The Dubai Frame, a 150-meter-by-105-meter window-frame like structure in the emirate's Zabeel Park, will be completed by the end of next year. The US$ 32.3 million project, which won the ThyssenKrupp Elevator International Architecture Award in 2009, will feature a museum and is expected to attract up to 2 million visitors per year. The Dubai Frame is intended to highlight both the old and news sides of the city, with newer icons such as the Burj Khalifa visible through one side, and older parts of the city such as Dubai Creek and Deira on view through the other. The structure will be completely transparent, with elevators that will take visitors to a viewing deck located at its peak. A terrace cafe on the top cross-beam and a 150-meter-high glass floor bridge are the major highlights of the project, which will include an observation deck at the top of each vertical shaft. The ground leg of the Frame will include a museum that tells the story of the development of the city and information on its past and present.

As soon as 2014, the Burj Khalifa may no longer be the tallest building in the world. Sky City, a planned 220-story prefab tower in Changsha, China, will soon claim that title. According to Lloyd Alter at Treehugger, Broad Sustainable Building, the company behind the tower, will begin construction on the prefab behemoth this June. The energy-efficient skyscraper will literally house an entire city using just 10 percent of the site area, and it could serve as a model for sustainable urban development of the future. Sky City will be prefabricated off site in three months, and it will then be assembled in just seven months. Reaching up 838 meters, the 220-floor tower will feature residential, office space, organic farms, recreation spaces, schools, a hospital retail and much more. The tower will house 4,450 families in apartments ranging from 60 square meters to 465 square meters with 92 elevators at your disposal to reach them. As its name suggest, Sky City will be a vertical city that will accommodate 100 thousand people and offer everything that is needed - water, electricity, sewage, open space, schools, health care and more. Using just a portion of its site, Sky City will be home to the most extreme urban density we've ever seen. But the difference between Sky City and say, Hong Kong, is that the tower will be surrounded by parks, meaning that every resident will have access to open space. The prefabricated tower will include many energy efficient strategies like 20 centimeter thick insulated walls, triple glazing, exterior shading that cuts down on cooling by 30 percent, and a co-generation plant that will use waste heat from power generation for heating and cooling. Transportation will be provided by low-energy elevators and for those who want to walk (or get exercise) there is a 9650 meters long ramp running from the first to the 170th floor. According to Treehugger, construction is set to begin this June and is expected to be complete within seven months (210 days). The rapid pace of construction and the overall design for such a massive skyscraper could be a cause of concern, but if Broad Sustainable Building pulls it off, it may show the world how sustainable density can be achieved on a massive scale. The company assures that the building will be able to withstand a Magnitude 9 earthquake and will have a three-hour fire resistance rating. Lloyd Alter at Treehugger sums it up well: "This is going to be a controversial vision of sustainability; putting 30 thousand people in a single building is a hard sell. It is not the bucolic version of green living that most people think of. It certainly is a lot higher than what I have called the Goldilocks Density. But it is the logical extension of the Edward Glaeser / David Owen thesis that the way to go green is to go up, reducing the amount of land used per person and the distances people travel." A resident of Sky City will use 1/100th the average land per person as a regular global resident and will use only 2 tons of CO2 compared to 5.5 per capita. Probability that the Broad Sustainable Building Company can afford this unbelievable task is very high. Recall that this is a company which built the 30-story building just in 15 days and a 15-story The ark Hotel - just in 6 days!

One World Trade Center in New York has become the world's third-tallest building after topping out at a height of 541 meters. A 124-meter steel spire was installed on May 10, pushing the skyscraper's height to 1776 feet - a number commemorating the year of America's independence. One World Trade Center is now the tallest structure in the USA and the Western Hemisphere, although there is debate over whether the spire is actually a removable antenna - a vital distinction in measuring buildings. Built at a cost of US$ 3.9 billion, the tower also has the distinction of being the most expensive office building in the world. Previously known as the Freedom Tower, the building is located in the northwest corner of the site where the former World Trade Center towers were destroyed in the 11 September 2001 attacks. On March 30, 2009, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the building will be known by its legal name, One World Trade Center, rather than the colloquial name, Freedom Tower. Originally designed by Daniel Libeskind - the architect behind the master plan for the entire Ground Zero site - the tower underwent numerous revisions before US firm SOM was brought in to oversee its design. Following the destruction of the original World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, there was much debate regarding the future of the World Trade Center site. Proposals began almost immediately, and by 2003, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation organized a competition to determine how to use the site. Public rejection of the first round of designs, the "Preliminary Design Concepts," led to a second, more open competition in December 2002, in which a design by Daniel Libeskind was selected. A final design for the One World Trade Center was formally unveiled on June 28, 2005. On April 26, 2006, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved a conceptual framework that enabled foundation construction to begin, and a formal agreement was drafted on the following day. Although the symbolic cornerstone of One World Trade Center was laid in a ceremony on July 4, 2004, tower's construction began in May 2006 with a formal ceremony that took place when the first construction team arrived. The building's topping out occurred on August 31, 2012, and was completed on May 2, 2013. The tower will officially open when the installation of podium glass and interior construction are completed in late 2013 or early 2014. When finally completed, it will offer 241 thousand square meters of commercial office space as well as observation decks, TV broadcasting facilities and restaurants.

Dubai is to build the world's largest vertical garden and the world's biggest butterfly garden as part of an expansion to the Miracle Garden launched in Dubailand earlier this year. As part of phase two, Dubai Properties Group's (DPG) partner Akar Landscaping & Agriculture Company will start work on the latest attractions, which are due to be unveiled in October 2013. In addition to the current variety of plant and flower species, the second phase of the 67 thousand square meters Miracle Garden will include the largest vertical garden in the world. It will also feature an Edible Plants Garden from which visitors can pick their own fruits and vegetables and a Butterfly Garden, made up of an impressive 10 thousand live butterflies bred in the UAE for the first time. The Butterfly Garden, set to be one of the biggest in the world, will be home to over 40 different species of butterfly. A breeding station is also set to be built to manage the butterfly population. Other elements will include new children's attractions, a Flower Hills and Mountains themed garden and a retail area. Currently, world's largest vertical garden is situated in Italy. Last year a shopping centre near Milan claimed an unusual record -- the biggest vertical garden in the world, covering a surface of 1250 square meters with a total of 44 thousand plants.

Dubai's Meydan Group will launch "Meydan Tower", a 111-storey high tower, in the next six weeks, reported the Emirates 24|7. The tower will be located close to Radisson Royal Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road. "Meydan Tower" is the group's first foray outside its iconic sporting, business and lifestyle destination "Meydan City". The new property will offer residential, commercial and leisure options. The "Meydan Tower" will have one of the largest spa and fitness centers in the region, featuring an indoor running track and tennis courts, while the community tower will house nine pools as well as private and community Sky Gardens. One of the other attractions would be the Club House, located on the top floor, home to a late-night Rooftop Nightclub. In Dubai alone, there are 19 buildings taller than 200 meters and 18 of them are on Sheikh Zayed Road. Burj Khalifa , 828-metres high (160 storey), is the tallest tower in the world, while Princess Tower , 414-metres high (100 storey), is the tallest residential tower in the world.