New Challenging Skyscrapers For The High Rise Window Cleaner

This artist's drawing of the Parinee Ism shows that today's skyscraper designers don't think small.

Skyscrapers are changing with the times. Here's a look at some of the towers constructed or proposed elsewhere in the world, including one with an infinity pool on every balcony. Warning to acrophobic types: Dive in with extreme caution. About all that glass: We've got one question about these skyscrapers, though: Who's going to wash the windows? If you missed Oregonian writer Kelly House's profile of a Portlander who deep-sixed his fear of heights to take a job as a high-rise window washer, be sure to check it out. You won't take clean windows for granted ever again. Click pictures to enlarge.

The outline and the ripple pattern can be conceived as an abstract representation of the symbol Ohm (Ω). The ripple effect usually generates a vortex-like space in the center. The tower design is trying to recapture the essence of this space by creating a large void in the middle along with a special designed clubhouse form.

Balcony pools: A 37-story residential high-rise designed by James Law Cybertecture for real estate company Wadhwa Group in Mumbai, India, has a striking feature: glass-enclosed swimming pools on the balconies. The planned Parinee Ism has a fluid-looking exterior that's "inspired by the ripple effect generated by water droplets, which is also known as the capillary wave," according to the firm's description.

Designed by MAD Architects, the Absolute Towers located in Toronto, Canada are nearing completion.

Tall trend: When a high-rise project is called the "Marilyn Monroe," the moniker tends to grab your attention. The curvaceous Absolute Towers, a pair of towers nearing completion in a Toronto suburb, were among those selected June 13 as the best tall buildings in the world by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. 

The council, a group of architects and structural engineers, "said there had been a 'renaissance' in skyscraper development," according to Reuters. The 88 towers taller than 200 meters (656 feet) that were completed in 2011 set a record; in 2005 there were only 32 such projects. The council projects that 96 tall buildings will be completed this year, many of them in China.

The buildings are not the conventional high-rise. Take, for instance, the Al Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which won an innovation award. The computer-controlled facade of the 29-story structure opens and closes in response to the movement of the sun. The facade is a reinterpretation of the traditional Islamic mashribyia, a wood lattice screen that offers privacy and controls glare and solar gain.

Beach and Howe mixed-used tower.

Vancouver, B.C., skyline: BIG's proposal for the Beach and Howe mixed-used tower next to the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver takes a twist -- literally. The structure's tight, triangular footprint is due to a 30-meter setback from the bridge -- keeping balconies away from the noise and exhaust fumes of bridge traffic -- and to concerns about not blocking sunlight to an adjacent park. As the tower ascends above the bridge, though, it expands and cantilevers over the site.

The 49-storey residential building will have a twisted form that is set back from the adjacent motorway flyover to prevent any windows or balconies from overlooking it.

"The resultant silhouette has a unique appearance that changes from every angle and resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge," says a BIG press release, which also describes the tower's podium base as a "mixed-use urban village." Bjarke Ingels, BIG founding partner, says the project reclaims a site beneath the bridges that would otherwise be only a "lifeless 'black hole' in the urban fabric." The aim is to seek LEED gold certification for the building.

Danish architects BIG have designed a towering apartment block for Seoul that will be shaped like a hashtag.

Cross Towers: Another BIG proposal, this one in Seoul, also takes an interesting form. "The Cross Towers constitute a three-dimensional urban community of interlocking horizontal and vertical towers," according to Ingels. "Three public bridges connect two slender towers at different levels -- underground, at the street and in the sky," Ingels says in a press release. "Catering to the demands and desires of different residents, age groups and cultures the bridges are landscaped and equipped for a variety of activities traditionally restricted to the ground."

Sky gardens envisioned on the Cross Towers.

The bridges between towers would provide space for sky gardens. "The typical tower inherently removes life from the city it occupies. ... social interactions occur only in lobbies or awkward elevator rides," says Thomas Christoffersen, BIG partner in charge. "We propose a building that ... triples the amount of social interaction and reintroduces the idea of neighborhood within the tower complex."