The US Government has unveiled more detailed plans for its new embassy complex at the heart of London's Nine Elms regeneration area. The scheme was awarded outline planning consent in 2010 and the new plans provide detail on the proposed appearance of the buildings, site layout, landscaping and access arrangements. Philadelphia-based architects Kieran Timberlake won the competition to build a new US Embassy in London, with a design that concentrates on environmental issues two years ago. The victorious design, to be built in Nine Elms on the southern bank of the Thames, combines energy efficiency with improvements to the post-industrial landscape of one of London's last big undeveloped city-centre sites. The new 11-storey building, which will be able to house 1,000 staff, covers 45 thousand square meters. The north facing elevation is largely glazed, while the other three sides of the building have a distinctive outer shell made from a transparent material called ethylene tetraffluoroethylene (ETFE), with integrated photovoltaic panels to harvest solar energy. Photovoltaic panels would be installed on the roof and the main vehicle access to the site would be from Ponton Road which is currently being realigned. The glazed box sits atop a colonnade intended to create a feeling of civic engagement and openness which has been pointedly lacking in recent US embassies and which became one of the reasons that the state department took the decision to vacate its existing building in central London's Grosvenor Square. Three single storey entrance pavilions would be located on the perimeter of the site to control access to the main building. The scheme would provide new public open space including landscaped gardens, walkways and a large pond designed by Olin landscape architects. A semi-circular pool protects the building on the side facing the river, which features a new road passing between the embassy and the Thames, while the building itself is slightly elevated atop a mound to avoid the possibility of ramming the structure with the car bombs which became such a favoured terrorist mode of attack in the 1990s. The pool and the grassy mound combine to create a parkland setting which, it is hoped, will both help provide a green heart for the redevelopment of this long-neglected part of the city but which also subtly protects the embassy without the creating the impression of a walled compound - which was one of the fears about the viability of this building as an anchor for the new Nine Elms. Earlier the cost of construction of the new embassy is estimated to be about US$ 500 million, but now it doubled. With a US$ 1 billion budget the embassy is set to become one of the most expensive in the world, cheaper only than America's fortress-like outposts in Baghdad and Islamabad. The building work on one of the most expensive embassies ever built is due to begin in 2013 and be completed in 2017.

Europe's tallest building has been officially unveiled in London. The Shard, a 95-story tower which stands at 310 meter, dwarfs almost everything around it, including nearby Tower Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral. It was officially named on July 5 as the highest tower in Europe, in a ceremony carried out by Britain's Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. In 2009 the building was officially launched by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, whose country funded the building, and Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew. The 95-floor building has a glass facade covering the equivalent of eight football pitches, while the volume of concrete used in its construction could fill 22 Olympic-sized swimming pools. It has capacity for 12 thousand people and will contain a five-star hotel, 600 thousand square meters of office space, luxury restaurants and shops. The jagged-tipped skyscraper will also house 10 apartments, reportedly costing up to US$ 78 million each, which on floors 53 to 65 will be the highest residential properties in Britain. The US$ 705.4 million project was 95 percent funded by Qatar. The Shard's inauguration marks the completion of the exterior of the building, located on the south bank of the River Thames at London Bridge, while work on the inside is expected to continue into 2013. The skyscraper, whose name was coined by its Italian architect Renzo Piano, is still significantly shorter than Dubai's 828-metre Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It takes over from Capital City Moscow Tower as the highest in Europe, but it is expected to be surpassed before the end of the year by Russia's planned 332 meter Mercury City Tower. Recently, France also unveiled plans to build Europe's tallest tower "Hermitage Plaza Towers" , but its construction hasn't started yet and its only 320 m tall. But the building's futuristic silhouette has angered traditionalists who say it has dwarfed older landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament. English Heritage, the body responsible for protecting historic sites, says the skyscraper mars a view of St Paul's, which was London's tallest building for 250 years (1710-1962).

The powerful prime minister of Qatar is ready to plunk down nearly US$ 100 million for the city's most expensive penthouse - an ultra-luxe, two-story pad atop the under-construction One57 condominium across the street from Carnegie Hall, The New-York Post reported. The stunning duplex penthouse, with total area 1 thousand square meters, features a "grand salon," a large mezzanine, four fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, at least five bedrooms, and motorized window shades, placed in the 90-story One57 building. Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani first eyed the spread after a Fifth Avenue board rejected his bid to spend US$ 31.5 million on two apartments owned by the late Huguette Clark, an eccentric American copper heiress and he decided to buy the One57 penthouse only after the Huguette Clark rejection. Sheik Hamad also opened discussions with Extell Development about buying a cluster of four separate, full-floor condos in One57 building. According to publication, that would up the total purchase to a staggering US$ 250 million. He wants his relatives to live in these apartments. The sheik has two wives and 15 children and a huge entourage. Previous price record belonged to an unknown buyer, who paid US$ 90 million in May for the penthouse in the same building, One57. Earlier the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev bought an apartment in New York for US$ 88 million for his student daughter.

As reported The Morning Whistle, Changsha, China's Hunan province will be home to world's tallest building, which will be built in just 7 months, if a report in local newspaper Sanxiangdushibao is to be believed. According to unconfirmed sources, the building, known as Yuanwang Mansion, will stand at 838 meters in height and have 220 floors, 50 floors more than the world’s current tallest building, Burj Khalifa. It is designed to contain residential units, hotels, schools, a hospital and offices buildings. The local Wangcheng district government has reached an agreement with Yuanda Kejian Technology Ltd. to start the building project with a total investment of at least US$ 600 million. The newspaper reported that the building can be a home for 30,400 people and will have 16 panoramic and 31 super high speed elevators capable of carrying 30 thousand people per hour to every floor. The company will be able to complete the structure so quickly because it will have a pure steel structure, and all the material will be fully prefabricated before construction. Can China set a new record in Hunan province, which housed all recently built prefab buildings? China's new propose is unbelievable, as world's current tallest building Burj Khalifa required six years to build. In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, a conglomerate led by Kingdom Holding Corporation is in the advanced design stage to build the one-kilometer-tall Kingdom Tower, which is expected to be finished in 2017. Recently the prefab Hotel in China's south-central Hunan province standing 30 stories was erected in an incredible 360 hours or in 15 days. The hotel built Chinese sustainable-building firm Broad Group and the building is designed to withstand up a 9.0 earthquake - and even boasts energy-efficient building techniques n 2010 Broad Group during 6 days built another prefab building, the 15-story Ark Hotel in the Changsha Province, demonstrating fantastic speed of prefab building construction. . P.S. Information source - Morning Whistle (China Business Watch) is the English-language business news, analysis and opinion aggregation service of 21st Century Media Group, China's leading financial media group.

Construction officially begins on tower 432 Park, which after completion will become the tallest residential tower in New York, reported The New York YIMBY. While excavation on the site of 432 Park has been ongoing for several months, no foundation work had yet been completed. On May 14 marks the first laying of rebar for the base of the building. With foundation work now formally underway, 432 Park should be at street level within several months. The only similar tower in the city One57 rose to grade fairly quickly, although financing issues paused actual building's rise several times through construction. The simplicity of 432 Park's design could mean that the tower will rise even faster than One57. The new tower is constructing at the site of the former Drake Hotel on New York's Park Avenue has long been a subject of fascination in the development world. According to The Wall Street Journal, the CIM Group, owner of the building, a Los Angeles real-estate company founded by two former Israeli paratroopers and a Drexel Burnham Lambert executive has emerged as one of the country's most active property buyers, emerged new details for New York tallest residential tower. The 425 meters tall tower, designed by Rafael Vinoly and developed by Harry Macklowe, is expected to cost US$ 1.2 billion. There will be 128 units would vary in size from 130 square meters to more than 740 square meters, 25 studios to house residential support staff and the retail would run along 57th Street with 30 meters of frontage. The building is planned to hit substantial completion in April 2015. The expected average sales price is US$ 48.500 per square meters, which would be below recent resale at the Time Warner Center and asking prices at One57. As we reported earlier , a new mark for the priciest home in New York City was setting. An unknown buyer has paid US$ 90 million for the 1015 square meters penthouse on the 89th and 90th floors of One57.