Today's casualty of the economic crisis comes to us courtesy of New York City.

Boston Properties, the biggest owner and developer of office space in the States, has pulled the plug on a 39-storey skyscraper it had started work on in Hell's Kitchen.

Builders working on the foundation of the sheer glass tower at 250 West 55th Street will be told to stop work after a key tenant pulled out of the project.

It seems the law firm that Boston Properties had lined up to lease almost half of the building pulled out weeks before the deal was expected to be signed off and - this has got to hurt - after a full year of negotiations!

Work will be suspended and it is not known when it will restart.

Interestingly, this project hit a speed bump earlier in its life when one property owner wouldn't give Boston Properties access to his building so the tower could go up.

Read about the cat fight here!

Construction of South America's tallest skyscraper has been put on hold due to the global financial crisis.

The 300m Torre Gran Constanera in Chile's capital of Santiago was intended to soar 72-storeys but has been abandoned at the 22nd floor.

More than 700 workers have been made redundant and unions say a total of 2,000 jobs will be lost.

The building was to be the tallest in South America and the biggest in the southern hemisphere.

Chilean group Cencosud said that if the project had been finished on time they would have struggled to rent space in the building.

Workers have gathered in front of the unfinished building to express their anger at the decision.

When designing the largest skyscraper to be built in the American city of Cincinnati, where would you go for inspiration?

Particularly if the tower was to be named the Great American Tower?

Would you channel a bit of Jackie O - America's own piece of royalty, or perhaps Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul?

Well HOK's Gyo Obata went abroad, taking inspiration from the very un-American, Norfolk-born, British Princess Diana.

Gyo was flipping through books when he came upon a picture of Diana wearing a crown.

"That's perfect. Here we have the crown of the building, and the nickname for the city is Queen City," Joe Robertson of HOK reportedly said when Gyo came to him with the idea.

The Great American Tower will rise to 41-storeys and will be crowned with its' own version of Diana's tiara.

Construction, led by Turner Construction Company, started on the weekend and will be completed in 2011.

Burj Dubai - the tallest building in the world - has hit topping out stage.

At least that is the rumour setting the internet ablaze at the moment - an official announcement has yet to be made.

Witnesses in Dubai say the tower has hit well over 800m and will not be going any higher and Wiki claims topping out was achieved 17 January.

Local media reports the skyscraper is being prepped for an 09/09/09 soft opening.

What we do know for sure is that workers are adding an antenna with a blinking light to the tower.

Samsung Engineering and Construction has confirmed its' workers are on the job.

Keen to cement itself as the 'lifestyle' centre of Asia, Singapore has added a new skyscraper to its' skyline (video here).

The Sail @ Marina Bay is a 245m high, 70-storey mixed-use tower with 1,111 luxury apartments that broke real estate records when they hit the market a few years back.

Late Ryanair jazillionaire Tony Ryan's sons Cathal and Declan were rumoured to have forked out around £5m to purchase all 11 apartments on the tower's 16th floor.

Construction is due to finish shortly, so whoever the lucky tenants are they had better start packing.

The tower is being built by Bouygues subsidiary Dragages for City Developments and AIG Global Real Estate and has been a challenge due to its' location on unstable soil and above a subway line.

Designed by NBBJ Architects, the smooth skyscraper was inspired by sun, wind and water.

Work on what would have been the world's tallest building, standing more than 1km high, has been put on ice for at least a year.

In a move that suggests the property bubble has finally popped in Dubai, government-owned developer Nakheel said it was halting "further work" on the building's foundations.

It is not known just how much work has already been completed.

"This is part of our readjustment of our immediate business plans to better reflect the current market trends and match supply with demand," Nakheel said in a statement.

It is a bitter blow for the firm, which has also downed tools on the Trump Tower and International Hotel in December and delayed work on projects including Frond N villas, Gateway Towers and schemes at the Waterfront and the Palm Jebel Ali.

The New York Times says the world's hottest property market - Dubai - has gone cold and that this could be the beginning of a big property slide in the emirate.

In reality though, the curse of the skyscraper index strikes again!

Shopaholics know the advice well - if you really, really like it, why not get two?

Well it seems officials in Canada's wild west city of Calgary have done just that - ordering a second building to mimic one planned in the city's south-west.

Construction work has started on Eighth Avenue Place between 8th and 9th Avenues and 4th and 5th streets.

The precinct will feature a 183m west tower and 202m east tower, with building work starting on the east tower first. A start date has not been set for the west tower.

Apparently just one tower was planned at first, but was increased to two because of the popularity of the design by Gibbs Gage Architects and Pickard Chiltern.

The towers are themed around the Rocky Moutains, with the western facing facade to be pale green glass in tribute to mountain waters and glaciers. The rest of the building will be grey and layered to represent the tectonic plates that formed the mountains.

The view would be pretty great too.

Bullet train firm Kintetsu Group has unveiled plans to build Japan's tallest tower in bustling Osaka.

The bullet train operator has engaged Cesar Pelli to design a stepped 300m concrete and glass tower with 210,000 sq m of internal space.

It will have all the usual features, including a hotel, a massive department store to whet the appetites of Japan's shopaholics and terraced sky gardens for workers.

Named the Abenobashi Terminal Building Tower, it is planned for Abeno-ku in Osaka.

If approved, it is expected to be completed in 2014.

An entire military airbase will be reshuffled in South Korea and its' runway moved to allow developers to build a 555m skyscraper.

Developer Lotte Group is celebrating after winning a 15-year battle to convince the government to approve the tower, which is proposed just 9.2km from the Seongnam Airbase in southern Seoul.

The skyscraper was almost abandoned when officials realised its height and location posed a serious flight risk.

But not to let the threat of death get in the way, Lotte Group has managed to sort out a deal that will see the eastern runway moved three degrees to the west and flight safety equipment upgraded.

The skyscraper will be built as part of the developer's Lotte World II mixed-use project in Jamsil.

The government believes the runway relocation will cost about £51.3m - and Lotte will have to foot the bill.

"We will cooperate with the Air Force to come up with flight safety measures at our expense," the Lotte Group said.

Finances still have to be sorted out but it is good news for other developers in the area, as Lotte's 15-year battle is likely to see height restrictions in the area lifted.

New York's iconic Empire State Building could have a tall friend to gaze across at, with plans afoot to build a skyscraper near the giant.

Vornado Realty Trust has filed an application to rezone the site of the historic Hotel Pennsylvania on 7th Ave and 33rd St to make way for a tower up to 380m high.

Vornado filed "scoping documents" but has not offically requested the seven month rezoning process begin yet.

The firm is rumoured to be contemplating demolition of the hotel to build the 180,000 sq m tower, which wouldn't be far from the Empire State.

The proposal is likely to gather a lot of reaction as the area around the Empire State Building is protected so that other skyscrapers don't devalue the building's impact on the city skyline.

Construction of the rather simple, concave tower could start in 2010 and be completed by 2014.

After a kind of lousy 2008, Donald Trump has welcomed the new year with a bang - or really with a spire, to be more specific.

The hair-challenged developer finally topped out the 360m Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago with a spire that now takes the building's height to an impressive 415m (see video below).

The building can now lay claim to being the second tallest in the United States after the Sears Tower, which is also located in Chicago.

Workers battled chilly temperatures and strong winds to install the spire, according to this eyewitness report.

"That's the amazing thing--that [the ironworkers] had the dexterity to put the bolts in at that temperature," structural engineer Dane Rankin told the Chicago Tribune.

Efforts to install the spire last month were foiled by high winds. As a result construction workers removed much of the spire's fibreglass covering.

In the next few weeks they'll be up there again reinstalling the gray-tinted fibreglass around the steel.

With the 609m Chicago Spire skyscraper on hold during the recession, who knows how soon we'll see another of these mega-tall topping outs in the States?

There were a lot of wacky buildings that didn't make the grade in 2008, but the rejection of this observation tower in Vancouver is particularly tragic.

The 60m tower was proposed for Queen Elizabeth Park in the western Canadian city but was rejected following public outcry.

Developers said it would restore the park's famous 360 degree views of Vancouver, which had been blocked by trees.

Instead they cut the trees down.

Locals pretty much hated the tower from the get-go even though it looked like something from the Jetsons, which - in case you don't know - was one of the best TV shows ever.

Maybe in the future when we all live in groovy Skypad apartments and can fold our cars up into a suitcase we'll get a Jetsons tower.

If, with its recession, 2009 is the year we already hope to forget, then 2008 will be one to bundle up and hold tight. It could well mark a halt to the construction of innovative new eye-catching buildings, at least for a while.

So as Paul Goldberger of the New Yorker puts it in his architectural top 10: "For now, let's take pleasure in those projects that were started in that ancient era when the Dow was at twelve thousand, and we thought the fun would go on forever."

An abundance of cheap labour and a never ending budget allowed Herzog and de Meuron let loose for the 2008 Olympics. This incredible steel latticework stadium was the defining image of the Games and lit a rocket under London Olympic bosses.

  

2. Beijing Capital International Airport 

Not content with having a great stadium, China also built itself the world's biggest airport. Designed by Foster + Partners, it features a soaring aeordynamic roof and dragon-like form representing traditional China. 

3. CCTV Headquarters, Beijing 

China did well at the Olympics and has scooped the pool construction-wise as well this year. But how could I not include this structurally challenging building? Two towers meeting up with a vertical bridge put Arup's engineering know-how to the test.

4. Shanghai World Financial Centre 

Named the year's best skyscraper by a group of international architects, this tower in Shanghai is the second tallest in the world. Nicknamed the bottle opener, it was built with a void at the top to reduce pressure from wind.

5. Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre (EMPAC, Troy, NY) 

This incredible arts centre is particularly striking for the 1,200 seat concert hall clad in timber and nestled within the main structure. Builders worked with materials running the gamut from steel to wood to create a building that blurs the lines between the traditional and modern.

6. Elm Park, Dublin 

This £300m mixed-use development has transformed the outskirts of Dublin into a sustainable wonderland. Most of the project's energy is generated on site and buildings use site orientation and smart materials to be green.

7. 51 Lime Street, London (Willis Building) 

The sleek and environmentally-efficient Willis Building officially opened in London this year. The development includes two buildings, one 9-storeys and the other a terraced 28-storey tower rated BREEAM Excellent.

8. Bahrain World Trade Centre 

Already an award-winner, this 50-storey tower features two sail-like towers that rise 240m to represent the maritime history of Bahrain. Spectacularly they are joined together by three wind turbines.

9. Agucadoura wave farm, Portugal 

These 130m long sea snakes are Portugal's latest offshore wave farm, capable of powering 1,500 homes. Connected by hinges the snakes bob up and down, pumping fluid through hydraulic motors that turn generators to make power.

 

10. Heathrow Terminal 5, London 

It's opening in March was probably BAA's worst day ever, but the construction of T5 was a boon for builders. Costing £4.3bn, it was the biggest project around and was an exercise in great client-contractor relationships.

A beachside tower originally intended to look like a flower has bloomed in Vietnam after four years of drawn-out construction.

Construction of the Tram Huong (aloe wood) Tower in Nha Trang, a popular tourist area, was started by the government in 2004, in the hopes to make it a symbol of the city.

But it all ground to a halt in October 2005 when people started complaining it looked "weird" and wasn't right for the area.

Earlier this year private firm Vinpearl took over construction, handing it back to the area's tourism authority.

Could you imagine how many half-finished buildings the UK would have if the government listened to people complaining of "weirdness"?

Anything Europe can do, the UAE can do better - or so wacky construction plans in the Middle East suggest.

The latest scheme generating plenty of buzz is Abu Dhabi's Capital Gate development, which will be four times as crooked as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Developed by Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company in conjunction with RMJM, the tower leans westwards a mammoth 18 degrees - mammoth when compared to the Leaning Tower, which leans less than 4 degrees.

The tower's giant lean has made construction and design a challenge - it is being built on top of an incredible dense mesh of reinforced steel that sits above 490 piles drilled 30m underground to minimise gravitational pressures.

The UAE has taken on Europe's best-loved landmarks before - with Dubai building a replica Eiffel Tower at its Falconcity of Wonders development.

Despite what Asia is describing as a "financial tsunami", work is well underway on the construction of the tallest tower in China's Shenzen.

The 439m skyscraper will dubiously be named Kingkey Financial Centre (try saying that quickly) and soar above the city's financial district when finished in 2010.

Designed by Terry Farrell and Partners, the un-kinky design features a slim-line, luminous glass tower that tapers to an arched peak.

It will feature the usual shops and offices we always see but the top four floors will feature a sky garden for visitors.

Work on the buildings foundations have started and next year should see the tower start to rise from the ground - provided Asia's credit-crunch tsunami doesn't take the city with it.

Turkmenistan isn't known for much. In fact, it isn't even easy to find on a map.

But the Central Asian nation has embarked on the construction of an eye-catching building that could just bump up its ranking in Lonely Planet.

Work has started on a 211m TV Tower in the country's capital of Ashgabat that will resemble an eight pointed star atop a 24-storey building.

The construction site is 1020m above sea level on the crest of a mountain and will easily become the region's biggest landmark.

Once completed in three years, most digital transmission facilities will be moved to the TV Tower, which will also feature an observation deck, revolving restaurant and a mall.