Images: Dubai's skyscraper in motion

It's always been one of the enduring truths of architecture: buildings stand still. Parts may move--the arms on a windmill, the elevators and escalators, the occasional rotating restaurant on the top floor--but not whole huge swaths of skyscraper.

Enter architect David Fisher and the firm Dynamic Architecture. More than a year ago, they began to talk up plans for a spinning skyscraper in Dubai, a "building in motion." Last week, they revealed more details of the initiative, including costs and floor plans, and Fisher took questions from a press conference peppered with skeptical journalists. A second tower is now planned for Moscow, and a third for New York.

Dubai's "dynamic tower," according to the firm, will have 80 floors and stand 1,380 feet tall. This artist's rendering shows the building at rest, though even here the undulating lines suggest movement. "We hope to break ground very soon," Fisher said at the press conference. (The sail-like building at right is the existing Burj Al Arab hotel.)