RA's summer show reaches for the skies

There aren't many galleries that can claim to have housed an entire skyscraper. But London's Royal Academy is making room for not one but 50 scale models of the world's tallest buildings in a display of stratospheric architecture set to be one of the highlights of this year's Summer Exhibition.

The Empire State Building, William Van Allen's Chrysler Building and even the new London Bridge Tower are among the edifices represented in Sky High: Vertical Architecture, curated by one of Britain's most celebrated contemporary architects, Lord Foster.

Intended as a study of the evolution of tall buildings, the exhibition presents a number of designs by leading companies today, including some of those proposed in place of the destroyed World Trade Centre in New York.

The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition runs from 2 June to 10 August