For a brief period from 2011 until 2012 Renzo Piano’s 309.7m London skyscraper, The Shard, was the tallest in Europe. However, it has since been dwarfed by three new buildings in Moscow, and, this summer, the title has shifted to Moscow’s second city, St Petersburg, as one of Russia’s largest companies plans its relocation. — phaidon.com

Speculations for the topping out of the 73-story 30 Hudson Yards have been swirling for the last couple months, and now the fateful day has finally arrived. [....] YIMBY received confirmation that the tallest building of the Hudson Yards mega-development has finally reached its pinnacle, with an American flag rising above the building’s parapet. — New York YIMBY

Progress on the second highest tower in the Hudson Yards mega-development has reached a milestone. 35 Hudson Yards has officially topped out at 1,009 feet. Now that it has reached that height, it is the ninth tallest structure in New York City and 19th tallest in the United States. Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group are responsible for the development. Next door, 30 Hudson Yards is tantalizingly close to topping out, but the milestone has not yet officially occurred. — New York YIMBY

Back in January, the Jean Nouvel-designed MoMA tower was on the heels of reaching its full 82-story height and now, that milestone has been accomplished. Last week, the long-awaited supertall, named 53W53, topped out and it now stands at 1,050 feet tall, tying with the New York Times building and the Chrysler Building as the city’s sixth tallest building. — Curbed

Azizi Developments will begin work on what will become the world’s fifth tallest skyscraper in the third quarter of the year.

Being developed at a cost of $816m (AED3bn) on Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road, the 570-metre tall, 122-storey residential and commercial tower will house residential apartments on the first 100 floors, and a luxury hotel on the remaining 22.

In an update, the Dubai-based developer said that it is currently consulting with Atkins to finalise the design based on its feedback. — constructionweekonline.com

While 2017 saw developer Related Midwest remain tight-lipped on its plans for the site of the defunct 2,000-foot-tall Chicago Spire project, a rendering showing a pair of very tall skyscrapers rising at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive recently reignited speculation regarding the site’s future redevelopment. The rather slender image surfaced online, credited to Britain’s Zaha Hadid Architects. — chicago.curbed.com

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

Hudson Yards has been making headlines in recent months...But immediately to the northwest, another tower that’s been in the making for an equally long period of time may have just received a boost to become the tallest of them all. A new rendering of the Moinian Group’s 3 Hudson Boulevard has surfaced, showing both an updated design for the building itself, as well as the addition of a 300-foot spire, that would make the supertall the tallest in the neighborhood. — New York Yimby

According to the architects, “The form of the skyscraper is inspired by a unique structural system that separates the building’s functioning core from its living spaces, creating expansive, unobstructed, column-free and [customizable] full-floor residences – an inventive design solution unprecedented in a New York high-rise.” — 6sqft

In a ceremony packed with construction workers, news crews, and real estate folk, the final bucket of concrete made its way to the top of 3 World Trade Center, marking the topping out of this 1,079-foot supertall tower. The 80-story building was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and spans 2.5 million square feet. Once complete in 2018, it will be the fifth tallest tower in New York City. — Curbed NY

Critics of the tallest residential building in the western hemisphere, 432 Park Avenue, are quick to try to bring the tower down from its 1,400-foot pedestal. And strangely, its very own architect is the latest jump on the bandwagon. Rafael Viñoly admitted at a Douglas Elliman talk last week that his creation “has a couple of screw-ups,” namely the window framing, which he blames on developer Harry Macklowe, and the tiny issue of “the interior design and layout.” — 6sqft.com

A huge fire has destroyed a building set to become Central Asia’s tallest tower in the Kazakh capital, Astana.

The fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning at the construction site of the Abu Dhabi Plaza, an 88-storey tower standing at 381 metres high, designed by architecture firm HKR architects and being built by United Arab Emirates developer Aldar Properties and contractor Arabtec.

According to the Kazakh interior ministry, the most likely cause of the fire was a heater. — calvertjournal.com

In a fresh setback for India's tallest skyscraper, Palais Royale at Worli, the Bombay high court on Wednesday held that the 13 upper floors of the 56-storey building as well as a 15-storey public parking tower next to it were "completely illegal". [...]

The builder also sought to claim that the tower with 900 parking spaces was in public interest. The HC disagreed, saying "but for the incentive FSI (that the developer could claim) they would not have constructed it for social service". — The Times of India

There are now officially 100 supertall (300-plus-meter) skyscrapers in the world following the completion of 432 Park Avenue in New York City. The construction of supertall buildings has increased at an astounding rate in recent years, an indicator of the tremendous growth within the global tall building industry. Whereas the first 50 supertalls took 80 years to complete – between 1930 and 2010 – the total number of supertalls has doubled from 50 to 100 in just five years. — ctbuh.org