Despite their lack of mechanical and energy efficiency, high-rise buildings continue to proliferate in the financial and service-sector centers of cities all over the world. Here we present four medium-height examples: the at once ascetic and symbolic Stock Exchange of Shenzhen, by OMA, with its structural feat and 254 meters; Moneo’s tower for the company Puig in Barcelona, its skin of spiraling scales rising all of 109 meters like its companion on the spot, Jean Nouvel’s hotel, with its facade of screen-printed glass; and finally Perrault’s building, soaring 220 meters, the first of the DC towers to go up in Vienna’s Donauinsel. Arquitectura Viva 164