The Tallest Buildings in the World

Two days ago, the all-authoritative Xinhua produly proclaimed that the new building, which is to be named Shanghai Center (we are unsure if this has any relation to the existing Shanghai Center) will be the tallest building east of Dubai at 580 meters and 118 stories. According to them, that’s 72 meters higher than the Taipei 101 Tower, currently the tallest building in Asia at 508 meters.

BusinessWeek and Architectural Record announced the 2007 Architectural Awards.

The submissions are:

1. Award of Excellence - InterActiveCorp Headquarters - New York

Architect: Gehry Partners/Studios Architecture

2. Award of Excellence - Young Center For The Performing Arts - Toronto

Architect: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
3. Award of Excellence - U.S. Census Bureau Headquarters - Suitland Md.

Architect: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

4. Award of Excellence - Navy Federal Credit Union Heritage Oaks Center, Building One - Pensacola, Fla.

Architect: ASD

5. Citation for Excellence - Four Seasons Center For The Performing Arts - TorontoArchitect: Diamond & Schmitt Architects

6. Citation for Excellence - Hearst Tower - New York

Architect: Foster + Partners/Gensler

7. Citation for Excellence - Hubbell Lighting Headquarters - Greenville, S.C.

Architect: McMillan Smith & Partners Architects

8. Citation for Excellence - SJ Berwin - London

Architect: HOK
9. Citation for Excellence - San Diego Padres Ballpark/ Petco Park - San Diego

Architect: Antoine Predock Architect/HOK Sports

10. Citation for Excellence -Gardiner Museum - Toronto
Architect: Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects

Burj Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper, is facing construction delays of at least a year after a leading contractor on the project went bankrupt, leaving the tower without any external walls.

Work that should have begun in the first quarter of last year won’t start until April at the earliest following the collapse of Switzerland-based Schmidlin Ltd Facade Technology, said George Efstathiou, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP, which designed the tower in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Delays to the US$900 million, 160-storey skyscraper are a setback to Dubai’s plans to create a 202-hectare district featuring hotels, offices, apartments and the world’s biggest shopping mall as it seeks to become the Middle East’s No. 1 tourist hub. While the tower’s internal structures have already passed the 100th storey, the lack of a facade means work on fitting out the building can’t begin.

“It’s very unusual for a tower to be this tall without cladding,” Efstathiou said yesterday in an interview on the sidelines of the “Building Tall” construction conference in Dubai.

“The cladding is the enclosure of a building, so any interior work that needs dry conditions cannot be completed if it’s not in place.”

Wolfgang Rudolph, US general manager of Permasteelisa SpA’s Josef Gartner unit
“But we have a new contractor on board and they have a local partner and a scheme to get us back on track,” he said.

The facade for the Burj Dubai, comprising thousands of metal panels, will now be provided by Hong Kong-based Far East Aluminium Group, Efstathiou said.

“The cladding is the enclosure of a building, so any interior work that needs dry conditions cannot be completed if it’s not in place,” said Wolfgang Rudolph, US general manager of Permasteelisa SpA’s Josef Gartner unit, one of the world’s largest producers of so-called curtain walling.

Schmidlin Ltd Facade Technology, based in Aesch, Switzerland, filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 22 last year. The company said at the time that the high-risk and technologically-challenging nature of its work had led to spiraling costs, leaving it “massively in the red” since 2003.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has started construction on a 75-story helix-shaped tower in the Dubai Marina, one of the wealthy Emirate’s prime residential neighborhoods.

The “dancing” skyscraper, to be named Infinity Tower, will rotate 90 degrees as it rises while maintaining a constant floor-plate throughout its height. SOM Managing Partner George Efstathiou, AIA, predicts that the tower’s winding shape will make it the marina’s principal landmark, and perhaps a symbol of Dubai itself. According to Efstathiou, the building will offer its residents views of the waterfront without disrupting the vistas of neighboring buildings.

The 995-foot-high tower will comprise 456 residential units, ranging from studios to full-floor penthouses. It will include a street-level shopping arcade, conference centers, lounges, a child-care center, a health spa, exercise facilities, and an outdoor pool.

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.

More here…

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….