Tall and Thin the new Fashion for City Developers
The Age
A sculpted glass skyscraper planned for the corner of Queen and Bourke Streets will be Melbourne, Australia's second tallest residential tower once it is built.More

Are Businesses Missing out on a Sustainability Goldmine?
GreenBiz.com
Businesses of all sizes may be overlooking a goldmine of competitive information in their own corporate sustainability reports. What's more, executives could expose their companies to long-term business risks by failing to look at this data more closely or by failing to disclose all of the information that they've collected, according to a new report by consulting company Deloitte & Touche. It turns out that what you don't know can, in fact, hurt you.More

70 Percent East Delhi Buildings Prone to Quake-damage
Daily News & Analysis
An estimated 70 percent of buildings in East Delhi, India, were prone to damage in an earthquake, Delhi Lt. Governor Tejendra Khanna called for immediate focus on retrofitting and rebuilding.More

States and Utilities Leading way on Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs
Environmental Leader
States and utilities invested over US$811 million on direct industrial energy efficiency programs in 2010, far exceeding the spending by the federal government and other national-level programs, according to a report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.More

10 Buildings That Changed the United States
Smart Planet
If you had to describe the quintessential American building, what would it be? A soaring skyscraper? A hip Modernist house? A shopping mall? An ambitious TV series and accompanying website, both titled "10 Buildings That Changed America," have just started production and will explore iconic U.S. architecture. They will present structures that "changed the way we work, live and play," according to the website.More

Employee Engagement now a Workplace Imperative
Independent.ie
Whether companies are endeavoring to survive and respond to the current recessionary pressures, or whether they are searching for the holy grail of competitive advantage, the topic of employee engagement has recently gained in popularity as a means of enhancing organizational performance.More

Study Finds Green Buildings Improve Company Financial Performance and Lower Operational Costs
PRWeb via Seattle Post Intelligencer
A new study by University of Notre Dame management professors Edward Conlon and Ante Glavas shows that business performance in LEED rated buildings exceeds that of non-certified properties. The first-of-its-kind study compares the financial performance of 93 LEED rated bank branches with 469 non-rated branches owned and operated by PNC Financial Services Group, using consumer deposit and loan data collected between 2008-2010.More

Strong Earthquake Shakes Mexico City, Causing Tall Buildings to Sway, People to Evacuate
The Associated Press via The Washington Post
A strong earthquake struck a sparsely populated area in the mountains of western Mexico, and caused tall buildings to sway more than 200 miles away in Mexico City. People evacuated some buildings in the capital, but the city government said helicopter flights had detected no signs of damage.More

The Green Building Code Bible Gets a Much Needed Update
The Atlantic
Most presentations on sustainable building design do not begin with a meditation on early human technology, replete with references to Shakespeare. But, then again, most senior executives at the U.S. Green Building Council do not have a background in opera.More

Shoulder Surfing and Social Media in the Workplace
Examiner.com
Shoulder Surfing — Anyone in the work world who is not yet familiar with this term needs to get acquainted. Shoulder surfing refers to an employer asking a job candidate during an interview to log onto his or her Facebook account for employer review as part of the hiring process. Some employers have gone so far as to add a place on their job applications for job seekers to list their Facebook password.More

Redefining Australian Skyscrapers
Architecture Source
In the most basic terms, there is a very clear-cut definition as to what constitutes a modern skyscraper; the Oxford dictionary describes it simply as a 'tall building of many stories.' Industry members know, however, that there is more to what are perhaps this industry's most iconic structures than simply height. There is an aesthetic that comes with the modern skyscraper ideal, a visual and even an interior format that is synonymous with the modern skyscraper.More

Metro Services Halted, Buildings Develop Cracks in Kolkata, India
Hindustan Times
People came out of their homes and offices, buildings developed cracks and Metro services were halted on Wednesday as twin tremors from the massive earthquake that hit Indonesia were felt in west Bengal, including capital Kolkata, India.More

The Future Workplace is Killing You
Business Insider
Welcome to the future of work: a world where everything moves faster, the hours are longer and steady jobs are harder to find. Work has always been central to our lives — in the United States, the 40-hour workweek stretches back at least a century — but now, technology and the pressure of competing in a global economy is threatening to turn back the clock, making our toil an all-consuming affair once again.More