A symbol of Dubai's resurgence and its growing importance at the centre of the global business crossroads will emerge later this year when the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai opens its doors to guests in Q4 this year, reported the official site of Marriott Hotel. This hotel set to be the world's tallest. As reported, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai will open in two phases, with the first section featuring 807 rooms and numerous restaurants and lounges. At a height of 355 meters, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is the tallest dedicated hotel building in the world and is just 26 meters shorter than the Empire State Building in New York. In addition to serving the luxury business traveler, the hotel is targeting the lucrative and increasingly important MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market, which currently does not have a hotel of sufficient scale to host such large groups. In addition to all the dining and entertainment options, the hotel will have two ballrooms, 24 meeting rooms and a total of 5,100 square meters of event space. Currently the tallest dedicated hotel building in the world is Rose Rayhaan in Dubai. 72 storeys, 333 meters high and certified as the World's tallest hotel by Guinness Records hotel building opened its doors in 2010. But the world's highest hotel is Ritz-Carlton housed in 484 meters high International Commerce Center in Hong-Kong. It is situated on 102-118 floors. The JW Marriott is part of Marriott International's luxury portfolio and consists of beautiful properties in gateway cities and distinctive resort locations around the world. Currently, there are 53 JW Marriott hotels in 22 countries; by 2015 the portfolio will encompass 80 properties in 29 countries.

North Korea's famous pyramid-shaped hotel Ryugyong has been renovated, despite never having welcomed a single guest, reported The Daily Mail. The 105-story Ryugyong Hotel - the world's tallest unoccupied building - in the capital Pyongyang has been spruced up and awarded two new walkways. The renovations may be a sign that Dictator Kim Jong-Un could be about to finish the project started by his grandfather in 1987, branded 'the Hotel of Doom'. From a distance, the glassy, greenish-blue Ryugyong looks like it's ready for business. But it is believed to be far from complete inside and possibly even structurally unsound. Work on the building started in 1987 while Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and 'eternal president,' was still alive. It was supposed to open in 1989 and would have been the world's tallest hotel - surpassing another in Singapore that was built by a South Korean company. But a severe economic crash and famines in the 1990s left North Korea in no position to pump funds into the hotel's construction, and it stayed little more than an embarrassing concrete shell for well over a decade before Egypt's Orascom Group - which was also key in establishing the North's cellphone system - helped pay for work to complete the building's shiny exterior in 2011.

AMBS Architects was commissioned with a highly confidential project - due to security reasons until recently - in Basra, Iraq. Home to a bulk of Iraq's oil reserves, the province is becoming one of the fastest-growing business centers in the world (and most precious per square meter). The new downtown master plan was assigned by the Basra governorate with an aim of maximizing the city's capacity by 2025. Avoiding urban sprawl was the top priority in order to protect the environment, thus posing the preference to build vertically, rather than outwards. The scheme for the downtown area will feature a one of a kind landmark to match its importance called The Bride tower. The brief developed into four conjoined towers creating a more logical and stable structure with multiple accesses and escape routes via horizontal and vertical circulations. Tower 1, located on the south side, is the tallest, and is shaded by a glazed canopy known as 'the veil'. The towers are connected at many levels creating "sky gardens" and "sky squares". The Bride will be the first vertical city in the world. It will also be the tallest structure there is and will break new ground in all disciplines of engineering: from structures to vertical transportation and services. It will keep a constant typical section from top to bottom, which gives maximum space efficiency and repetition, reducing the costs. Furthermore, it's designed to be a "round the clock" city, with offices, hotels, whole neighborhoods, commercial centers, sky-squares, parks, gardens and its own rail network. The design responds to the external environment strategically positioning the structures in a way that they can shade one another. The south facade of tower 1 will be almost completely cloaked by a canopy that extends over 600 thousand square meters, covering low-rise buildings, public areas and the first floors of the high-rise. Apart from shading and cooling for the south facade of tower 1, the "veil" will integrate hybrid solar cooling PVT panels (a photovoltaic-thermal combined system). The water heated within these panels will be used to increase the performance of the photovoltaics, and which will subsequently be fed to absorption chillers. the heat provided to the generator will drive a cycle that produces chilled water for cooling. The city of Basra and its surrounding lands have been historically fertile and capable of producing abundant vegetation and agricultural crops. This reputation earned it the name "the bride of the gulf" by local people. The "bride tower" project takes its name to reference this saying and aims to convey the idea at many levels.