2015 Awards Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner

Welcome & Opening Remarks

David Malott, CTBUH Chairman, Kohn Pedersen Fox

Presentation description coming soon.

Video of presentation will be posted here after the Awards event.

Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award

Hiroo Mori, Director & Executive VP, Mori Building

The late Minoru Mori is considered to have been one of Japan’s most influential building developers. As a developer, he was best known for transforming the shape of Tokyo’s skyline with towering buildings. His foresight and business acumen allowed him to challenge traditional skyscraper conventions. Works such as Roppongi Hills and the Shanghai World Financial Center successfully redefined the concepts of mixed-use construction and vertical urbanism. The man himself was a fascinating combination of artist, visionary builder, and savvy businessman.

Hiroo Mori, Director and Executive VP of Mori Building, joined the session to discuss the work of his father and the legacy that he left.

Best Tall Building Featured Finalist

Philip Nikandrov, Chief Architect, Gorproject

Evolution Tower is one of the most architecturally significant contributions to Moscow’s International Business Center. Although its spiral design – with an overall twist reaching 156 degrees – draws attention to the building, its commitment to quality landscaping and integrated public spaces is what sets it apart. The plan devotes the majority of space to a landscaped, terraced plaza that integrates with a newly developed city piazza, which is the mainstay of the burgeoning financial district.

Philip Nikandrov, Chief Architect for Gorproject, presented the architectural inspirations and design challenges behind the construction of Evolution Tower, as well as its impact on the surrounding landscape.

Best Tall Building Featured Finalist

James Goettsch, Chairman, Co-CEO, Goettsch Partners

The Al Hilal Bank Tower is a flagship commercial development for the Al Hilal banking network. The building’s design offers an original scheme shaped by a combination of the building’s function, site, and contextual influences. Its composition features stacked boxes that are slightly offset from each other vertically so that it shifts in massing as it rises. The project is well integrated into the city, with direct access to three primary island roads, and fulfills a need in the capital city for more office space. The building design implemented a number of sustainable strategies and achieved the Estidama One Pearl certificate.

James Goettsch, Chairman and CEO, Goettsch Partners, presented on the implementation of the project.

Tall Building 10 Year Award

Jan Andersson, Senior Advisor, HSB Malmö
Santiago Calatrava, Principal, Calatrava International

Completed in 2005, the Turning Torso was the first twisting skyscraper in the world, rotating 90 degrees along its height in nine pentagonal sections. The tower embodies Malmö’s revival and Sweden’s determination to lead the world in expressive, sustainable design typologies. Intentionally provocative and contextually definitive, the Turning Torso has become a landmark of the city’s redeveloped Western Habour. At 190 meters, it remains the tallest building in Scandinavia.

Jan Andersson, Senior Advisor, HSB Malmö, and Santiago Calatrava, Founder, Santiago Calatrava Architects & Engineers, reflected on the impact of Turning Torso 10 years after its completion. Their presentation examined the building from both a design and real estate development perspective.

Welcome Back

Presentation description coming soon.

Video of presentation will be posted here after the Awards event.

Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal

Nicholas E. Billotti, Chairman, Turner International LLC

As Chairman of Turner International, Nicholas Billotti has had a direct role in shaping many of the tallest and most influential buildings around the world. His adeptness at fostering productive and strategic relationships with local partners in regions around the world has facilitated the construction of many of the world’s iconic towers, including TAIPEI 101 and Burj Khalifa.

With over four decades of experience at Turner International, Nick has contributed to consistently high-quality work that underscores his extraordinary levels of professionalism and a sincere commitment to the industry. Nick took the stage to share some of his experiences at Turner International.

Tall Building Performance Award

Michael George, Regional Director, Head of Premium Asset Group, Office - Asia Pacific, JLL

Originally completed in 1992, Chifley Tower’s core infrastructure dated back to 1980s technology, and it was steadily falling behind its competitors in terms of its performance. In 2008, Chifley Tower began an overhaul of its key building systems and services to deliver vastly improved performance, energy efficiency, and reliability. This highly complex project was achieved in an occupied commercial property over the course of several years, which is a testament to a high standard of project planning and management.

Michael George, Regional Director, JLL, spoke on behalf of the Chifley Tower team, detailing the work they accomplished to reinvigorate an aging tower and achieve superior building performance.

Tall Building Innovation Award

Alberto Alarcon, Chief Executive Officer, HOLEDECK
Maria Ramirez, Managing Director, HOLEDECK

HOLEDECK is a system of voided concrete slabs that can be pierced through their thickness by electrical and plumbing systems, drastically reducing the vertical space needed to house these components. This technology has a multitude of implications for sustainability, especially when it is implemented on the scale of a tall building. By reducing the necessary height of each floor, fewer materials are required to achieve the same floor area as a typical high-rise building. This results in a reduction of built volume, and thus minimizes the carbon footprint of a building project.

Alberto Alarcon, Chief Executive Officer, and Maria Ramirez, Managing Director, HOLEDECK, presented on the innovations realized with their concrete technology.

CTBUH Urban Habitat Award

Mun Summ Wong, Founding Director, WOHA Architects

The PARKROYAL on Pickering fully embraces the concept of “hotel-in-a-garden” through extensive landscaping carefully integrated into the building’s design. Located in the midst of Singapore’s high-density city center, the project incorporates extensive greenery and landscaping throughout and utilizes an expansive vegetated buffer between the street and a covered walkway on-site to achieve a permeable relationship with its surroundings. 15,000 square meters of landscaping amounts to 215 percent of the site area, showing that, even as cities become taller and denser, green spaces can still thrive.

Mun Summ Wong, Founding Director of WOHA Architects, detailed the architecture and design considerations executed in the PARKROYAL on Pickering.

Welcome Back

Antony Wood, CTBUH Executive Director,
Research Professor, Illinois Institute of Technology, Symposium Co-Chair

Presentation description coming soon.

Video of presentation will be posted here after the Awards event.

Best Tall Building Americas

Yoram Eilon, Senior Vice President, WSP
Kenneth Lewis, Managing Partner, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP

One World Trade Center is a contemporary landmark for New York City that simultaneously pays tribute to its predecessors while also creating a new identity for the World Trade Center site. The building’s plan matches the dimensions of the first World Trade Center Towers, while its roof and parapet heights also symbolically reference the heights of the original buildings. Its anti-prism design allows it to be viewed differently from a number of angles, changing the viewer’s perspective of the building depending on his or her location.

Kenneth Lewis, Managing Partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and Yoram Eilon, Senior Vice President, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, presented on the design and implementation of the building.

Best Tall Building Asia & Australasia

Hin Kong Poon, Deputy Chief Development Officer, CapitaLand Limited
Shinichi Takeuchi, Chief Architect, Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects

CapitaGreen, a 40-story office tower in Singapore’s central business district, has a striking façade that is lined with greenery from the lowest office floor to the “Sky Forest” at the top. This design is a “natural” response that befits its climatic context and distributes greenery across more than 50% of the perimeter of its floor-plates. Designed with the concept of “The Tower as a Living Plant,” the building also has a "cool void" in its core for distribution of fresh air to the air-conditioning system, a feature akin to the circulatory system of a plant.

Hin Kong Poon, Deputy Chief Development Officer, CapitaLand Limited, and Shinichi Takeuchi, Chief Architect, Toyo Ito & Associates Architects, offered a presentation on the sustainable innovations implemented in the building.

Best Tall Building Europe

Alida Forte Catella, Shareholder, COIMA
Stefano Boeri, Principal, Stefano Boeri Architetti

Bosco Verticale – translating literally as “Vertical Forest” in Italian – is an intensive realization of the concept of vertical greenery. It replaces traditional cladding materials with screens of vegetation creating a distinct microclimate that works to improve the sustainability of the structure. The vast quantities of trees, plants, and shrubs – and their proximity to the built environment – encourage interaction between residents and flora, while also working to screen the tower from the outside environment. The total amount of greenery on the structure is equivalent to an entire hectare of forest cover.

Stefano Boeri, Founder and Senior Architect, Boeri Studio, and Alida Forte Catella, Shareholder, COIMA, presented on the challenges of fully integrating vegetation into such a structure.

Best Tall Building Middle East & Africa

Toby Blunt, Partner, Foster + Partners
Robert Halvorson, Executive Vice President, WSP

Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid is located in the heart of Abu Dhabi at the site of the old Central Market, a traditional crossroads and meeting point in the city. The building operates as an extension of the market, facilitating a seamless transition between public, semi-private, and private spaces in order to create a successful urban habitat. The billowing design of the tower generates unique floor plans that deviate widely from those found in a more typical building, resulting in an assortment of multiform spaces.

Toby Blunt, Partner, Foster + Partners, and Robert Halvorson, Executive Vice President, Halvorson and Partners, presented on the inspiration behind this building and its impact on the Abu Dhabi skyline.