Living in Austin, TX, we’ve seen the construction of many tall towers in our ever-growing downtown district. The skyline is continually expanding, especially in the past few years. The tallest building we have is the 33-story Frost Bank Tower and from the street it looks enormous. I can’t even imagine how immensely tall the Chicago Spire would look - it’s supposed to be a 150-story tower! Unfortunately, the credit crisis has stalled construction of this incredible “twisting” tower, the tallest  in the Western Hemisphere.

They’ve already dug a 76-foot-deep hole and sunk caissons. And why not? Buyers have purchased a third of the 1,124 luxury condos between $750k and $40 million. (Ty Warner, Beanie Baby creator, has the penthouse.) Instead of being a beacon of luxury, the unbuilt sight is starting to become a constant reminder of the economic downturn.

Globally work has been halted on 11% of the world’s skyscraper projects. Dubai, Russia and Chile are some of the countries that have had to stop construction on other “Babel” type projects.

Read the full article on Reuters.