Highrise Building: The Latest Architecture and News

The future Saudi tower designed by Foster + Partners is expected to reach a staggering height of two kilometers. This multibillion-dollar project, towering twice as high as the current record holder, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, will dominate the skyline of Riyadh, accommodating offices, residences, and entertainment spaces. It forms part of a development program led by Saudi Arabia, driven by the vision of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to establish the country's presence through ambitious, large-scale projects. While these super-tall towers symbolize visibility and global recognition, they face criticism for their extravagant construction costs and environmental impact.

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After a five-year pause, construction on the Jeddah Tower has resumed. Set to become the world’s tallest skyscraper and beat the UAE’s Burj Khalifa, the tower was designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture and initially began construction in 2013. Interestingly, the Burj Khalifa was also designed by Adrian Smith while at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The scheme faced many delays, including a pause in 2018 and further setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the initial contractor was replaced during the 2017-2019 Saudi Arabian purge.

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Mario Cucinella Architects has started constructing two multifunctional towers to shape Vienna’s skyline. Situated in the 2nd district in Vienna, where a dynamic urban development “Viertel Zwei”, has been in the works for some time, the project consists of two highrises, both of different architectural languages and made for different purposes, together providing a complex urban image inserted into context.

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Austin-based office HKS announced the design of the Wilson Tower, a high-rise of 315 meters in Texas' capital featuring 80 floors, 450 units, outdoor terraces, and gardens. The tower will be delivered in collaboration with Britt Design Group and Wilson Capital, and is expected to break ground in the summer of 2023. After completion will become the tallest residential tower in the USA outside of New York.

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Stefano Boeri Architetti presented a new design for the Vertical Forest towers during COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The prototype would be in Dubai, the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the next host of COP28 in 2023. The ambitious project would represent the first Vertical Forest prototype for the MENA (Middle East and North Africa), and it is the latest in an extended list of greenery-covered buildings by Boeri Architetti, including the Bosco Verticale in Milan, the Easyhome Huanggang in China, and a prototype of the First Dutch Vertical Forest.

Architecture office Partisans have recently revealed the design of a new high-rise planned for downtown Toronto, on 15-17 Elm Street. The shape of the tower takes inspiration from the process of cloud formation, more specifically from the cirrocumulus, a meteorological term describing the curl-like shapes that form cloud systems. The 32-storey building will accommodate 174 residential units equipped with personal balconies and necessary amenities.

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Rem Koolhaas, co-founder of Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), receiver of the Pritzker Prize Award in 2000, and leading urban theorist, was one of the first to question the high-rise phenomenon and its influence on city transformation. Particularly intrigued by the Gulf region and the urban ambitions of this area, in 2009, during the 9th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, he delivered a lecture on the potential of re-inventing urbanization in the Emirates.

On the occasion of the golden jubilee of UAE, marking 50 years since the Emirates were founded in 1971, 50U, published by Archis explores the different developments in the Gulf, this region that “witnessed the transformation of a partly nomadic, partly town-based community into a globally active metropolitan society”. After Al Manakh, in 2007, followed in 2010 by Al Manakh Cont’d, 50U tells the story of the UAE through 50 portraits of people, plants, and places. The book also shares an excerpt of Koolhaas’ 2009 talk that reflects on contemporary conditions, focusing specifically on his reading of Dubai, his architectural involvement as well as his future urban predictions.

Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo has unveiled the design of what will soon become the tallest high-rise ensemble in the city of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Dubbed "The Grace", the project consists of two towers, one at 150 meters high and the other at 180 meters, becoming the tallest high-rise ensemble in the city. The residential project comes as a response to the growing demand for affordable housing, as well as fostering an enhanced sense of community.

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After more than a decade of financing snags, legal scuffles, and more than a soupçon of backlash, initial work on the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tour Triangle (Triangle Tower) is set to commence by the end of this year at a site near Parc des Expositions de Porte de Versailles in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. However, last-ditch efforts to block the project are underway.

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Perla on Broadway is the first new high-rise to be constructed in Los Angeles’s Broadway Theater District. Designed by CallisonRTKL, the tower will be the first addition within the district in over a century. Matt Hickman explores the latest addition to Downtown L.A.'s skyline in a piece originally published in The Architect's Newspaper.

Olson Kundig has unveiled the design of 760 Ralph McGill Boulevard, a new mixed-use high-rise development situated along Atlanta’s BeltLine. Led by project developer New City, LLC, the 1.1 million-square-foot structure will include office and retail spaces organized around a central plaza. The project expands local civic and cultural amenities, and introduces a new flexible and functional workplace that also serves the surrounding community.

The 52-story residential tower 200 Amsterdam Avenue is set to become the tallest skyscraper on New York's Upper West Side. The project was designed by Elkus Manfredi Architects, and is being developed by SJP Properties and Mitsui Fudosan America. An appeals court recently decided to allow the tower to include it's top 20 stories on the building's site between West 69th and West 70th Streets.

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Construction has begun on MVRDV’s new 23-story mixed-use tproject at Mission Rock in San Francisco. One of four buildings in a multi-phase masterplan, the tower was designed alongside work by Studio Gang, Henning Larsen, and WORKac. The Mission Rock masterplan aims to turn 28 acres into a new neighborhood for San Francisco residents and visitors. The projects are made to connect to China Basin Park.