The Tallest Buildings in the World

Approximately 805 tons of steel are being produced in Luxembourg to create the first 27 “extra-large” steel columns of the Freedom Tower, World Trade Center
developer Larry A. Silverstein, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey executive director Kenneth J. Ringler Jr. and Tishman Construction Corporation
chairman Daniel R. Tishman announced July 27. The steel will serve as part of the below-grade structure for the historic Freedom Tower and will be delivered to
the World Trade Center site by the end of the year. Production of the first steel for the Freedom Tower began this week at a plant in Differdange, Luxembourg
that specializes in producing the heaviest I-beams available in

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has started construction on a 75-story helix-shaped tower in the Dubai Marina, one of the wealthy Emirate’s prime residential
neighborhoods. The “dancing” skyscraper, to be named Infinity Tower, will rotate 90 degrees as it rises while maintaining a constant floor-plate throughout its
height. SOM Managing Partner George Efstathiou, AIA, predicts that the tower’s winding shape will make it the marina’s principal landmark, and perhaps a
symbol of Dubai itself. According to Efstathiou, the building will offer its residents views of the waterfront without disrupting the vistas of neighboring buildings.The
995-foot-high tower will comprise 456 residential units, ranging from studios to full-floor penthouses. It

MANAMA: Bahrain could become home of the world’s tallest skyscraper
if a project by Danish company Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S gets the
go-ahead. Company project director Louis Becker, who was in Riyadh
yesterday, is planning to have a meeting about the proposed project with
a building contractor in Bahrain later this week. The company’s design for
a skyscraper measures 1,022 metres - double the Taiwan Taipei 101,
which is currently the world’s tallest building at 506 metres. It was chosen
by the Bahrain contractor because of the company’s previous
experiences of building in Saudi Arabia, according to a report in the
Copenhagen Post. The company designed both the Foreign Affairs
Ministry in

Donald Trump plans a $300 million skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia on the banks of the Delaware River. The 45-story Trump Tower Philadelphia would
have
263 high-end condos that would range in price from $700,000 to $3.5 million, the Philadelphia Business Journal said Friday. The tower will have, among its
amenities, child-care services, a wine cellar, a cigar lounge, a billiard room, and a five-star restaurant with fine dining and views of the Delaware River

Manchester”s skyline entered a new era yesterday as work was
completed on a shimmering tower block which is the UK”s highest
residential building and second only to London”s Canary Wharf among
British skyscrapers. The Beetham Tower, which settles into a vista that
already includes Urbis, a blue glass building shaped like a ski slope, will
become the UK”s tallest residential building when the apartments which
fill its top 24 floors are occupied. It soars 157 metres (515ft), and an
additional glass blade adds an extra 14 metres. The five-star Hilton hotel
will occupy floors 1 to 23, with the penthouse reserved for the architect,
Ian Simpson, who gets five bedrooms,

Developer Peter Wang is planning a 63-story skyscraper in downtown Oakland that could become the tallest building in the Bay Area.
Originally proposed as the home of the University of California"s systemwide offices, the project has morphed into a more ambitious form, with extra floors, a hotel and enough leasable commercial space to make it [...]

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP has won an international competition in China to design one of the most environmentally-sustainable buildings in the world, the
Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm announced today. SOM — in cooperation with the Guangzhou Pearl River Engineering Construction Supervision
Corp., and Guangzhou Design Institute — will design Pearl River Tower, a 69-story corporate headquarters, for the CNTC Guangdong Company. The tower will be
located in Guangzhou China, a subtropical port city of 6.6 million located 182 kilometers from Hong Kong. “This project represents our commitment to sustainable
design,” SOM Managing Partner Thomas Kerwin said. “It also represents our commitment and spirit of mutual collaboration

Chicago-based Studio/Gang/Architects has released its initial designs for
Aqua, an 83-story residential and hotel tower just south of the Chicago
River. The building will be located in the city”s new 28-acre Lakeshore
East Development, south of the Chicago River and east of the Loop.Firm
principal Jeanne Gang created rippling edges in the concrete-framed
structure”s facade by using a unique floor plate for each of its concrete
slabs. The unit plans are conventional, comprising twelve variations
enclosed by a glass thermal envelope. Photo: David Seide/Defined
Space Advertisement But the undulating exterior spaces, which Gang
conceived as terraces rather than individual balconies, give each
apartment and hotel unit its own outdoor space. Gang”s

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The top portion of one of the tallest buildings in Nigeria’s main city sheared off during a storm Wednesday, raining debris onto mostly empty streets below but leaving at least two people dead, witnesses said.
Part of the top nine stories of the 21-story Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, which had had [...]