The Tallest Buildings in the World

One day after resolving issues between a developer and landowners, bulldozers rumbled into a giant pit on Thursday to begin construction of the glittering Freedom Tower skyscraper meant to symbolize New York”s resilience to the September 11 attacks.

Rebuilding at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan began 4 1/2 years after the Twin Towers were destroyed by suicide hijackers who flew passenger planes into them.

The 1,776-foot (540-meter) tower will be among the tallest in the world.

“We are not going to just build low in the face of a war against terror,” New York Gov. George Pataki said. “We are going to soar to new heights and reclaim New York”s skyline.”

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Developer Peter Wang is planning a 63-story skyscraper in downtown Oakland that could become the tallest building in the Bay Area.

Originally proposed as the home of the University of California"s systemwide offices, the project has morphed into a more ambitious form, with extra floors, a hotel and enough leasable commercial space to make it the largest single collection of private offices in the city under one roof.

The project is by far the most ambitious undertaking yet for Oakland-based Encinal. The company owns the Encinal Terminal in Alameda, a dock once kept busy by food packers and the Navy but now a sleepy warehousing district that has been targeted for redevelopment.

Wang has had success diversifying into commercial real estate. His firm leases two buildings to the University of California in Berkeley and Oakland, although both measure only in the tens of thousands of square feet. He also has a 50-unit condominium project in downtown Oakland with 104 units in the works. Wang also has approved plans for an office tower of approximately 12 stories at 1111 Jackson St. in downtown Oakland.

Uncertainties remain

That track record hardly makes Wang a real estate tycoon, and much remains unknown about his Oakland project.

Wang emphasized the uncertainties around his proposal, such as what will go inside the tower, whether tenants will come forward, and how Wang is going to pay for the whole thing. To hedge his bets, he has submitted three designs to the city of varying sizes and configurations.

The preliminary plans range in height from 44 stories rising 608 feet to 63 stories rising 827 feet. The tallest design submitted is still 26 feet shorter than San Francisco"s tallest, the Transamerica Pyramid, but Wang said the final design from Skidmore could go beyond that height. Also, Transamerica has just 48 floors.

Wang"s tallest design would hold nearly 1.1 million square feet of office space.

Wang also does not know whether his project will hold condos, a hotel or offices, but his plans all include a mixture of at least two of those uses, plus retail. He said he will not build without an anchor office tenant or lots of pre-sold condominiums, or perhaps an investment from a hotel company.

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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP has won an international competition in China to design one of the most environmentally-sustainable buildings in the world, the Chicago-based architecture and engineering firm announced today.

SOM — in cooperation with the Guangzhou Pearl River Engineering Construction Supervision Corp., and Guangzhou Design Institute — will design Pearl River Tower, a 69-story corporate headquarters, for the CNTC Guangdong Company. The tower will be located in Guangzhou China, a subtropical port city of 6.6 million located 182 kilometers from Hong Kong.

"This project represents our commitment to sustainable design," SOM Managing Partner Thomas Kerwin said. "It also represents our commitment and spirit of mutual collaboration with China"s design professionals, government and industry in pushing sustainable design best-practices."

Sleek and cutting-edge, Pearl River Tower will be an instant icon. SOM"s design and engineering teams sought to create a visually-appealing building that produces as much energy as it consumes.

"The tower will absorb its environment and use it to its advantage," said project design architect, Gordon Gill of SOM. "It is a high performance instrument shaped by the sun and the wind."

The tower boasts an array of design and mechanical features. Winds directed into openings on the mechanical floor would power turbines that operate the tower"s heating, cooling and ventilation systems. Solar collectors convert the sun"s energy into electricity. Energy consumption is diminished by maximizing natural day-lighting, reducing solar gain in air conditioned spaces, retaining rainwater for consumption by HVAC systems and using the sun to heat the hot water supply. Stack venting, heat sinks and slab cooling cool the building.

SOM Consulting Design Partner for the tower Adrian D. Smith said the design "embodies the strategies of energy conservation and energy production we have endeavored to integrate into supertall projects for over a decade."

SOM was selected over seven design firms from four countries. CNTC Guangdong Company President Xiang Jin Cheng said the design "is the prototype for the intelligent building of the future — highly efficient, sustainable and self sufficient."

Groundbreaking is scheduled for July 2006 with occupancy in fall 2009.….more here….

Chicago-based Studio/Gang/Architects has released its initial designs for Aqua, an 83-story residential and hotel tower just south of the Chicago River.

The building will be located in the city"s new 28-acre Lakeshore East Development, south of the Chicago River and east of the Loop.Firm principal Jeanne Gang created rippling edges in the concrete-framed structure"s facade by using a unique floor plate for each of its concrete slabs. The unit plans are conventional, comprising twelve variations enclosed by a glass thermal envelope. Photo: David Seide/Defined Space Advertisement But the undulating exterior spaces, which Gang conceived as terraces rather than individual balconies, give each apartment and hotel unit its own outdoor space. Gang"s team used a large-scale model in their studio to identify view corridors and help sculpt the design.Loewenberg Architects is the architect of record for the $300 million project.

The developers are Magellan Development Group and Near North Properties.The 1.9-million square-foot building will be located a few hundred yards west of Santiago Calatrava"s planned Fordham Tower, which received planning commission approval earlier this month. It will also contain a hotel, townhouses, a health club, conference facilities, and retail. Its two-story podium will be topped with a green roof. Drawings for Aqua will soon be submitted for building permits, with completion expected in 2009. It will be Gang"s largest project to date. Her most noted previous projects have been the Starlight Theatre in Rockford, Illinois, and the Chinese American Community Center in Chicago.

JULY 28, 2005 — There may be a new tall kid on the block: Plans for a new Santiago Calatrava-designed tower for Chicago have been announced, and that means competition for New York City"s planned 1,776-foot Freedom Tower before construction has even begun on either project. The "Fordham Spire" (named for the development company)-which will reportedly rise to 2,000 feet, making it the tallest in the United States-is planned for the Windy City"s Near North Side, alongside Lake Michigan, and will house condominium units and a hotel.

While the stature rivalry between Fordham and Freedom may make waves stateside, the contest is beside the point on the global level: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill"s Burj Tower in Dubai-now under construction-is expected to reach 2,300 feet, and when complete, it will overtake C.Y. Lee and Partners" Taipei 101, which, at 1,667 feet, holds the current world"s tallest title (only last October, it beat out Cesar Pelli"s 1,483-foot Petronas Towers in Malaysia.)

If all goes according to plan, 115 stories of the Fordham Spire will be completed by 2009. It will be in good company; Chicago is already home to three of the world"s 15 tallest buildings: the Sears Tower, the John Hancock Center, and the Aon Center.…