Pelli Clarke: The Latest Architecture and News

Architecture across Latin America this month reflects an ongoing negotiation between environmental challenges, cultural heritage, and changing approaches to public and professional life. From Colombia's earthquake and its impact on historic architecture to new cultural projects in Argentina and environmentally responsive design in Ecuador and Medellín, recent developments highlight how architecture continues to respond to both regional conditions and broader global challenges. Questions of heritage and infrastructure also remained prominent, as UNESCO raised concerns over the impacts of the Tren Maya on Mexico's Calakmul World Heritage site, while new initiatives in Chile and Costa Rica explored ecological design and sustainable practice. The month's stories point to a regional architectural landscape shaped by resilience, adaptation, and the relationship between built environments and their wider social and natural contexts.

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City Tower One is a 358-meter-tall (1,175 ft.) tower in Dubai designed by Pelli Clarke & Partners. The 93-story mixed-use skyscraper completed construction and launched for leasing in June 2026. The building is located in the Trade Centre First neighborhood, on a site connecting Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Badaa Road along Eleventh Street, and includes 608 residential units across from Hazel Wong's Emirates Towers and Killa Design's Museum of the Future. The building's presence in Dubai's skyline and everyday urban life was recently captured by local photographer Ahmad Alnaji, founder of SARAB Art Production and a contributor to the visual identity of landmark buildings across the region, including projects by architecture practices such as Foster + Partners, UNStudio and Killa Design.

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This week's stories explore how architecture engages with questions of culture, access, and collective life, from new cultural institutions and exhibitions to public spaces and housing. This week, the 2026 NCARB by the Numbers report provided a broader perspective on the profession itself, showing that people of color accounted for 49% of licensure candidates in 2025 and women for 47%, compared with 21% and 28% among the overall architect population. The report offers one perspective on access within the profession, while projects and cultural initiatives further examine how architecture responds to different forms of public and collective life.

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Pelli Clarke & Partners has completed the Lola Mora Cultural Center in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina, a new cultural institution dedicated to the life and work of Argentine sculptor Lola Mora (1866-1936). Located in the country's northwestern region, the project is the firm's first cultural building in South America and the final project led by its founder, the late César Pelli. Designed as a net-zero facility, the center brings together six of Mora's monumental marble sculptures for the first time in more than a century, providing a permanent home for works that were previously displayed outdoors in Jujuy.

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Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) has announced the International High-Rise Award 2024/25. Selected from more than 1,000 new high-rises worldwide dating from the past two years, the nominated projects are located in 13 counties from 5 continents. In autumn, the five finalists will be announced, followed by the winner announcement scheduled for November 12, 2024. The main objective of the award is to highlight good practices in the ongoing trend of mixed-use high-rises.

With the increase in the construction of high-rises, special features such as the introduction of greenery in the design, unusual shapes, or the construction of clusters of towers, have become the new normal. DAM’s research this year also shows a growing eco-awareness, as the focus in high-rise construction is increasingly on the use of existing buildings. While the majority of tall buildings continue to be erected in China, followed by the USA, Australia, and Singapore have emerged as new hubs of high-rise architecture.

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Pelli Clarke & Partners has just completed the Mori JP Tower, now standing as Japan’s tallest building. Situated in the recently revitalized Azabudai Hills district, the tower emerges at the center of this development. Establishing a new focal point for Tokyo’s skyline, the building soars 330 meters at the heart of this dynamic new mixed-use district in the city center.

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Pelli Clarke & Partners, in collaboration with Sichuan Provincial Architectural Design and Research Institute (SADI), won the international competition for the new Yibin Station Gateway Development masterplan. The project responds to the city's prospective status as a significant transportation hub, with two new high-speed rail lines planned to intersect in Yibin, making the city a crossroad between Western China's four major urban centres. The design takes inspiration from the neighbouring bamboo forest and its rhizomatic root system, focusing on resilience and interconnectivity.

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