CTBUH Awards Process

The Council initiates its call for awards in the third quarter each year. There are no entry fees associated with the CTBUH Awards. The submission period closes in September, at which point Stage 1 judging occurs, in which Award of Excellence winners are selected, as well as the Lifetime Achievement winners (for more details see “Judging” section below).The Award of Excellence winners go on to present their projects during Stage 2 of the judging process. For the awards to be distributed in 2022, this will occur at the International Conference held in November 2022. Following the presentations, the jury deliberates and selects the overall winner for each category. All winners will be recognized throughout and at the close of the conference. Conference attendees also have the opportunity to vote for an Audience Award winner in each category.

The overall category winners of the Best Tall Building categories are also judged against one another to compete for the title of “Best Tall Building Worldwide” which is announced at the close of the conference, and promoted internationally.

All projects participating in the awards program are featured in the CTBUH annual Tall Buildings + Urban Habitat publication, a global overview of tall building construction. The book is published by CTBUH and distributed internationally each year thus providing excellent promotion for the submitted projects and companies involved. The content of the book is driven by the awards submissions and launched during the Conference.

Submissions for the 2023 awards will be accepted beginning late 2022.

Key Dates

Judging

There are multiple juries made up of experts in their respective fields who judge the various award categories. See further details on the Juries page. Each jury reviews the submissions for their category against the listed criteria and determines a number of Award of Excellence winners (there is no fixed number, and will vary by the strength of the submissions in each category). An “Award of Excellence” designation from the jury is a recognition of the strength and achievement of the project at the highest level.

At the 2022 International Conference, the juries will consider live presentations by the Award of Excellence winners, and further deliberate to determine one overall winner for each category. In addition, registrants at the conference have the opportunity to vote for an Audience Award winner in each category.

Award of Excellence Winners: CTBUH Expectations

Award of Excellence winners are expected to comply with the following responsibilities:

• In order to be considered for winning the category overall and audience awards, a representative from the project must present at the CTBUH International Conference. For the Best Tall Building, Urban Habitat, 10 Year, Interior Design, and Renovation categories, both the owner/developer and design architect/urban planner/interior architect must present. All speakers who represent the project need to be CTBUH organizational members. These presentations will form the basis for the jury’s selection of overall category winners and audience awards.
• Attend the annual awards ceremony and dinner at the close of the Conference to collect the award(s).
• Support the Council, which does not charge any fees to administer the awards program, by way of all speakers paying the subsidized speaker registration rate at the conference.

Santiago Calatrava presents at the 2015 Awards Symposium.

Dakis Joannou (left), Nice Day Developments, and Jean Nouvel, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, present on Best Tall Building 2016 Europe winner The White Walls.

Ole Scheeren and Tiang Wah Eng accept the 2014 Urban Habitat Award for The Interlace, Singapore, from 2014 Awards Jury Chair Jeanne Gang.

Lynn Beedle receives the inaugural CTBUH Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.

Rem Koolhaas presents at the 2013 Awards Symposium, after CCTV Headquarters, Beijing, won Best Tall Building Asia & Australasia.