A flowery looking residential development is sprouting from the skyline in Bucharest, Romania.

Designed by MYS Architects, Anador consists of three 27-storey towers currently under construction in the city.

The towers are all the same and look quite curvy from the street, but from above each wing looks like the petals of a flower.

There are plenty of balconies for residents to grow their own greens on - except those lucky enough to score a balcony with a private pool.

Yep this development looks like one for the moneyed and is expected to be finished in 2011.

Work has started on a trio of interconnected energy-efficient skyscrapers with lush rooftop gardens in bustling Taipei, Taiwan.

The Chinatrust Bank Headquarters will use the latest technologies and design tools to reduce its carbon footprint and optimise passive heating and cooling.

Designed by NBBJ Architects with Fei and Cheng Associates, the complex features a 30-storey building, 21-storey office block and a 10-storey hotel.

Each of the towers will include vertical atriums and rooftop gardens to insulate the buildings, reduce rainwater runoff and mitigate the urban heat island effect.

They are due for completion in 2012.

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!

That maestro of modern architecture Frank Gehry is creating history in New York with a skyscraper critics are already calling revolutionary in many different respects.

The Los Angeles native has designed a 76-storey tower in Lower Manhattan - not too far from Ground Zero - that will become the city's tallest residential building.

And why is the architectural and construction press going crazy about it?

1. First of all, Beekman Tower (as it is known) is hypnotic and dynamic. The exterior steel cladding appears crinkled, allowing the apartments little bays. The effect is as the NY Times puts it: "rivulets of water, crinkled sheets of aluminium, melted ice".

2. Its impressive height, without the need for bulk, suggests the city's 9/11 scars are fading from the psychology of the skyline. And being so close to Ground Zero, it seems an elegant reassertion of New York's architectural might.

3. On the ground, construction workers are using one of the most sustainable concretes on the market - iCrete. This high-performance material touts a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from less cement paste needed to bond the aggregates. This also results in lower material costs, less excavation and less labour and makes construction faster.

4. Finally, in a world beset by financial problems, Gehry has designed his own modelling programme to keep costs on track. Digital Project models, in three dimensions, every odd shape an architect envisions and then lets engineers and architects reconcile the shape with the site and other features. And thanks to its use, the project is reportedly on budget.

Beekman tower is presently under construction and will incorporate a school when it is completed. This school is located in a lower red-brick section that takes nothing away from the dramatic building.

The tower is slated to open in 2010 and will undoubtedly become an icon on the New York skyline and yet more proof of Gehry's genius.

The 612m Russia Tower planned for Moscow could be scaled down to just 200m on the orders of officials who want construction work restarted.

Work on the super tall skyscraper - to be the tallest in Europe - was suspended in November 2008 due to financial woes associated with the economic crisis.

But Moscow mayor Yury Luuzhkov has told investors that he wants work to restart this year - worldwide economic crisis or not.

According to the Moscow Times, a decision to speed up work on the tower but limit its size was made at a closed Moscow City Council meeting last week.

Shalva Chigirinsky, of the developer Russian Land, would not reveal who would be redesigning the project.

Foster + Partners were the original architects on the job and have refused to comment.

It will be a shame for architecture if this landmark building is scaled down, but good for the construction industry struggling to survive during the downturn.

Below is a video of the original plans.

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.

A self-contained floating habitat designed to solve the twin problems of population expansion and the environmental degradation of land is under construction in New York.

Named the Waterpod, this floating eco-habitat designed for rising tides was the brainchild of artists artists Mary Mattingly and Mira Hunter and will sail New York's waters from 1 May 2009.

Eco-smart builders in the city commenced work on it last year and will construct the floating home using recycled materials including wood, metal, plastic and fabric on top of and adjacent to an industrial barge.

It will resemble a triple-domed island, measuring 25m by 7m and also incorporate the use of salvaged pieces of sunken vessels raised from river bottoms in the area.

It will be powered by a hybrid solar and wind system.

Waterpod's largest dome will be dedicated to community and artistic activity, the second to hydroponic and vertical agriculture, greywater recycling and alternative power sources. The final dome will be the living quarters.

The unique structure will be open to the public and monitored online.

More pictures and information at the official website.

New aerial photographs show a September 11 memorial at New York's Ground Zero is finally taking shape.

The photos show one of two pools being built over the footprints of the former Twin Towers.

The pools will echo the voids left when the towers collapsed (see video of the memorial plans below).

So far a steel structure has been built at street level, showing where the water will cascade from the sides into the centre.

The memorial and an underground museum are expected to be completed by construction manager Bovis Lend Lease by 2012.

Construction at Ground Zero has been dogged by cost blow-outs and wrangling since 2001 - particularly on the Freedom Tower project. However, work is proceeding and construction of the tower is now visible above ground.

For updates on plans and progress at the memorial site go here.

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.

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.

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.