World’s Tallest Ghostscraper

Happy New Year from Team PA 🎉 Architecture keeps evolving. We’re glad to explore it with you.

Author

Yagmur Baydır
January 01, 2026

Dear PA reader, Happy New Year 🎉

As we step into 2026, we just wanted to pause for a moment and say thank you. Thank you for reading, sharing, questioning, and staying curious with us. Whether you come here for bold ideas, quiet observations, or the occasional architectural rabbit hole, you’re part of what makes this community feel alive.

We hope the year ahead brings you space to experiment, time to reflect, and plenty of moments that remind you why you fell in love with design in the first place. To start the year, we’re looking at stories that capture both the ambition and the uncertainty shaping architecture today, tall dreams, paused visions, and the ever-changing cityscape in between.

Wishing you a thoughtful, inspiring, and curiosity-filled New Year from all of us at Team PA ✨

China’s unfinished Goldin Finance 117 and the world’s tallest abandoned skyscrapers expose how economic shifts can leave megastructures suspended between vision and reality, while a new wave of iconic towers completed in 2025 points to how engineering, material innovation, and environmental performance are reshaping vertical design. In Central Asia, RMJM’s Dushanbe Tower reflects a growing architectural confidence, using height and form to signal national identity on an emerging global stage.

New York’s 270 Park Avenue case study revisits the implications of demolition and reconstruction in the age of sustainability, while NEOM’s The Line proposes a radical rethink of urban form through its linear city concept. A renewed look at 432 Park Avenue brings the conversation back to the human scale, questioning how extreme slenderness, luxury, and structural ambition intersect within the lived reality of the contemporary city.

🚀 If you are looking to learn about computational design, PAACADEMY offers everything you need under one Full-Access membership. Be sure to check it out!

World’s Tallest Ghostscraper, Goldin Finance 117, Resumes Construction

Towering Tragedies: 10 Tallest Abandoned Skyscrapers and Their Untold Stories

Access all PAACADEMY’s January workshops in one bundle and explore AI-parametric workflows, robotic fabrication, data-driven urban design, and AI-powered retail architecture! 🚀

Liebian International Building Features a 108-Meter Artificial Waterfall

Top 10 Skyscrapers That Defined 2025

AI & Parametric Negotiation 2.0

This workshop explores how designers can merge parametric design with generative AI to transform animations into site-integrated architectural visuals. The event is scheduled for January 3 & 4, 2026.

Fibrous Architecture: Robotic Fabrication & AI Rendering

This workshop teaches participants to design fibrous structures, develop manual and robotic winding workflows, and generate final AI-assisted visualizations. The workshop is scheduled for January 17 & 18, 2026.

RMJM Dushanbe Tower Sets a New Supertall Benchmark in Central Asia

270 Park Avenue: A Case Study in Sustainable Skyscraper Design by Foster + Partners

Engineers Reveal Construction Plan for NEOM’s The Line

432 Park Avenue Case Study: The Dazzling Simplicity Redefining New York’s Skyline