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EXCLUSIVE - As seems to the be trend right now, St Mary's Gate, designed by Broadway Malayan has had a revised planning application submitted with the plans now reaching 21 floors rather than 19 which should add approximately 25ft / 8m to the height and push the projects height towards the 100m mark and giving it a good chance to become Sheffields tallest building and a landmark for the planned retail quarter. The current tallest in the city is the Arts Tower which is 78m / 254ft and 20 floors.

What will be Britains largest sculpture, the B of the Bang has started construction in Manchester. Named after a phrase coined by Olympic runner Linford Christie it will stand at a whopping 56m / 184ft which will make it over twice the height of Newcastle's Angel of the North.
Designed by mancunian Tom Heatherwick the artwork will feature 180 tapered columns shooting out from the center like an explosion and stand next to the City of Manchester Stadium, as a clear inspiration of atheletes on their starting blocks. Building should finish in February with the sculpture floodlit on the Manchester skyline soon after.

EXCLUSIVE - The winning design has been announced for the proposal of a new tower at Britain Quay in Dublin, designed for a consortium led by Irish rockers U2. Designed by Irish Burden Dunne/Craig Henry Architects the 78m tall tower will feature a roof garden with trees on the top floor, and below this at a height of 60m recording studio for the band.
The lower floors will be a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom aparments with an auditorium and bars at ground level.
The design features a series of blocks rotated in order like a spiral rather like the Turning Torso tower currently going up in Stockholm. Although a 96m tall tower has been approved nearby, if built it will be Irelands tallest building in a city which has been until very recently vehemently anti highrise, with nothing much over 60m - extraordinary when you consider Dublin is about the same size as Leeds and a capital city.
It remains to see what the Irish planning authorities will make of it but if current trends, and the backing of U2, are anything to go by it should see the light of day.

Following the announcement of a competition for a new design for a music center in White City, London, the BBC have released the top five competition entries plans for a new concert hall and classical recording studio which include a design that can only be classed as extraordinary (or bizarre depending on your view).
The favourite designed by Foriegn Office Architects (fortunately nothing to do with Jack Straw) it features what looks like a couple of jumbo plastic blocks from Mothercare contains recording space in two separate studios plus various offices budgeted at £54 million.
The current height is unknown but we'd estimate it from the rendering at perhaps 60-70m in total... which is enormous given its use - the Beeb is clearly looking for a real landmark building and what could be more than landmark than actually being able to see orchestras record from the road as you drive past.
The big question is will this be a new era in BBC buildings which have been uninspired at best and vile at worst or will it just be an extravagant waste of public money?

EXCLUSIVE - As you know we have been regularly following the updates in Sheffield on the big plans to build a 'skyscraper alley' for some time now. The city which is already a big building site along the major commercial artery of West Street has been set for some time to have a development on the site of Chesham House.
The project designed by Bond Bryan which should have originally been submitted for planning permission in February has had problems adding up to profit for the developer thanks to the lowish property prices in Sheffield.
The current designs involve a two tower solution, the taller tower contains residential units and is topped with a Chicago-style two pronged spire with diagonal bracings over the cladding up the main portion of the building. Elevations we have seen show this to start at 75m AOD, to reach the roof at 149.5m AOD and the tip of the spire to be 163m AOD giving a total height of 74.5m to the roof, sadly 2m off making it Sheffields tallest tower.
The second lower portion of the building is joined to the first by a podium and features a metal canopy on the top at a height of about 52m and will feature office space which has been specially requested by a client and incorporated into the project to make it more cost effective.
Our source tells us that the development has gone quiet at the moment, presumably as the developers once again crunch their sums but remains optimistic that it will see the light of day. Once it does SN.com will be publishing a full review of the project with a number of shelved designs.

Scotlands much maligned new parliament has run into further criticism. The £373.9 million pound project in Holyrood which is set to dominate the Scottish capital has already gone many times over budget and now there are no guarantees from the contractors Bovis and Spanish architects EBMT that the parliament will be finished in time thanks to problems glazing the building and a failure to respond to proposals finally capping the consultancy fees on the building.
The project is already six times over budget and should have opened over two years ago, but following the death of leading architect, and major legal problems with the consultancy firms involved both the schedule and cost have skyrocketed and even today look like increasing. Our source tells us it looks increasingly likely that the building will not open until July next year at the earliest despite protestations from officials that it will open for business in April.
Given the ability of Canary Wharf to put up a 150m tall 1 million square foot headquarters for Barclays at the rate they are going one can only wonder why a building of similar quality in Scotland cannot come in on time and on budget.

EXCLUSIVE - Sadly the planned 85m tower for Sheffield which was revealed in the local press some months ago on the site of Chesham House isn't going ahead as the figures don't stack up so the architect is going back to the drawing board. What's now planned is two shorter towers or between 16-20 floors each, still tall by Sheffield's standards and containing 150+ flats in total which will hopefully combine the needed density with enough profitability for the developer.
Despite this setback Sheffields Retail Quarter continues to move ahead with Broadway Malayan are planning a 167 flat development (which you can see an exclusive first look of here before the press get their hands on it) with leisure facilities on the ground floor for the same road with a tower that gradually steps up from 18floors to 20 floors. There are also plans for another tower of approximately 60m next door to Chesham House which will be oval shaped and clad in highly reflective glass.
These four towers should completely transform the skyline of Sheffield from it's current sixties blight and put it up alongside its regional rival of Leeds although one of our sources tells us that he remains sceptical of Sheffield being able to support any new developments as the executive market seems to be fulfilled. We shall have to wait and see.

EXCLUSIVE - This is a first look at the new proposed J.J Gallacher hotel for Newcastle in Pottery Lane designed by Carey Jones.
The project includes an 8 floor residential block with 460 apartments whilst the tower aspect reachest 77m (89m to spire). This tower is one of a growing number of mid-rise proposals that Newcastle has seen lately despite some opposition from conservation bodies in the area who complain about wasteland being built on and have concerns that the Tyne will be overshadowed by high-rises.

Manchester is set to get yet another "gateway" tower with a new canalside proposal. This project is the Soveriegn Point reaching to approximately 70m, which will provide another block of residential flats in what is becoming a signature shape wedge in Manchester. What a pity they can't build something of a different shape. Meanwhile as a bit of a downer British Waterways projet Islington North seems to have lost it's proposed high-rise element with the proposed 16floor tower nowhere in the latest plans.

EXCLUSIVE - Snowhill Station is a mixed use proposal by developers Railtrack and architects Sidell Gibson to provide 750,000sq ft of new office space plus 200 apartments and a retail element in three medium rise towers in an area that links the business center of Birmingham to it's historic gun and jewellry quarters. The entire street plan is set to be remodelled to try and make right the planning mistakes of the sixties with an ambitious plan to remove St Chad's Roundabout. A public plaza and a brand new tram route are also envisaged in this proposal that will see a fully integrated transport system to rival that of Sheffield. The buildings are still at an early stage of design but we understand that medium rise blocks are being considered in negotiations with planners with the visual theme of the development designed to envoke memories of Birmingham's industrial past.

The GN Tower in Manchester is finally going ahead only a few months after Wimpey's record breaking £8 million per square acre for the purchase of 4 acres of land on the site. The tower which has the now trademark sloping roof and greenish glass for Manchester will be 72m tall and 23 floors and topped by a 90m spire. It's clearly another attempt by developers to cash-in on the enormous growth in residentials that the center of Manchester is seeing as it leads the UK in demand for inner-city living. Construction is expected to start early next year and you can expect all the apartments to sell out instantly.

Glasgow is also seeing the start of a building boom as the rest of Scotland plays catch-up with the U.K. Despite falling populations as people move south Glasgow based developers plan on building three medium rise towers in a mixed use project to provide hotel, office and living space for 1500 people. Budgeted at £100million pounds and designed by Coopar Cromar architects the Trinity Project is set to be an all Scottish project, something that's a rareity these days. The project will contain -

• A 320-bedroomed 4-star plus hotel operated by Macdonald Hotels complete with conference and leisure facilities, a rooftop restaurant and a sky bar giving Glasgow some high-rise drinking space at last.
• One residential block of 72 luxury flats reflecting the subdued demand of the housing market when compared to English cities.
• Commercial office space of 160,000 square feet.

It may not be much for a city the size of Glasgow when compared to the likes of Birmingham but if the project is a success it may herald more impressive proposals in the near future.