Q:

ビル (biru) or 建物 (tatemono) as a translation for 'building' in Japanese?

I see there are two words for building in Japanese, ビル and 建物【たてもの】. Can someone tell me the difference and when I should use one or the other?

A:

「[建物]{たてもの}」 (tatemono) is a neutral Japanese word for building.
I found a definition of "building" at Wikipedia:

a structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory.

This applies to the Japanese word 「建物」.
On the other hand, the word 「ビル」 (biru), which obviously originates from the English word "building," has a different meaning than English "building."
I think most Japanese people agree that 「ビル」 refers to a certain kind of building, which are tall and have many floors, as in the image below (taken from Google Image Search).

So, if you are to imply that you are talking about this kind of buildings, use 「ビル」 (biru).
Use 「建物」 (tatemono) in any other case.

