Free Republic

CHICAGO: The tallest building in the United States and a prominent feature in Chicago's skyline, the 110-storey Sears Tower will from today be called by a new name — Willis Tower. The official renaming of Sears Tower to Willis Tower and the unveiling of the building's new signage would be presided over by insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Chairman and CEO Joseph Plumeri here. Earlier this year, the London-based insurance broker had won the naming rights for the tower after it negotiated a deal with Sears' management to lease 140,000 square feet of office space at 14.50 dollars a square...

NEW YORK — A Manhattan skyscraper in one of the most security-conscious parts of New York City has become the scene of an unlikely missing persons mystery. Police are trying to figure out what happened to a cleaning woman who vanished midway through her shift Tuesday evening at an office tower a few hundred feet from the World Trade Center reconstruction site. Eridania Rodriguez, 46, punched in for work at 2 Rector Street around 5 p.m. She donned her blue uniform, chatted with other after-hours employees and was last seen on security cameras around 7 p.m., according to a lawyer...

Shanghai highrises could worsen threat of rising seas By Rujun Shen Sun Oct 5, 9:26 PM ET Shanghai, China's most populous city and an aspiring global financial center, is also among the world's most vulnerable urban areas to a rise in sea levels as global warming melts polar ice. Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, had already left it prone, but researchers warn that forests of skyscrapers sprouting across the ambitious metropolis could compound the threat by causing its marshy ground to sink. "Shanghai came from the ocean, and has...

Developers in Dubai have claimed a new record for the tallest building in the world, saying that the Burj Dubai skyscraper has now topped 688 metres (2,257 ft). The slender, rocket-shaped tower is still under construction. Its final height remains a closely guarded secret, although it is expected to reach 800m. Emaar Properties announced last summer that the skyscraper had surpassed Taiwan’s Taipei 101, which - at 508 metres (1,667 ft) - had been officially the world's tallest building since 2004.

The enormous steel ball you see in the photos (and the incredible video below) is the world’s largest ‘tuned mass damper’ and sits near the top of the world’s largest completed skyscraper on earth, taipei 101 in taiwan. the idea behind a tuned mass damper is quite simple: as a building sways (resulting from high winds, earthquakes etc), its tuned mass damper, essentially a finely tuned and ridiculously heavy pendulum, will move in opposition to the structure’s oscillations and minimise any movement. if that makes no sense, watch the crude gif below. due to both the immense size of taipei...

On a clear day, the view from the top will take in the Middle East, North Africa and the Indian Ocean - providing you've a head for heights. ...

CHICAGO — This may be the only city in the world where architecture ranks as a sport. Bleachers are erected around construction sites so the locals can sit and watch cranes swing steel beams into place. In fact, Chicagoans are so engaged in the state of their skyline, public opinion in 2001 sounded the death knell for initial renderings of the Chicago Trump Tower. Critics argued that the proposed structure would not look right among its iconic brethren. Two renderings later, Chicago Trump Tower now edges its way upward. The handsome design will tickle the sky by 2009, along with...

The world's tallest building, still under construction in the booming Gulf emirate of Dubai, has become the world's tallest free-standing structure, its developers said on Thursday. The Burj Dubai tower is now 555 metres (1,831.5 feet) tall and has surpassed the 553-metre- (1,824.9-feet) CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, which held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure since 1976, developers Emaar Properties said in a statement. The skyscraper, being built by South Korea's Samsung and set for completion at the end of next year, is one of several mega projects taking shape in Dubai, which is part of the...

Several Firefighters Injured Battling 5-Alarm Fire (CBS) NEW YORK -- A five-alarm fire in the abandoned Deustche Bank skyscraper sent a plume of gray smoke trailing above ground zero Saturday afternoon as fire trucks and police cars raced through lower Manhattan to reach a building already decimated by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Two firefighters were critically injured while trying to reach the fire, which began about a dozen floors up in the tower left vacant since Sept. 11 turned it into a toxic nightmare, fire officials said. One firefighter suffered cardiac arrest and another smoke inhalation. A third suffered...

Fire breaks out at troubled Shanghai World Financial Center SHANGHAI (XFN-ASIA) - A fire broke out today at what will be China's tallest skyscraper, dealing another setback to the long-troubled project, local fire officials said. The fire, which hit the Shanghai World Financial Center in the late afternoon, was quickly put out and there were no casualties, a fire department supervisor surnamed Zheng told Agence France-Presse. City officials and representatives of the project declined to offer further details pending a probe into the fire at the 101-storey tower, set to be 492 meters (1,614 feet) tall when completed early next...

The Burj Dubai is set to become the tallest building in the world, with some unofficial reports claiming the building overtook the Taipei 101 on Wednesday, and others that an official announcement will be made on Saturday. Property developers Emaar are being tight lipped on the rumours and would not confirm the stories yesterday, but if confirmed, Dubai's latest icon must now be taller than 509 metres (1,671 feet), the height of Taiwan's Taipei 101. Burj Dubai will eventually hold the record in all four categories as recognised by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, have the highest...

- Family of six - and 600 staff - need extra space In the most conspicuous sign yet of India's unprecedented prosperity, the country's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, is building a new home in the financial hub of Mumbai: a 60-storey palace with helipad, health club and six floors of car parking.

LOS ANGELES – Developers plan a $1 billion downtown condominium complex with twin towers – one rising 76 stories to make it the tallest residential building in the West. There would be 732 condos. Plans unveiled Monday for the Park Fifth complex overlooking Pershing Square park also call for a 14-story, 218-room luxury hotel. The two blue-green glass condo towers – the shorter one 43 stories – would rise above the hotel. It's the latest massive development planned downtown from Bunker Hill south to the Staples Center. “This is the first time in 30 years that all the stars have...

A 150-story lakefront tower that would be the nation's tallest building is a step closer to reality. The Chicago City Council on Wednesday approved a zoning change that clears the way for construction on the 2,000-foot, twisting Chicago Spire to start later this month. The Chicago Park District also approved the transfer of two parcels on the north bank of the Chicago River to the city. The completed structure would unseat the city's 1,451-foot Sears Tower as the tallest building in the United States. The spire would also be taller than New York's 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, currently under construction at...

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- The city's planning board has endorsed a proposal for a twisting lakefront tower that would become the nation's tallest building. With Thursday's approval from the Chicago Plan Commission, the design and site plan for the 2,000-foot Chicago Spire goes to the city zoning committee next week. "This is a wonderful project, and everyone is very enthused," said Constance Buscemi, spokeswoman for the city's planning department. The 150-story tower, which would feature 1,200 residences, would unseat Chicago's 1,451-foot Sears Tower as the tallest U.S. building. It would also top New York's 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, under construction at...

The Burj Dubai, slated to be the tallest building in the world when it’s done in 2009, is rising 160 stories or more (the final height is a secret) in the desert. It’s no anomaly. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 seem to have whetted the global appetite to build taller and taller. Most of the new mega-skyscrapers are in Asia and the Middle East, but the engineers and architects are American. Why the boom? A combination of economic imperatives and powerful egos, both national and personal. Coming soon: the fulfillment of Frank Lloyd Wright’s dream of a mile-high building. In...

San Francisco is aiming to become one of nation's first large cities to require that new, privately developed buildings meet rigorous standards of environmental friendliness. The decision to pursue such standards, which will need Board of Supervisors approval, follows similar actions taken in Boston and Washington. Smaller cities have also adopted such mandatory rules, including several in the Bay Area. It is part of a nationwide "green building'' revolution that experts say is prompted by government incentives and mandates, growing consumer demand and fears of global warming. "It's a virtual tsunami of green buildings,'' said Charles Lockwood, a real estate...

SAN FRANCISCO The construction is everywhere in San Francisco, as one high-rise after another has been approved by the city, and about to be built. Chronicle Writer Marshall Kilduff has covered the city since growth was a dirty word. "20 years ago, 30 years ago when you had these high-rise fights, you had a much more homogenous town. Little neighborhoods, people who remembered things, landmarks were always under the gun," Kilduff recalled. CBS 5 asked if the skyscrapers would have been approved 20 years ago. "Never," Kilduff said. "We had 5, 6 ballot fights. Not (each of them) won. But...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The Burj Dubai skyscraper under construction here reached its 100th story on Tuesday, nearly two-thirds of the way in its relentless climb to become the world's tallest building. With 3,000 laborers adding a new floor nearly every three days, the $1 billion spire is at 1,140 feet and days away from surpassing a neighboring skyscraper, the razor-blade resembling Emirates Office Tower, at 1,165 feet. The Emirates Office Tower is currently the tallest in the Middle East, Dubai-based developer Emaar Properties said. "The tower is a symbol of the city's pride and a statement of our...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- From Shanghai to Dubai, skyscraper construction is booming. Over the next 10 years, 434 new buildings more than 50 stories are expected to be built around the world, according to Emporis Buildings, an international database of building information. That compares to the construction of 630 buildings of similarly lofty proportions during the past 100 years; 375 of those went up in the last decade, according to Emporis. One of the leading boomtowns is Shanghai, China, said David Scott, chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat and an engineer with the global design firm...