The 690-foot (give or take) spire will be chock-a-block full of 422 luxury condos. For a time after it opens later this year, Millennium will be the tallest residential tower in Boston (learn about its eventual usurper below). It will also undoubtedly spawn the priciest home deals in the city's history and likely help transform its home neighborhood of Downtown Crossing. Handel Architects is behind the design.

The 61-story, 699-foot tower has been under construction in western Back Bay since early 2015 and will shoot past Millennium Tower sometime by the end of 2017 to take the tallest-residential-tower crown. In fact, the Pei Cobb Freed-designed One Dalton will become the tallest tower constructed in Boston in nearly 40 years. It is due to include 180 luxury condos, plus a Four Seasons hotel (that will also service the condos). Like with Millennium, things will be on the pricey side.

One would hope that this Bulfinch Triangle development near TD Garden would prove the most portentous development of all. The apartment portion of the so-called Parcel 1B project is due to include 239 units aimed at those not in the market for a $3,000 studio. Indeed, developer Related Beal calls its effort "the largest new construction of affordable and workforce housing in downtown Boston in more than a quarter-century." Construction started late last year on the project once known as the Merano. Related Beal expects to wrap things in 2018.

The South Carolina-based owner of the South Bay Shopping Center plans to expand it by 700,000 feet. The city signed off on the project in May and construction is imminent. The project will add 475 apartments in a 10-acre complex also due to include restaurants, a 130-room hotel, and a 12-screen movie theater. It will ultimately involve the construction of five six-story buildings.

The ginormous development will unfold over several buildings (more than 10, totaling nearly 400,000 square feet) and will include 362 apartments, plus retail. That retail could include a grocery store. Dot Block's developer, the Atlas Investment Group, had been talking about construction starting this summer, but it's not yet clear if that will happen. Whatever the near-term timeline, the Rode Architects-designed project is sure to impact a grittier area of the city.

The 560-unit apartment complex with 30,000 square feet of retail officially broke ground in late May. It joins a plethora of new projects in the northeastern slice of the South End, including the multi-part Ink Block and the Lucas church conversion. CBT Architects is handling the design. The apartment complex is expected to open in early 2018.

signed off on the 20-unit Allandale Residences at 64 Allandale Street in Roslindale archrival West Roxbury. Developer WonderGroup is calling the project "Boston's first entirely net-zero and LEED Platinum neighborhood." In other words, it is slated to be seriously environmentally friendly, not least by creating all of the energy it uses. What places this 20-unit project on this map of mega-developments and skyscrapers, however, is its scope relative to the surrounding area: 20 residences all at once is rather large for this area of Boston, and the project was not without opposition.