With more than 17.4 million residents and a growing middle class eager to trade its Mao-era housing for new apartments, Beijing has been building residential towers at a breathless clip for much of the past decade.

In a fitting match of design and program, Toyo Ito performed a feat of architectural athleticism with his National Stadium of the Sports Affairs Council in Taiwan.

Imagine New York City’s UN Headquarters building transported from its stuffy midtown location to a trendy downtown spot, kinked in the middle, rotated 90 degrees, and balanced over an elevated rail-line-cum-popular parkland and you’ve got the Standard New York.

After all the controversy, lawsuits, and delays in building the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, it will no doubt seem churlish to point out that the $180 million museum, designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects, is not the firm’s most spectacular work.