La Défense is Europe’s largest purpose-built business district with 560 hectares area, 72 glass and steel buildings and skyscrapers, and 3.5 million square metres of office space. Around its Grande Arche and esplanade (“le Parvis”), La Défense contains many of the Paris urban area’s tallest high-rises, and is home to no fewer than 1,500 corporate head offices, including those of 15 of the top 50 companies in the world.
This year Flatiron District of Manhattan replenished with one more original high-rise building – One Madison Park, erected on the project of the New York architectural office Cetra/Ruddy. Not quite Uptown or Downtown, One Madison is ideally located at the nexus of Flatiron, Gramercy, NoMad and Chelsea. One Madison’s slender 60-story bronze glassclad tower, designed by Cetra/Ruddy, is a distinctive new icon in the Manhattan skyline.
Dubai Marina is a one of the most fashionable districts of Dubai. Dubai Marina is an artificial canal city, built along a two mile (3 km) stretch of Persian Gulf shoreline. When the entire development is complete, it will accommodate more than 120,000 people in residential towers and villas. It is located on Interchange 5 between Jebel Ali Port and the area, which hosts Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, and the American University in Dubai. In 2010, the district was replenished with one more distinctive high-rise building Ocean Heights.
Jersey City, the second most populous city in the state of New Jersey, with comfy far-flung quarters on a peninsula at the mouth of the Hudson River, which separates it from Manhattan, is often regarded as one of the suburbs of Greater New York.
Dubai – is a city the most dynamically growing in height. It has the tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa, and by the total number of tall and ultra-tall buildings it steadily leads over New York and Hong Kong. For Dubai are designing leading architects of the planet and the majority of their designs come to life, but there are also suspended projects that may someday be built. One of such projects is the Meraas Tower, 500-meter giant, which was planned to be built in the area of Jumeirah Garden City.
In Frankfurt am Main is almost completed construction works on the new headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB), designed by the Austrian architectural office COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. This March, it reached the planned height, and commissioning is scheduled in 2014. The design of the Vienna-based architects comprises three architecturally intertwined elements: i) the former Grossmarkthalle, which is to be retained, ii) the double office tower, and iii) a new entrance building, connecting these two elements.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has announced the winner of its Best Tall Building Worldwide: CCTV Headquarters (China Central Television Headquarters), Beijing, China, designed by OMA. As part of a nearly yearlong juried selection process across more than 60 entries, the Awards Jury first selected a Best Tall Building in four regions: the Americas, Middle East and Africa, Europe and Asia & Australasia. Senior representatives of each of these four winners then gave a presentation at the CTBUH Awards Symposium Nov. 7 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, with the Jury convening immediately afterwards to determine the overall winner. The winner was announced by Wiel Arets, Dean of the School of Architecture at IIT, at the Awards Dinner following the Symposium.
German architects Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus have unveiled a conceptual skyscraper project for Berlin with a twisted figureof- eight structure that curves around elevated gardens and is held up by cables. Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus, who are both based in Berlin, developed this design to contribute to a new masterplan being put together for the eastern quarter of the city.
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and Cymbal Development transform a portion of Fort Lauderdale’s New River front into a vibrant addition for the local community and future residents of the city. The mixed-use development, Marina Lofts, in downtown Fort Lauderdale seeks to infuse a currently run-down stretch along the New River with a thriving pedestrian friendly public space thereby attracting new residents into its development.
Changsha is the capital city of Hunan, in southcentral China, located on the lower reaches of Xiang River, a branch of the Yangtze River. From very ancient time Changsha was a highly populated major commercial hub. Under the Qing dynasty, from 1664, it was the capital of Hunan province, and a major rice market. It was a scene of major battles in the Sino- Japanese War of 1937–45 and was significantly destroyed.
