Vault Holdings that will produce a series of prototype designs for deployable structures and vertical energy storage units up to 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Led by SOM Partners Adam... View full entry
The City of London Corporation has revealed new images depicting the 2030 skyline of the Square Mile ahead of the completion of a planned cluster of tall buildings that are expected by the end of the decade. The plans depicted include the 11-building ‘City Cluster’, which strategically closes... View full entry
Australian architecture firm Elenberg Fraser is moving forward with a new $350 million AUD ($223 million USD) high-rise tower in Perth on the country's west coast that could set the record as the world’s tallest mass timber structure once completed. Plans for the new 627-foot C6 Tower were... View full entry
Frank Gehry’s biggest-ever contribution to the city in which he was born is now underway after construction began on the two-tower Forma condominium scheme in downtown Toronto. A total of 2,087 residential units will be constructed as part of the process, filling out the pair of 73- and 84-story... View full entry
But joining the fraternity of cities with supertalls can also be a dubious distinction: Real estate is a lagging indicator, and skyscrapers often arrive after the boom is over, looming half-empty as monuments to a bust. Others, however, are convinced that Austin’s high-rise stampede is just getting started.
Given the city’s emerging significance as a next-gen manufacturing hub this building boom could defy the skyscraper effect.
— Bloomberg
With a slate of high-rises and supertalls, including KPF’s Waterline design and the record-setting Wilson Tower from HKS in the works, Bloomberg asks if the pace of development can be sustained amidst tech’s downturn and the annals of urban economic history. The salvation apparently lies... View full entry
Architects Declare has published an open letter to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, setting out the group’s position on the environmental cost of skyscrapers. The letter, published on the Architects Declare website, was originally sent to CTBUH in July but has now been made... View full entry
Bjarke Ingels Group has released newly-commissioned photographs of their Telus Sky Tower in Calgary, Canada. First unveiled in 2013, the mixed-use 60-story residential and commercial project broke ground in 2015 and was completed in 2020. Situated in downtown Calgary among a cluster of... View full entry
[...] Wilson Capital announced this morning that its redevelopment of the Avenue Lofts site will be significantly larger than previously reported. The multifamily residential building planned for the 0.8-acre property at 410 East Fifth Street, now known as Wilson Tower, is set to rise 80 floors to a total height of 1,035 feet — and yes, that would make the project the new tallest tower in Texas upon completion, exceeding the height of the Waterline supertall project [...] — Towers Austin
HKS is behind the Wilson Tower project, which will complement the 43-story 700 River development that broke ground recently on a tract fast becoming Austin’s “second” downtown. The would-be new record-setter had been previously planned for only 54 stories and is now advertising lets for... View full entry
In the quest to build the tallest skyscraper in Canada, developer Pinnacle International appears to be inching ahead, with a new proposal that would see the second tower at the foot of Yonge Street reach over 100 storeys.
Pinnacle submitted an application late last month with the city, seeking to allow 12- and 10-storey increases to the already approved 80- and 95-storey towers in its development at the site of the current Toronto Star building.
— The Toronto Star
Hariri Pontarini Architects’ amended design for the already-underway SkyTower could become Toronto’s first triple-digit-story supertall, equaling the height of the CN Tower’s observation deck. Anson Kwook, a VP of marketing for the developer said it would also add a “piece of artwork” to... View full entry