New Yorkers are used to living amongst huge skyscrapers around Madison Square Park but they have probably never seen anything like this.

For his first New York building, Daniel Libeskind has proposed a 900+ foot, 54-story glass condo with dripping sky gardens. Libeskind’s creation would swoop up next to, and past, the 700-foot Met Life tower.

Initial designs show a glass-curtained tube with cutaways spiraling up and around the façade to reveal segments of terraced verdure, like cultivated patches on the side of a steep alpine slope.

Istanbul is developing and turning very cosmopolitan at a fast rate. A proof of this is the Istanbul Sapphire which is a 261-meter skyscraper. It will be completed in late 2009 and will then be the tallest residential building in all of Europe.

The skyscraper has been under construction for three years and recently reached full height. There will be 174 private residences divided between 64 floors. The other features of this towering building include a shopping center, fitness center and spa, restaurants and includes vertical gardens and a viewing terrace.

The total cost of the project is currently $200 million and around 40 percent of the whole project has been sold.

One of the new generation of skyscrapers central in Moscow’s International Business Centre is close to topping out.

Named the City Of Capitals the project consists of two multi purpose towers called Moscow and St Petersburg in reference to Russia’s two capital cities. They will stand at heights of 284 metres and 242 metres the towers are designed by American architectural firm NBBJ.

Inspired by the Russian constructivism of the 20th century the towers display a distinctive geometric form, which not only looks interesting but offers structural strength and gives large floor plates allowing for spacious apartments and offices which have stunning panoramic views.

The only drawback with City of Capitals which are big and dazzlingly modern enough to stand as landmarks in their own right in any other city in Europe is not their own design but that of some of the neighbouring towers such as the Russia Tower that are to distract the eye of a tourist.

The podiums the towers rise from feature rounded lines and concertinaed glass roofs, these will house retail and entertainment spaces. As the towers rise in a series of squares the vertical lines are highlighted with mosaics of dark and light terracotta adding both colour and texture to the facades, these are also used to emphasize the residential parts of the project.

Luxury is the watch-word in this project with the well being of workers, residents and visitors to the towers being paramount. They will be able to enjoy restaurants, cafes, cinemas, a 25 metre swimming pool with panoramic views of the Moskva River, spa and beauty facilities as well as high tech gym equipment.

The offices have been specified to a Grade A standard and apartments range from a Deluxe apartment approximately 1,019 square metres – 1,060 square metres to the President apartments which are approximately 2,155 square metres – 3,347 square metres.

Car parking will be arranged on several underground levels and offices will be accessed by the embankment, car park and retail levels, possibly to tempt workers into spending their hard earned wages before they have even earned them.

If this project gets the green light, London’s skyline would have a new addition in the form of the mile-high ‘eco-friendly’ tower, to be located in East London. Towering 500 stories high, it is expected to house 100,000 people, in addition to having space for schools, hospitals and stores.

This proposed giant skyscraper by British firm Popular Architecture will create 12 new ‘villages’ in the sky and is three times larger than anything built in the capital. And for every 20 stories, there will be ‘holes’ that serve as public spaces containing botanic gardens, ice-skating rinks and swimming pools.

The whole idea of using minimal land to house a large number of people adds an ecological advantage to this project. For now though, this skyscraper remains a pipedream till an interested developer turns it into reality.

Below are 9 strange and unique structures which have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval. some have already been partially constructed.